Anonymous Asks (417)

“Should Christians take on mortgages?”

I’ve written on the subject of Christians and debt before in a number of different contexts (bankruptcy, school debt, credit cards, etc.) but to the best of my recollection, never at any great length about mortgages.

Okay, then. It’s well established in scripture that carrying debt is less than ideal.

A Quick Summary

• The Old Testament portrays debt as a sometimes-necessary evil wise men avoid. The Law of Moses commands, “If a man borrows anything of his neighbor, and it is injured or dies, the owner not being with it, he shall make full restitution.” The teaching of Deuteronomy is that a nation blessed by God lends generously but need not borrow. Solomon wrote that the borrower is slave to the lender.
• To Christians, Paul writes, “Owe no one anything” and “Pay to all what is owed to them.”
• When incurred, financial obligations are to be met in full in accordance with the laws of the land. Further, if the borrower is slave to the lender, and no man can serve two masters, Christians ought to make getting out of debt a priority in order that they may undistractedly serve Christ.

A Christian in debt has a problem. It may be of his own making or it may be due to circumstances partially or wholly outside his control (unemployment, illness, family problems, business failures, bad investments, etc.), but either way, debt is an unnatural state for the believer, and a situation that requires looking to the Lord for deliverance.

The Stewardship Exception

That said, many Christians feel mortgages are the exception to the general principle that debt is a bad thing. The foremost argument I’ve heard comes from the perspective of good stewardship of the Lord’s resources: that the alternative (rental) is often more expensive and you end up with nothing. At least with a mortgage, your house is yours once you’ve paid it off.

Well, yes and no. On paper it’s yours. In reality, fail to keep up with your property taxes, and you’ll quickly find yourself as vulnerable to losing your home as any unemployed renter without significant savings. Moreover, the entire time you’re paying off that mortgage, you are equally exposed to misfortune, or even more so. Fail to make a couple of mortgage payments, and the bank may repossess your house.

I don’t mention that to be discouraging, but simply to point out that where “moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal”, a Christian’s security does not come through the ownership of property, but through dependence on the Lord Jesus, who is faithful to his own. Apart from a house, I have many of the same types of assets other Christians do, but I sure don’t bank on them always being there.

The Balance Sheet Argument

The other argument Christians make for taking on a mortgage is that it provides you with a tangible asset to balance against the debt of the mortgage, which is to say the house itself, so that technically, when you create a personal balance sheet and compare assets to liabilities, you come out even or ahead. Voila, no “real” debt.

That’s fair enough in principle, but it ignores the fact that while the mortgage remains a fixed amount (or even gets higher when interest rates suddenly rise), the value of your home as an asset is entirely subjective, dependent on the fluctuations and whims of the local real estate market. The fact that you can present yourself with a balance sheet at the end of 2025 with a nice fat zero at the bottom is no guarantee you will be able to do the same at the end of 2026.

Realistically, the only way to get around a risk like that is to start your home ownership project with a significant down payment. These days in Canada, you can legally get away with a down payment of only 5% of the appraised value of the home you want to buy, but you must then purchase mortgage loan insurance for any down payment less than 20%. For Christians, I consider putting down less than 20% unwise. With market fluctuations, you can easily find yourself carrying an asset worth less than what you still have outstanding on its mortgage.

Then you are definitely in debt, no argument.

A Good Conscience Before God

I’m not personally convinced by the arguments Christians make in favor of mortgages. When I had one I found it a burden, and was glad to divest myself of it. However, I have no interest in browbeating believers who opt to carry a mortgage in good conscience before God. Unless you tell me, I have no idea what your personal financial picture looks like, and you certainly have no obligation to share that information. That’s between you and the Lord. Maybe Mom and Dad left you a few hundred grand my parents did not, and you were able to buy a home well above the waterline and have remained there ever since. That’s none of my business or anyone else’s.

What is crucial in all matters, financial and otherwise, is that we maintain a good conscience before God. If you cannot do that while carrying a mortgage, it’s better not to bind yourself with one.