There are many proverbs that deal with our speech and how we govern our tongues. This is only natural since so much of our lives involve talking and using this particular set of muscles.
This particular proverb deals with the ordinary patterns of speech. It tells us that the way we use our tongues is indicative of our faith—whether we are a wise person (i.e. a Christian) or a foolish unbeliever.
This particular proverb deals with the ordinary patterns of speech. It tells us that the way we use our tongues is indicative of our faith—whether we are a wise person (i.e. a Christian) or a foolish unbeliever.
What he meant was that if our hearts are filled with evil and unbelief, then it should be no surprise that we talk like a fool. If our hearts have been turned to Christ, then our language will reflect that. What is in our hearts will spring forth from our lips.
As we look at this proverb, we’re going to see that there are a number of tiers to it. This proverb speaks to us on a number of different levels. It deals with the precision of our speech, the propriety of our speech, and the principles underlying our speech.
The first thing I want you to see is that this proverb deals with the precision of our speech. That is to say, it deals with how honest we are.
I. The precision of our speech
The passage begins by saying, “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge.” At the very basic level, this means that the wise person will be someone who speaks the truth.
A wise person knows how important it is to be informed. He knows that it is important that people know precisely where things stand. And without that knowledge, there can be problems. As a result, he seeks in every way possible, to be honest. He commends knowledge by simply telling the truth.
Let’s say you are getting ready to sell something, such as your car. You are in the market for a new one or you’ve purchased another already, and you are looking to trade it in or pawn it off on someone else. Now if you have a buyer, you have to speak about this car in an honest fashion. Some people are in the habit of concealing the defects of an item. Maybe the engine is having some problems, but they conceal that fact. They pose like there is nothing wrong. So they commend it to the customer for more than it is really worth.
The wise man will not do such a thing. A person who fears God will commend knowledge in that he describes the car accurately. He will mention the problems with the engine and his pricing of the car will factor all of that in.
This, of course, is something that goes beyond the world of business. It is something that should be practiced in all of life. It means confessing your mistakes and owning up to things you’ve done wrong. Many people would like to cover up their sins or justify their actions. But not so with a wise person. A wise man will be honest and he will readily admit where he has sinned or done wrong, knowing that he does not wish to repeat them.
We could go through many examples, but the point is that the wise man is honest in all his dealings and he seeks to commend that which is true whenever the opportunity arises. He understands the value of knowledge and he sees to it that those with whom he deals are informed exactly where things stand.
In contrast to this we have the foolish man whose mouth pours forth folly. Folly is that which is opposed to knowledge. It is therefore deceptive speech. It is that which promotes what is false. And you’ll notice that it isn’t that he lies from time to time. It is described as pouring forth. It is a gushing stream.
We must understand that lies are the native language of unbelievers.
Albert Barnes, in his commentary, says
That lying is the universal vice of the pagan world. Among the ancient pagans, as among the moderns, it was almost universally practiced. It has been remarked by a distinguished jurist who had spent much time in India, that he would not believe a Hindu on his oath. The same testimony is borne by almost all the missionaries of the character of pagans everywhere. No confidence can be placed in their statements; and, where there is the slightest temptation to falsehood, they practice it without remorse.
If you don’t believe him, and perhaps think he’s just a bias bible commentator, then perhaps you will be more willing to listen what the heathen say about themselves. One such example comes from Dr. Bella DePaulo, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. DePaulo, after conducting her research in the area of lying, says that lying is a condition of life.
In a 1996 study, DePaulo and her colleagues had 147 people between the ages of 18 and 71 keep a diary of all the falsehoods they told over the course of a week. Most people, she found, lie once or twice a day—almost as often as they snack from the refrigerator or brush their teeth. Both men and women lie in approximately a fifth of their social exchanges lasting 10 or more minutes; over the course of a week they deceive about 30 percent of those with whom they interact one-on-one. Furthermore, some types of relationships, such as those between parents and teens, are virtual magnets for deception: "College students lie to their mothers in one out of two conversations," reports DePaulo.
