PROFITING FROM PROVERBS

“My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend” (Proverbs 6:1-3 KJV).

This chapter in Proverbs is hard on men and women. Now, there is two things here that will get you in trouble, that you need to notice, and they both begin with “m.” The one is money and the other is your mouth.

Now there is one thing that you DO NOT want to be sure of, and another that you DO want to be sure of. You want to be sure of keeping your friend, and you don’t want to be get involved with another kind of surety—let’s look at some other verses and see if we can catch it.

“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretiship is sure” (Proverbs 11:15 KJV). Here it is a stranger, in chapter 6 it is a friend. You are not to be a surety for anybody. Notice that suretyship is something you get involved with; it is being a co-signer on a loan. It deals with credit.

Chapter six is not only hard on co-signing on a loan, it is also pretty hard on loans period. Before you get very far down here, it says, “consider the ant.” In other words, go to work, eat what you HAVE and don’t eat no more. It is the wise man that learned long ago to get out from under credit cards. If you have credit cards, you are going to have credit. And they are anything but “easy payments,” they are “difficult payments.” It used to be in America that before you could file for bankruptcy, you had to go and sit before a referee, and he would determine whether you outgo was equal to your income and he would determine whether you could file for bankruptcy. If you could, they would dissolve your assets in hopes to straighten you out—it usually didn’t.

One bank referee was asked, “Why do most people file for bankruptcy?” He said, “Young people want to get married and acquire everything in a few months what it took their parents years, if not decades, to achieve. Suddenly, these young people have more purchasing power than they have ever had in their lives, and they are simply overcome with all the things that are available to buy. Before long, they have spent more than they can ever make.” He said, “That is the case in 80 to 90% of the cases. Nobody warns them, or they simply don’t listen, and they find themselves in trouble.”

But, see, if you are a Bible believer, the Bible will warn you about these things. The longer a man is a Christian, the less he ought to want to deal with credit. A Christian is to be a good steward over the money that God gives him, which he earns from the job that God supplied to him. Some things are unavoidable—such as a home. When the Bible speaks of “food and raiment,” raiment is a covering. Not only does it cover your body in the sense of clothing, it also covers you in the sense of a home, a roof over your head. But when you begin to purchase things on credit that you don’t really need, and usually that is what you are buying when you buy on credit . . . “wants” instead of “needs” . . . things you could really do without. When you use credit, you pay more for the object than it is really costs. You begin to spend a great deal of money on “interest.” Much more than you realize, and much more than you even want to know. All folks want are those 36 easy payments and “give it to me now!” “The first payment isn’t due until next month! Glory to God! Hallelujah! I want to go bass fishing and I “NEED” that boat!”

Most of us that take out a mortgage to buy a house will end up paying double for that house before it is all done. That can’t always be helped but consider all the interest on all the other credit cards and it becomes overwhelming.

So, to be a good steward. And really, you can often get the best buys by paying cash for things.

Anyway, the warning is to be real careful of surety or suretyship. And that is where someone is selling something on a promise to pay, an assure, that is, I’m sure he is going to pay because I checked out his assets. It’s hard to understand about credit anyway, you can really borrow unless you have collateral. If you have that, why don’t you spend that?

“My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth” (Proverbs 6:1-2 KJV).

“Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Ecc 5:5 KJV).

Now, if you vow to back up someone else’s loan and they default—you have to pay it. It’s better to keep your mouth shut and not volunteer. You have to pay, because you vowed to do it. You would have been better off not to do it, then to have to pay if they don’t. You know how you deliver yourself? You just don’t get into it. The best cure is an ounce of prevention—just don’t get into it.

Do you know why a bank requires a co-signer? Because they don’t believe the person asking for the loan can pay for it. Now, that ought to tell you something.

“A man void of understanding striketh hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend” (Proverbs 17:18 KJV).

When you co-sign for a friend and he defaults, you lose a friend. You not only end up making the payments, you also lose a friend. Don’t lose a friend.

“Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts” (Proverbs 22:26 KJV).

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.