Can We Put God in Debt?
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed. -Proverbs 19:17
“You owe me, God!”
As soon as those words come out of our mouth, we know they are wrong. The God of the universe doesn’t owe anyone. He can’t be indebted to us! Paul is pretty explicit in Romans 11:35. “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” This is really only an exposition of what God Himself said to Job. “Who has first given to me that, I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
Well…then, explain this one.
“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”
Now what do you call the person that is loaned money? A debtor! Here God is saying that if you lend to the poor—they can’t repay you—but God is picking up the tab. He is stooping and allowing Himself to be “in debt” for the sake of the poor. It’s a way to motivate giving to the poor.
What’s going on here?
Why we prefer a transactional God
The biggest barrier to understanding this verse is that we so often come into the Scriptures from a transactional framework. What I mean is that we have a tendency to treat our relationship with God like a contract or a business deal—"If I do this for God, He must do that for me.”
We may not verbalize these things but we tend to think along these lines:
· “If I obey, God owes me blessing.”
· “If I suffer, He must explain or compensate.”
· “If I grieve correctly, He must bring healing.”
· “If I give, He must repay.”
It’s understandable that we think this way. After all, so much of the Bible is clothed in covenant language. And it’s easy to turn a covenant built on relationship into a covenant as cold and calculating as a home mortgage loan.
Also, because our bent toward sin and escaping God, we have a propensity for a transactional relationship with God. This type of performance-based relationship can be appealing to our desire for control, clarity, and fairness. It feels safer to believe that we can “manage” God by our behavior. And relationships are messy—this kind of a bargain can be clean and measurable. It also evokes our sense of fairness. Good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished. Add to this equation our pride—and we’re happy to have God indebted to us.
If we take this transactional view into a verse like Proverbs 19:17, we’ll miss the heart of the passage. We’ll think it’s telling us that if we give to the poor—then God will be indebted to us. He’s sure to pay us back (and maybe even with interest). But that’s really not the thinking here. It’s more relational.
God wants us to see from this passage how much He has united Himself to the poor. He’s never actually in someone’s debt. That’s not the point here. It’s not saying, “Here’s how to put God on the chain.” Or “here’s how to make God really owe you one.”
No, this is the language of affection, not obligation. It’s the poetry of a Father who so identifies with the lowly that He says, “When you care for them, you’re caring for Me.” This isn’t economics—it’s intimacy. Proverbs 19:17 isn’t a loophole in divine justice. It’s a window into God’s heart.
God is not transactional. He is relational. He isn’t after your bargains; He’s after your trust. And nowhere is this clearer than in the gospel. Because if anyone ever deserved to say, “You owe me, God,” it was Jesus.
Jesus lived a perfect life and deserved nothing but blessing. Yet He was treated as one upon whom all the debts of the world were thrust upon. He was mocked, forsaken, and crucified. And He did this so we—those who are truly bankrupt—might become rich in Him. He took our debt upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. And if you think that’s a mere transaction like getting a bank loan paid off, you’re missing the relational aspect of this.
It's grace.
So when Proverbs says God “will repay,” don’t read that as God being under obligation. Read it as God inviting you to trust His goodness. When you give to the poor, you’re aligning your heart with His. And when you do that, you’ll never come up short. Because grace always gives more than it takes. And the gospel proves that once and for all.