The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
The focus of this verseisthe wordswe speak. In this caseit’s aboutthe words of two different people– thetwo main characters in Proverbs – “the wise” and “the fool.”
Of course, “the tongue of the wise” is not really about that littleorgan in their mouths, but the words that their tongues help form. Their wordsdo good things and connectto the right stuff – they “adorn knowledge.”
So, “the mouth of the fool” is not actually about their “mouths,” but their words. Their mouth “gushes” out a steady stream of“folly” words.Thissounds neithernice nor attractive.
Critical to appreciating this verse, is the fact thatour words don’t define us. They simply indicate who we really are.
Even though they’re human and still make mistakes, a “wise” person will consistently speak appropriate things. They’ll evencorrect their words that weren’t.
And while fools will try to sound appropriate with their words, eventually they’llsay what they are really thinking.
So the bottom line hereis not that we shouldtry tochange our words in orderto sound better. Instead, what we reallyneed to do ischange our hearts – the very source of our words.
It’s always about who we are on the inside, not what comes out of our mouths to the outside. At least that’s howJesus saw it (Mk 7:21-23)!
