The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth (Psalm 37:21).
We live in a world that thinks borrowing money without being able to repay is a 'right'. They think that one is totally entitled to do so. The unsaved who are not bankers, but are subject to bankers think it is legitimate to borrow money as much as one wants, however one wants. They place the onus on the bank to make borrowing money affordable, in particular, to not charge usury on loans, out of their own self-interests. The unsaved bankers, on the other hand, simply dismiss the problem as the irresponsible borrowing of the borrowers on their own part.
Both sides, the unsaved non-bankers, and the unsaved bankers speak very dangerous half-truths that sound very very true, but are only almost right, and thus not right. They are of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies, speaking lies mixed with errors. As Jesus said to the unbelievers: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). The world loves lies, and only loves truth where it is a partial truth which enables them to twist and pervert it to their own advantage.
The unsaved who are fighting against banks, and in particular, calling on banks are doing so only out of their self-interest and self-love. One may say that they are at least trying to seek what is right. This is a deception, and a lie that humans want to believe as they suppress the truth about human depravity by their own unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). What they are seeking may be right. However, their works are not done in truth.
The world's manner of spirit in doing what is right is in contrast to God: For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth (Psalm 33:4). God's works are not only right. They are done in truth. For a work to be truly right, it must abide by God's Law, and also be done in the spirit of truth. Anything not done in the spirit of truth, no matter how right it may be, is not righteousness at all. It is a filthy rag in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). This is exactly what the world's campaign against usury is.
The Vile Perversion of the Unsaved Non-bankers' fight against Usury
The unsaved non-bankers are right in saying that usury is wrong. However, of course, the Christian needs to extremely cautious with correct moral claims made by the world, especially where such claims are made against those of the world who others of the world counts as enemies. The unsaved non-bankers who fight against usury are doing so in a manner of lies.
How are the unsaved non-bankers fighting usury in the manner of lies? Their motives in doing so not because usury offends God, which is the only true reason why usury is wrong. Rather, their motives are that it hinders their ability to borrow money outside of their means. The world thinks it is legitimate to borrow money outside of one's means, believing they can do as they choose with money they have, and money given to them by others. Usury makes it much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to borrow money within one's means. Thus, the non-banking unsaved hate usury.
It is just like how the unsaved fight against prostitution and pornography. It is right that such things are wicked. However, their manner of spirit and motive for fighting against such evils is not because it offends God, who is the only true standard of right and wrong. Rather, their manner of spirit in fighting prostitution and pornography is because it hinders them in seeking their own self-interests, whether it be because of a lack "sexual autonomy", degradation, the reinforcement of the "victimhood" of women, or a breakdown of human relations - all self-seeking motives, that are the manifestation of self-love, and thus the hatred of God.
To fight evil. not the basis that it offends God is a vile evil in itself. It is not only to ignore God. It is not even only to attack God's Moral Law by seeking to 'replace' it with another, if that is even possible. It is to attack God Himself, by saying that one does not need God to be moral. This is absolutely vile, wicked, perverse, disgusting and abominable. It is to reject God Himself and proclaim one's standards of right and wrong to be true, and that God is a liar. It is to call God who is good, evil, and to call evil, which is what such people are, good. Indeed, woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20)!
All the campaigns from the world, whether secular or of false religions, against evil, call God evil and evil good, by the very failure to fight evil because it offends God, and that reason alone. Any reason for fighting evil, other than evil being offensive to God, is evil itself. Thus, the fight against evil, for any reason other than because it offends God is wicked, evil, vile, disgusting, Hell-deserving and abominable. Isaiah 64:6 makes it clear: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away".
The Deception of the Unsaved Banker's resistance against the Anti-usury Unsaved Non-bankers
The unsaved bankers, of course, are not to be trusted in anything they say. They are not blameless either. Usury is a vile sin. Simply because the New Testament does not explicitly state something to be a sin does not mean it is not. For example, it does not explicitly mention that bribery or gambling are sins. Yet, we can know they are sins just by being honest with our moral consciences for they provide us all with the knowledge of the Law of God (Romans 2:15).
Philippians 2:14-16 describes what it means for a person to be blameless:
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
The NIV uses the word 'pure' instead of harmless. The ESV uses the word 'innocent'. Philippians 2:14-16 implies that doing things without disputing and complaining enables one to be blameless and pure in heart, spirit and mind. Since, there is a dichotomy regarding disputing and being blameless and pure, the opposite is true.
Disputing and complaining leads to impurity and moral blame warranted one's part. Impurity in heart, mind and spirit and a failure to be blameless, by one's own unrighteousness, manifests in disputing and complaints that are filled with deception, are only based on deceptions which seeks truth only where it can be used for impure motives and to blame others. The world is full of examples of people who themselves are not innocent, full of their own unrighteousness, but seek to blame others for their troubles which are in part, caused by these people who seek to blame others, except themselves. Such is the case of the unsaved non-bankers who fight usury, all while failing to realise their objection to usury is made out of their own self-seeking.
