Proverbs 11:18

The wicked worketh a deceitful work ,.... Such a wicked man as before described; that neither enjoys the good things of life he has, nor suffers others to enjoy them; and all to accumulate riches, which are deceitful and perishing; and who abstains from meats, which God has created for use, under a pretence of religion, and so deceives his own soul; and indeed every sin which a wicked man commits is a deceitful work; it promises him that pleasure, or profit, or liberty, which it does not give him, and in the issue is the ruin of him; and so all false doctrines, propagated by deceitful workers, are deceitful works, by which they deceive the simple, and at last themselves; they "obtain a deceitful reward of their work", as Gussetius F23 Ebr. Comment. p. 692. renders it;

but to him that soweth righteousness ; does acts of beneficence and liberality; see 2 Corinthians 9:9 ; and all other good works, or works of righteousness,

shall be a sure reward ; according to what a man sows, and the manner in which he sows, so shall he reap, 2 Corinthians 9:6 ; or, "a reward of truth"; instead of being given up to believe a lie, he shall receive the love of the truth, and abide in it, which will bring him to eternal glory and happiness; he being chosen to it through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:10 ; and, instead of a deceitful reward, shall have a true, real, solid, and substantial one.