I don’t think people realize how wonderfully practical the Bible is and how it speaks to such topics as co-signing for a near one (neighbor or friend) in Proverbs 6:1-6:

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
   have given your pledge for a stranger,
2if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
   caught in the words of your mouth,
3then do this, my son, and save yourself,
   for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
   go, hasten, and plead urgently with your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

The Bible treats co-signing, or putting up “security for your neighbor,” with urgency. You are to get OUT of that situation RAPIDLY without givng sleep to your eyes like a deer who is running from a hunter: FAST! Get out of a co-signing where you have “given your pledge for a stranger” quickly. This is a dangerous situation to be in and so many well-meaning people sign the earnings that they have worked so hard for away – even to those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol! Wow, what a waste of God-given resources!

-Mark (loving how picturesque and powerfully practical the Word of God is)