“The reward of the righteous is life; the wages of the wicked is punishment. The one who follows instruction is on the path to life, but the one who rejects correction goes astray. The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool. When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is prudent. The tongue of the righteous is pure silver; the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous feedmany, but fools die for lack of sense.” (Proverbs 10:16-21 CSB – Read the chapter)
Jesus’ half-brother, James, said that the tongue is the single most difficult thing in the world to control. We have managed to take all sorts of beasts and even to harden ourselves against various natural disasters to a certain extent. But full control of our tongues continues to elude us. This is not, however, for a lack of trying or a lack of counsel on the matter. The proverbs in particular continue numerous and sometimes repeated bits of wisdom for taming our tongues as well as warnings on the consequences of failing to do so. We see several of those in these next few proverbs. Let’s take a look.
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