The term “soul-winning” is immediately acquainted with the unbiblical practice of one human using a variety of methods to save the soul of another from hell and for Jesus. Such a practice, howbeit very popular, in unbiblical and a thing which is very grievous in God’s sight. As described above it is to be most severely condemned.
“Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), not of or by man. Salvation is by grace, not of works (Ephesians 2:8, 9). God has saved us “not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (H Timothy 1:9).
So, of “soul-winning” as it is commonly spoken of today the true believer is to have no part.
Then we read Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” What does this mean? How is it that the saint wins souls? We find the answers to these questions from the first part of the text.
What does a tree do? It does several things for humans. It provides cooling and refreshing shade from the hot sun. It puts oxygen into our air to help us in our breathing. If it is a fruit tree, it gives us food to eat. In general, a tree does many good things for us.
What about the Tree of Life? The Bible speaks of a tree of life being in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) and of one in heaven (Revelation 2:7; 22:2). The tree of life in the Garden of Eden had a powerful fruit which maintained the earthly existence of Adam and Eve. A similar power is ascribed to the tree of life which is a part of heavenly glory. It provides food and medicine to the glorified saints that they may enjoy the highest possible activity and blessedness of union with Christ. It is the true enjoyment of heavenly glory.
Trees help us to live. And the trees of life certainly helped our first parents to live and will help all saints in heaven. They refresh, quicken and exert a happy influence.
So is the righteous! His fruit is a tree of life!
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What is right? To be right is to be correct or not wrong. It is to meet the requirement set out.
One who is righteous is right and not wrong. He is right and not wrong according to God Who sets the standard. In fact, God Himself, in His own Being and Person, is the standard of what is right and what is wrong.
A human becomes righteous before God when God Himself gives to him or her this great blessing. God makes His people to meet His own perfect standard of being right. He makes them to be like Himself. He gives this blessing for Jesus’ sake. Jesus earned for His people these blessings. Thus, one becomes righteous.
There is more, for the human whom God makes to be righteous shows it in his life. His walk is also righteous. His words and deeds meet God’s standard of right and wrong. These good works not only flow from the righteousness which God gave, but also, they are themselves gifts from God. The righteous man delights to do good works as a way of thanking God for making him righteous. His life and walk are called “righteous”.
The life of a righteous man or woman is as a light set on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16). As the child of God lives his righteous life, he shines as an example. His life is like the picture in a newspaper: it illustrates what the print says and it attracts attention.
This righteous life of the righteous man is his FRUIT. His God-given righteousness produces the fruit of righteous actions.
“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” The words and actions of the righteous persons exert an influence on others. This influence, like that of the tree of life, is a happy influence, refreshing and quickening. His external influence, prayers, instruction, and example is a tree of life to those about him. “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life” (Proverbs 15:4). Wisdom “is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her” (Proverbs 3:18). “The mouth of the righteous man is a well of life” (Proverbs 10:11).
The fruit of the righteous IS a tree of life. Not, it might be, but it IS.
Thus, the righteous life of a righteous man exerts a powerful influence upon his fellow-saints who are elected and called of God. As a fisher of men (Matthew 4:19) the righteous man gains the souls of the elect, not for or to himself, nor for Christ, but TO Jesus Christ (Heidelberg Catechism, q. & a. 86).
The righteous wife wins her husband by the wisdom of meekness and sobriety (I Peter 3:1, 2).
The righteous man converted the sinner from the error of his way, thus saving a soul from death and hides a multitude of sins (James 5:19, 20).
When the righteous man experiences the tremendous blessedness of forgiveness, he tells transgressors of God’s ways. The fruit of God’s blessing upon that speech is that sinners shall be converted to God (Psalm 51:13).
Winning souls is the blessing of the Lord upon the righteous life of the man God has made righteous in Christ.
- Objective righteousness in Christ manifests itself in the righteous life of holiness.
- This life of holiness is not any special witnessing, but the godly piety which touches every aspect of the life of the man God has given the gift of Christ’s righteousness.
- God uses this godly life to be an influence upon others. This influence is like that of the tree of life.
Oh, how important is the conduct of the professing righteous one! It is the outgrowth of the preaching of the gospel. It is the preaching in action.
This action makes the elected sinner ask for a reason of that kind of righteous life. The elect sinner wonders about the glorious subjection of a godly wife. The elect sinner is led to marvel at the glory of a God who evokes such reverence in those who believe in Him. The elect sinner is touched by the story of great sin and of even greater forgiveness which the righteous man is telling.
The elect sinner is influence to go to the source of this righteousness in action: the preaching of the gospel. In response to the question of the elect sinner the righteous man always speaks of the constant source of the power of his righteous walk: the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Then it is to that preaching to which the elect sinner turns. There the power of God and the wisdom of God operates upon his heart and life just as it has been constantly doing to the righteous man and woman.
The righteous soul winner is wise. It is the wisdom of God. It is God’s wisdom that He is pleased to use the means of the righteous life of the man He has made righteous to attract or influence others whom He has eternally elected. God Himself does not win souls without wisdom, for the eternal plan of salvation exhibits infinite wisdom. In fact, Jesus Christ is “the wisdom of God.” In the saved sinner, there is as much of God’s wisdom to behold as in the wisdom which made the universe to rise out of nothing.