Monday: The Mouth of the Righteous
The mouth (with its components, the lips and the tongue) is the most important organ in the book of Proverbs. In the New King James Version of the book, the word mouth
is used 50 times,lips
occurs 41 times, and tongue
19. The use of this organ in speech is a particularly important theme in Proverbs 10–29.
Image © Krieg Barrie from GoodSalt.com
The basic premise is crucial: our words are very powerful, either for good or for evil. The tongue can be the best or the worst gift that we’ve been given. This ambivalence about the tongue is one of the most important lessons in Proverbs. Indeed, the mouth generates life, but it also may bring death.
Read Proverbs 10:11–14. What is the contrast there between how the righteous person speaks and how the fool does?
In Proverbs 10:11 notice the expression the well of life.
It symbolically refers to qualities of wisdom. It is used in reference to the Lord (Ps. 36:9), the Source of life. The same image is used in relation to the sanctuary, from which the stream of water springs (Ezek. 47:1-2). Jesus uses this metaphor to illustrate the gift of the Spirit (John 4:14). So the comparison of the mouth of the righteous to a well of life
amounts to relating it to God Himself.
What characterizes this mouth is the positive gift of life.
This quality tells us what the proper function of the mouth should be. It should be a force for good, not evil, a source of life, not death. What is being said here is seen also in James 3:2–12.
Remember, too, that it was through speech, through the word of His power
(Heb. 1:3, NKJV), that God created the heavens and the earth. Speech, therefore, should serve only creative purposes.
Consider just how incredibly powerful words are. With your words you can fill people with self-confidence, cheer, and hope, or you can break them down and damage them as surely as if you attacked them physically. How careful are you as you wield the power of your tongue?
(35)
My mother used to say: before you say something think, is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, if not don't say it.
Shirley,
It is certainly desirable to be kind and true. Still one might wonder how to apply the advice. For instance what if the thought is kind and true, but not necessary? Shall one say only what is necessary? How about if it is true or necessary, but not kind? Does kindness have limits? Or is everything kind necessary?
Whatever the answer to the above questions one good guide is the question, does the Lord approve, or will the Lord be pleased? To this end we will need to continually pray for the influence of the Holy Spirit. When this is the case we may expect the mouth to be a "well of life," a force for good in a world where words matter.
I have never really thought about how powerful the mouth can be for such a small part of our bodies, we have to make sure our words reflect our actions or else they are just empty.
Just as a little spark of fire can burn a whole forest, so the tongue can also utter wonderful and encouraging words if we use it wisely and positively. But if not, destruction may be the sure result. God wants us as Christians to influence others positively by saying kind and encouraging words to them, no matter how hard the situation may be. Our God loves us that is why He blesses us always with words full of love, hope, encouragement, promises and assurance, though we falter here and there.
May the Lord bless us and help us to guide our tongue and mouth.
Amen!!!
somebody once said" IF YOU CAN BE ABLE TO TAME YOUR MOUTH AND TONGUE,THEN YOU WOULD TRULY LIVE"...as human beings,what we say/talk,directly or indirectly affects another person..
"Just as a little drop of water can make a mighty ocean, so a little spark of fire can burn a whole forest". Likewise the tongue and mouth can also utter wonderful and encouraging words that will serve as a lasting solution to so many problems, when we use them wisely. Inversely, destruction and disappointment may be the sure result.
God wants us as Christians to influence others positively by saying kind and admonishing words to them in time of need.
Our God loves us so much, that is why He blesses us always with words full of hope, encouragement, promises, and blessings, even though we sometimes go astray. May the good Lord help and guide us to govern our, mouth and tongue.
Amen!!!
Sticks and stones and break bones; words can break hearts and destroy reputations.
Positive words w/no action are worthless, they can destroy a relationship as well as negative words. The tongue is the most powerful weapon a person has.
Even Jesus was mighty in His words and in His deeds; so let it be for you and I! Amen!
While the lesson focuses on the tongue I think we need to recognize that what is being said here also applies to what one writes. The problem with written words is that they usually persist for long periods of time while the spoken word, unless recorded, is very transitory and short lived even though the damage done may last a long time.
words can really hurt, controlling ones tongue is a big sacrifice one can make.
The abilities to speak and write intelligently are given by God to Man exclusively. And God gave us also the gift of being able to understand even foreign languages which sets us apart from other created beings. How kind of God to grant us these unique and precious gifts. How foolish of us if we misuse them for other than noble purposes worthy of God's approval.
What comes out of the mouth speaks a lot about what is in the heart(Matthew 12:34) which means that we must ask God to give us pure thoughts and healthy emotions so that we can live for God in speech even as we strife to do the right.And our prayer should be that God should give us the tongue of the learned, that we should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary (Isaiah 50:4) and that our speech will be with grace always,seasoned with salt,that we may know how we ought to answer each one.Amen
Marites, you are saying something here that I think we need think about a lot. In fact, I will put my head on the chopping block so to speak and say that basically lying is deceit and covers such things as bearing false witness. Even Christians that "have the truth" come under this if they stay quiet about what they know as a witness for Christ.
HOWEVER, there are times when lying seems to be justified. Let me give some examples:
I start here with Moses who knew what God intended him to do and yet when he went to Pharaoh towards the end of the plagues he told him that he wanted for Israel to depart only for a short time (Ex 8:25-27; See Ex 6 for what God told Moses he was actually to do).
