And welcome back. I’m Bill English, the publisher here at Bible and Business. This is the third of a 30 part series I know a long series, right? A 30 part series from my book biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders. And what I’m doing is I’m going through the 30 sayings in Proverbs 22 through 24 those chapters 20, 217 through the end of chapter 24, and I’m doing a quick teaching video on each saying my book Biblical Wisdom for Business Leaders.
30 sayings from Proverbs takes those 30 sayings that the sage gives us and applies it to our roles as business leaders in businesses. By the way, it’s also quite applicable for those who are in ministry and would like to learn some more about how to lead from a Biblically wisdom perspective on leadership. The book is good for that too. So before we get started, just want to let you know that these are the ways that you can get a hold of me. You can go over and visit bible andbusiness.com you’re also welcome to email me at any time.
Bill at bible andbusiness.com and if you have a question, if you have a business situation you’d like a second pair of eyes on, I’m happy to pay it forward with you and help you out just a little bit. So get a hold of me any one of these ways through the Bible and Business social media channels. Okay? Our text today comes from Proverbs 22, verses 26 and 27. And it reads as follows do not be one who shakes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts.
If you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you. So what this age is doing is repeating something that has been improbs already several times. Let’s read proverbs six one to five. My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger, if you are snared in the words of your mouth, caught in the words of your mouth, then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go hasten and plead urgently with your neighbor.
Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber. Save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. This same prohibition of putting up pledges guaranteeing somebody else’s debt isn’t just given to us here in Proverbs six and then in our text in Proverbs 22. It’s also given to us in Proverbs 1115, 1718 and 2016. So five times improbs at least five times.
This whole idea of us not putting up security for somebody else’s debt, not becoming responsible for somebody else’s debt, those commands are given to us at least five times in Proverbs. Any command of scripture should be obeyed, right? But when it’s given to you five times, seems to me we ought to really be paying attention to that. So look in this saying, we’re instructed to avoid accepting the legal obligation to pay somebody else’s debts. We should not allow our assets or our good credit to become the backstop or the collateral for another’s debts.
And the reasoning behind this is clear if your assets and your credit can’t satisfy the obligations, then the creditors will take even your most intimate assets. And behind this prohibition seems to be the recognition that you can’t control the behavior of the one who has benefited from the loan, from the debt. So taking on the financial and legal risk for their actions seems to be unwise. So really, pledging another’s debts, think about it this way is an excellent way to put God’s wealth, which he has entrusted to you, at risk for another’s actions. And in another said another way, it’s an excellent way to put your good credit, which God has entrusted to you, at risk for another’s actions.
You end up assuming the legal obligation to pay the creditors without the commensurate control over the business activities intended to produce the cash to pay off the debts. If you’re going to take on the risk, then you should have proportionate control. So, final thoughts and then I have another thought that probably isn’t on any of these slides. When we pledge our assets for another’s debts, we’re showing our lack of trust in God to provide for the other’s future. Maybe God doesn’t want you to pledge another person’s debt because he wants that person to trust in Him for their financial security and their financial future.
You don’t want to get in the place where you’re replacing God’s role in another person’s life for financial security. You don’t want to get there. Secondly, God always funds what he calls. So if God has genuinely called your friend or a family member to do something and to take on debt, he will fund that call. Thirdly, stepping in too soon may short circuit what God is trying to do in their life.
And it’s kind of a parallel to what I just said recently. And in addition, pledging in others debts may diminish their journey on the difficult road of learning to trust in God. So again, you don’t want to take God’s place and you don’t want to diminish what God wants to do in their lives by pledging their debts. Now, how do you handle this with your kids, right? You know, your, your son or your daughter wants to go to school, they want to go to graduate school.
They just got out of school. They don’t have any money. It’s going to cost them. Maybe they’ll go get their masters in business administration or for my son’s situation, his master of divinity. And so what do you do?
Whenever I have cosigned with my son or any other family member, I have always considered that my debt, not their debt. And I would not cosign and have not cosigned unless I knew for sure that I could repay the debt by myself. So even though I’m cosigning with another family member, I don’t do that unless I consider it internally within my own mind my debt. And I know that I can pay it back without their help and that I’m fine paying it back without their help. And so in some ways I look at co signing a debt as almost like a gift.
I’m just going to give you this money, I’m going to take on the debt if down the road you happen to pay it back. Yay. But I’m not going to really count on that. And so that’s kind of how I look at the co signing with family members and with kids who were kind of launching them into adulthood and they need someone to help them co sign a car loan or a student loan for debt, something like that. All right, what’s next?
Our next episode in this series on the 30 sayings in Proverbs biblical wisdom for business leaders is going to come from two proverbs which actually are almost identical. Proverbs 22, 28 and again, Proverbs 23, ten and eleven. And we’re going to talk about not moving in ancient boundary stone. We’re not. We’re going to talk about not stealing and what that really means.
So I hope you’ll join me for that episode. So until then, I just want to thank you for joining me today. I’m Bill English here at Bible and Business. I’m the publisher. Thank you again for joining me and I hope that you’ll come back next week for another episode here on Bible and Business.
So until then, I hope you go out and make it a great week. Take care.