Thursday, November 5, 2015

Year 5, Day 309: Proverbs 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here


Discipleship Focus: Competency

  • Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

As we surge through Proverbs, I find it interesting that we still seem to focus on the “fool.”  In today’s chapter, we get to focus especially on the tongue of the fool.  As I spoke about yesterday, it is better to be thought a fool than to open my mouth and prove myself to be one.

For example, take the contrast given to us in Proverbs 18:4 and Proverbs 18:6-7.  In Proverbs 18:4 we hear that the mouth of the wise is like a bubbling brook.  By this Solomon means that words of wisdom are refreshing and they bring comfort.  By in Proverbs 18:6-7 we hear that a fool’s mouth is his ruin and a snare to his soul – inviting the fool into dangerous places.  Even in Proverbs 18:21 we hear that life and death are in the power of a tongue.

The truth is that there is great power in what we say.  When we speak just to hear ourselves talk we give bad advice and show ourselves to be a fool.  But when we are silent until called to speak forth in God’s wisdom we give good advice and show ourselves to be wise.  Our tongue is one of our greatest weapons and tools.

This is what brings me to the idea of competency.  Our tongue – our words – are such an incredible power.  The difference in whether our tongue is a weapon or a tool is really an issue of competency.  If we are competent with our tongue, we are wise and our tongue is a tool that brings forth God’s truth.  But if we are incompetent with our tongue, we are a fool and it becomes a weapon of destruction in human hands under human control.  Those competent with their tongues bring refreshment to the people around them in the truth that they speak.  Those incompetent with their tongues bring destruction in their folly.

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