“Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. The remembrance of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. A wise heart accepts commands, but foolish lips will be destroyed. The one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out. A sly wink of the eye causes grief, and foolish lips will be destroyed.”(Proverbs‬ ‭10‬:‭6‬-‭10‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

While the world loves to paint with shades of gray, in the final analysis, there will be two kinds of people in this world: the righteous and the wicked. Proverbs not only offers counsel for how to be one instead of the other, it furnishes numerous examples of the outcomes one will experience or cause to be experienced versus the other. Now, the Gospel helps us paint with more nuance than the Old Testament sometimes does, but still, learning to recognize the path that will lead to one end and the path that will lead to the other is worthwhile. Let’s take a look at some pointers in this passage.

There are two main types of proverbs. The less common of these are ones that make a positive comparison between two things with “and” as the connecting conjunction. Example A is like this and Example B is like this as well. More frequently than that are proverbs that focus on contrasting one thing with another using “but” to join the two ideas into one memorable phrase. Example A is like this but Example B is like that. Sometimes the negative thing of the pair comes first, sometimes the positive, but they are set in sharp contrast to each other so we can easily tell which falls on the path we want to be walking.

“Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” The language in the first part here invites us to imagine a crown sitting on the head of a ruler. That crown is a symbol to everyone who looks of the power and position he has. Because rulers were understood to be appointed and positioned by God Himself, that crown was an indicator of God’s favor on the king. Whatever it was that the king did, you wanted to do the same kinds of things so that you might have the chance to gain God’s favor in a similar way.

For those who live in pursuit of the path of righteousness, the blessings they receive for their efforts are intended to be an outward sign of the favor they have from God. They often act as an invitation to the people around them to pursue the same kind of lifestyle so they might receive the same kinds of blessings. Personally, if you have walked a path of faithfulness and experienced a blessing because of it, while that blessing is for you, and while you should indeed enjoy it to its fullest, it is important that you don’t lose sight of the missionary purpose of that blessing. God’s blessings are always intended to flow out.

By contrast, however, there are some who try to make it look like they have these kinds of blessings, but they do not have the kind of lifestyle that is necessary to support them. The blessings they boast of are a mirage. They are an intentional deception to impress other people. They are a willful distortion of the reality that they have violence going on under the surface, not righteousness. This could be physical violence, for sure, and here I call to mind the church deacon who is highly respected at church, but beats his wife and kids at home. But this violence could also be relational, financial, emotional, or something else like this. The one who does this is wicked, and one day the wicked will be destroyed.

“The remembrance of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.” Earlier this year, the world lost a spiritual giant. More importantly, my church lost a spiritual giant. Mae Brooks went home to be with her Lord. For more than 100 years, Mae blessed everyone who came across her path. She covered this church and this community in prayer diligently, faithfully, and fervently for decades. She discipled many others in the faith. She shared her faith with every person she could. She was an example to more than I could possibly count. When we speak her name today, the blessing of her life is immediately called to mind, and we are blessed by that. Her legacy of faith is one that will live strong in this community for a long time.

Several years ago, Ravi Zacharias died of cancer. He had been a giant in the evangelical world for many years. He ran a global ministry of evangelism and apologetics. He led many to the Lord through the work of his ministry. After he passed, however, the real truth about his life came to the surface. He had been a serial sexual predator for years. No one really knows just how many women he used and abused for his own personal pleasure. The message he proclaimed may have been absolutely true, but there was a wickedness at his core that was well concealed. No one mentions his name anymore today except in the context I just did. His name is rotten now. Don’t live in such a way that your name will one day be rotten.

“A wise heart accepts commands, but foolish lips will be destroyed.” Knowing how to navigate through this world does not come naturally. We need the wise counsel and even instruction of others who have gone before us. Someone who is wise intentionally seeks out that counsel and those commands, and puts them into practice. The person with a wise heart recognizes her limitations with humility, and listens carefully to the direction of those who know more. There is great wisdom in this kind of humility.

Meanwhile, there are also some people who just run their mouths. They cover their lack of knowledge and understanding with words. They can talk their way out of trouble. That would seem to be a gift, but when they manage to not face the right and just consequences for their actions because of it, they are really hurting themselves. They are developing the mindset that they don’t have to or even won’t face consequences for their sinful choices. They start to boast of their foolishness as if it is a positive good in their life that others should try to emulate. Their end, however, is destruction. Their run of apparent success won’t last. We must not be fooled into thinking otherwise.

“The one who lives with integrity lives securely, but whoever perverts his ways will be found out.” Have you ever driven past a police officer when you were speeding? What did you almost immediately do? Slow down, right. While I’m not as consistent with it as I should be, when I’m driving on the highway, I typically set my cruise control at whatever the speed limit is and leave it. As a result, I never have to slow down when I drive past an officer. Instead, I have to slow down when the people who just passed me slow down to below the speed limit when they see the cop as if to compensate for their previous speeding. When you do the right things, you don’t worry about getting caught. You live with a kind of security that cannot be bought.

You know as well as I do, though, that the opposite lifestyle doesn’t bring with it the same peace of mind. Think about the last time you did something you knew you shouldn’t have done. Until you got caught, you lived in fear of getting caught. Every time someone looked at you the wrong way, you figured that was it, The burden grew heavy over time. Eventually, you found yourself wanting to get caught just so you could be free of it. If you pervert your ways, if you live in a way that separates you from the righteousness of God in Christ, you will eventually be found out. You may have convinced yourself that’s not the case, but you are fooling yourself. Living with integrity is a much more freeing lifestyle.

“A sly wink of the eye causes grief, and foolish lips will be destroyed.” Have you ever walked in on a joke or a prank that you didn’t know about, but which you weren’t the object of? Maybe someone was planning a surprise party, but you didn’t know it was a surprise. When someone who was in on the surprise started outright lying to the intended recipient of the fun and you went to correct them, they likely started trying to give you a signal that was intended to get you to play along with the lie in that moment. What was the signal? There’s a good chance they gave you a sly wink.

That kind of situation probably isn’t what Solomon had in mind here, but it wouldn’t have been totally out of his thinking either. This kind of a sly wink that invites you into a dishonest scheme – whether that scheme is intended to bless someone or hurt someone – carries with it a high likelihood of causing trouble and frustration and hurt for the other person. If you go into it with the schemer, you are going to wind up being a party to that pain. The one who speaks foolishly and causes this kind of pain for others has a bad end ahead of him. Sometimes the fun we engage in is harmless, but when it comes at another person’s expense and they aren’t in on the joke, harm is rarely far away. Don’t be a person who causes harm to others with your actions or your words.