The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
The generous person is enriched and made prosperous, and the one who refreshes and benefits others is himself refreshed and blessed in return. This return is not only a promise but a law of God's government, by which He keeps generosity in constant circulation flowing back to its source. It is His plan that the Christian gains strength by strengthening others, and this is the secret of spiritual growth and the power of Christian missions. Those entrusted with gifts as stewards are to use them to benefit others and advance God's work, and faithful givers who do so receive more, while withholding what should be given leads toward poverty and loss. The blessing returned includes sweet peace, new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power, increased grace and wisdom, and formation in Christ's likeness.
Words and Plain Meaning
The liberal soul is the generous person who gives freely, and to be made fat is to be enriched, made prosperous and blessed. Such generous giving does good to others and brings blessing back upon the giver. To water is to refresh, benefit, give to and help others. To be watered in turn is to be oneself refreshed, benefited, cared for and blessed.
The verse means that the merciful obtain mercy. The generous soul is made spiritually prosperous, finding sweet peace and blessed satisfaction in compassionate, self-forgetful service for the good of others.
Law of Generous Return
The return held out is not merely a promise but a law of God's administration and government. By this law God keeps generosity and the streams of benevolence, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, continually flowing back to their source. What is given to benefit and refresh others is thus made to circulate continually and return to the giver, who is himself benefited, refreshed and blessed.
In fulfilling this law is the secret of spiritual growth, for it is God's plan of impartation that the Christian gains strength by strengthening others. One who gives himself wholeheartedly to helping others, especially in working for their salvation, is himself spiritually refreshed, with the heart growing in sympathy with God and the soul nourished by the source of life, and this service must flow from harmony with the Creator. This law gives power to Christian missions, sustaining the sending of workers into new fields and the support of them by believers who have means, even by transferring resources previously invested in work in their own area.
Stewardship Tested by Giving
In handling possessions people are stewards rather than owners, entrusted with gifts in differing measure according to capacities and obligated to use them to benefit others and advance God's work. Fulfilling that duty affects both others' welfare and the giver's own welfare and destiny. Faithful stewards who give will receive more, with their stewardship accounted for at the day of reckoning. Giving the Lord's portion and using wealth to help rather than hoarding it is the faithful stewardship by which the generous person is blessed and the one who refreshes others is refreshed in turn.
In systematic giving and benevolence, generosity tests whether the heart is ruled by truth and love for God or by selfishness and love of the world. Giving deceitfully by undervaluing possessions does not bring blessing. God holds such conduct to account, and the giver's increase may be reduced to the falsely reported amount.
Generosity is a requirement of God's people, meaning use of entrusted wealth and influence to advance His work and save others. Those who honor God in this are honored by Him, while the selfish who withhold their means lose blessing. Giving to help others, by caring for the poor, supporting the needy, and relieving the needs of the poor and suffering, is not waste but brings increase. Withholding what should be given leads toward poverty.
Selfish people who hold on to riches and disobey God's commands about them are left unblessed and have their means scattered through judgments and losses. Giving benefits others and advances God's cause, and generous deeds are fruits showing the genuineness of Christian faith. Giving is acceptable to God when it comes from a true spirit of sacrifice and helps others, including a needy person nearby. Secret kindness is noticed and rewarded in Heaven.
Blessings Returned to Giver
The return for generosity includes sweet peace and blessed satisfaction found in compassionate, self-forgetful service for the good of others. Those who consecrate body, soul and spirit to minister to afflicted ones constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power, with the inexhaustible supplies of heaven at their command, for Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit and the life of His own life, and the Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. One who gives his life to God in ministry has his life bound by unbreakable promises to the life of God who commands all the resources of the universe, the Lord does not fail such a one in suffering and need but supplies every need, and in the hour of final need the merciful find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour who receives them into everlasting homes. God gives opportunities to impart grace and then refills those who serve with increased grace, replenishing heart and mind with grace and wisdom, so that every worker who labors for the good of children, youth, parents, neighbors and associates receives grace for the grace given, and as abilities and means are used hope and faith grow.
Beneficence is twice blessed, blessing both receiver and giver, and even more greatly the giver, and making room for God's blessing to flow through one's life to others brings a rich reward. Giving to help the poor and advance God's cause cultivates self-denial and benevolence in the giver, forms the giver in Christ's likeness and builds true riches. It helps restore the divine image by making the giver more like Christ, who became poor for others, and sharing in the work of saving others develops Christlike character and brings the joy of seeing people redeemed. Sharing truth does not diminish what the giver possesses, for the one who imparts it discovers further treasures while preparing it for others, and giving spiritual help brings refreshment and joy to the giver.
