Faithful on Fridays Blog

The concept of ruling and reigning in life, mashal, is clearly emphasized in the lessons learned from Proverbs. Let’s examine chapters 13-18 where we find a recurring truth centered around our mouths. Not limiting our study to simply our mouth but also to our tongue, lips, speech, and messages will give us God’s message: be careful with your words.

And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself … but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. James 3:6, 8 

Sounds depressing, right? We can’t tame our own tongue; we need the power of the Holy Spirit to help us. A big part of kingdom living is being aware of your words as Jesus taught:

It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4 

… For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Matthew 12:34b, 36-37 ESV

That’s enough warning for me to watch my words.

Let’s examine some of the proverbs that teach us truths about our words.

• 13:2-3 Sweet fruit (of the Spirit) from your mouth leads to kingdom living so carefully guard that fruit (18:20) and experience a satisfying harvest (16:21).
• 14:3 Wisdom on your lips acts as a shield of protection and spreads knowledge (15:7) to those who need it; it’s like saying the right thing at the right time (15:23).
• 14:7 The babbling of foolish people keep you from knowledge but when you restrain your words (15:28) you spread knowledge because a ‘cool spirit’ shows you have understanding, wisdom, and intelligence (17:27-28).
• 15:1-4 A soft answer can deflect rage and help someone heal: be a tree of life-words (18:21).
• 15:26 Undeserved words of grace are pure in God’s eyes; He expects them from the righteous (16:13) because they are sweet to the soul and healing to the body (16:24).
• 18:4 teaches that words are like deep waters, a fountain bubbling with wisdom.

As I perused these chapters I found approximately 50 references to our words or speech directed at people; that’s a crucial topic for those who desire to rule and reign in life right now. Jesus is called the Word for a reason (John 1:1), the Bible is described as a sword (Eph. 6:17 and Heb. 4:12) with purpose, and the Lessons from Proverbs help us understand the connections for a victorious life in Christ.