He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.   Proverbs 15:27

Ours is a society that is quickly becoming corrupt at multiple levels.  It has been sad to watch our country turn from one that valued integrity and honesty, to one that is moving toward the kind of values that exist in a banana republic.  The frequency of elected officials being charged and convicted with fraud is alarming.  The fact that we watch them use their positions of power to enrich themselves with laws they impose on us, while exempting themselves from their own statutes is terrifying.  That is because, as we will learn from today's proverb, those who do such things bring trouble to their own home.  This is true on a personal level, but also on a corporate and even national level too. 

We read that those who profit illicitly trouble their own house.  This simply means that when we choose to leave our integrity at the altar of greed and the pursuit of wealth at any cost, we are going to create serious problems for our family.  This is for several reasons.  First and most importantly is the trouble that is caused for our children and our grandchildren - even to the third and fourth generations of our family.  They watch as we abandon God and embrace the pursuit of riches.  Paul wrote young Timothy and warned that the love of riches is a root of all kinds of evil.  He warns him in the book of 1 Timothy that some who have done this bring harm to themselves and pierce themselves with many a harmful desire.  This will infect our families to several generations. 

We see this in our current immoral business climate in the United States banking and financial sectors.  Hardly a day goes by now without learning about another failure to preserve any moral foundation - as the generation that watched their parents make money and financial security their only goal now take those lessons to new lows.  They are now grabbing all the money they can - in any way that they can - regardless of who is hurt and what businesses are destroyed in the process.  The courts are now filled with men who set up ponzy schemes and who criminally mismanaged funds.  We are learning that raw greed motivated them to steal money that was not theirs.  Oh, and before we get too far away from our proverb, has brought great shame and trouble to their wives, children, and posterity even into the future. 

We are given a protective against this in the second part of this proverb.  The one who hates bribes will live.  He will be protected against the devastating effects of greed.  Bribes blind those who receive them.  They are unable to see the truth because they are focused on easy money that is put in front of them.  The bribe can be anything from the cash handed to a politician to look the other way of pass legislation that gives unfair advantages to certain businesses or groups - to the more subtle bribe that encourages someone to cut corners and cook books to cover their own greed for money.  No matter how the bribe presents itself it is lying to us.  It promises easy money, quick wealth, a way to get whatever we want without hard work and sacrifice.  But the bribe lies to us - not telling us of the pitfalls and dangers that are inherent in living for the world and the flesh.  These two foes of our spiritual growth and maturity are truly deadly - and can not just polute our spirits - but those of many future generations of our family.  That is why we need to protect ourselves from "every kind of greed," as our Lord warns.  For the truth is that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.  Life comes as we learn to submit every area of our lives to the Lord for Him to use for His glory.  So the next time you are offered a bribe to lay aside biblical principles and values - see it for the dangerous thing it is.  Reject it and turn to the Lord for strength to be content with what you have.  That is the path to life!

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.  Proverbs 11:24

What does God think about those who are stingy with their time, their talents, and their  finances?  Here we see two people.  The first is constantly scattering what he has.  He does not hold it tightly to his chest and consider it his own.  He scatters his time to those who need to be encouraged, loved, counselled, built up, and at times rebuked and corrected.  He scatters his talents to the church - to the business he owns or works at - to the community when they need him.  He scatters his finances as he invests in the kingdom of God and into the needs of others around him.  This man is constantly scattering - not just money - but godly influence and the love of God.  He is like a man walking through a barren-looking field - tilled - but without anything on it.  As he walks he does not see the barrenness, but rather what that field can be if someone sows it properly.  His scattering is not just giving away what God has given him.  It is planting.  It may not look like much as he scatters seed everywhere.  But as that seed dies and comes to life first as a seedling, then as a plant, then as a full grown crop, then as a field that is white unto harvest - the man is seen for the wisdom that he had.  He has scattered - yet he increases all the more.  He will increase in influence - in favor with those whom he selflessly loves - in financial strength as God blesses him for his giving - in favor with God as he gives himself to obey the Lord and follow Him fully.  This man will not be poor for scattering what was given to him.  On the contrary - according as he has sown - he will reap thrity, sixty, and a hundred fold.  He will take his talent and not bury it in the ground.  He will invest it - return it to his master - and be put in charge of many things. 

The stingy man's end is much different.  We read that he withholds what is justly due.  There is a pregnant statement if ever there was one.  What is justly due?  For those of us who know the Word of God - we are to give God a tithe of all that we have and produce.  That does not come from the Old Testament Law - although it does teach tithing.  It comes from Abraham's example before the Law was given.  He gave a tenth of all he gained to Melchizedek.  He did so as our example of giving - as well as he is the example of our faith as well.  What is due though is everything!  We are not just to surrender to God 10% and think we are done.  We are to give all that we are and all that we have for God's glory.  But the unwise man withholds what is due.  He is not just a stingy man, he is a selfish man.  Like the unwise farmer he thinks everything is his - to be used as he sees fit - for his own glory and his own selfish ends.  When blessed with a bumper crop he does not consider giving some away.  He chooses to tear down his old barns and build new ones that can keep all his stuff for himself.  He is selfish to his own harm.  The wisdom of God tell us that this man only winds up in want.  The rich fool planned to keep everything for himself and died that very night.  What he gained was nothingness for all eternity.  The rich man who disdained to feed Lazarus with the scraps of his table did not die rich.  He died selfish and self-centered.  He died poorer than Lazarus - for he died and went to eternal punishment in hell.  He had everything he could think of in life - but in death he wound up destitute for eternity. 

Dear saints of God - learn to be one who scatters rather than one who only gathers and holds tighly.  The tight-fisted man will have his hand broken - and his grip crushed in the end.  Everything he thinks he holds tightly to will be gone in an instant.  He will ultimately lose everything.  The generous man who scatters will not lose anything.  In fact his sowing guarantees that a crop will come and a harvest 50 times greater than he had before will come.  Truly the wise man is the generous man - the giving man - the scattering man.  Be that man.