TO WHOM DO you owe money? Maybe you’re paying off your car or your home. Or trying to scratch together your rent and utilities. Or paying down your credit cards and student loans. If you do owe someone money, trust me, you’re not alone.

At the beginning of 2024, consumer debt in the United States was over 17 trillion dollars, more than twice what was spent by the federal government — much, much more. By one estimate, the average unpaid credit card balance in the third quarter of 2024 was over $7000 per household. But this is a pittance compared to mortgage-related debt, which accounts for almost three-fourths of that 17 trillion.

Many people are stuck in a cycle of poverty and a merry-go-round of debt. They rob Peter to pay Paul, desperately staving off one creditor by borrowing from another. They know it’s risky; the money has to be paid back, and there will be consequences if they don’t. Not a Dickensian debtor’s prison, perhaps, but even small consequences like late fees can make the problem worse. And debtors face bigger risks like repossession, eviction, or other legal action.

In Jesus’ time, of course, there were no credit cards or mortgage companies, no banks as we know them today. But people did loan money to one another, and this is encouraged as an act of compassionate generosity. Psalm 37:26, for example, says that the righteous “are always generous and lend freely,” while Psalm 112:5 promises that “Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely.” For the sake of that righteous generosity, it was forbidden to charge interest to a brother or sister (e.g., Exod 22:25). Indeed, the prophet Ezekiel went as far as to say that profiting from others by lending at interest was a detestable practice deserving of death (Ezek 18:13). (Yes, death. Tell that to your mortgage company.)

But as the psalms also teach, “The wicked borrow and do not repay” (Ps 37:21). For God’s people, right relationships are a two-way street. On the one hand, a person should lend generously, but on the other, also pay back faithfully.

IN THE SERMON on the Mount, Jesus envisions a situation in which a person has borrowed money but hasn’t paid it back. He says nothing about their financial situation. Perhaps they’re capable of paying back some or all of the loan but are holding back; perhaps they’re simply broke and have no money to pay.

Nor does Jesus say anything about whether the person is being treated unethically by the lender. That’s not his point. Rather, it’s another illustration of what righteous people should do when they know they’ve made someone angry, or someone has a legitimate complaint against them:

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matt 5:25-26, NIV)

This appears to be a story of a lender bringing formal charges against a borrower who hasn’t paid back a loan. The way Jesus tells it, the borrower seems to be in the wrong, and will surely be found guilty if the case goes to trial.

The outcome, however, depends not merely on the legal merits of the case, but also on how the defendant behaves toward the plaintiff. Jesus describes a situation that’s rather unlike the American adversarial legal system: the accuser and the accused are going to the court together. Will they talk with each other along the way? And if so, what kind of conversation will that be?

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary,” Jesus says. That’s the New International Version. While that translation makes sense in context, to me, it’s a bit misleading. The wording might make us think of the contemporary notion of “settling out of court” by having your respective attorneys reach a “settlement.” But Jesus isn’t giving legal advice; he’s talking about the character and conduct of someone who wants to live with true kingdom righteousness.

The word Matthew uses occurs this one time only in the New Testament. It literally means to “think well” of someone, or conversely, to have them think well of you. That’s why, for example, the New American Standard translates Jesus as saying, “Make friends quickly with your opponent while you are with him on the way.”

Just let that sink in for a moment: Jesus is saying that we should “make friends” with the person who’s taking us to court. That’s not how it usually works, is it? But again, Jesus is describing the kind of conduct that’s appropriate to the kingdom of heaven. And in that kingdom, it’s not business as usual.

He is not suggesting, of course, that we need to become best buddies with people who press charges against us. But what would it take to have them think well of us, particularly when we’re in the wrong? From the standpoint of the Beatitudes, at least two things come to mind:

First, we would need to have the humility to recognize and admit the way we have wronged the other person.

And second, we should hunger to make things right.

JESUS ISN’T HANDING out free legal advice or strategies for winning lawsuits. In the context of Matthew 5, he’s illustrating a kingdom-of-heaven kind of righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. With an ordinary understanding of righteousness, we can pat ourselves on the back because we’ve never taken a life, and therefore haven’t violated the commandment against murder.

But Jesus teaches that contemptuous anger makes us just as guilty. Kingdom righteousness means acknowledging not only our anger toward others, but their anger toward us for the ways we’ve given offense. Putting these two together, one implication of his teaching is that we need to pay attention to ways in which our outbursts of anger, though they may feel justified in the moment, are offensive and hurtful to others.

Are we willing to swallow our pride and make it right?