What does it mean to win souls in Proverbs 11:30?

In verse 30 we read that the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, not the righteous is a tree of life, but the fruit of the righteous, which means that he gives forth blessing and life to others, and that is here expressed in one sentence, "and he that winneth souls is wise." (See Daniel 12:3.)

How contrasted with persons so failing in righteous wisdom is that which is next set before us. "The fruit of the righteous is as a tree of life; and the wise wins souls." A tree is a noble object in the landscape, but the fruit of the righteous is far beyond such a comparison; it is as "a tree of life." They are blessed and a blessing. But the wise rises yet higher, and wins souls; or he that wins souls is wise — a work impossible without divine love constraining, a divine fear communicated by the Word and Spirit of God. How richly the gospel of His grace now produces both! How sad where it does not!

And what is "the fruit of righteousness"? We must remember that a man is not only reckoned righteous by faith, as we get so clearly in Romans and Galatians, but also by works, as we get in James. Does not "the fruit of righteousness" tell us of these "works," as intimated in the verse just quoted above: — "products of your righteousness"? Perhaps an illustration might help: In a certain Sunday School there was an exceedingly naughty boy named Leslie, about ten years of age. He could do more to upset the Sunday School than any child there, and he was a terror at home and at school. One day he was converted, and there was a great change. Some six or eight weeks later, after Sunday School had been dismissed and the children scattered, an older boy came to the teacher, and said: "My name is Tom. I live across the street from Leslie. A few weeks ago he said he'd become a Christian. I've been watching him since then; and if being a Christian has changed him to what he is now, I want to be a Christian too." This "change" was "the fruit of righteousness," and also "the fruit of the righteous," as we get in Prov. 11:30: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise." To Tom it was indeed "a tree of life," for without speaking a word, Leslie had won a soul to the Lord. I think that is why the words "He that winneth souls is wise" are included in that verse.

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (v. 30). Thus, the fruit of the faith of a righteous man becomes a tree that bears more fruit abundantly. This is a reminder of Hebrews 11:11-12, where Sarah is seen as bearing one son from Abraham, with a resulting progeny of as many as the stars of the sky. "And he who wins souls is wise." Andrew brought his own brother Simon Peter to the Lord Jesus (John 1:40-42), and Peter became a remarkable soul-winner.

Then there is the great matter of gospel work in the public arena. How urgent the need to preach to the masses who pass by without a thought of eternity. Thankfully God still uses this means of communication that He has authorised. Alas, there are too many substitutes for conscience searching gospel preaching. Open air street preaching is substituted by mime, dance and acting; anything but straightforward preaching of the gospel of the grace of God. The pseudo-evangelist thinks his novelty will draw men to Christ. But his (or even her) disobedience to the will of God betrays they are not true disciples themselves though attempting to make disciples of others! The power of evangelisation rests in the Word of God; it has nothing to do with technique. Not that the preacher is to disregard the manner of doing his work; indeed he is to seek out acceptable words, ‘even words of truth’ ( Eccl. 12:10) . He is not to throw a ragbag of pious platitudes at his hearers, without spiritual forethought and preparation, but rather he is to be wise and win souls ( Prov. 11:30). The Word he is to preach will also instruct him in his work: ‘Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual’ (1 Cor. 2:13). Our prayer is that the reader be exercised in this great service, and if called to do it to engage in it according to biblical principles. The apostolic injunction still stands: ‘preach the word’ (2 Tim 4:2; cf. Rom. 10:8; 1 Pet 1:25; etc.).

The house must be swept. It is the place of natural ties and relationships — those links by which God would bring us together and make us objects of interest to one another. It is within this circle that we shall find most profit in sweeping — most readily come across the precious coins for God's treasury. Many are ready to do street-sweeping, and testify abroad for Christ, who have no heart for it in the familiar circles in which after all are the nearest and most recompensing fields of labor. The witness of the home, of the place of business, of the familiar and accustomed life, is the most fruitful — the God-ordained first place at least of labor, which if we occupy, we may be promoted, but not else. Ah, if we would sweep the house! — nothing so marks the work of the Holy Ghost as this, in which the good work will be measured, however, not by the amount of dust that is raised, but by the pieces of silver that we find. For if he that winneth souls is wise," he that is wise, too, shall win them. This close and homely work God blesses: the house is cleansed by it; but more, that which has been lost is found. Oh, be sure, this woman at her housework may read us a true gospel-lesson, and every woman at her housework may thus have the joy of the evangelist, and the labor of love that fails not; for love's labor is never lost.

