The Bible says a lot about debt and slavery and teaches that the two are tightly connected, going so far as to say “the borrower is a servant (slave) of the lender”. And as Christians, when we read God’s word, it is our duty to take God’s commands and instructions seriously. But if you asked the average Christian if slavery is bad and then examined the amount of debt they have, would you come away with the sense that their stated beliefs and actions were in alignment?

In this episode, we want to deal with what God’s word says about debt and slavery. In doing this, we discuss the purposes for which God created debt, how we should think about freedom vs bondage, and even how this is different for the individual Christian than for a local church body. We even want to push back on our view of slavery itself as Scripture uses slavery to demonstrate both positive and negative aspects of our physical and spiritual lives. This is important, because part of the Christian life is keeping our minds from being conformed to the world but allowing them to be transformed through the renewing that God’s word and spirit bring upon all who faithfully abide in Him.

Topics discussed:
What is debt? What is slavery?
Are mortgages good or bad?
Is it better to rent or be a homeowner?
How the United States has structured its laws and policies to favor debt
How God uses debt and slavery to accomplish his purposes.
Why not paying back debt is evil and is a sign of being unsaved
What debt and slavery shows us about man’s relationship to God (and sin)
How should we treat the poor?
How living beyond our means is a rejection of God’s sovereignty and being carnally minded and covetous
Why churches shouldn’t take out a loan to buy a building
What does it mean to be free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ?

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Tim Keller spent his life arguing that through winsomeness we can get people to accept the gospel. If the world sees Christians as good and kind, then the world would see the goodness of God and come to faith. He argued that if we are kind and thoughtful, then people will want to hear the gospel from us. And here’s the thing: if all you are talking about is what the life and conduct of a Christian should look like, there are lots of situations where we would agree with him. But that’s exactly why we take issue with the position. As we say early in the episode, there is no “balance” between being offensive and being pleasant. Our obedience to Christ requires different things of us at different times, and we aren’t responsible for how the world responds to that obedience.

And while Tim Keller died in 2023, this issue is something that the church has always struggled with and will continue to as long as there is sin in the world. In fact, in the last few weeks of January, Alistair Begg has been in the news for an issue that is fundamentally the same. In an interview from September 2023, Begg recounted how he was asked by a grandmother if she should attend the wedding of her grandson whose partner was transgender. Begg’s repsonse was that as long as her grandson understands that her belief in Jesus makes it such that she can’t countenance in any affirming way the choices that he has made in life that she should attend the wedding and buy him a wedding gift. His response was rightly criticized by many other pastors and Christian leaders. But the result has been a number of questions and discussions about where we should draw the line and how Christians should apply the principles and requirements of Christianity and the gospel to many different situations.

In this episode, we try to frame the topic in way that allows us to think about the issue more clearly. “Balance” and “kindness” can often be misleading, because “balance” suggests that we should be trying to find some middle ground that can only be determined by looking at the world’s response to our life and not to God’s expectations of us. And “kindness” causes us to misdefine what the word truly means as all kind actions aren’t necessarily pleasant and agreeable (like waking someone up in the middle of the night to tell them that their house is on fire.). Please join us as we discuss this important topic.


Note: In this episode we misattribute a quote to Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” While the quote is frequently used to make the point we reference in the article, we were wrong about who said it.

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Hosts – Dan Horn, Jonathan Sides, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson