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Watch Your Mouth


Whoever conceals hatred with lying lips and spreads slander is a fool. Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues. The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense. (Proverbs 10:18-21)

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. (variations attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, but probably in general use during their time.)

           Today is all about mouths, which makes it scary territory for me. I know I use a lot of words. I speak up when others wish I would not, and since I don’t tend to jump on their band-wagons, I get branded a fool without their considering anything I’ve said beyond the fact that it doesn’t agree with them. 
          On the one hand, the fact that I speak is not what makes me a fool (or what makes me wise.) Jesus was a teacher, which means that He talked quite a bit. Simply talking a lot doesn’t make one a fool. Jesus said that the world would hate His disciples because His disciples are not of this world. It is the content of what I say that reveals me to either be wise or foolish. So, the question is… who thinks me a fool: God? Christ-followers? The world? Do people who generally agree with what I say think me a fool? I don’t know. I have noticed that those who tell me I’m a fool rarely discuss the issue at hand or show me how I’m wrong. It seems to be all about telling me what a horrible person I am. That makes me wonder.
          Probably the most challenging of these proverbs for me is the one that says that sin is not ended by multiplying words. Does this mean that you can’t talk people out of sinning? Or does it mean that those who sin multiply their words to escape judgment, but that all of their self-justifications don’t make what they did something other than sin?

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