Proverbs 10:20. The Tongue and the Heart

Well, I know that it's the first Tuesday of the month instead of the first Monday, but sometimes surprising things happen. Your cousin's car dies, for example. These things can't be helped :)

I've been reading through Proverbs lately, and I've never noticed just how much emphasis the book places on words. Maybe studying linguistics has heightened my awareness on what the Bible says about words, or maybe the Lord is teaching me to listen and analyze my own words more carefully (or both), but over and over again Proverbs mentions the importance of words to human life. And the teaching is just as often about what words say about us as it is actually about what we should say. Some examples:

"The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things." Proverbs 15:28

"There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts,
    but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Proverbs 12:18

"A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit" Proverbs 15:4

Since the Proverbs describe general life wisdom--painting life with a wide brush, so to speak--then yes, we should follow its principles about talking. Basically, think about what you say, don't spout off, use your words for good and not for evil, to build up and not to tear down. All things that the New Testament restates in some way or another.

But, what has really caught my eye lately has been what these sayings tell us about God's desire for our hearts, reminding us that words (and how words line up to actions) are the biggest window to the soul that we have. Words are the predominant way that we express ourselves, identify ourselves, and establish our relationships to others. When we say something, we turn our insides out. The author of Proverbs recognizes that and calls our attention to the relationship between words and the human heart (the deepest part of our being, the part from which we draw out the rest of life's meaning):

"The tongue of the righteous is choice silver; the heart of the wicked is of little worth" Proverbs 10:20

Did you catch that? The author ascribed a righteous person's tongue greater value than the heart of a wicked person. I believe that the wording is intentional. By putting the tongue and the heart in direct comparison, the proverb is highlighting the power and importance of what we say. Not as a legalistic, 'don't-you-say-that-you-sinner' warning, but as a nugget of wisdom, an insight into the reality of life: Our words say a whole lot about who we are. And by telling us that, the Bible provides yet another avenue to repentance, another signpost that points us in the direction of God's will.