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Proverbs 15:4

Here is a precious proverb about speech from King Solomon. If you appreciate the literary creativity of a proverb, then you have plenty to consider in this one. If you crave wisdom and the instruction to live a prosperous life, God has sent understanding from heaven for you. You are either a tree of life to others or a breach in their spirit.

What do others think when you talk? Are they delighted with pleasure and rewarded with profit? Are your words the helpful words of truth and wisdom? Do you edify your hearers with kind and uplifting speech? Are family and friends strengthened by your gracious words? Do you motivate others to godliness and zeal? Are they thankful to have you around? Are you asked for advice from many quarters? Do you cause hearts to sing?

Or is your speech contrary, discouraging, and offensive? Do others consider you irritating and obnoxious and avoid you because of your mouth? Are family and friends tired of your foolish talking, jesting, criticizing, or whining? Do you leave hearers bleeding from sarcastic cuts and defeated by negative comments? Are others angry about your regular backbiting and talebearing? Are you known as never being cheerful or thankful?

You are either a tree of life to others or a breach in their spirit. You either heal and help with your words, or you hurt and injure. You either instruct and uplift, or you corrupt and offend. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof" (18:21). You can be a tree of life, providing kind and useful words to help others; or you can be a breach in their spirit, discouraging and irritating them.

A wholesome tongue is a metonym for good and helpful speech. Such a man speaks carefully for the pleasure and profit of hearers. He has a healthful effect on others (12:18). Every person can benefit that hears him speak. He chooses his words carefully from a pure heart, does not say more than necessary, and seeks to improve every person he addresses. He never wastes words in foolish banter or uses them to hurt. He studies before answering, and he knows the certain words of truth for answers (15:28; 22:17-21).

Such a man is a tree of life. Here is a powerful metaphor. He provides the fruit of knowledge and wisdom to others by his words (10:21; 11:30; 15:7). Wise men love him and his words (22:11; 24:26). They know they are made better because of hearing his advice, counsel, instruction, reproofs, and warnings. He disperses knowledge to many, and men crave conversation with him. The simple pursue him, because he teaches them wisdom; the wise seek him, because he makes them yet wiser.

But a perverse tongue represents corrupt and evil speech that hurts and injures others (12:18). This obnoxious, criticizing, filthy, foolish, or whining person is offensive to all good men. He or she irritates and offends hearers, for words are poorly chosen, the occasion inappropriate, the motives selfish, the content evil, and the effect destructive. Yet he keeps on talking. He is impossible to shut up. He spouts foolish answers to questions, sows discord among friends, and promotes sin (6:19; 15:2,28; 18:13).

What are the consequences of a perverse tongue? Instead of being a tree of life by giving health and wisdom to others, it creates a breach in their spirit by its corrupt words. What is a breach in the spirit? A broken, corrupted, damaged, or injured heart! A corrupt tongue works ruin (6:14; 12:18; 25:18,20; 26:28; I Cor 15:33). Many wives and children have been defeated and scarred by a cruel tongue. Many others have had reputations destroyed, relationships ruptured, hope lost, and wisdom forfeited by perverse speech.

A man married to such a woman is in a terrible calamity (30:21-23). He is pained and tortured at home (19:13; 21:9,19; 25:24)! And he is shamed and disgraced in public (12:4; 25:15-16)! It would be better to camp alone in the wilderness than to be stuck with this cruel creature. Many men have been slowly bludgeoned to death in their spirit by an overbearing, nagging, questioning, and suggesting woman. Cemeteries, hunt clubs, hobby shops, and overtime rosters are filled with them. They avoid the house at all costs!

But a gracious woman, with a mouth speaking kindness and wisdom, is adored and honored by all (11:16; 31:26). She is incredibly rare, and she is sought after by all wise men. Young man, take heed, your future happiness or pain is at stake! Young woman, it is a meek and quiet spirit directing your tongue that is most beautifying (I Pet 3:3-4). Forget the false glamour of hair, makeup, and clothing! Cultivate this precious spirit!

Parent, you must teach and enforce a wholesome tongue in your children. If this were done, there would be more trees of life in the world. You must eliminate Hollywood's arrogance, jesting, filth, disrespect, and sarcasm. Children do not have a right to say what they are thinking. They have a responsibility to think and say what is right! You must require your children to speak to you with the greatest respect and to each other with constant kindness and helpfulness. Where are the mothers that washed a child's mouth with soap for breaking either rule!

How will you speak to your spouse today? How will you address you subordinates, colleagues, or superiors at work? How will you talk to your children or your parents? Put a guard before your lips, and do not speak unless you have something healthful and wholesome to say that will make your hearers better by the sounds in their ears. Your reputation depends on what you say today! Are you a tree of life or a breach in the spirit?

Here is a further lesson from this wonderful proverb: your mouth can only say what is in your heart (Matt 12:33-37). If you have not thought it, you will not say it! You cannot correct your speech without correcting your heart. A pure heart creates gracious speech that delights even kings (22:11). Therefore, keeping your heart is a priority (4:23). Every sin begins in the heart, and this is true of perverse speech as well (Jas 1:13-16; 3:1-18).

No one spoke like Jesus of Nazareth (Ps 50:4; Luke 4:22). Even His enemies admitted He had no peer in speech (John 7:46). He caused the hearts of good men to burn with joy and understanding (Luke 24:32). The common people heard him gladly (Matt 12:37). Every minister is bound to follow His holy example of speech (II Tim 1:13; Titus 2:7-8). Since you have the glorious gospel to proclaim, make sure you do not pollute it with the folly of man. The jokes, anecdotes, and folly now commonplace in the pulpit are a disgrace to Jesus Christ and sound speech.

God gave you a tongue to glorify Him and help others (Ps 30:12; 108:1; Mal 3:16; I Thess 5:14; Heb 10:24-25). Boasting in the Lord and magnifying Him is one of the grandest ways to honor God and uplift others (Ps 34:1-3). Will your funeral be cause to reflect on how your tongue was a tree of life to many, or a breach of the spirit to many? Will there be grief for the loss of your words? Or relief that your negative and stinging tongue is gone?

You can have a wholesome tongue and be a tree of life to others. First, your heart must be pure before God, your mind must be filled with His word, and you must learn the wise rules for speech that are contained in the Bible (16:23; Ps 19:7-11; Eph 4:29; Col 4:6). The choice is yours, but you will answer for your choice to both God and men.

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