Consider the reasons of this alleged superiority, why it should be "more blessed to give than to receive," why "the rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
I. The first reason is found in the resemblance which is thus acquired to our Redeemer and Creator. Might it not almost be said of the Creator that He gives everything and receives nothing; that He is always the lender and never the borrower? Or, again, if our thoughts be turned on the "one Mediator between God and man," was not the whole of Christ's vicarious obedience one continued course of giving rather than receiving? If it be the very summit of Christian perfection to be conformed to the image of the Redeemer, is there not more of this conformity in giving than receiving?
II. The giver or the lender has necessarily an advantage over the receiver or the borrower, and the having this advantage quite explains how the one is "servant to the other."
III. We find another proof of this position in what we may call the reflex character of benevolence, which causes whatever is bestowed to return to us tenfold. If God hath determined, out of His infinite lovingkindness, that not even a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple shall lose, though it could not claim, a reward, it must necessarily be more blessed to be the lender than the borrower, inasmuch as whatever is bestowed, whether it be time, or counsel, or wealth, or labour, or experience, shall come back to ourselves abundantly multiplied.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2,338.
References: Proverbs 22:7. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,2nd series, p. 225.Proverbs 22:7-16. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. iii., p. 40. Proverbs 22:11. J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,1st series, p. 16. Proverbs 22:17-29. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. iii., p. 53.Proverbs 22:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1670. Proverbs 22:22; Proverbs 22:23. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,2nd series, p. 244.