The Collateral of Folly Text: Proverbs 27:13
Introduction: The Hard-Headed School of Wisdom
The book of Proverbs is not a collection of inspirational quotes for needlepoint pillows. It is a divine education in how the world actually works. It is a book of hard-nosed, practical, street-level theology. God is not interested in raising sentimental fools. He is interested in raising wise sons who can navigate the treacherous waters of a fallen world without being swamped by them. And in order to do that, we must learn to see folly for what it is, not just as a minor character flaw, but as a destructive, ravenous force that will consume a man and everything he has.
This proverb before us is a piece of inspired, hard-headed advice. It is not addressed to the fool himself. The fool is past listening. As we have seen elsewhere, you can bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle, and his foolishness will not depart from him. No, this instruction is for the sensible man who has to live in the same world as the fool. It is a command to protect yourself from the cascading consequences of another man's idiocy. It is a lesson in financial and moral realism.
We live in an age that baptizes foolishness and calls it compassion. Our culture encourages a soft-hearted, soft-headed approach to every kind of irresponsibility. We are told to enable, to subsidize, and to look the other way, lest we be thought judgmental. But the Word of God tells us that true love is clear-eyed. True wisdom does not pretend that a man on a fast track to ruin is a good credit risk. This proverb links two specific kinds of high-octane folly, financial recklessness and sexual recklessness, and it tells the righteous man how to conduct himself when he encounters them. It is a lesson in defensive economics, a crucial skill for anyone who wants to build a durable household for the glory of God.
The Text
Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger;
And for a foreign woman seize it as a pledge.
(Proverbs 27:13 LSB)
Financial Suicide by Proxy (Clause 1)
We begin with the first instruction:
"Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger..." (Proverbs 27:13a)
The practice being described here is called suretyship, or what we would call co-signing a loan. The book of Proverbs has nothing good to say about this practice. It is presented, over and over again, as the height of financial lunacy. A man void of understanding strikes hands and becomes surety in the presence of his friend (Prov. 17:18). If you have done this, you have stepped into a trap, and you are to deliver yourself with all haste, humbling yourself and pleading with your neighbor (Prov. 6:1-5). You are not to be one of those who are sureties for debts, because if you have nothing to pay, they will take your very bed from under you (Prov. 22:26-27).
Scripture treats co-signing as a form of self-enslavement. The borrower is servant to the lender (Prov. 22:7), and the one who co-signs willingly puts his own neck into that same yoke. He is making himself responsible for a debt that is not his, for a man whose character and circumstances he cannot control. This is a violation of basic stewardship. God gives you resources to manage for His kingdom, not to wager on the reliability of another fallen sinner.
But notice the specific kind of fool in our text. He has become a guarantor for a "stranger." This is not even a case of misguided loyalty to a friend or family member, which is foolish enough. This is a man who is so naive, so eager to be liked, so detached from reality, that he will underwrite the debts of someone he does not even know. He is a blockhead. He is financially promiscuous.
So what is the prescribed response? Not pity. Not a lecture. The response is decisive action: "Take his garment." This is a command to secure collateral. If you are in a transaction with such a man, you are to recognize immediately that his word is worthless and his financial future is a black hole. He has already demonstrated a complete lack of judgment. Therefore, you must not extend him any credit based on his signature or his promises. You must secure the debt with something tangible, something you can hold in your hand. His garment represents a real, physical asset.
This is not being cruel; it is being prudent. It is recognizing that this man has already given away his financial future to a stranger. He has, in effect, already forfeited his assets. By taking his garment as a pledge, you are simply acknowledging the reality he has created. You are treating him like the high-risk individual he has proven himself to be. This protects you, and it also confronts him with the immediate, tangible consequences of his foolishness. Softness here would be a sin. It would be to participate in his delusion.
Sexual Suicide and the Collateral Damage (Clause 2)
The second clause presents a parallel situation, but raises the stakes from financial folly to sexual folly.
"And for a foreign woman seize it as a pledge." (Proverbs 27:13b LSB)
This is a parallel statement, meaning the man who is entangled with the "foreign woman" is the same kind of fool as the one who co-signs for a stranger. The instruction is the same: get collateral. The "foreign woman" here is not a comment on ethnicity. In Proverbs, she is a technical term for the adulteress, the prostitute, the woman who is outside the covenant of marriage. She is Dame Folly personified. She is the one whose house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death (Prov. 7:27). A man who gets involved with her is a man who has taken leave of his senses. He "lacks heart" (Prov. 6:32). He is playing with fire and thinks he will not be burned (Prov. 6:27).
The connection between these two clauses is profound. The man who is reckless with his money is often the same man who is reckless with his sexuality. The man who cannot govern his financial appetites is the man who cannot govern his lusts. Both actions reveal a man who is fundamentally untrustworthy. He does not fear God, he does not respect boundaries, and he has no thought for the future. He is driven by the moment, by impulse, by a desire for easy gratification.
So, when you are dealing with a man who is entangled with such a woman, the command is identical: "seize it as a pledge." You must operate on the assumption that this man is going to crash and burn. His affair is not a private matter; it has catastrophic public consequences. He who keeps company with harlots spends his substance (Prov. 29:3). His life, his reputation, and his finances are all circling the drain. To lend to him without security is to throw your money into a fire.
Again, this is not being vindictive. It is being wise. It is the wisdom that refuses to underwrite sin. It is the wisdom that protects the righteous from the fallout of the wicked. When a man chooses the path of the adulterer, he forfeits his claim to be treated as a trustworthy man. You are to deal with him based on the character he has displayed. You take the pledge because his integrity is already gone. He has already pledged his life, his soul, and his future to Dame Folly, and you are simply acting on the basis of that prior transaction.
Conclusion: The Wisdom of a Firm Hand
This proverb is a splash of cold water in the face of our sentimental age. It teaches us that there are times when the most loving thing you can do is to be firm, to be realistic, and to demand security. It teaches us to distinguish between true need and willful folly.
The man who co-signs for a stranger and the man who chases the foreign woman are one and the same. He is the fool who rejects God's created order. He rejects financial order by ignoring the clear warnings about suretyship. He rejects sexual order by violating the covenant of marriage. In both cases, he is a man who cannot be trusted.
The gospel does not abolish this wisdom; it establishes it. Christ came to save fools, it is true. He is the friend of sinners. But how does He do it? He does it by paying the debt Himself. Our Lord Jesus became our surety. He stood in our place, guaranteeing our debt of sin before a holy God. But unlike the fool in Proverbs, He knew exactly what He was doing, and He had the resources to pay the debt in full. He paid it not with a garment, but with His own blood.
When we come to Christ, we are like the fool who has nothing. We are bankrupt. But in Him, we are made wise. He teaches us to walk in the paths of righteousness. And part of that path is learning to deal wisely with the world around us. We are to be generous, yes. We are to be merciful, absolutely. But we are not to be gullible. We are not to subsidize foolishness. We are to exercise a sanctified shrewdness that protects the resources of the kingdom and refuses to become entangled in the self-destructive schemes of the wicked.
Therefore, let us be a people who are soft-hearted toward the genuinely repentant, but hard-headed in our dealings with manifest folly. Let us learn the difference. Let us refuse to co-sign for strangers and refuse to underwrite the man caught in the snare of the adulteress. And in all our dealings, let us walk in the wisdom that comes from above, a wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. That is the wisdom that builds a house that will last.