“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.” (Exodus 22:25)
Money brings power. All over the world, politicians and officials take bribes. Poor people are exploited by their moneylenders, since these exact huge interests. God condemns these practices.
God’s commandment to not exact interest from others, does not automatically apply to the system of capitalistic investments where people borrow money from a bank to set up a business or to invest in expensive machinery, for example. This can be a valid business model that has nothing to do with exploitation.
God’s commandment is about people who are poor and who need the money to cover their basic needs.
An example is found in Nehemiah 5, where poor Jews were exploited by their brothers. Their situation was really bad: “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine […] and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.” Nehemiah exhorted the rich to stop these practices and to give back what they had been demanding.
The money we receive, is a gift from God. We should use it to promote justice, not exploitation. Is that what you do every day?