Over the last two weeks at Trailhead Church, we have been studying Proverbs to see what it says about how we use our words. We used Proverbs 18:21 as our starting point.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
(Proverbs 18:21 ESV)
I broke the study into two weeks: Deadly Words and Words of Life. When I studied for these lessons, I wrote out all the verses in Proverbs dealing with our speech and I ended up with four pages of verses. That was way too much material to cover, even in two messages, so I am going to follow these messages up with a few additional thoughts over the next week or so.
The first is this: You want to be wise? Shut yo mouf, foo. (Or, in the King's English, Discontinue your incessant discharge of discourse, you dope).
The average american speaks a lot of words every day. Many of them, like the previous sentence, are completely useless, or worse, are dangerous and harmful.
The bottom line is that a wise person shuts up. A lot. Fools speak to hear the sound of their voices - the wise realize that life and death are in the power of the tongue, and speak words intentionally and responsibly.
Some Proverbs for your consideration:
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life;
he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
(Proverbs 13:3 ESV)
Whoever restrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
(Proverbs 17:27 ESV)
When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.
(Proverbs 10:19 ESV)
And of my favorites - if you don't have any wisdom to offer, offer the wisdom of your silence.
Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
(Proverbs 17:28 ESV)
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