(Incidentally, when researchers refer to lying, they don't include the mindless pleasantries or polite equivocations we offer each other in passing, such as "I'm fine, thanks" or "No trouble at all." An "official" lie actually misleads, deliberately conveying a false impression. So complimenting a friend's awful haircut or telling a creditor that the check is in the mail both qualify.)
DePaulo went on to say that we often tell the biggest lies to the people we care about the most.
Eighty-five percent of the couples interviewed in a 1990 study of college students reported that one or both partners had lied about past relationships or recent indiscretions. And DePaulo finds that dating couples lie to each other in about a third of their interactions—perhaps even more often than they deceive other people.
Fortunately, marriage seems to offer some protection against deception: Spouses lie to each other in "only" about 10 percent of their major conversations. The bad news? That 10 percent just refers to the typically minor lies of everyday life. DePaulo recently began looking at the less frequent "big" lies that involve deep betrayals of trust, and she's finding that the vast majority of them occur between people in intimate relationships. "You save your really big lies," she says, "for the person that you're closest to."
These findings, of course, are assuming that those who participated in the studies are being honest in reporting how often they lied. We might be tempted, based on the findings, that the results may be at least somewhat skewed.
All this serves to show that lies are a significant part of life. And the fool is continually pouring forth his folly.
The Christian, though, is to have a sacred reverence for the truth. This is why Paul in the book of Ephesians, after discussing the transformation that the Christians have undergone in becoming a Christian, Paul says “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Paul’s admonition is that the truth be regarded as something that is sacred. The language of the Christian is to be centered around and based in the truth at all times.
So we recognize that this proverb teaches something about of what we say.
II. The propriety of his speech
I like the way that the ESV translates this, but you may have a different translation you likely have another wording. For example, the NIV translates this “the tongue of the wise adorns knowledge.” The KJV expresses it by saying, “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright.”
These are all fine expressions of what the original language is trying to communicate. If we were to translate it literally, we might say it this way, “The tongue of the wise beautifies knowledge.” This language sounds nice, but you understand why the different versions do what they do. They are trying to communicate something of what it means to beautify knowledge.
And the idea behind it is that the truth needs the proper dressing. It needs beautifying in that sometimes the truth is an ugly thing. Sometimes the truth is that you are not doing something right. And to commend knowledge means you have to correct them. So in this case, you need to address the person in a particular way so as to make the truth you speak to them acceptable.
In other words, how you say something is often just as important as what you say. Your speech needs to be adapted to that particular situation so as to make the person you speak to willing to receive what you say.
The speech of the wise person is going to be tempered to the occasion, minding who you are speaking to, and it is going to express what needs to be said at just the right time.
For instance, in 1st Timothy Paul says, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father.” Why does he say that? It is because you can’t speak to an older person the way you would speak to someone who is younger. If you rebuke an older person, chances are they are going to think you’re some rude whippersnapper. The best way to commend knowledge, in this case, is to encourage him (to exhort him). That is to say, use positive reinforcement and affirmations that inspire proper behavior.
All in all, the wise person will demonstrate the utmost tact, allowing his words to fit the occasion.
In contrast to this you have the foolish person. The foolish person is one whose mouth pours forth folly. They are always speaking their mind and they do not have any discretion in regards to what they say.
I actually think that the original language here can be helpful. The word for “pours forth” can also mean to belch. Isn’t that a colorful way of describing the speech of a fool. The speech of an unchristian person is as rude and crude as someone letting out a long raunchy burp at the dinner table. His speech does not demonstrate any tact and is completely thoughtless when it comes to the other people around him.
Most of you know that I coach my daughter’s soccer team. And from time to time we have meetings with all the other coaches in the league. And in the midst of some of the discussion one of the ladies there made a comment about how we men coach girls. The point she was making is that the men typically will yell at the girls and treat them like boys. She went on to explain that guy coaches didn’t understand how their speech really affected young girls, and that if they really wanted the girls to improve they would be much more sensitive to their femininity.
Think of how that applies to talking to your wife or your daughter. Instead of living with your wife in an understanding way and remembering that she is the weaker vessel, a guy will bark at her and be all kind of insensitive.