The unsaved bankers are no different. They charge usury, and blame the borrowers for borrowing money. While it is true that borrowers are foolish to borrow money outside of their means, and that such borrowers doing so out their love of mammon, in their own vile wickedness, this in no way negates the evil of usury. Usury was sin, in sin and will forever be sin because it offends God who never changes (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17). It is sin because it it against the nature of God who is agape love. Usury is self-love, and thus the hatred of God.
Sin is self-love and the manifestation of it. Self-love, which is love of the flesh, itself is the hatred of God "because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). Thus, sin itself is the hatred of God. That is the heart of what sin is: self-love, of which usury is the ultimate form of self-love, manifesting outside the body.
Usurers manifest the greatest form of self-love outside the body. They are perverse in blaming the borrowers who they lure into borrowing money, claiming that they are blameless and all the blame lies with the borrowers. This is analogous to a murderer who murders a person, and then blames the victim for luring him to murder him. It is also analogous to the rapist who rapes a person, and then blames her for luring him to rape her. The use of these analogies is by no means saying that the victims were pure and blameless. Rather, they are to demonstrate that a a person who commits a sin is responsible for it, regardless of the innocence of those who are harmed by it.
Usurers are even more perverse in claiming to be generous in giving usury charged to customers, which the use to justify their usury in the modern banking system. They twist what generosity is, in implying that lending money is a generous act in itself, thereby warranting a gain to be made in return. This is utter perversion. Generosity is giving without expecting or seeking any return. Giving expecting return, let alone demanding return is not generosity at all, but precisely the opposite. It is to be unforgiving in giving what one gives, seeking that all debts owed to oneself must be paid, or else one cannot forgive.
The War of Evil against Evil is Futile and all Vanity
The fight by the unsaved against usury, perpetrated by other evil people is one that will not attack the beast of mammon who is behind usury. Evil cannot fight evil. Fighting evil with evil only begets more evil, which is never satisfied. Only the Sovereign, Awesome, Everlasting Power of God can fight the beast of mammon. God gives His Church the privilege to fight evils for His glory and His glory alone.
Jesus Christ has indeed defeated mammon and satan. Only through the Power of Christ can one fight usury and the spirit of mammon, exposing their darkness and rescue them from their grips.
O Church, Bride of Christ, wake up, and fight usury and the beast behind it whose name is mammon.
We live in a world that thinks borrowing money without being able to repay is a 'right'. They think that one is totally entitled to do so. The unsaved who are not bankers, but are subject to bankers think it is legitimate to borrow money as much as one wants, however one wants. They place the onus on the bank to make borrowing money affordable, in particular, to not charge usury on loans, out of their own self-interests. The unsaved bankers, on the other hand, simply dismiss the problem as the irresponsible borrowing of the borrowers on their own part.
Both sides, the unsaved non-bankers, and the unsaved bankers speak very dangerous half-truths that sound very very true, but are only almost right, and thus not right. They are of their father, the devil, who is the father of lies, speaking lies mixed with errors. As Jesus said to the unbelievers: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). The world loves lies, and only loves truth where it is a partial truth which enables them to twist and pervert it to their own advantage.
The unsaved who are fighting against banks, and in particular, calling on banks are doing so only out of their self-interest and self-love. One may say that they are at least trying to seek what is right. This is a deception, and a lie that humans want to believe as they suppress the truth about human depravity by their own unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). What they are seeking may be right. However, their works are not done in truth.
The world's manner of spirit in doing what is right is in contrast to God: For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth (Psalm 33:4). God's works are not only right. They are done in truth. For a work to be truly right, it must abide by God's Law, and also be done in the spirit of truth. Anything not done in the spirit of truth, no matter how right it may be, is not righteousness at all. It is a filthy rag in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). This is exactly what the world's campaign against usury is.
The Vile Perversion of the Unsaved Non-bankers' fight against Usury
The unsaved non-bankers are right in saying that usury is wrong. However, of course, the Christian needs to extremely cautious with correct moral claims made by the world, especially where such claims are made against those of the world who others of the world counts as enemies. The unsaved non-bankers who fight against usury are doing so in a manner of lies.
How are the unsaved non-bankers fighting usury in the manner of lies? Their motives in doing so not because usury offends God, which is the only true reason why usury is wrong. Rather, their motives are that it hinders their ability to borrow money outside of their means. The world thinks it is legitimate to borrow money outside of one's means, believing they can do as they choose with money they have, and money given to them by others. Usury makes it much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to borrow money within one's means. Thus, the non-banking unsaved hate usury.
