Proverbs 6:1-5 – The dangers of being surety for someone

One major concern of the teacher is for marital bliss. In the previous chapter we are warned of the dangers of marital infidelity and assured of the blessings of marital fidelity. Faithfulness to one’s spouse and avoiding adultery is a major key to marital joy and happiness. Hence, it is imperative that we should stay faithful to our spouse and avoid infidelity at all course. However, to have a blissful marriage and a happy home, there are also other aspects of life that we need to consider and take care. Proverbs 6 identify four other areas before returning to deal with the issue of adultery again. Verses 1-5, deal with the first of the four. The teacher warns against recklessly being a co-signee for a friend or a stranger in a loan deal. Here the author is talking about being a surety for a loan.

Know it or not, being a guarantor or a surety for another person, be that person a friend or someone we hardly know, has its attending dangers. Of course, it’s less likely that we would agree to be a guarantor for a stranger but being one for a friend is quite a common practice. Yet the advice of this sage is not to be a guarantor at all. A guarantor usually gives himself as a pledge to pay a debt for a borrower. He gives his assurance to undertake to repay a debt when the borrower defaults on his payment. The lender or creditor receives an assurance that the responsibility of the debtor paying the debt will be undertaken by the guarantor, should the debtor fail to discharge the debt he owes. The catch is this: once we agree to stand as a surety, we are snared by the words of our mouth. We would have created an untenable situation where the well-being of that friendship and our family will be severely threatened, unless we are have the capacity to help him to discharge the debt. The teacher here mentions the phrase, “with the words of your mouth” twice. The double mention points us to the entanglement and that a surety would be snared by his indiscretion. It’s like walking into a trap.

Why is being a surety a trap? It’s because in so doing we put ourselves in a position where we guarantee the actions and character of someone else. Should that person fail, we will take the hook for him. Unwittingly, in being a co-signee we placed ourselves in bondage for someone’s else’s debt and responsibility. We have put our own reputation on the line until the debt is discharged. The Word advises that we stay clear of this jeopardy because we are God’s witnesses and our reputation counts. Verses 3-5 suggest that if we are trapped in one, we should immediately seek to extricate ourselves from such a predicament. Go humbly to the creditor and seek to be released from the obligation. We must do our best to beseech the creditor until he agrees to free us from the pledge and nullify the agreement made. The guarantor ought to do this immediately. However, whatever it takes, the advice is never to get oneself entangled in the trap of being a guarantor.