"“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."  
(Matthew 6:19-24, ESV)

Please take special note of the closing words of the above quotation:
 
            “No one can serve two masters....  You cannot serve God and money."  
(Matthew 6:24, ESV)  
            
Well that’s pretty clear, is it not?
 
You see the problem with money is that it is like seawater. The more a person has to drink the thirstier he becomes.  This truth was once powerfully illustrated by a man who asked John D. Rockefeller – at that time the richest man in the world – how much money was enough.  In response Rockefeller answered: “Just a little bit more.” 
 
Isn’t this sad but startling proof of the danger of money?  Doesn’t this indicate to us that a person can amass the world’s largest fortune and yet if their affections are set upon the fortune itself they will never be truly satisfied as they forever grasp for more?
 
And do you know why this is?  Do you know why money, which promises to satisfy us can NEVER satisfy us?
 
Here’s the answer:  It’s because money is a created thing and we human beings were not designed to be satisfied with created things.  Humans were designed to glorify God and enjoy Him and true satisfaction can never be known apart from that. Therefore, the obvious danger of money and all the creature comforts that it can purchase for us is that it tempts us to believe a lie.  It tempts us to believe that the more we have the more satisfied we will become...  and our fallen hearts are all too willing to believe the lie.
 
It is in response to this danger that the Lord Jesus made his remarks about money in Matthew 6.  In essence He was asking His disciples - what is it that has your heart? Do you treasure gold or God, cash or Christ, earthly things, or heavenly ones?
 
And here’s why Jesus asks...  it’s because:
 
            “....You cannot serve God and money.”
v.24

Usury.  

Ever heard of it?

It used to be considered a pretty big deal for Christians.  Moses outlawed it (Exodus 22:25), Jesus called it robbery (Matthew 21:12-13).  King Edward I of England compared it to blasphemy.  Historically many Christian (and Islamic) countries outlawed it.  Roman Catholics have excommunicated those who practice it.  Protestants have condemned it (e.g. 19th-century Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.)  And yet it is - and it remains - one of the driving forces behind the modern U.S. economy.

So what is it?
 
The word usury simply refers to a monetary loan with interest.  In the Western World interest (not to be confused with necessary banking fees) was, until relatively recent times, deemed immoral and sinful as it always enriched lenders and frequently impoverished, exploited, and even enslaved borrowers.

So what position should the modern American Christian take on the common practice of usury in our society? Furthermore,  in light of our culture's historic stance against it and the numerous biblical prohibitions against it - how should we respond? (see Leviticus 25:36-37, Deuteronomy 23:19-21, Ezekiel 10:17, Psalm 15:5)

These questions are made all the more relevant when one pauses to consider that 80% of all Americans are in debt according to CNBC with 12% of those expecting to die in debt.  According to nerdwallet.com  overall U.S. household debt has increased 11% in the past ten years alone with current indebted households owing $134,924 on average.  This means that in the U.S. (where the real median household income is $55,775) interest payments cost the average American household more than $6,600 per year or roughly 12% of total household income.  

Coupled to these alarming statistics are a number of ethical questions regarding the policies of modern lending practices. According to the Catholic academic, Dr. M. Oliver Heydorn, in an article entitled Usury, Social Credit, and Catholicism, "The conventional financial system centralizes wealth, power, and privilege in the hands of those who have acquired monopoly control over financial credit (the lenders). The policy... is self-serving..."  

Despite the fact that usurious loan practices have become both legally permissible and commonly practiced today (not to mention central to our national economy) shouldn't the handful of statistics cited above at least give Christians pause to think?  Shouldn't the widespread indebtedness of our fellow citizens  (not to mention ourselves) at least encourage us to think critically about whether usurious loan practices really do impoverish, exploit and enslave borrowers just as previous generations of claimed?  And if so...  shouldn't the American church have something to say about it?

​It is certainly a complex situation to address and as with all complex situations the question is 'where do we start?'