Proverbs 10:30-32, Guard Your Heart!

May 4, Proverbs 10:30-32

Matthew 12:31-37 “The preacher sought to find out acceptable words, … words of truth” (Eccl. 12:10).

Guard Your Heart!

Have you to plead guilty of an abusive tongue with shame and sorrow? Many more have been victims of that froward tongue in the mouth of others. The words mouth, lips, and tongue are synonymous, but the source of what ultimately comes out is the heart.

1. The Good Man’s Speech is Valuable, but the Bad Man’s Vile. The good brings forth the fruit of wisdom. This pictures a man as a tree budding with fruit. It is illustrated in Ps. 92:12-14 where the good man shall bring forth fruit, even unto old age. The other can only bring forth evil fruit from a corrupt heart. The good man wishes to “gain his people’s ears, that he may win their hearts” (Bridges).

2. The Good Man’s Speech is Supportive, but the Bad Man’s Subversive. Here the one brings health to his hearers, as in Psalm 1, while the other brings only harm. The good man’s words nourish the saints, but the bad distort with words that mislead and deceive. Neo-orthodoxy uses familiar terms but intends something quite different.

3. The Good Man’s Speech is Sound, but the Bad Man’s Shallow. The good man’s heart, in submission to God’s Revelation, speaks the words of Truth. The policies of bad men may seem wise at first, but God makes foolish the wisdom of this world (Rom. 1:22; 1 Cor. 1:20-2:8; 3:19). They are shallow, the best man can offer, and must fail. We see this in the promises of corrupt politicians and ecumenical manipulators.

4. The Good Man’s Speech is Pleasant, but the Bad Man’s Perverse. God speaks Words of truth that are received by the godly, even if not always agreeable or pleasing to the flesh. The word froward in both verses is in the plural. The root means to overthrow, to turn upside down or twist, giving perversity or crookedness. Thus bad tongues speak perverse and crooked words, the very opposite of what is pleasant and honouring to God.

5. The Good Man’s Speech is Guarded, but the Bad Man’s Gabby. Good men generally use few words (vs.19-20), while the wicked, as a rule, talk too much. Their speech is cheap and corrupting. A good man “must discriminate his statements without diluting them” (Bridges). He wants his words to be acceptable to God as well as man.

6. God’s Judgment on Both: The righteousness of the good is not self-righteousness, but acceptance in the Beloved. It is the imputed righteousness of Christ. God crowns his speech with truth, the wisdom that is from above. The tongue of the wicked, however, is full of perversities and will be cut out. What can we expect from a corrupt tree but corrupt fruit, and what shall be its end but to be cut down and cast out?

Thought: Remember, your heart is what you are.

Prayer: Keep my heart, O God, and then govern my tongue.