“One person gives freely, yet gains more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor. A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water. People will curse anyone who hoards grain, but a blessing will come to the one who sells it. The one who searches for what is good seeks favor, but if someone looks for trouble, it will come to him. Anyone trusting in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.” (Proverbs‬ ‭11‬:‭24‬-‭28‬ ‭CSB – Read the chapter) ‬‬

My son asked me the other day about the difference between Karma and God’s justice. I explained that the former is impersonal and not something we can rely on without having to resort to explanations like that we all live multiple lives. Ultimately, it’s not just. The latter, on the other hand, is personal and just and righteous and always driven by love and grace. It is better in every way. But for all its flaws, that we invented an idea like Karma is unsurprising. We are made in the image of a God who is just and we long for justice in our very souls. The idea that people reap what they sow only makes sense to us. Several of this next group of proverbs would agree. Let’s take a look.

The God of the Bible is a generous God. We see this from the very start of the story. In the beginning, He created the heavens and the earth. He didn’t have to do that. Nothing compelled Him toward that action. Instead, His love among Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit was so great that He wanted to be able to share it more broadly than just among Himself. So He created a world filled with unique and wonderful and beautiful creatures on which and on whom He could lavish that love. The generosity of His spirit is fundamental to who He is.

Because of this, when we live in ways that reflect this generosity, demonstrating our connection with Him, He delights in making sure we can continue that effort. “One person gives freely, yet gains more.” When we step into the kind of sacrificial generosity that reflects the heart and character of our God, He rewards us for that by enable our further generosity.

Now, this does not mean, as some preachers have drifted into preaching, that if we give a certain amount God is going to give us more. It does not mean that God is going to reward our giving by making us rich in worldly terms. It simply means that God has a tendency to respond to our practice of the discipline of sacrificial generosity by making sure that we can keep practicing it. When we give generously, He provides for us from out of His abundance so that we can give even more. We can’t out give God. If you follow the lead of His Spirit into wise and sacrificial generosity, you will always have enough to meet your own needs and to keep on giving generously to others.

On the other hand, “another withholds what is right, only to become poor.” It is a deep irony of our culture that some of the wealthiest people are also the least generous people. The more stuff we have, the more that stuff tends to grab hold of our hearts and take control of our decision making. We start thinking through the lens of protecting what we have rather than delighting in the opportunity to give more away. When we do that, while we may stay wealthy in worldly terms, we start to become poor in kingdom ones. Our relationships become poorer. Our reputation becomes poorer. Our self-image become hollow. Our contentment fades. Our joy recedes. And in the end, we are left with nothing anyway. Living a generous life is always better than the alternative.

“A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water. People will curse anyone who hoards grain, but a blessing will come to the one who sells it.” These next two proverbs run on basically the same theme. There is a blessing that comes with living generously that is not accessible by other means. The enriching Solomon mentions here is not necessarily physical or material in nature. God certainly can do that, and He sometimes does do that, but He’s not limited to that. He will always provide for our means and make sure we have enough to keep giving generously in addition to that, but His primary interest is not in our material wealth, but our spiritual wealth. He is able to enrich us abundantly in both ways.

But when you hold onto what you have, especially when people can see that what you have has the potential to bless others or meet their needs, they will sour on you pretty quickly. People who hoarded things like toilet paper during the early Covid season were ridiculed and derided by the rest of the culture. It was those who practiced radical and sacrificial generosity who were celebrated. When you have something people need to meet their basic needs, be generous with that. God will bless those efforts.

“The one who searches for what is good seeks favor, but if someone looks for trouble, it will come to him.” We tend to find what we are looking for. I don’t necessarily mean that in an absolute sense. I remember when we lost a bowtie a couple of years ago. We searched for that thing forever and never found it anywhere. It vanished into the aether of the universe as far as I’m concerned. But in life, the things we are seeking are generally the things we will find. If you go in search of what is good, you’ll find it. And when you do, you’ll find favor with the Lord and probably with the people around you as well. It’ll be a nice both-and deal. If you go looking for trouble, though, you’ll find that instead.

Let this proverb be an invitation to think critically about what it is you are actually seeking in your life. Are you seeking things that are good or merely that you desire. Those aren’t necessarily the same thing. In fact, they usually are not. When you are thinking of and seeking only the things you desire, those will often come at the expense of the people around you and they won’t be good for you or for them. You’ll really only be looking for trouble then. And indeed you will find it. Seek out things that are genuinely good. You won’t regret that.

“Anyone trusting in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.” Note the point of the contrast here. If you trust in your wealth, you are not counted among the righteous. The reason for that is fairly simple. If you are trusting in your wealth, then you are necessarily not trusting in God. You can’t not trust in God and also have a right relationship with Him. And if you don’t have a right relationship with Him, you aren’t going to have right relationships with the people in your life. As Jesus put it, you cannot serve both God and your stuff. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. And if you seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, everything else will be added to you. When you seek God first, all of life is a both-and adventure. If you don’t, it’s a neither-nor disaster. So, seek Him first.