More than that, our speech will be filled with all kind of folly. Slanders, profanities, cursing. Even if we have a legitimate concern with which to deal, the fool will so fill his language with slurs and vulgarity that they will only make the person to whom they speak more repulsed and only prone to more folly themselves. Instead of making the situation better, they will make it all that much more worse.
If we are going to be a Christian we need to watch not just what we say, but how we say what we say. Yes, we need to speak honestly, but we also need to speak appropriately.
There is one more layer to this that ought to be pointed out though. I want you to understand that this verse not only has to do with honesty in our speech and the tact we use in our speech, but it is also dealing with the whole framework out of which we speak.
III. The principles that undergird our speech
What I’m getting at here is that our speech is governed by our worldview. What we believe shapes the way we think. And as a result it shapes the way we talk.
When the proverb says, “the tongue of the wise commends knowledge,” it is describing the wise man’s everyday patterns of speech. He is a wise man, so naturally, his speech will convey knowledge and wisdom. The way he speaks will be governed by God’s law and what the Scripture says.
The fool, on the other hand, pours forth folly. He speaks out of the framework of his worldview too. So everything he says is shaped by his false beliefs. So if he is an atheist, he’s going to speak like an atheist.
As I said, our speech is governed by our worldview. Our worldview will shape the way we speak. The vocabulary we use in ordinary conversation is rooted in our worldview. Scripture shapes our everyday language. Secularists will talk about things in a different way than we do because their beliefs are radically different.
For instance, from time to time a person will say, “Good luck.” Or if you get hurt, someone will say, “I’m sending positive thoughts your way.” What kind of speech is this? It is not language that is biblical. Normally, when someone says, “Good luck” what are they saying? They are wishing you well. They are hoping that everything turns out for the best. But the formulation they use is one that is based in an evolutionary or secularized worldview. Luck is the product of random chance. Luck is defined as a purposeless and uncontrollable force that shapes the outcome of events.
This is in complete opposition to the Christian worldview, which promotes the idea of Providence. We believe that God is in complete control of everything. He governs all things according to his holy, wise and powerful will. So when we speak we say, “I’ll be praying for you.”
Or, if someone says, “I’m sending my thoughts your way” or “I’m sending positive thoughts,” what does that mean? Do their brainwaves have some ability to skip from one mind to another like electricity skips from one wire to another?
This language is part and parcel with a new age worldview. It might even be a form of old paganism that is rooted in sorcery. The person might not be a full fledged warlock. But their manner of speech indicates that they have been infected with that worldview to some degree. What is happening is that they are pouring forth folly and they might not even know it.
The lips of the wise will commend knowledge. His everyday speech will adorn the truth of God’s word and God’s world.
This is important to take to heart because language shapes ideas just as much as ideas shape language. In our day, it matters if you talk about an unborn baby or a fetus. If you are prone to refer to that which is conceived in the womb as an “it”, then that depersonalizes that baby and encourages people to say that this “thing” is okay to abort.
More than that, the kind of vocabulary we use influences ultimate realities. When we speak, if we are using language that conforms to Scripture, we have the ability to commend the gospel and the whole of the Christian worldview.
I once was sitting in a memorial service for someone who had passed away. The person had died, not so much through natural causes, because they had made some very bad decisions. He had by his lifestyle basically killed himself. But the person who was speaking at the memorial said, “We have to watch what we do because this is it. Once we die, it is ‘game over.’”
He might have been trying to tell people that they needed to make good decisions and take care of themselves, but his choice of words actually had the reverse effect. If we do not have an afterlife, if this is “game over” and we do not come immediately into the presence of God who will judge us for our sins, then why do we have to take care of ourselves? Why does it matter even if we die? Why not eat, drink, and be merry? Such language pours forth folly.
We have the power to communicate these ultimate realities. If our speech conforms to Scripture, we would remind people that it is appointed for man to die once and then face judgment.
Conclusion:
As we consider what this proverb says about the tongue of the wise and the mouth of the fool, we may remember the words of Christ, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” If our hearts are full of Christ our mouths will be filled with Scriptural language. If our hearts are full of idolatry and unbelief, then our mouths will be a continual flow of ungodly sludge.
