Have you ever considered the possibility of evil in interest charges?

I hate interest to the extent I think and believe that the business of money lenders is even evil!

Proverbs 22:7 says “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender” (ESV).

In the ‘money’ conference that I attended, the liar used the above verse to call upon those present to work hard. But that is not what the verse intends today. The above verse doesn’t put a blame on the borrower (of course, it isn’t a beautiful thing to borrow) but on the lender who enjoys enslaving the borrower.

Many people, especially in our unregulated capitalism keep consoling themselves that they are being entrepreneurial and moving with trends, but we are sinning by dealing in what is termed as USURY in the Bible. To be clear,usury is lending money at unfairly high interest. For example, why would a human being give money to his fellow troubled being at 20-30% interest rate per month? Of course, I know you still have excuses for that!

To be sure that the above verse is seriously condemning us from enslaving our fellows, let’s consider what Solomon says before and after the above verse;

Proverbs 22:16 says that “he that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want. And so verse 22 and 23 of the same chapter continues; “rob not the poor, because he is poor and neither should you oppress the afflicted in the gate: For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that applied them”

Business men in capitalism world keep lying to themselves that they are simply exploiting their gifts and talents and aren’t stealing from anyone. Some are even more cunning than others, lying about unusual results to those who come to them and charging them highest fees. But the Bible has said it openly,we are robbing the poor and taking advantage of the afflicted!

I am not saying that we shouldn’t pay debts. On the contrary, the Bible condemns the habit of not paying debts. Here, I am talking about unnecessary debts, debts that trap us because of our poverty, enslave us to those who have more, and, in most cases, fail us to pay even when we work hard. To make this point clearer, see below;

In 2 Kings 4:1, there is a story of a woman whose husband died while they were in debts. The debt collector didn’t forgive the debt but held up onto the lady’s sons as ‘hostages’ of debts. And this woman was crying to Elisha,”Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen”.

This is the sin or evil that most financial institutions and individuals are committing in our modern day non-regulated capitalism. Isaiah 24:2 condemns us dealing in usury. I said, usury is the business of giving our loans or debts at unusual interest rates, usually exploiting the afflictions of the borrower.This money accumulates so fast to the extent that we fail to pay it back and so the lender comes and takes the property as hostage, pushing us (the borrower)further into lack, poverty, and more debts.

The above is being done by developed nations to our poor nations, rich people to the poor, and communities to those that are financially weak. The lucky ones (educated, employed, entrepreneurs, and all sorts of people) are stealing money from others in the name of skills, services, and products offered. Again, get me well, I am not against business per se but against unfair transactions. But how can you tell that they are unfair? We will come back to this but I believe you know it in your heart.

Actually, the Jews were advised to be forgiving debts where necessary and possible (see Deuteronomy 15:1). Anyway, that is all that I have for you, for us. The bank charges 20% on loans and excuses itself that BOU increased the interest. Bank of Uganda also has the reasons and those reasons have reasons but the end of it all is MAN. We have intentionally created this money system and our goal is one; to rob from the poor and communities as much as we can. But God is coming and He will punish us. Surely.