On cosigning, Scripture is about as blunt as it gets. If you have struck hands in pledge for
someone else's debt, go and free yourself immediately, like prey escaping a hunter. Do not
sleep on it. The practice is called senseless. The stated reason is concrete: if you have
nothing to pay with, why should your bed be taken out from under you? Cosigning transfers
someone else's risk onto your household while leaving you no control over their choices.
On helping family, the same Bible that warns about surety commands generosity. Lend to the
poor and it is counted as lending to the Lord. Give to the one who asks. Lend expecting
nothing back, which is not a metaphor. Those are commands, and if they reach even an
enemy (Luke 6:35), they reach the relative standing in your kitchen.
The distinction is simple and it resolves almost every case. A gift ends. A loan to family
usually does not; it stays in the room at Christmas for years, and it turns a brother into
a debtor. Cosigning is worse than both, because it keeps all the obligation and none of the
control.
So: if you can afford to help, give it and say it is a gift. If you cannot afford to lose
it, you cannot afford to lend it. Do not cosign; the reason is in Proverbs 22:26-27, and
it is your own bed.
The passages
Printed in full from the public-domain World English Bible, resolved from a local copy of
that text before this page was built. Read them before you take our summary on trust, and
see how we read Scripture on money for the ten rules
every page here follows.
1My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger; 2You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth. 3Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor. 4Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. 5Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
26Don’t you be one of those who strike hands, of those who are collateral for debts. 27If you don’t have means to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?
34If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much. 35But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.