And truly this is the guage that we can use to determine much of where we stand before Christ. If our language is not patterned after the Scripture and filled with the vocabulary of Scripture—that is to say, if we are not mimicking Christ in our speech, then it may be an indication that we are not a Christian. Those who are citizens of heaven will have the dialect of that realm.
I. Precision of our speech
II. Propriety of our speech
III. Principle of our speech overall presentation
As we look at this proverb, we’re going to see that there are a number of tiers to it. This proverb speaks to us on a number of different levels. It deals with the precision of our speech, the propriety of our speech, and the principles underlying our speech.
The first thing I want you to see is that this proverb deals with the precision of our speech. That is to say, it deals with how honest we are.
I. The precision of our speech
The passage begins by saying, “The tongue of the wise commends knowledge.” At the very basic level, this means that the wise person will be someone who speaks the truth.
A wise person knows how important it is to be informed. He knows that it is important that people know precisely where things stand. And without that knowledge, there can be problems. As a result, he seeks in every way possible, to be honest. He commends knowledge by simply telling the truth.
Let’s say you are getting ready to sell something, such as your car. You are in the market for a new one or you’ve purchased another already, and you are looking to trade it in or pawn it off on someone else. Now if you have a buyer, you have to speak about this car in an honest fashion. Some people are in the habit of concealing the defects of an item. Maybe the engine is having some problems, but they conceal that fact. They pose like there is nothing wrong. So they commend it to the customer for more than it is really worth.
The wise man will not do such a thing. A person who fears God will commend knowledge in that he describes the car accurately. He will mention the problems with the engine and his pricing of the car will factor all of that in.
This, of course, is something that goes beyond the world of business. It is something that should be practiced in all of life. It means confessing your mistakes and owning up to things you’ve done wrong. Many people would like to cover up their sins or justify their actions. But not so with a wise person. A wise man will be honest and he will readily admit where he has sinned or done wrong, knowing that he does not wish to repeat them.
We could go through many examples, but the point is that the wise man is honest in all his dealings and he seeks to commend that which is true whenever the opportunity arises. He understands the value of knowledge and he sees to it that those with whom he deals are informed exactly where things stand.
In contrast to this we have the foolish man whose mouth pours forth folly. Folly is that which is opposed to knowledge. It is therefore deceptive speech. It is that which promotes what is false. And you’ll notice that it isn’t that he lies from time to time. It is described as pouring forth. It is a gushing stream.
We must understand that lies are the native language of unbelievers.
Albert Barnes, in his commentary, says
That lying is the universal vice of the pagan world. Among the ancient pagans, as among the moderns, it was almost universally practiced. It has been remarked by a distinguished jurist who had spent much time in India, that he would not believe a Hindu on his oath. The same testimony is borne by almost all the missionaries of the character of pagans everywhere. No confidence can be placed in their statements; and, where there is the slightest temptation to falsehood, they practice it without remorse.
If you don’t believe him, and perhaps think he’s just a bias bible commentator, then perhaps you will be more willing to listen what the heathen say about themselves. One such example comes from Dr. Bella DePaulo, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. DePaulo, after conducting her research in the area of lying, says that lying is a condition of life.
In a 1996 study, DePaulo and her colleagues had 147 people between the ages of 18 and 71 keep a diary of all the falsehoods they told over the course of a week. Most people, she found, lie once or twice a day—almost as often as they snack from the refrigerator or brush their teeth. Both men and women lie in approximately a fifth of their social exchanges lasting 10 or more minutes; over the course of a week they deceive about 30 percent of those with whom they interact one-on-one. Furthermore, some types of relationships, such as those between parents and teens, are virtual magnets for deception: "College students lie to their mothers in one out of two conversations," reports DePaulo.
(Incidentally, when researchers refer to lying, they don't include the mindless pleasantries or polite equivocations we offer each other in passing, such as "I'm fine, thanks" or "No trouble at all." An "official" lie actually misleads, deliberately conveying a false impression. So complimenting a friend's awful haircut or telling a creditor that the check is in the mail both qualify.)
DePaulo went on to say that we often tell the biggest lies to the people we care about the most.
