Keep corrupt talk far from your lips
Proverbs 4:24-25 - Solid advice from Solomon on keeping ourselves from talking trash and being distracted by worldly things
“Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.”
Proverbs 4:24-25 NIV
Proverbs 4 contrasts the path of the just with the way of the wicked. In writing these proverbs, Solomon was providing guidance to his readers both during his reign as the king of Israel and Judah, and to the generations that have followed up to this day.
In these verses, he offers two solid nuggets of advice: 1) keep what you say clean, truthful, and wise, and 2) don’t be distracted by things that can lead you to sin.
Starting with verse 24, Solomon is telling us that we can stay on the path of the just if we pay attention to what we say to others. Think about all the times in your life where you may have said something to another person in an impulsive or perverse way, and it has had negative consequences. Learning to control one’s tongue can help avoid these situations. 20th Century British Bible commentator Derek Kidner pointed out that what we say can affect our thoughts:
“Superficial habits of talk react on the mind; so that, e.g., cynical chatter, fashionable grumbles, flippancy, half-truths, barely meant in the first place, harden into well-established habits of thought.”1
Matthew Henry elaborated on this theme:
We must set a watch before the door of our lips, that we offend not with our tongue (v. 24): Put away from thee a froward mouth and perverse lips. Our hearts being naturally corrupt, out of them a great deal of corrupt communication is apt to come, and therefore we must conceive a great dread and detestation of all manner of evil words, cursing, swearing, lying, slandering, brawling, filthiness, and foolish talking, all which come from a froward mouth and perverse lips, that will not be governed either by reason or religion, but contradict both, and which are as unsightly and ill-favoured before God as a crooked distorted mouth drawn awry is before men. All manner of tongue sins, we must, by constant watchfulness and stedfast resolution, put from us, put far from us, abstaining from all words that have an appearance of evil and fearing to learn any such words.2
I’ll confess that setting “a watch before the door of our lips” is much easier said than accomplished. One of the worst habits I picked up during my wilderness years was a tendency to do many of the things that the Reverend Henry calls out in this quote - “cursing, swearing, lying, slandering, brawling, filthiness, and foolish talking”. I have a long way to go before I’ll be totally free of that habit; perhaps I’ll never achieve that goal. At least I am convicted by the Holy Spirit at this point in my life, and I regret it deeply when my words are corrupt and perverse.
Verse 25 contains another valuable gem of advice; to look straight ahead at our goal — Jesus — rather than being distracted by what our eyes perceive. Think of how many marriages have ended in divorce because one (or both) partners had wandering eyes that were attracted to another person. Those eyes can also be distracted by self, being more concerned about one’s personal appearance or possessions than by eternal rewards. Once again from Matthew Henry:
Let the eye be fixed and not wandering; let it not rove after every thing that presents itself, for then it will be diverted from good and ensnared in evil. Turn it from beholding vanity; let thy eye be single and not divided; let thy intentions be sincere and uniform, and look not asquint at any by-end. We must keep our eye upon our Master, and be careful to approve ourselves to him; keep our eye upon our rule, and conform to that; keep our eye upon our mark, the prize of the high calling, and direct all towards that. Oculum in metam - The eye upon the goal.
In our perception of ourselves and the world, let us view everything through the lens of Jesus.
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, each day I pray that I can come closer to the perfection of Your Son and my Savior Jesus. Help me to be Spirit-driven in what I say, and to keep my eyes on my eternal rewards rather than earthly temptations. I pray this in Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.
Kidner, Derek "Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary" (Kidner Classic Commentaries) (Nottingham, England: InterVarsity Press, 1964)
Henry, Matthew. "Commentary on Proverbs 4." Blue Letter Bible. 1 Mar, 1996. Web. 19 Nov, 2024.