Proverbs 11:24. One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Solomon is teaching us a very basic principle here, the scattering principle, illustrated by a farmer. Imagine if a farmer held on to all his seed and never scattered it to the ground? He would never get more crops would he? But as he gives the seed to the earth, he gains more and more crops with more and more seeds, and thus the cycle of giving and receiving can continue on and on into the future. By contrast, the farmer that never scatters his seed to the ground will never reap more and more, and will eventually suffer want.
When we think about this principle in terms of farming and agriculture it makes perfect sense. The more you give, the more you get. The more seed you sow, the more crops you reap. But for some reason this same principle applied to other areas of life seems to escape us. Especially church life.
For example, you can’t reap friends if you don’t sow friendship. Yet, we tend to wait around for others to make the first move, especially when we are the new person in church. Or we withhold our friendship giving it only to those in our affinity group. What happens? Over time those groups fade away, but we never learned how to make new friends.
Or think about your financial giving. The scattering principle says that you get back what you give, and in even greater quantity. If you never give of your resources, then no spiritual crops will grow. The greedy, the hoarder, these withhold what they should give. Or maybe just the pragmatic, the practical. They too logically assume that to have enough they must hold on to what they have – “I can’t afford to give,” they think. But these fail to trust the scattering principle – give freely and grow richer.
In case you were wondering, no, the scattering principle is not the prosperity gospel for three reasons. First, the wise trust this principle as a general truth, but they also know that many things can prevent the harvest (drought, locust, flooding, etc.). In the same way, the Christian can never presume upon the material blessings of God. Second, the wise also know that when we scatter just so that we can gain wealth, we are actually living as a withholding, greedy hoarder. And third, the wise know that it is the scattering itself that brings the pleasure and joy, not the gathering for its own sake. We gather to scatter more, and more, and more, and more. As Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
God himself lives by the scattering principle. God gave us Jesus, his only son. He scattered Christ into the world, sowing his life into the ground. And as the earth gave way to the resurrected Christ, and as Christ ascended on high, he became a life giving spirit, whereby his life is scattered by the Holy Spirit into the soil of the hearts of all who would receive him by faith.
God gave freely in love and grew all the richer in those he loves and who love him back. Now we can do the same. When we know that with Christ we have everything we need, then generously scattering our lives for the benefit of others become easier and easier. Spiritual riches are to be enjoyed by all in Christ, while spiritual want is forever removed by the generosity of our gracious God whose mercies are new every morning.
You: Are you a scatterer or a withholder? Are you spiritually rich, or suffering want?
You in Christ: How does knowing that you have all you need in Christ allow you to stop withholding and begin scattering?
Christ in you: Where can you, by faith, practice the scattering principle this week?
Pray: Father, I don’t want to withhold what you have graciously given to me. I want to scatter all I am and all I have just as Jesus does. Amen.
To Live is Christ 