Bible Truths – “Cosigning for Others”

This situation may have happened to you.  A friend or family member needs a loan but their credit history makes them too much of a risk for the bank to agree to offer them a loan.  So, they come to you and ask if you would cosign on their loan.  What does it mean to cosign?  It means that you agree to pay back the entire sum of the loan to the bank if the friend or family member does not.  In the Bible, cosigning for others is referred to as being the “surety” for the loan.  What advice does the Bible give regarding being “surety”, or cosigning, for others?

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

The Bible says that a person that becomes surety for another is “void of understanding”.  They don’t realize what they are getting themselves into.  They are not seeing the danger that they are entering into by becoming the guarantor for another person’s debt.

He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretyship is sure.  (Proverbs 11:15)

God tells us that if we cosign for a stranger it will end up hurting us.  We “shall smart for it”.  In fact, a wise person is one who doesn’t even entertain the idea of cosigning for another or asking someone to cosign for them.  A wise person, a sure person, “hateth suretyship”.

Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sureties for debts.  If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee?  (Proverbs 22:26,27)

Here, we see the strongest language toward cosigning, yet.  We are not to be a person that cosigns on another’s debt.  Why?  Because, if they don’t pay back their loan (which is a distinct possibility seeing as the bank does not trust them) the responsibility then comes back on you.  The bank can come and take away your money, even the “bed from under thee”.

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.  Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.  Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.  (Proverbs 6:1-5)

Here, cosigning on another’s loan is compared to being “stricken”, “snared”, and “taken”.  The advice that God gives is that we should, as soon as possible after coming to our senses, seek to deliver ourselves from the agreement we made if the friend will allow it.  In today’s day and age, the bank is probably not going to allow you to take your name off of the loan and we are in fact “snared”.  The mistake has been made, now we must suffer the consequences.  We must, of course, as Christians, pay what we have promised to pay, if need be.  “The wicked borroweth and payeth not again…” (Ps 37:21)

In closing, the Bible is very clear on the issue of cosigning on loans for others.  We are not to do it.  So, what can we do when someone asks us to cosign?  If we have the means, we can simply give them a gift if we feel that the person has a true need.  That way, they are under no obligation to us to repay them, they do not become our servant (Pv 22:7) and we are not “stricken” and “snared” by cosigning for them.

Pastor Lee Smith