It is just like how the unsaved fight against prostitution and pornography. It is right that such things are wicked. However, their manner of spirit and motive for fighting against such evils is not because it offends God, who is the only true standard of right and wrong. Rather, their manner of spirit in fighting prostitution and pornography is because it hinders them in seeking their own self-interests, whether it be because of a lack "sexual autonomy", degradation, the reinforcement of the "victimhood" of women, or a breakdown of human relations - all self-seeking motives, that are the manifestation of self-love, and thus the hatred of God.
To fight evil. not the basis that it offends God is a vile evil in itself. It is not only to ignore God. It is not even only to attack God's Moral Law by seeking to 'replace' it with another, if that is even possible. It is to attack God Himself, by saying that one does not need God to be moral. This is absolutely vile, wicked, perverse, disgusting and abominable. It is to reject God Himself and proclaim one's standards of right and wrong to be true, and that God is a liar. It is to call God who is good, evil, and to call evil, which is what such people are, good. Indeed, woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20)!
All the campaigns from the world, whether secular or of false religions, against evil, call God evil and evil good, by the very failure to fight evil because it offends God, and that reason alone. Any reason for fighting evil, other than evil being offensive to God, is evil itself. Thus, the fight against evil, for any reason other than because it offends God is wicked, evil, vile, disgusting, Hell-deserving and abominable. Isaiah 64:6 makes it clear: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away".
The Deception of the Unsaved Banker's resistance against the Anti-usury Unsaved Non-bankers
The unsaved bankers, of course, are not to be trusted in anything they say. They are not blameless either. Usury is a vile sin. Simply because the New Testament does not explicitly state something to be a sin does not mean it is not. For example, it does not explicitly mention that bribery or gambling are sins. Yet, we can know they are sins just by being honest with our moral consciences for they provide us all with the knowledge of the Law of God (Romans 2:15).
Philippians 2:14-16 describes what it means for a person to be blameless:
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
The NIV uses the word 'pure' instead of harmless. The ESV uses the word 'innocent'. Philippians 2:14-16 implies that doing things without disputing and complaining enables one to be blameless and pure in heart, spirit and mind. Since, there is a dichotomy regarding disputing and being blameless and pure, the opposite is true.
Disputing and complaining leads to impurity and moral blame warranted one's part. Impurity in heart, mind and spirit and a failure to be blameless, by one's own unrighteousness, manifests in disputing and complaints that are filled with deception, are only based on deceptions which seeks truth only where it can be used for impure motives and to blame others. The world is full of examples of people who themselves are not innocent, full of their own unrighteousness, but seek to blame others for their troubles which are in part, caused by these people who seek to blame others, except themselves. Such is the case of the unsaved non-bankers who fight usury, all while failing to realise their objection to usury is made out of their own self-seeking.
The unsaved bankers are no different. They charge usury, and blame the borrowers for borrowing money. While it is true that borrowers are foolish to borrow money outside of their means, and that such borrowers doing so out their love of mammon, in their own vile wickedness, this in no way negates the evil of usury. Usury was sin, in sin and will forever be sin because it offends God who never changes (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17). It is sin because it it against the nature of God who is agape love. Usury is self-love, and thus the hatred of God.
Sin is self-love and the manifestation of it. Self-love, which is love of the flesh, itself is the hatred of God "because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). Thus, sin itself is the hatred of God. That is the heart of what sin is: self-love, of which usury is the ultimate form of self-love, manifesting outside the body.
Usurers manifest the greatest form of self-love outside the body. They are perverse in blaming the borrowers who they lure into borrowing money, claiming that they are blameless and all the blame lies with the borrowers. This is analogous to a murderer who murders a person, and then blames the victim for luring him to murder him. It is also analogous to the rapist who rapes a person, and then blames her for luring him to rape her. The use of these analogies is by no means saying that the victims were pure and blameless. Rather, they are to demonstrate that a a person who commits a sin is responsible for it, regardless of the innocence of those who are harmed by it.
Usurers are even more perverse in claiming to be generous in giving usury charged to customers, which the use to justify their usury in the modern banking system. They twist what generosity is, in implying that lending money is a generous act in itself, thereby warranting a gain to be made in return. This is utter perversion. Generosity is giving without expecting or seeking any return. Giving expecting return, let alone demanding return is not generosity at all, but precisely the opposite. It is to be unforgiving in giving what one gives, seeking that all debts owed to oneself must be paid, or else one cannot forgive.
The War of Evil against Evil is Futile and all Vanity
The fight by the unsaved against usury, perpetrated by other evil people is one that will not attack the beast of mammon who is behind usury. Evil cannot fight evil. Fighting evil with evil only begets more evil, which is never satisfied. Only the Sovereign, Awesome, Everlasting Power of God can fight the beast of mammon. God gives His Church the privilege to fight evils for His glory and His glory alone.
Jesus Christ has indeed defeated mammon and satan. Only through the Power of Christ can one fight usury and the spirit of mammon, exposing their darkness and rescue them from their grips.
O Church, Bride of Christ, wake up, and fight usury and the beast behind it whose name is mammon.
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