“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” – Proverbs 16:24

Pleasant words are like a fantastic oatmeal raisin cookie; this would be my modern translation. The memory of such a cookie lasts through the day. You struggle a little with “only one!” But, it is so good that the joy it brings soon overcomes the hunger for more.

Everyone has the capacity and the opportunity to give good gifts by offering a pleasant word. Such gifts are free. They do not cost you anything, except that you must be thinking more of others than you do yourself.

Look at the two benefits that a pleasant word can offer.

A pleasant word can be a great encouragement. It can be like fresh air blowing into your polluted world. A pleasant word is an offering of kindness and caring. Such a word is not about you. It is about something special you recognize in the other person.

A word of grace and blessing can bring healing to a broken life. The impact of such words will go beyond what you can see or understand. It is a word that can bring comfort and assist in the mending process. It is a word that will lead to wholeness.

Here is a question for you: If you were to receive ten cents for every critical unkind word you said to others and one dollar for every pleasant word of encouragement, would you be a rich man or a poor man?

“He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.” – Proverbs 19:17

In our journey of faith, a primary task for followers of Jesus is the discovery of the heart of God. Matthew 25 unveils a powerful truth that reflects the heart of God. How we respond to the needs, sufferings, and injustices cast upon the poor are actions God interprets as for His benefit. It pleases God that we seek out ways to be a blessing to the poor.

This Proverb is saying the same thing. Your actions of kindness, favor, and gracious giving to the poor, God interprets as being done for Him.

But, it is more than that. God does not consider this as a gift or offering you are giving to Him. It is a loan that He will repay. Jesus refers to this in the exhortation to “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20).

This thought of loaning to God is not our idea. We would be happy to call our kindness to the poor a thank offering for all the mercy the Lord has shown us. But, God wants to take our acts of kindness and return it to us with His added blessing. God’s way is to see His love for you overflow in your acts of love to the poor.

Further reflection: What is gracious giving?

1. Gracious giving is generous. The gift goes beyond what is expected. It includes a surplus. It includes extra for an added need yet unseen. As the Good Samaritan said to the innkeeper about the injured man, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you” (Luke 10:35). Gracious giving is to give to meet the need and then some.
2. Gracious giving is done with good taste. All too often giving to those in need involves only the leftovers, that which you can no longer use. If giving to the poor is as if giving to the Lord, would we give to the Lord only our second and third best? Good taste should be defined from the recipient’s perspective. Do I know if my gift is good, fitting, and acceptable to the receiver of my gift?
3. Gracious giving is warm and from your heart. It is a gift you feel privileged to give, “not as one grudgingly given.” (2 Corinthians 9:5).
4. Gracious giving is propitious, a gift that turns the tide and leads to greater blessing. A gracious gift is part of a much greater gift that God is bestowing on the poor through your act of kindness.

“He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;” – Proverbs 17:5a

How does one mock the poor? There are three different facets of mockery. The first is to harass with endless criticism where one ignores the positive and focuses totally on the negative. The second is to laugh and sneer, emotional slander without content. The third is to speak with disrespect and total dislike of another, as Joseph’s brothers “hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.” (Gen 37:4)

Such an attitude and behavior is an insult to God. God is offended because he values the poor. All mankind is made in God’s image.

Aitken, in his commentary (p.191), points out the progression of thought in Proverbs from mocking the poor (17:5), to despising the poor (14:21), to oppressing the poor (14:31). “What starts out in a seemingly harmless way (poking fun at the plight of the poor) soon grows into a fixed attitude (regarding them with utter contempt), which then bursts into the full flower of deeds (oppressing them).”

When you see the poor, the broken, and the oppressed in this world or in your own community, what do you see? To mock the poor is a judgment against yourself; you do not understand the heart of God.

I like a good bowl of cereal. Nothing destroys that good first bite like sour milk. Mockery of the poor is a form of sour milk heaped upon something that God has declared to be good.