Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy;
Proverbs 23:6-7 ESV
do not desire his delicacies,
7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
“Eat and drink!” he says to you,
but his heart is not with you.
Beware of transactional relationships. In this scenario, the stingy man is offering his food and drink, “but his heart is not with you.” He is “inwardly calculating” what he can get out of offering you food and drink. He is not generous, he’s manipulative.
The warning should be considered bi-directional. In other words, don’t be the perpetrator or the victim in this type of scenario. When you offer your resources to others, do you generally do it for the sake of what you can get in return? If others offer you their resources, are you so greedy to get stuff that you can’t recognize that you are being manipulated for the other person’s gain?
Beware of the transactional relationship.
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