I pause every time I read this verse, checking to make sure it doesn’t represent me. Hopefully, my time in Proverbs is not useless. In this chapter, Solomon spends much of his energy talking about how to handle challenging people. The lazy, the gossip, the malicious, and the just plain fool are all addressed. The mouth of a fool is a dangerous place for anything. I spoke at length yesterday with a friend who is both a pastor and a counselor. He had been called in to help mitigate a problem in another church. As he began interviewing elders and other leaders, it became very apparent that someone had distorted information that had been shared in a private leadership meeting. The result was a situation rapidly moving toward a church split, with no one taking the time—or using the wisdom—to track down the information and its source. As a result, a person in leadership was behaving both foolishly and selfishly. They were acting sinfully, spreading twisted facts and partial truths, and causing a dangerous division. This happens daily at lunches, coffee shops, and even around the proverbial water cooler. As followers of Christ, it is our responsibility to know the source. And when we don’t know the source, we should dismiss gossip, unsourced information, or information that is simply none of our business. Today give no power to the voice of the fool. #BeTheEdge
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29 NIV
