Perspective

All to him I owe: 3 virtues that would free us to give more

Do you want to be radical in your devotion to Christ? Do you want your life to count and not be a waste? Do you want to see the nations come to Christ and the world changed for the better?

By Kevin DeYoung, Gospel Coalition

Well, here’s one practical thing you can do right now, on your way to those lofty ambitions: pay down your debt.

There are 610,000,000 credit cards in the United States, and every household with at least one carries an average debt of $16,000. Total US consumer debt is more than $2.5 trillion. Think of all the money Christians have tied up in interest, late fees and financial commitments that can’t be spent on the work of the gospel in the world.

How will you ever give sacrificially to your church if you are swamped in credit card debt? How can you even consider doing missions overseas if you’re swallowed up in student loans? What sort of flexibility will you have to go anywhere and do anything if your house is worth half of what you owe on your mortgage? What will you have to give to support a new church plant in your city or the crisis pregnancy center down the street or the seminary overseas if you have two car payments, two mortgages, and $20,000 in consumer debt?

Three old-fashioned virtues work for people who keep themselves out of debt in order to give more to the causes they care about:

  1. temperance
  2. frugality
  3. hard work

Can Christians do the hard work it takes to get out of debt, so we can honestly say “All [and only] to him I owe?”

Read the full story at The Gospel Coalition.
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