Proverbs 17:7 ESV
Fine speech is not becoming to a fool; still less is false speech to a prince.
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I can write real good. I can talk nice too, when I keep my nerve. That’s all well and good, but it’s not enough. If I have all the skill in the world but have not wisdom, I’m just another ruddy fool, exceptional only in capacity for damage and hilarity (which one it is depends on what my specific foolishness is). Technical skill isn’t enough. Conversely, though, if I speak the highest of wisdom but have not the skill to convey it, the words are fruitless, for none understand. I am better off, but nobody else is. This is the wisdom of God: that a man should care both for his power to do and what he uses his power for.
The array of fools in the world is vast and varied; among them are quite a few skilled speakers. They may be philosophers, they may be leaders, they may be con-men, and they may be anything in between. They may have tongues of honey and gold, or they may be skilled in using words to grind others to powder, to manipulate and abuse them. Small monsters and large, grimy and grand, beloved and hated, they come in all sorts. All these men and women who refuse God remain fools, though, even with their fine speech.
Indeed, in the hand of the fool, fine speech becomes at last a mockery. At first, of course, it is a potent tool, a means of destruction and control. Foolishness, however, does not last. The fool’s fine speech, his skill, will fail eventually. The skill-to-do is not enough in God’s world. In many cases, this destruction is apparent to us in this world (Ps. 73:18-19). In others, the destruction of the fool comes only after death (Acts 12:23). Regardless, before God the finery of the fool is only a ridicule to its owner. “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without discretion,” says Proverbs 11:22, and the warning holds true for metaphorical or auditory beauty. It is the mercy of God alone that some of this foolishness ends with humbling-unto-repentance, with faith in Him.
Consider too the prince who lies. He stands as a minister of God’s justice (Rom. 13:1-5), and he lies. Is this not akin to the sin of Ananias, of Sapphira (Acts 5:1-9)? They were struck down, like Herod (Acts 12:23), and so too the king who denies Him is struck down (Ps. 2). This false speech, this foolishness, is made all the worse by the position of the prince. After all, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luk. 12:48). Has not the prince been given a great privilege and opportunity in the stewardship of the state? Be he congressman or governor or county commissioner or judge or jury member or president or voter, let each man who stands in the prince’s place remember this, that he might speak truly.
So technical skill, the ability to do, is not enough. Indeed, conjoined to sin, it is an active detriment, a means of destruction and an invitation for the curse due to sin. Yet it is necessary. God blessed Oholiab and Bezalel with great skill (Ex. 31:1-11). He gave David, the man after His own heart (1 Sam. 13:14), exceptional skill with words, as the Psalm demonstrate. He bestowed upon Solomon skill to govern as a component of wisdom in general (1 Kings 3). Held with humility and used with righteousness, technical skill is a necessary and blessed part of fulfilling the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1:28 and the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20. It is part of sanctifying ourselves, sanctifying those with whom we are in relationship, and sanctifying the world God has given us. So let us cultivate it- but cultivate also wisdom to use it aright. Than, as David, we may say, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and He in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me” (Ps. 144:1-2).
For the Lord is our defense, Jesus defend us. – King Alfred’s War Song
God bless
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
