Proverbs 11:24 ESV
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs+11%3A24&version=ESV]
Charity as a business strategy seems counterintuitive; why would giving away what you have produce prosperity? Surely charity is a goal you can pursue only with the bit of your income that’s left over, since it’s obviously a total money sink?
God’s word advises us to be careful with our money. Don’t put up security for untrustworthy lenders (Proverbs 22:26); don’t jump onto get rich quick schemes (Proverbs 28:20); don’t be a profligate (Deuteronomy 21:20); etc. His word also advises us to ‘give freely’, saying (against all worldly wisdom) that one who does will ‘grow all the richer’. How does this make sense?
First, we must remember that “God made foolish the wisdom of the world” (1 Corinthians 1:20). What may appear on first blush to be mere common sense may not actually be sense at all.
Second, we must remember that all good things are of God, both prosperity and judgement (Psalm 107:9; 1 Chronicles 16:14). If charity please Him, He is willing and able to bless the charitable man.
The world, on the other hand, trusts only itself; every man does what is right in his own eyes, withholding what he should give. This man, even if he does not suffer want now, will in the end suffer want, unless God chooses to save him (Luke 16:19-25). When man follows his own dictum and not God’s, when he trusts the wisdom of the world over God’s wisdom, then he is cursed, not blessed.
Believers should hear this and take heart in a God who saves and preserves His people. We have the promise of God that “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (Psalm 24:4-5). Therefore, give freely- and prudently-, not according to man’s wisdom but according to God’s, with hearts of thankfulness and gratitude towards the Creator of the whole earth, and be blessed by God, in this life and in the life to come.
God bless.
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