Eighty-five percent of the couples interviewed in a 1990 study of college students reported that one or both partners had lied about past relationships or recent indiscretions. And DePaulo finds that dating couples lie to each other in about a third of their interactions—perhaps even more often than they deceive other people.
Fortunately, marriage seems to offer some protection against deception: Spouses lie to each other in "only" about 10 percent of their major conversations. The bad news? That 10 percent just refers to the typically minor lies of everyday life. DePaulo recently began looking at the less frequent "big" lies that involve deep betrayals of trust, and she's finding that the vast majority of them occur between people in intimate relationships. "You save your really big lies," she says, "for the person that you're closest to."
These findings, of course, are assuming that those who participated in the studies are being honest in reporting how often they lied. We might be tempted, based on the findings, that the results may be at least somewhat skewed.
All this serves to show that lies are a significant part of life. And the fool is continually pouring forth his folly.
The Christian, though, is to have a sacred reverence for the truth. This is why Paul in the book of Ephesians, after discussing the transformation that the Christians have undergone in becoming a Christian, Paul says “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Paul’s admonition is that the truth be regarded as something that is sacred. The language of the Christian is to be centered around and based in the truth at all times.
So we recognize that this proverb teaches something about of what we say.
II. The propriety of his speech
I like the way that the ESV translates this, but you may have a different translation you likely have another wording. For example, the NIV translates this “the tongue of the wise adorns knowledge.” The KJV expresses it by saying, “The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright.”
These are all fine expressions of what the original language is trying to communicate. If we were to translate it literally, we might say it this way, “The tongue of the wise beautifies knowledge.” This language sounds nice, but you understand why the different versions do what they do. They are trying to communicate something of what it means to beautify knowledge.
And the idea behind it is that the truth needs the proper dressing. It needs beautifying in that sometimes the truth is an ugly thing. Sometimes the truth is that you are not doing something right. And to commend knowledge means you have to correct them. So in this case, you need to address the person in a particular way so as to make the truth you speak to them acceptable.
In other words, how you say something is often just as important as what you say. Your speech needs to be adapted to that particular situation so as to make the person you speak to willing to receive what you say.
The speech of the wise person is going to be tempered to the occasion, minding who you are speaking to, and it is going to express what needs to be said at just the right time.
For instance, in 1st Timothy Paul says, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father.” Why does he say that? It is because you can’t speak to an older person the way you would speak to someone who is younger. If you rebuke an older person, chances are they are going to think you’re some rude whippersnapper. The best way to commend knowledge, in this case, is to encourage him (to exhort him). That is to say, use positive reinforcement and affirmations that inspire proper behavior.
All in all, the wise person will demonstrate the utmost tact, allowing his words to fit the occasion.
In contrast to this you have the foolish person. The foolish person is one whose mouth pours forth folly. They are always speaking their mind and they do not have any discretion in regards to what they say.
I actually think that the original language here can be helpful. The word for “pours forth” can also mean to belch. Isn’t that a colorful way of describing the speech of a fool. The speech of an unchristian person is as rude and crude as someone letting out a long raunchy burp at the dinner table. His speech does not demonstrate any tact and is completely thoughtless when it comes to the other people around him.
Most of you know that I coach my daughter’s soccer team. And from time to time we have meetings with all the other coaches in the league. And in the midst of some of the discussion one of the ladies there made a comment about how we men coach girls. The point she was making is that the men typically will yell at the girls and treat them like boys. She went on to explain that guy coaches didn’t understand how their speech really affected young girls, and that if they really wanted the girls to improve they would be much more sensitive to their femininity.
Think of how that applies to talking to your wife or your daughter. Instead of living with your wife in an understanding way and remembering that she is the weaker vessel, a guy will bark at her and be all kind of insensitive.
More than that, our speech will be filled with all kind of folly. Slanders, profanities, cursing. Even if we have a legitimate concern with which to deal, the fool will so fill his language with slurs and vulgarity that they will only make the person to whom they speak more repulsed and only prone to more folly themselves. Instead of making the situation better, they will make it all that much more worse.
If we are going to be a Christian we need to watch not just what we say, but how we say what we say. Yes, we need to speak honestly, but we also need to speak appropriately.
