Moral and legal forgiveness

1 If you were to loan something to a friend, and if he later became physically unable to pay you back, it would be a gracious, act on your part to forgive the debt.

2 But to be a gracious act, your forgiveness of the debt must be voluntary.

3 If you only forgave the debt because you were compelled to do so, you would not be acting according to Christian principles. Compelled application of Jubilee principles is un-Christian.

4 Suppose you loaned me $10,000 on a business venture but a so-called “an act of God” prevented me from paying you back.

5 The law would not compel me to pay you back because the law does not compel impossibilities, and holds no one accountable for losses arising from acts of God.

6 If an act of God caused me to lose my sight, for example, the courts would not compel me to continue performing on the loan agreement because to do so would be contrary to the ends of justice.

7 And finally, in the example of a borrower who becomes afflicted in a way which makes it virtually impossible for him to repay a loan, there is yet another legal and moral reason he shouldn’t and wouldn’t be compelled into continued performance.

8 A lender — as a “prudent man” under what the law calls “the prudent man rule” — is reasonably expected to carry insurance or take other precautions to protect himself against losses arising out of acts of God or other unforeseen events.

9 People who advocate compulsory application of Jubilee principles to national problems are ignorant or misinformed.

10 They advocate enactment of laws which destroy individual freedom and responsibility.

11 They advocate methodologies which are contrary to the most fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ.

12 They advocate a satanic program. Yet some of them even call themselves “Christian patriots.”

13 These people remind us of Jesus Christ’s words: “Father forgive them, for they know no what they do.” — Luke 23:34.

14 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.