Proverbs 10:16 The labour of the righteous tendeth to life: the fruit if the wicked to sin.
The Book of Proverbs, and the Bible as a whole, sees things as black or white, and not much gray. This is from God’s point of view. We humans see things with a lot of gray because we see through a glass darkly, with blurred lines, and we cannot sharply distinguish. For instance, God sees the world as only two kinds of people: believers and unbelievers, righteous and wicked, forgiven and unforgiven sinners, worshipers of the true God and worshipers of self and demons. God sees only two kinds of living activity: good and evil, good works and sins, the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh, and activity that leads to either life or death.
This promise is hard to believe because do not see the spiritual effects of our words and behavior. But there is a huge difference between the works of the believer (the righteous) and the fruit of the unbeliever (the wicked). The one tends to, or leads to, goodness and life; the other tends to, or leads to, sin and death. What a revelation! Everything we do or say is either life-giving or death-dealing. Even an idle word can either build life or destroy it. This truth warns us to be careful about what we say and how we say it.
But we need to believe the positive side of this promise: our labor, our words, our good works, the fruit of the spirit will tend to life. We have the power in us (it’s called the Spirit) to produce, create, enhance, and pump life into any situation, experience, or relationship. Believe it: every word or action has a spiritual and eternal effect for good or ill, life or death, blessing or cursing, building up or tearing down. Thank God for this promise that the Spirit uses us to make life better.
The promise of life applies to both temporal and eternal life, earthly and heavenly life, physical and spiritual life, visible and invisible life.