Service and Mission Applications
The liberal soul made fat and the watering soul watered is a law for missions: those who have means are to sustain workers sent into new fields, even to the point of moving resources once invested in their own locality into the new work, and practical help and missionary labor for those in need returns blessing upon the giver. The same promise covers generous giving to God's work and cause, with the certainty that faithful giving is met by divine enrichment and refreshment. It assures care and blessing to those who minister to people in need and consecrate themselves to God's service, so that using resources to relieve the poor and suffering is not waste but increase. Showing sympathy and kindness to the poor and needy brings spiritual blessing to the giver, and helping to lighten the burdens of the unfortunate benefits helper as well as helped.
Serving together with Jesus in saving souls fulfills the verse, for those who give themselves wholeheartedly to helping others and guiding them to Christ are themselves spiritually refreshed and nourished from the source of life. As they serve their hearts grow in sympathy with God and bear good deeds, but this service must flow from harmony with the Creator. Effort to save souls joined with prayer brings renewed spiritual life, with grace quickening the heart, devotion growing warmer, and Christian experience becoming more real, earnest, and prayerful. The promise belongs to humble workers who learn Christ's meekness and lowliness while helping spread the light of truth, and to young believers who, while praying for divine light, help those who are discouraged and find their own hearts stirred and their Christian life made more earnest and prayerful.
Ministers who present truth to others are themselves strengthened and spiritually watered as the Spirit sanctifies that truth in their own souls. Bearing a comforting, encouraging testimony and working to build others up waters one's own soul while strengthening them, and personal spiritual labor for the church is accompanied by being watered and blessed. More generally, while seeking to strengthen others the soul itself receives blessing from God, and giving spiritual help brings refreshment. That includes developing ability to teach Scripture, faithfully serving, and encouraging life, zeal, and devotion in worship, and lifting up one who is discouraged can lift the helper out of personal darkness into closer connection with God.
In daily work God's people can lead others to Christ, and Christ gives words to encourage struggling people while staying close to those who serve, so their own faith is strengthened as they see His promise fulfilled and they receive blessing through the work done for Him. Workers who care for children and youth, support parents, and labor for neighbors and associates receive grace for the grace they give as God fulfills His promise, and every worker laboring for the good of children, youth, parents, neighbors, and associates is met in the same way. Faithful use of God-given abilities strengthens both teachers and students, and putting learning into practice increases wisdom and knowledge. Diligent work in sowing can bring abundant provision, both material and spiritual, for those being trained as Christian workers.
The generous person is enriched and made prosperous, and the one who refreshes and benefits others is himself refreshed and blessed in return. This return is not only a promise but a law of God's government, by which He keeps generosity in constant circulation flowing back to its source. It is His plan that the Christian gains strength by strengthening others, and this is the secret of spiritual growth and the power of Christian missions. Those entrusted with gifts as stewards are to use them to benefit others and advance God's work, and faithful givers who do so receive more, while withholding what should be given leads toward poverty and loss. The blessing returned includes sweet peace, new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power, increased grace and wisdom, and formation in Christ's likeness.
Words and Plain Meaning
The liberal soul is the generous person who gives freely, and to be made fat is to be enriched, made prosperous and blessed. Such generous giving does good to others and brings blessing back upon the giver. To water is to refresh, benefit, give to and help others. To be watered in turn is to be oneself refreshed, benefited, cared for and blessed.
The verse means that the merciful obtain mercy. The generous soul is made spiritually prosperous, finding sweet peace and blessed satisfaction in compassionate, self-forgetful service for the good of others.
Law of Generous Return
The return held out is not merely a promise but a law of God's administration and government. By this law God keeps generosity and the streams of benevolence, like the waters of the great deep, in constant circulation, continually flowing back to their source. What is given to benefit and refresh others is thus made to circulate continually and return to the giver, who is himself benefited, refreshed and blessed.
In fulfilling this law is the secret of spiritual growth, for it is God's plan of impartation that the Christian gains strength by strengthening others. One who gives himself wholeheartedly to helping others, especially in working for their salvation, is himself spiritually refreshed, with the heart growing in sympathy with God and the soul nourished by the source of life, and this service must flow from harmony with the Creator. This law gives power to Christian missions, sustaining the sending of workers into new fields and the support of them by believers who have means, even by transferring resources previously invested in work in their own area.
Stewardship Tested by Giving
In handling possessions people are stewards rather than owners, entrusted with gifts in differing measure according to capacities and obligated to use them to benefit others and advance God's work. Fulfilling that duty affects both others' welfare and the giver's own welfare and destiny. Faithful stewards who give will receive more, with their stewardship accounted for at the day of reckoning. Giving the Lord's portion and using wealth to help rather than hoarding it is the faithful stewardship by which the generous person is blessed and the one who refreshes others is refreshed in turn.