There is one more layer to this that ought to be pointed out though. I want you to understand that this verse not only has to do with honesty in our speech and the tact we use in our speech, but it is also dealing with the whole framework out of which we speak.
III. The principles that undergird our speech
What I’m getting at here is that our speech is governed by our worldview. What we believe shapes the way we think. And as a result it shapes the way we talk.
When the proverb says, “the tongue of the wise commends knowledge,” it is describing the wise man’s everyday patterns of speech. He is a wise man, so naturally, his speech will convey knowledge and wisdom. The way he speaks will be governed by God’s law and what the Scripture says.
The fool, on the other hand, pours forth folly. He speaks out of the framework of his worldview too. So everything he says is shaped by his false beliefs. So if he is an atheist, he’s going to speak like an atheist.
As I said, our speech is governed by our worldview. Our worldview will shape the way we speak. The vocabulary we use in ordinary conversation is rooted in our worldview. Scripture shapes our everyday language. Secularists will talk about things in a different way than we do because their beliefs are radically different.
For instance, from time to time a person will say, “Good luck.” Or if you get hurt, someone will say, “I’m sending positive thoughts your way.” What kind of speech is this? It is not language that is biblical. Normally, when someone says, “Good luck” what are they saying? They are wishing you well. They are hoping that everything turns out for the best. But the formulation they use is one that is based in an evolutionary or secularized worldview. Luck is the product of random chance. Luck is defined as a purposeless and uncontrollable force that shapes the outcome of events.
This is in complete opposition to the Christian worldview, which promotes the idea of Providence. We believe that God is in complete control of everything. He governs all things according to his holy, wise and powerful will. So when we speak we say, “I’ll be praying for you.”
Or, if someone says, “I’m sending my thoughts your way” or “I’m sending positive thoughts,” what does that mean? Do their brainwaves have some ability to skip from one mind to another like electricity skips from one wire to another?
This language is part and parcel with a new age worldview. It might even be a form of old paganism that is rooted in sorcery. The person might not be a full fledged warlock. But their manner of speech indicates that they have been infected with that worldview to some degree. What is happening is that they are pouring forth folly and they might not even know it.
The lips of the wise will commend knowledge. His everyday speech will adorn the truth of God’s word and God’s world.
This is important to take to heart because language shapes ideas just as much as ideas shape language. In our day, it matters if you talk about an unborn baby or a fetus. If you are prone to refer to that which is conceived in the womb as an “it”, then that depersonalizes that baby and encourages people to say that this “thing” is okay to abort.
More than that, the kind of vocabulary we use influences ultimate realities. When we speak, if we are using language that conforms to Scripture, we have the ability to commend the gospel and the whole of the Christian worldview.
I once was sitting in a memorial service for someone who had passed away. The person had died, not so much through natural causes, because they had made some very bad decisions. He had by his lifestyle basically killed himself. But the person who was speaking at the memorial said, “We have to watch what we do because this is it. Once we die, it is ‘game over.’”
He might have been trying to tell people that they needed to make good decisions and take care of themselves, but his choice of words actually had the reverse effect. If we do not have an afterlife, if this is “game over” and we do not come immediately into the presence of God who will judge us for our sins, then why do we have to take care of ourselves? Why does it matter even if we die? Why not eat, drink, and be merry? Such language pours forth folly.
We have the power to communicate these ultimate realities. If our speech conforms to Scripture, we would remind people that it is appointed for man to die once and then face judgment.
Conclusion:
As we consider what this proverb says about the tongue of the wise and the mouth of the fool, we may remember the words of Christ, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” If our hearts are full of Christ our mouths will be filled with Scriptural language. If our hearts are full of idolatry and unbelief, then our mouths will be a continual flow of ungodly sludge.
And truly this is the guage that we can use to determine much of where we stand before Christ. If our language is not patterned after the Scripture and filled with the vocabulary of Scripture—that is to say, if we are not mimicking Christ in our speech, then it may be an indication that we are not a Christian. Those who are citizens of heaven will have the dialect of that realm.
I. Precision of our speech
II. Propriety of our speech
III. Principle of our speech overall presentation