Your best friend from college, and the most Christ-like man you've ever had the privilege of knowing, just came up with a mind-blowing business plan for a new product in a niche market. Success has been his, regardless of the endeavor, since the inception of your friendship and you are certain that this will be no exception. His enthusiasm is contagious and you buy into his idea hook line and sinker. He's a creative genius with a golden touch but he lacks one thing: funding. You want to help, have good credit and enough disposable income that you could probably help him get a loan to get his idea up and running. What should you do?
My grandmother always said, If you have to ask, then you probably already know the answer. Although she was right, she isn't the supreme authority on most matters. However, God gives us clear instruction in His Word on how we are to address all financial matters,including going good for a friend or family member as the co-signer of a loan.
Oddly enough, we are told in Proverbs (the book of wisdom) not to put up security for debts because our very beds will be snatched right out from underneath of us if we lack the ability to pay.1 We are also told that we will surely suffer if we DO put up security for someone else.2 In today's volatile economic times, job loss is imminent for many. None of us are immune to the ebb and flow of the professional arena and, with that said, signing a note for someone else is a risk that's simply not worth taking no matter how good your intentions or how solid your relationship with the other person.
It's a dangerous situation to mix business with pleasure, family or anything else that is starkly unrelated. Relationships are ruined and the dynamics of friendships are changed sometimes forever. Jesus teaches that the borrower is a slave (or servant) to the lender.3 THAT is certainly not the kind of relationship anyone wants to have with those they love. Nowhere on pages of history will you find anything good that is born out of slavery.
The fall-out from the Civil War is still felt across the United States today. Bitterness is embedded into the hearts of many whose only connection to the actual "war" itself was a great-great-great grandparent. Unless we are born-again, we're slaves to sin, which separate us from God. Consider the plight of the Israelites as they were held captive in their own land. All because of slavery.
Solomon, who was the wisest man in the Bible aside from Jesus, is considered to be the source of most of the book of Proverbs. If he really possessed unparalleled wisdom4, we'd all be well served in heeding his advice.
To find out how I used these God given principles to take myself from being evicted 10 times, to now being a Millionaire go to
