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Proverbs 10:21 · World English Bible

Proverbs 10:21 Meaning The Lips of the Righteous Feed Many

The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding.

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What does Proverbs 10:21 mean?

A mind joined to love becomes a source of nourishment simply by extending what it has received, for love given does not diminish but multiplies, and many are fed because the giver kept nothing back. This is not charity managed from a distance but the natural overflow of a mind that has stopped defending itself and begun to share.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 10:21 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

A mind joined to love becomes a source of nourishment simply by extending what it has received, for love given does not diminish but multiplies, and many are fed because the giver kept nothing back. This is not charity managed from a distance but the natural overflow of a mind that has stopped defending itself and begun to share.

The mind that starves does so in the midst of plenty, refusing the one thing that would feed it. What is called death here is not an ending but the sleep of a mind that will not wake to what is already its own. The remedy is near, and it is only a change of teacher.

Lips: the mind at the point where it gives, the opening through which love, once received, flows out to feed others.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 10:21 today

  1. Think of one thing you have been given lately, a bit of help, a piece of advice, an easier week, and pass some version of it on to someone today without mentioning that you are doing it.
  2. In your next conversation, give the person your full attention with the phone face down and out of reach. Attention is the food most people are actually hungry for.
  3. When you are stretched thin and want to keep everything for yourself, give the small thing anyway, the extra minute on the call, the clear answer in the email, the place in the merging lane.

What have I been holding back because I believed there was not enough of me to go around?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching 8

Water benefits everything and competes with nothing, taking the low place and nourishing whatever it reaches. Its usefulness comes from not holding its own shape.

Buddhism · Dana

The Buddha taught that giving impoverishes no one: the generous mind is itself nourished by the act, and what is shared returns as gladness in the giver. Holding back protects nothing.

Judaism · Pirkei Avot

The sages taught that a person who has learned something is bound to pass it on, since teaching is how learning stays alive. What is hoarded quietly dies in the one holding it.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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