Pondering Proverbs – Witness (10)

 

“There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet results only in want. The generous man [lit. soul of blessing] will be prosperous [lit. made fat], and he who waters will himself be watered. He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.” Proverbs 11:24 – 26, NASB.

 

What might it mean that “blessing will be on the head of him who sells it”? How can we think about the idea of “selling” in a context of “giving” and generosity? How can we sell something, the Gospel, which was given freely to us? Are we not taught, “Freely you received, freely give”? (Matt. 10:8).

 

Let me suggest two ways to think about the idea of selling the grain, the Bread of Life, in this passage which are complementary. The first is offering the Grain to others as opposed to hoarding it – this is the central thought of the verse and the context, and we must allow the central image to control our thinking. There are givers and there are takers, there are hoarders and there are givers. The world lies to us by saying, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” This is stupid.

 

Have you ever been in a situation in which you thought about saying something but didn’t, and later on as you looked back you thought, “O I wish I had said something!”?

 

A few years ago Vickie and I toured an estate and gardens outside of Baltimore, MD. While we enjoyed the extensive gardens with their manicured topiary, taking a guided tour of the house was another matter. The focus of the tour was the wealthy individual who had once owned the estate, the high society people he knew, the possessions he acquired, the interests he pursued. As the tour was concluding I wanted to ask a question, but I didn’t. I wanted to ask, “Did he ever help others? Did he ever invest himself and his resources in helping others in need?”

 

While the tour guide seemed impressed with the former owner’s wealth and connections, and while it appeared that others on the tour were also impressed, Vickie and I were not impressed – it was empty, a void – for if the tour was accurate, if what was presented verbally and pictorially was representative of the individual in question – then we were presented with a life which was self-focused in the extreme…and that, my friends, is nothing to celebrate, that is a tragedy.

 

However, is it not a greater tragedy when those who profess to know Jesus Christ do not share Him with others – for we have the riches of all riches in Him?

 

During a budget meeting with church trustees I once said, “I would not want to appear before the throne of Jesus with this financial statement and this budget, for it is all about us, about our wants and our needs – there is nothing here for those outside our congregation, there is nothing here for reaching others for Jesus Christ.”

 

On the other hand, my missions professor, Christy Wilson, and his wife, were once audited by the I.R.S. because the agency could not believe that anyone could give so much of their income away.

 

The central thought in our passage is that we are called to give and give and give…to live lives of giving Jesus Christ to others, again and again and again. Living Water is to flow through us to others, we are to be distributors of Living Bread.

 

What about the idea of selling?

 

Here I think we see that a price must be paid for what we give away; the question is, “Who is to pay the price?”

 

Jesus paid the price for us, and we are called to pay the price for others. 1 John 3:16 is an echo of John 3:16, the equation is straightforward, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16).

 

Paul writes, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake…” (Phil. 1:29). Then we have Peter, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” (1 Pt. 2:21).

 

In Christ, we are not only a nation of priests, we are also sacrificial lambs – just as our High Priest offered Himself (Hebrews chapters 7 – 10), so we offer ourselves.

 

While our witness ought to be with grace and seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:5 – 6), this does not mean that it is without conflict and challenge – our purpose in witnessing is to make Jesus Christ known to others, it is not to avoid rejection and persecution. Do we really think that we can share the Christ of the Cross and not experience the Cross ourselves?

 

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” (See John 15:18 – 16:4).

 

If we truly love Jesus Christ and others then we will have a passion for sharing Him and a willingness to sacrifice ourselves – as individuals, as families, and as congregations. To share Christ is to expose ourselves, can we trust Jesus to be with us as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices? Is Jesus Christ trustworthy?

 

And so, dear friends, we pay the price for what we freely give; it is free to others but it is costly to us…is this not a glorious calling we have in Jesus Christ?