The third quality mentioned in Acts 6 is "wisdom." And everyone who in any measure deals with souls, must feel the need of divine wisdom, so that the right message may be given at the right time. Two things are essential to this, viz., "the word of God and prayer." In Isaiah 1. 4 we read, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." Thus the Spirit of Christ would speak in the prophet, and how divinely we see it carried out in the life of our blessed Lord, as He dealt with needy souls, bringing the suited word home to heart and conscience, so as to meet the conditions of those to whom He spoke. And do not we need to have our ears divinely opened to hear as learners, so that as we study the Word it may be living and operative in our own souls, and that we may rightly divide that Word of truth? How many a soul has been damaged through the misuse of such passages as John 5:24, infinitely precious in their own connections, but wrested out of their connections and applied to souls where the real need is forgiveness of sins, not eternal life. A sort of mental peace may be attained, but a soul thus mentally brought to peace cannot grow. The foundation of forgiveness, justification, and peace, as in Rom. 3, 4, 5, has not been laid, and the work of the Spirit in that soul is therefore hindered through the lack of spiritual intelligence in the evangelist. It is of vital importance to study each part of Scripture in its own divine setting, and, as another has said, the Spirit of God can put it together as a whole in the soul. The word of God is that which furnishes the man of God throughly unto every good work, and patient study is the only way to become acquainted with the truth which God has given us in His word.

The sun was beginning to shed its gladdening rays over the land one Lord's Day morning as a preacher of the gospel started to the place of his day’s labour for the Lord. Along the road he met a very, dejected-looking man. The preacher spoke a gracious word to him, and added, “It’s a good morning, Sir!” There was no reply; but as that man slowly wended his way home, after his night’s debauchery, and turned into bed to try to obtain sleep, he kept thinking: Yes, it’s a good morning for him;—a very good morning! He is away to preach the Word of God, and to help others; here am I, and it is a miserable morning enough for me! “At last,” he said, when telling the story, “I came to this: I will have a good morning too! And that night I went to hear the gospel, and trusted the Saviour! It has been a good morning with me ever since! Redeem opportunities. Let your word be always with grace. A Word fitly spoken, how good it is. Who shall tell the present and eternal results? He that winneth souls is wise.

The importance of the first division is plainly seen here. It is an introduction to that which follows, and puts us upon the right track for the interpretation of all that follows. It is very striking, therefore, to find here insisted on, the unity of the assembly as recognized of God in the trial of all that happens with regard to any of the members of the body, making them thus more fruitful in their service to the rest. It is immensely important that we should get the idea of ministry which thus results. The tendency has been — while no Christian surely would deny that service in some sort belongs to all the people of God — yet to make what is commonly called ministry too much the service of a class, and official. We need, all of us, to wake up fully to the fact that ministry is nothing else than that service of Christ in all our life, to which we are pledged by the very fact that we are Christians. It is not by any choice of ours that we have been baptized by the Spirit into the one body of Christ. Our place and necessary duty in relation to all other members is thus clear. We may indeed have to ask ourselves what is our own distinct function in this way, — a question which we shall not answer by looking simply at ourselves and seeking to define it by such an examination. Love, as the apostle has already taught us, is the spirit of ministry. It is that which makes us servants as a matter of course to the needs of others, and here there is no restrictive band thrown around us to hinder the free motion of love. It is as we are led out to help in whatever way we may find ourselves able to help, that that ability on our part becomes more and more known to ourselves, and we fall more intelligently into the place which God has given us. Officialism has always been a restraint upon this mutual service. A large number have thus been systematically deprived of even the very opportunity of knowing what their gifts might be; and the blessing which God would thus have given us has been limited, and, as far as we could do it, forfeited by us. The heart is that which will teach us here better than the head, and love is not the blind thing which men have painted it, but, on the contrary, that which is the very key to wisdom. "He that winneth souls is wise." The desire to do this will make us to seek out ways of doing it which will soon justify themselves, or find needed correction in the field of service itself.

There are other directions in which the branches of the Vine may bear fruit, but letting this instance suffice for the moment, those must be counted happy people who are effective proclaimers of the word of life, that incorruptible seed by means of which men are born from above. Soul-winning is fruit for the Father, and it is fruit that will remain.