Debt

Debt in the Mosaic law was handled with humanitarian concern to prevent the permanent impoverishment of fellow Israelites. Loans to the poor were to be made without interest (Deuteronomy 23:19–20; Leviticus 25:36–37), and all debts among Israelites were to be released in the seventh year (Deuteronomy 15:1–3). If a debtor could not repay, he might sell himself into indentured service, but was to be released in the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:39–41). The New Testament extends the concept of debt into the spiritual realm: sin is described as a debt owed to God in the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:12, "forgive us our debts"), and Paul warns against the ongoing debt of love owed to one another (Romans 13:8). The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23–35) uses the imagery of an enormous financial debt forgiven by a king to illustrate the nature of God's forgiveness.