Debtors and creditors figure with other familiar characters in the parables of Christ Jesus—with farmers and fishermen, priests and tax collectors, merchants and housewives. Jesus used these various types to teach compassionate moral and spiritual lessons.
How can I get out of debt? How can I avoid getting into it? How can I maintain my credit rating so that I can borrow when I need to? Where can I safely and usefully lend? Many ask these questions, and they may seem very mundane. But the answers, if sought within a spiritual perspective, will not only bless our business affairs but can also teach lessons of great moral and spiritual value.
In the Bible there is the story of a widow who learned such a lesson (see II Kings 4: 1-7). She was left so deep in debt that the creditor was coming to enslave her two sons. At this point her husband's fellow prophet Elisha intervened. Surprisingly he told her to start borrowing again. But not money. This time it was to be empty containers.
In spiritual healing of the sick the first need is to free the patient from fear of disease. Perhaps Elisha had seen that a first need in this debt situation was to free the widow from her fear of indebtedness. Anyway, she obeyed him and borrowed the containers. Then, supported by his spiritual insight, she found she could pour enough oil from her own container to fill all the others.
In his next direction to the widow Elisha took account of the creditor. Creditors are widely stereotyped as harsh, taking advantage of their riches to exploit the deprived. Some creditors fit this stereotype. Many more perform a useful role in society. They are sound businessmen and sometimes generous neighbors. If they fail to receive payment due, they may suffer severe hardship and find their further usefulness to others obstructed.
Certainly Elisha considered the creditor's interest. He didn't leave the widow and her sons to celebrate their new found prosperity by a spending spree or perhaps by giving a party for the kind neighbors who had lent the empty containers. Before anything else, Elisha told the widow, she must sell the oil and pay her debt. Only then could she spend on herself and her family —and this was to be on their ordinary living.
Owe no man anything is the teaching of Christian Science, and Christian Science supports this requirement by providing a clear spiritual explanation of the source and continuing availability of all good. This understanding can show us how to get free and stay free of indebtedness; or if our business requires lending and borrowing, how to conduct these transactions in a wise and productive manner that will benefit all concerned.
In spiritual reality there is no burden of debt. No son or daughter of God carries such a burden. Nor does the heavenly city in which we all dwell. Nor does our Father's business in which we are all occupied. The offspring of God, Spirit, reflect always the infinite good of their creator, and this good flows freely without obstruction. As God's offspring, we are never burdened with obligations we can't meet or debts we can't collect. In God's kingdom there is no borrowing or lending and no need for either.
These spiritual facts, through Elisha's perception of them, became operative to bless the widow and her creditor. They become operative to bless any debtor or creditor who prayerfully and persistently entertains them in thought. To any of us who may feel burdened by debt, owed by us or due to us, these spiritual facts may first bring freedom from anxiety. Then they can alert us to helpful ideas, wise actions, and the integrity and resolution that will open the way to just and full settlement. Satisfaction at this settlement can be shared by debtor and creditor. Even more important, both can have learned a moral and spiritual lesson about true substance, its infinite supply and its unobstructed flow throughout God's creation.
A student of Mrs. Eddy's relates that once Mrs. Eddy was speaking with members of her household and compared our way through life to a straight, uphill climb. She asked how one should think about this climb, and the record continues: "She answered her own question by saying that, above all, we must heed the First Commandment, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' Then we must have obedience, and third, we must love. Finally, we should know that we are already at the top, then we shall not feel weariness in the climb." Irving C. Tomlinson,Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966), p. 80;
Both debtor and creditor can usefully check themselves against this counsel. Are they allowing a debt to loom larger in their thought than confidence in God's infinite goodness and its free flow in their daily lives? Is divine guidance being followed even if its directions seem as strange as Elisha's may have seemed to the widow? Is love being extended impartially to all involved, debtor and creditor, and to anyone who by fault or folly may have contributed to the situation? The debt of love is an exception to the rule against owing. As Paul says, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another." Rom. 13:8;
And then: "Know that we are already at the top." Doing this brings thought into line with the divine action as recorded in the book of Isaiah: "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning."Isa. 46:9, 10; Putting God before all else, obeying Him, loving Him and His, acknowledging the end from the beginning, we find our climb speeded. Whatever the mountain we have to climb—debt, disease, addiction, evil of any kind—we can surmount it.
Mrs. Eddy sums up the spiritually scientific method of advance like this: "The right way wins the right of way, even the way of Truth and Love whereby all our debts are paid, mankind blessed, and God glorified."The First church of christ,scientist, and miscellany, p. 232.
