Proverbial Wisdom: Speaking Softly

 Read Proverbs 15

This chapter comes out swinging!  Verse 1 is so much a verse that really needs to be heeded today.  When one looks at the media and what’s going on in the world today, we really need to have more folks heed these words.  Any more it seems like no one wants to listen to the next person.  Instead, it’s consistently arguments that debase individuals rather than looking for correct answers.  Our words can bring peace instead of war, calm rather than chaos.  This verse isn’t advising us to compromise the truth and say that what’s wrong is really right just to avoid conflict or confrontation.  Rather it’s counseling us to have a gentle spirit and a conciliatory attitude even when we disagree with others.  This can defuse the situation and make it easier for us to settle the matter peacefully.

Fools can’t control their speech.  Fools speech is usually full of pride and they have a tendency to be know-it-alls.  

Right words are like nourishing, health-giving food.  What a wonderful thing it is to say the right words and help to heal a broken spirit!  The phrase in verse 4, “tree of life” means “source of life” and goes back to the creation story in Genesis.  When God created Adam and Eve, He gave them the ability to speak and understand words.  Made in the image of a God who communicates, human beings have the wonderful gift of speech.  God spoke to Adam and gave him instructions about life in the garden, which he later shared with Eve; they both understood what God told them.  Adam was able to name the animals and to give a descriptive name to his bride.  Satan used words to deceive Adam and Eve, and Eve must have used words to persuade her husband.  The garden of Eden was a place of communication, because God gave Adam and Eve the ability to understand and use words.  Since God gave us this gift of words, let us use it wisely and speak to glorify Him!

Verse 5 is something we need to remember but so often forget.   As we grow older into adults, we truly realize the wisdom in this verse.  We should respect the counsel that we get from our parents because it is rooted in experience and love.  So often, especially when we are younger, we have a tendency to think that our parents are speaking foolishly. We allow our pride to take control and think that we can find the answer to ourselves.   Listen to your parents.  If you are 15 and reading this, listen to your parents.  If you are 50 and reading this, listen to the counsel of your parents.  God gave us their instruction and them for a reason.

I want us to really look at verse 9.  A godly righteous person “follows righteousness.”  Not everybody who claims to be among the righteous is truly a child of God and God has given us a warning that we need to beware of those people around us.  God’s people understand righteousness because they meditate on His Word and seek to obey it.  They do righteousness because true faith in God always leads to good works.  They speak righteousness and their words can be trusted, and they pursue righteousness and make it the passion of their hearts.  They are consistently in the process of sanctification, becoming more like Christ.  

Have you ever had to be told things multiple times before something even sank through?  I know I have.  My dad constantly reminds me of this fact to this day.  In fact, science and marketing hold that it’s true.  That’s why we receive commercials the way we do.  Science believes that we have to be reminded of something at least 7 times before it will be something registered in our heads and something we will remember.  God knows this.  Again, here in Proverbs, he reminds us that we need to control our tempers (vs 18), and yet again reminds us not to be lazy (vs 19).  If God is repeating this time and time again to us, it’s because He wants us to listen and too heed His words.  Laziness and an angry spirit will only bring pain into our lives.  I look at the world today and I see so much of both amongst not just the world but in the church as well.  I’m constantly involved in counseling to other church leadership teams and I’m constantly told about what they have spoken about doing in business meetings, deacons’ meetings, etc.  When I ask them what the progress is on any of those projects, they always seem to say that is how far they have gotten is the “planning stage.”  Now, you will get a myriad of excuses on why the projects have not gotten any further, but myself in my bluntness and truth usually have to bring out the fact that it all boils down to laziness.  I know one local church I counseled paid a youth team to tear down a dilapidated building on their church property to help on their trip.  It was a great deal of money and the only condition was that the building be torn down and the youth could even sell the scrap from the tear down for additional profits.  It is now 7 years since that proposal, money had already been given, and as I drive by the property, I still see that eye sore of a building standing today.  Now, many excuses will be given but if everyone is honest of heart, it just boils down to follow through and laziness.  God does not want our excuses, he wants us to hold to our word and be a people of action.  God is not works based but God expects His children to be true to their word.  Laziness has no part in the Christian walk.  We may have to be tough on ourselves and push ourselves hard every day, but if that’s what we need to do, then we need to do it.  I know, because I have had to push myself in this manner as well over the past few years.  When depression sinks into the Christian’s life, it’s easy to let laziness grab hold.  We must overcome it and ask God promises, when we do, we will reap His blessings.  God always blesses the work of His children.

This proverb closes in verses 31 and 32 with some very wise words when it comes to rebuke.  How we accept and apply rebuke is a test of how devoted we are to truth and wisdom and how sincere we are in wanting to know God’s will.  Friends who flatter us and avoid telling us the truth are only doing us harm.  I know there have been many times in my life when I was stepping outside the will of God and when God finally decided it was time for correction, I had friends and church members come to me and say, “Well, we saw that but didn’t say anything…”  Why?  If we care for someone and see them falling, we need to say something to them just as Galatians 6:1 tells us.

So my friends, this day, choose to speak in gentleness and love.  Choose to work hard and diligently.  Above all choose to speak in truth.