If usury is a sin, why does the parable commend putting money in the bank to gain interest?
A viewer asks how usury can be a sin when the parable in Luke 19:23 has the master say, 'Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required my own with usury?'
Answer
It does not mean usury in every instance is bad. The condemnations of usury are aimed at usury at compound interest. Every man who has money, labor, or land is in principle owed something when he lends it to someone else to use. God is not saying that because you are rich you must simply give your money away; He is saying that when you lend, you must not charge something so exorbitant that the borrower can never pay you back, which is exactly what compound interest does, because the interest keeps being added to the principal and the debt never ends. But we should scrap the idea that lending entitles you to nothing in return. If that were the rule, no one would lend, because there would be no advantage to it. When you lend something out you cannot use it yourself and you cannot give it to anyone else, so it is reasonable to expect something back, some small, agreed amount, a covenant between the two parties. If you lend a hundred dollars and get a hundred and ten back in a month, the lender gains a little and the borrower is helped, and the lender is then more willing to lend again. So in the parable, putting the money in the bank to gain interest is ordinary and fine; what is condemned is charging people exorbitant, compounding interest.