A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 27: 13

Proverbs 27: 13     Take the garment of him who is surety for a stranger, and hold it in pledge when he is surety for a seductress. (New King James Version)
Proverbs 27: 13 Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger's debt. Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners. (New Living Translation)

Proverbs 27: 13.  The Bible encourages--- not “encourages.” The Bible commands us to be charitable (Matthew 5: 41, 42).  Charity means helping people even when that help means taking a loss on our part. 

One of the reasons God supplies income and increase is so we can practice being godly by using our increase and our income to help the poor (Deuteronomy 24: 17-22).   Charity is as  fundamental (though more neglected) aspect of financial stewardship as tithing/giving.  But charity does not require stupidity.

It is charity if I give you my last good coat because I see that you’re cold.  It is charity if I fast for a week so that I can feed you.  It is charity if I cancel a shopping trip or a vacation so that I can give that money to someone who swears they’ll pay me back even though I  know up-front that they’ll never pay back a dime of that money. 

Charity requires sacrifice & risk, but charity does not require stupidity.

Charity becomes stupidity when charity becomes debt.  To pay some other family’s rent is an act of charity.  To cosign for their apartment is stupidity because it effectively place you in their debt.  To send a donation to a missions program in Africa is charity.  To send your credit card number and account password to a “Kenyan pastor” you never met but whose email says he needs an investment of $30,00US to build a sanctuary for the Christians who are “most oppressed and indangered” ----- that’s not charity.  That’s stupidity.

We American consumer, including we Christian American consumers, put ourselves in debt and more debt all the time.  Every swipe of a credit card is an act of borrowing.  It’s taking out a piece of a pre-approved line of credit.  

We over extended those lines of credit, in most cases not because of unexpected tragedies, but because of sin (greed, gluttony, vanity, envy, pride, lust, drunkenness, you know--- good times….gooood times).  We owe so much on our debt that we have to spend ridiculous percentages of  our income and increase just managing debt.   

So, the debt (which the Bible teaches us to avoid) becomes a need, and charity (which the Bible commands us to give) is treated as a luxury.  We spend our financial lifespan in diligent service to what we never should have been a part of and is indignant opposition to what we should have been doing all the time.   Thus sin becomes a priority over righteousness and we prioritize or financial decisions in ways that are less & less Biblical and more & more----- stupid.

The result is------ ruin.  The ruin of the person and the ruin of Christian charity, which makes all our preaching about Love sound to society like “wah-wah-wonk-wah” (Charlie Brown’s teacher’s voice).

Proverbs 27: 13 says that we need help.  When (in the King James versions) Solomon said, “Take the garment of him,” he was basically saying, “Help him before he loses his shirt.”

If you’re the one in debt because of sin then you need to take what money you have and place it in some location or instrument that keeps you from continuing your unwise financial practices to the point of ruin.   

If you’re doing business with people who do stupid stuff with money---- like pay his mistress’s rent, or pick up strippers and take them shopping, or buy a car for her never-employed-treats-her-like-crap boyfriend, or pay her tithes with a Discover card------ then you need to get your money from them up front.  They won’t have their money for long.

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

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Hall Memorial CME Church
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