Proverbs 11:15 - Meaning and Application

Here we are taught, first, in general, that we may not use our property exactly as we please. The One who gave it to us has kept the right to tell us how to use it, because it is not really ours. We are only managers for him. God’s law also looks after our good and teaches us both the charity that begins at home and the charity that does not stop there. Careful management is a good part of true religion, and wise ordering of our affairs is part of a good person’s character (Psalm 112:5). Every person must do right by his own household; otherwise, he is not faithful in his role as a steward, that is, a manager of another’s property.

Second, we must not rush into guaranteeing another person’s debt. One reason is the danger of bringing trouble on ourselves, and on our families after we are gone. The person who becomes surety, that is, who promises to pay if another person does not, for a stranger, someone who asks him to take that burden, will suffer for it. He will surely be badly crushed by it, and may even be ruined. Our Lord Jesus became surety for us when we were strangers, even enemies, and he suffered for it. It pleased the Lord to crush him.

Another reason is that a person who refuses all such surety keeps to safe ground. He can do that by being careful not to take on more business than his own credit can support, so that he does not need to ask others to back him.