Sunday, November 15, 2015

Proverbs 10:8: Full in Heart (wisdom) or Full of Tongue

The wise in heart will receive commands, but a prating fool will fall. Proverbs 10:8

Wise: ethically and religiously
Heart: mind, knowledge
Receive: take possession of, as preliminary to further action
Commands: human or divine (collectively, the Law), law, ordinance,
Prating: babbling, talkative
Fool: who despises wisdom & discipline
Fall: ruined, thrown away

Here is, 1. The honour and happiness of the obedient. They will receive commandments; they will take it as a privilege, and really an ease to them, to be under government, which saves them the labour of deliberating and choosing for themselves; and they will take it as a favour to be told their duty and admonished concerning it. And this is their wisdom; those are wise in heart who are tractable, and those who thus bend, thus stoop, shall stand and be established, shall prosper, being well advised.
2. The shame and ruin of the disobedient, that will not be governed, nor endure any yoke, that will not be taught, nor take any advice. They are fools, for they act against themselves and their own interest; they are commonly prating fools, fools of lips, full of talk, but full of nonsense, boasting of themselves, prating spitefully against those that admonish them (3 John 1:10), and pretending to give counsel and law to others. Of all fools, none more troublesome than the prating fools, nor that more expose themselves; but they shall fall into sin, into hell, because they received not commandments. Those that are full of tongue seldom look well to their feet, and therefore stumble and fall. 
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

Full in Heart (wisdom) or Full of Tongue. 
When one is talking, they can't be listening. 

Great knowledge, if it be without vanity, is the most severe bridle of the tongue. For so have I heard, that all the noises and prating of the pool, the croaking of frogs and toads, are hushed and appeased upon the bringing upon them the light of a candle or torch. Every beam of reason and ray of knowledge checks the dissolution of the tongue. Jeremy Taylor
A holy life is a voice; it speaks when the tongue is silent, and is either a constant attraction or a perpetual reproof. Robert Leighton 
God has given us two ears, but one tongue, to show that we should be swift to hear, but slow to speak. God has set a double fence before the tongue, the teeth and the lips, to teach us to be wary that we offend not with our tongue. Thomas Watson 
Remember that the tongue speaks only what is in the heart. Theodore Epp 
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. James 1:26 
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. James 3:6
Full in Heart (wisdom) or Full of Tongue. 

Oh, that my heart would be permeated with a deep sense of reverence for God (Acts 9:31 MSG), so that I would shut-up and hear God's wisdom and obey it! 

Full in Heart (wisdom) or Full of Tongue. Which are you?

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