In systematic giving and benevolence, generosity tests whether the heart is ruled by truth and love for God or by selfishness and love of the world. Giving deceitfully by undervaluing possessions does not bring blessing. God holds such conduct to account, and the giver's increase may be reduced to the falsely reported amount.
Generosity is a requirement of God's people, meaning use of entrusted wealth and influence to advance His work and save others. Those who honor God in this are honored by Him, while the selfish who withhold their means lose blessing. Giving to help others, by caring for the poor, supporting the needy, and relieving the needs of the poor and suffering, is not waste but brings increase. Withholding what should be given leads toward poverty.
Selfish people who hold on to riches and disobey God's commands about them are left unblessed and have their means scattered through judgments and losses. Giving benefits others and advances God's cause, and generous deeds are fruits showing the genuineness of Christian faith. Giving is acceptable to God when it comes from a true spirit of sacrifice and helps others, including a needy person nearby. Secret kindness is noticed and rewarded in Heaven.
Blessings Returned to Giver
The return for generosity includes sweet peace and blessed satisfaction found in compassionate, self-forgetful service for the good of others. Those who consecrate body, soul and spirit to minister to afflicted ones constantly receive a new endowment of physical, mental and spiritual power, with the inexhaustible supplies of heaven at their command, for Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit and the life of His own life, and the Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind. One who gives his life to God in ministry has his life bound by unbreakable promises to the life of God who commands all the resources of the universe, the Lord does not fail such a one in suffering and need but supplies every need, and in the hour of final need the merciful find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour who receives them into everlasting homes. God gives opportunities to impart grace and then refills those who serve with increased grace, replenishing heart and mind with grace and wisdom, so that every worker who labors for the good of children, youth, parents, neighbors and associates receives grace for the grace given, and as abilities and means are used hope and faith grow.
Beneficence is twice blessed, blessing both receiver and giver, and even more greatly the giver, and making room for God's blessing to flow through one's life to others brings a rich reward. Giving to help the poor and advance God's cause cultivates self-denial and benevolence in the giver, forms the giver in Christ's likeness and builds true riches. It helps restore the divine image by making the giver more like Christ, who became poor for others, and sharing in the work of saving others develops Christlike character and brings the joy of seeing people redeemed. Sharing truth does not diminish what the giver possesses, for the one who imparts it discovers further treasures while preparing it for others, and giving spiritual help brings refreshment and joy to the giver.
Service and Mission Applications
The liberal soul made fat and the watering soul watered is a law for missions: those who have means are to sustain workers sent into new fields, even to the point of moving resources once invested in their own locality into the new work, and practical help and missionary labor for those in need returns blessing upon the giver. The same promise covers generous giving to God's work and cause, with the certainty that faithful giving is met by divine enrichment and refreshment. It assures care and blessing to those who minister to people in need and consecrate themselves to God's service, so that using resources to relieve the poor and suffering is not waste but increase. Showing sympathy and kindness to the poor and needy brings spiritual blessing to the giver, and helping to lighten the burdens of the unfortunate benefits helper as well as helped.
Serving together with Jesus in saving souls fulfills the verse, for those who give themselves wholeheartedly to helping others and guiding them to Christ are themselves spiritually refreshed and nourished from the source of life. As they serve their hearts grow in sympathy with God and bear good deeds, but this service must flow from harmony with the Creator. Effort to save souls joined with prayer brings renewed spiritual life, with grace quickening the heart, devotion growing warmer, and Christian experience becoming more real, earnest, and prayerful. The promise belongs to humble workers who learn Christ's meekness and lowliness while helping spread the light of truth, and to young believers who, while praying for divine light, help those who are discouraged and find their own hearts stirred and their Christian life made more earnest and prayerful.
Ministers who present truth to others are themselves strengthened and spiritually watered as the Spirit sanctifies that truth in their own souls. Bearing a comforting, encouraging testimony and working to build others up waters one's own soul while strengthening them, and personal spiritual labor for the church is accompanied by being watered and blessed. More generally, while seeking to strengthen others the soul itself receives blessing from God, and giving spiritual help brings refreshment. That includes developing ability to teach Scripture, faithfully serving, and encouraging life, zeal, and devotion in worship, and lifting up one who is discouraged can lift the helper out of personal darkness into closer connection with God.
In daily work God's people can lead others to Christ, and Christ gives words to encourage struggling people while staying close to those who serve, so their own faith is strengthened as they see His promise fulfilled and they receive blessing through the work done for Him. Workers who care for children and youth, support parents, and labor for neighbors and associates receive grace for the grace they give as God fulfills His promise, and every worker laboring for the good of children, youth, parents, neighbors, and associates is met in the same way. Faithful use of God-given abilities strengthens both teachers and students, and putting learning into practice increases wisdom and knowledge. Diligent work in sowing can bring abundant provision, both material and spiritual, for those being trained as Christian workers.