Why We Removed Buy Now Pay Later: A Biblical Perspective on Debt, Stewardship, and Intentional Living

If you've shopped at BeyondSundayCo.com recently, you may have noticed something missing at checkout.

No Afterpay. No Klarna. No Affirm. No "4 easy payments." No "pay later" button.

We removed them. Deliberately, permanently, and with conviction.

This post explains why. Not as a policy announcement, but as a values statement. Because at Beyond Sunday Co., we believe the way a brand handles its checkout page says something about what it actually believes.

And we couldn't in good conscience build a brand around helping Christians live their faith every day, through tools like our Beyond Sunday Co. Church Journal while simultaneously engineering a checkout experience designed to help people spend money they don't have yet.

 

What Is Buy Now Pay Later, and Why Does It Matter?

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services like Afterpay, Klarna, and Affirm have exploded in popularity over the last five years. The premise is simple: you buy something today, and pay for it in installments, usually four equal payments over six weeks, often with zero stated interest.

On the surface, it sounds harmless. Even helpful. But beneath the frictionless UX is a business model built on one core insight: people spend more when the pain of payment is deferred.

BNPL companies make money in two ways. They charge merchants a transaction fee (typically 3–6%, higher than credit cards). And they collect late fees and interest from the significant percentage of users who miss payments. In the United States, studies have found that BNPL users are more likely to be financially stressed, more likely to carry existing debt, and more likely to make impulse purchases they later regret.

These services aren't neutral financial tools. They are monetization mechanisms built on the psychology of delayed consequence.

And that's where the biblical conversation begins.

 

What Scripture Says About Debt

Proverbs 22:7: The Borrower Is Slave to the Lender

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender."  Proverbs 22:7 (NIV)

This is one of the most direct statements in all of Scripture about the nature of debt. It doesn't say debt is sinful. But it names, clearly and without ambiguity, what debt does to a person: it creates a relationship of obligation that constrains freedom.

The Hebrew word for "slave" here, eved, carries the full weight of bondage. Not metaphorical inconvenience. Bondage.

BNPL is designed to feel like freedom. Buy what you want now, deal with it later. But Proverbs names it for what it is. Every time you click "pay in 4," you create a lender. And that lender has a claim on your future income.

For a brand that exists to help Christians live with intention, not just on Sundays but every day of the week. Offering that kind of checkout experience felt fundamentally inconsistent with what we believe.

Philippians 4:11: Contentment as a Discipline

"I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content."  Philippians 4:11 (NIV)

Paul doesn't say contentment is a gift. He says he learned it. The Greek word used here, manthanō, implies a process of training, practice, and deliberate formation. Contentment isn't something that happens to you. It's something you cultivate.

BNPL is the opposite of that cultivation. It is a technology specifically designed to shorten the gap between wanting something and having it. It removes the moment of pause. That moment where, historically, a person might ask: Do I actually need this? Do I have the money? Is this the right decision?

That pause is where contentment lives. And BNPL's entire value proposition to merchants is that it eliminates it.

The Beyond Sunday Co. Church Journal was designed for Christians who want to be intentional about their faith, their time, and their lives. Offering a checkout experience that bypasses intentionality at the moment of purchase felt like a contradiction we couldn't ignore.

Luke 16:11: Faithfulness With Worldly Wealth

"So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?"  Luke 16:11 (NIV)

Jesus connects financial faithfulness to spiritual trustworthiness. This isn't prosperity gospel. It's actually the opposite. It's a call to handle money with the same care and integrity we want to bring to everything else in our lives.

Faithful stewardship means spending what you have, not what you'll have. It means making purchasing decisions from a place of peace, not impulse. It means the checkout experience you use should be consistent with the person you're trying to become.

We want Beyond Sunday Co. to be a brand that holds that standard across everything: the content we create, the journals we ship, and every touchpoint of the customer experience. Including how you pay.

 

This Isn't About Judgment: It's About Identity

We want to be clear about something.

This decision is not a judgment of anyone who uses BNPL services. Financial situations are complex. People navigate real constraints. And there are probably legitimate contexts where installment payment tools make sense.

This is about who we are as a brand. Not a verdict on anyone else's choices.

Beyond Sunday Co. is building something specific: a faith lifestyle brand for Christians who want their faith to mean something from Monday to Saturday, not just during the Sunday service. That vision requires us to be consistent. Our products, our content, our community, and yes, our checkout page all need to point in the same direction.

Removing BNPL is one small expression of that consistency. We'd rather lose a sale to someone who isn't ready to buy today than facilitate a purchase that adds to someone's financial stress tomorrow

The Bigger Picture: Faith-Based Brands and Financial Ethics

Beyond Sunday Co. isn't the first brand to take a stance on BNPL, and we won't be the last. As the BNPL industry has grown from $24 billion in 2020 to projected revenues exceeding $100 billion by 2026, so has scrutiny of its impact on consumer financial health.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has raised concerns about BNPL's lack of consumer protections compared to traditional credit. Debt counselors have flagged rising cases of BNPL-related financial distress, particularly among younger consumers. And an increasing number of faith-based financial voices, including Dave Ramsey whose teachings are deeply rooted in Proverbs, have named BNPL as a modern form of the consumer debt trap.

For a Christian lifestyle brand, the question isn't just "is BNPL legal?" or even "is BNPL harmful?" The question is: is offering it consistent with what we believe about money, stewardship, and the kind of life we're inviting our customers into?

For us, the answer was no.