Exodus 22:25
““If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest.”
What does Exodus 22:25 mean?
God is calling his people to treat lending as an act of compassion rather than profit. When someone from your community is struggling financially and has to borrow from you, the instruction here is to let go of the opportunity to gain from their hardship. This reflects a deeper value: that the vulnerable deserve protection, not extraction. This doesn't mean lending is wrong, but the spirit of it matters enormously. If you're in a position to help someone in poverty, that power comes with responsibility to use it gently. Many people today find this principle speaks to how we think about debt, credit, and whether we should financially benefit from someone else's desperation.