The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 98 -
On monetary aid.
1
(The Lord:) "Who of you has a lot of money, should not always loan it to those who bring him usury interest and repay the capital on the negotiated time, but also to the poor, who cannot repay him capital or the interest, then he will invest his money with Me, and I will repay him, already here tenfold and in the beyond hundred times the capital and interest. But who lends his money only to those, who can repay him capital and interest on time as negotiated, or in certain cases must pay by judicial compulsion, has taken his entire reward already here and must not expect anything from Me; since by that he did not serve Me, but the world and himself.
2
However, you will say: 'If you lend money to someone who is in trouble, then this is also charity; because the borrower could help himself by that, became a rich man and can then very easily repay capital and interest! Since the lender took the risk to loose his money under unfavourable speculative conditions! But since it was useful to the borrower, no God with all His wisdom can have anything against it, if he, the borrower, repay the lender the capital plus the negotiated interest! Since the lender is in the first place also a person, to whom any other person has the same obligation as he to him, and secondly it is quite possible that the money which was lent, was the lenders only possession, from which he, as the farmer from his land, must live! But if the lender does not get repaid the capital and also not the interest, from what should he live? Or can the borrower have the slightest wish, to keep the borrowed money, since he benefited so much from it and surly can and must realise, that this was the helpful lender's only possession?!'
3
In addition I say: Everyone who has money, and a friend needs it and comes and wants to borrow it, it should not withheld from him. Who lends it to him to the legal interest rate, has already committed a good deed, which will also finds its worthiness in heaven. However, it is also the duty of the borrower, not to repay only the borrowed sum and the negotiated interest, but more; if he profited a lot, he should, by a free impulse of the heart, share the profit with the lender, since he only made the profit with his money. However, the lender should not in anyway expect this! All this you can do in all friendliness, but therefore not let entirely go the other!
4
But if a very poor person comes to the lender who has money to lend, and it is expected that he is not able to utilize the large sum profitable and effectively, no person is obliged by Me to lend to such a poor person the requested money, because in this way he intentionally has thrown away his money, without really having been useful to anyone, and has prepared for the borrower the opportunity, by which he would start to feel pushed to all kinds of excessiveness and according to his nature also had to. Such a deed would therefore not be very good, to the contrary, if not really bad, it can be called very silly, - what cannot be to the liking either to My love and even less so to My wisdom.
5
Ah, it would be something completely different, if a poor man comes, about whom you know that he knows how to work with the money and that he became poor only by opposing coincidences, and requests from you to borrow some money; you certainly should not keep it from him, even without interest and without a certain surety, that the lent capital is ever being repaid! If the man has used the money well, he, as a brother of you, will also know, what he has to do afterwards; since he has the same obligations towards you as towards him.
6
But if he is not able to repay the borrowed sum, you should not become cross with him or search for your money with his descendants; since this would be hard and totally against My order. However, should the descendants, especially the children or the first grandchildren, become wealthy, they would please Me a great deal, to repay the debt which their poor father or grandfather has received from a friendly neighbour!
7
If I therefore say to you that you should lend your money to those, who cannot repay it to you, I just want to say by that, that you should work with your money or other property, as I just have shown to you; anything below or above would either be silly or a considerable evil, thus a coarse sin against true neighbourly love!"