Question: I teach a class on finances in my church, and one of my class members brought a question that I’m not sure how to answer. Can you tell me where in the Bible is says, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”? I guess my main question is, “Should Christians borrow?” Response: First, the quote comes from Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” It’s not from the Bible; it’s what Larry Burkett used to call religious folklore. To answer your second question a-la Larry Burkett, (1) the Bible very clearly says that neither borrowing nor lending is prohibited, but there are some firm guidelines. (2) Borrowing is discouraged, and in fact, every biblical reference to it is a negative one. Consider Proverbs 22:7: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is the servant to the lender.” (3) The scriptural guideline for borrowing is very clear. When you borrow money, it’s a promise to repay. Literally, borrowing is making a vow. God requires that we keep our vows. Psalm 37:21 says, “The wicked borrows and does not repay.” Therefore, if we don’t want to be counted among the evil, we are to repay everything we owe. If biblical times, when a man borrowed money and couldn’t repay, he was thrown into prison, and his family was sold into slavery. When somebody gave his word and then didn’t keep it, that person greatly dishonored himself. It was worse than stealing, because a trust was violated. Just because we don’t throw people into prison today doesn’t make the trust relationship any different. Scripture shows us that we’re to be cautious about borrowing, and it should never be normal. Yet, when you look at our society today, you find that borrowing is rampant. We think it’s normal to borrow for periods of thirty to forty years or more. We have created personal and national economies that must borrow to exist. That’s not God’s way. God says in the book of Deuteronomy that borrowing is a consequence of ignoring His statutes and commandments (28:43-45).