Take your stand with God’s loyal community and live,
    or chase after phantoms of evil and die.

20 God can’t stand deceivers,
    but oh how he relishes integrity.

21 Count on this: The wicked won’t get off scot-free,
    and God’s loyal people will triumph.

22 Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout
    is a beautiful face on an empty head.

23 The desires of good people lead straight to the best,
    but wicked ambition ends in angry frustration.

24 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;
    the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

25 The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;
    those who help others are helped.

26 Curses on those who drive a hard bargain!
    Blessings on all who play fair and square!

27 The one who seeks good finds delight;
    the student of evil becomes evil.

28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;
    a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree. (The Message)

At the heart of this next set of Proverbs we find two, back to back, about generosity. Although Scripture does not endorse what we might label ‘prosperity teaching’, there is surely no doubt that it pronounces blessing upon generosity and the generous (see v.17a also) . For myself, I want to inhabit that ever enlarging world of generosity, don’t you? The turned-in world of stinginess tends to be small, and has the tendency to grow even smaller as the years go by.

‘ In all of my years of service to my Lord, I have discovered a truth that has never failed and has never been compromised. That truth is that it is beyond the realm of possibilities that one has the ability to out give God. Even if I give the whole of my worth to Him, He will find a way to give back to me much more than I gave.’ Charles Spurgeon