As it was for Moses so it was for Rahab who lied about the spies (Joshua 6) and yet there is no condemnation in scripture concerning that.
Jesus was also not exactly straightforward about some things, "Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, 'How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe'" (Jn. 10:24-25 NKJV). Please show me where in the Gospels he openly said that He was the Christ before that time and where in Jn 10 does He explicitly say He is. Remember this verse is chronologically before the raising of Lazarus. It wasn't until during His trial that He finally became unambiguous about the matter (Mat 26:63-64).
Further in Jn 10 in dialog with the Jews he justified what He said, "I and My Father are one" (Jn. 10:30 NKJV) in a way that is somewhat questionable by quoting scripture Jn 10:34 (see Ps 82:6).
Then there is this, when Jesus was asked, "Tell us, when will these things be?" (Matt. 24:3 NKJV) He totally evaded answering that particular question as though He didn't know anything about the 2300 day prophesy of Dan 8:14.
There are other places in scripture were a person righteously kept silent or knowingly said something that was not entirely true or otherwise was deceiving and yet it was not considered a sin. So, I think we need to ask when is lying really lying and are there times when saying the truth does more harm than good.
Hi Tyler,
While I appreciate where you are coming from and what you have used to substantiate your view (loving the scripture references), I find the commandment "thou shalt not bear false witness" does not necessarily mean that when I withhold certain truth, because its harmful to reveal it, is breaking the commandment (I might be wrong, kindly correct me if I am). I see this as the reason why Christ didn't openly reveal Who He was because He knew it was premature to do so and would hinder His fulfillment of His mission on earth. Christ didnt bear false witness He just withheld what He determined as not appropriate to say at the time. What He did say at the time was not false.Thats the main point. If we are withholding some truth because we are seeing that the whole truth could harm those we are communicating with then its important:
1. Not to falsify what we are revealing
2. The reason for our withholding of the truth must purely be for the benefit of others and not for selfish reasons.
Regarding Moses' statement certainly this was not truthful however this does not mean that it is right or was justified.
Its evidence of a lack of faith when the righteous lie as Abraham and Isaac did regarding their wives as we see in the book of Genesis.
The Bible is an honest reporter of events in the lives of holy men of old we are to learn from their mistakes and failures and seek to walk in the narrow way in the grace of our loving Lord. Justifying lying is justifying sin and sin can never be justified. So may God help us to practice strict honesty in all our dealings with our fellowmen.
So indeed there are instances where revealing the truth can cause harm however we need to be extremely careful here to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and not our own human devising. Overall thank you for the thought provoking discussion regarding this.
Thank you, Christopher, for this clear exposition on what lying means and what it does not mean.
In this context it is worthwhile to look at the actual commandment. It says "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." You recognize this in your statement that " The reason for our withholding of the truth must purely be for the benefit of others and not for selfish reasons."
Along the same line, the commandment not to bear false witness is not a commandment to throw all discretion or common courtesy to the wind. It is not a commandment to be harsh and to point out anyone's failings, truthful though such words might be. (Marites noted this in her comment below.)
I would like to to affirm your statement:
The Author of the divine commandments came to our planet to demonstrate what these commandments mean. Never once in His life did He act contrary to His own commandments.
Whenever we look at the Law of God, it is helpful to remember that it spells out the law of self-renouncing love that is the law of life for the universe. (See Desire of Ages, p. 19) Any interpretation of specific commandments that is out of harmony with this overarching divine law is thus a wrong understanding of the specific law.
One may say that there's nothing wrong about telling the truth to someone no matter how hurting it may be. But the hurt feeling you cause to someone is what makes it Wrong. I guess honesty, is not honesty if NOT used wisely, that's when wisdom sets in...
I have recently realized that, "Not saying anything bad" is not the only influence that proverbs is talking about. By,"Not saying anything bad" regarding our influence on people and the "Power of the tongue" reminds me of the Pharisees. How sad to think that at the end of the day I were to say, "Wow, I had a good day, I didn't say anything bad to anyone today". I think, as Christians, we should stop hanging around the bottom and ask God to elevate us to a point where we would be encouraging one another. Words of encouragement are very powerful. And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing. 1 Thes 5:11. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer. Heb 10:25
Words of caring,support, encouragement and trust, are like rays of light shining through dark clouds of each day. They make a dark day brighter for all of us. Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus, and oh how He cares for us.
Hi Tyler, the main context of my comment is not about our being silent or vocal about the scripture, although I do understand that truth HUrts, esp. when it comes to our scriptures but we need to say it anyway, but we must be very careful in telling others about it because we are the light of this world. I believe that it's not the truth that hurts but the manner/way of telling them is the one that can hurt. On the other hand what I am trying to point out here is the very common things that happen in our church & our brethren, like if someone sings, or speaks and the other brethren doesn't like it, can they tell that person right on their faces that, "I don't like your singing... Or your voice is not for church?! Some of them doesnt care if they hurt someone, they would justify it by saying, "I'm just telling the truth", or someone says, you're not suppose to eat during potluck because you didn't bring any food... They're just so honest so frank that they would say With all honesty what they want to say, this are just but some examples of the church "honesty issues" I believe honesty can only be honesty if it is acted with wisdom, and it all comes from God through the Holy Spirit. Wisdom comes from God if we ask for it, however Honesty in every thing we say or do is only of God's if it doesn't HURt someone? Thanks ms.Inge for the confirmation/clarification.