The Commerce Bank Review

The biblical perspective of bondage is expressed in Matthew 5:25-26: “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way; in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you shall not come out of there, until you have paid up the last cent.” In the Bible, financial bondage means physical bondage.

Such harsh treatment was meted out because failure to repay a debt was equated with dishonesty. Dishonesty was judged so strictly that usually when a thief was caught, his hand was cut off as a punishment for his crime. Someone who failed to repay an obligation was thrown into prison for the rest of his life and sold as a slave. Why? A man’s word was his mark of honor. When one gave his word, he was expected to keep it. Anyone who failed to do so could no longer be trusted. Today, society has become too sophisticated to incarcerate someone simply because of debts. Unfortunately, a new punishment has supplanted the old one.