Borrowing

Asking for and receiving money or goods for temporary use as a neighbourly kindness.

Believers should respond to requests to borrow

Matthew 5:42 See also Deuteronomy 15:7–11; Luke 6:35, Luke 11:5–8

Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

God's blessing on Israel made borrowing unnecessary

Deuteronomy 28:12 See also Deuteronomy 15:6

The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.

The responsibilities of those who borrow

Repayment

Psalm 37:21; Romans 13:8

Restitution

Exodus 22:14–15; 2 Kings 6:5–7

Borrowing can bring debt and servitude

Proverbs 22:7 See also Matthew 18:23–25

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

Security for borrowing

Warnings against putting up security

Proverbs 11:15 See also Proverbs 6:1–5, Proverbs 17:18, Proverbs 22:26–27

He who puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer, but the one who hates indebtedness is secure.

Security may be required

Proverbs 20:16, Proverbs 27:13

Security must be just

Deuteronomy 24:6 See also Job 22:6; Nehemiah 5:3–13

Do not take a pair of millstones or even an upper millstone as security for a debt, because that would be taking one’s livelihood as security.

Jesus Christ was willing to borrow

Examples of borrowing

Luke 5:3 See also Matthew 21:1–3 parallels Mark 11:1–3, Luke 19:30–31; Matthew 26:17–19 parallels Mark 14:12–16, Luke 22:10–12

Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from shore. And sitting down, He taught the people from the boat.

Other examples

Exodus 3:21–22, Exodus 11:2–3, Exodus 12:35–36; 2 Kings 4:3; Nehemiah 5:3