Chapter 15
The sins of the tongue.
Verse 1 – the tongue and mental attitude sins. “A soft answer” this is not “soft” at all, it should read “A grace answer.” A grace answer indicates a relaxed mental attitude. Everything you say is formed in your mind. You never say anything without first of all thinking it. A relaxed mental attitude is not running down people, saying unkind things about them, discrediting them, etc. A relaxed mental attitude is always expressed in terms of a grace answer. It means that when someone says something terrible about you or to you, you don’t immediately switch over to mental attitude sins. You give them a grace answer. The filling of the Holy Spirit is involved here too—a)gaph love is freedom from mental attitude sins. A grace answer is a response; a non-grace answer is a reaction. You can never live the Christian life and be a reactor.
“turneth away” – hiphil stem imperfect, which means it always does this. The Hebrew word is shub and it means to cause to turn away; “wrath” – not the wrath of the other person, but yours. People don’t bother you! A grace answer is a grace thought. You retain a relaxed mental attitude under fire of the sins of the tongue.
“but” – conjunction of contrast; “grievous words stir up anger” – the word “grievous” is not grievous at all, it is the Hebrew word for bitter and it should be translated “bitter words stir up.” In other words, when there are bitter words there is reaction. In the first situation you respond [grace answer], in the second you react [bitter words]. When you are guilty of bitter words it stirs up anger. The word to stir up is again in the hiphil stem, and it means to cause anger to rise up.
In the sins of the tongue there is the issue of response versus reaction.
1. Where reaction occurs all parties in the mental attitude sins have self-induced misery, and this intensifies the schism.
2. Where response occurs only those guilty of mental attitude sins have self-induced misery. In response to a reaction: a grace answer. A response to a reaction always isolates the person guilty, so that God can deal with that person. You put it in the Lord’s hands when you respond instead of reacting. Response is always grace.
3. Under the response of grace there can be no schism, since it takes two to fight.
4. The gracious mental attitude, then, becomes the solution to any schism or split in the body of Christ.
5. The grace mental attitude depends upon the dynamic equation: knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good.
6. The dynamic equation not only produces divine good but it also produces a relaxed mental attitude.
Verse 2 – “The tongue of the wise.” Wisdom is the application of doctrine in the human spirit to the facets of the human soul. The tongue of the wise is the
expression of these things. The actual translation of this first line is, “The tongue of the wise knows how to do good.” John 21:15ff, the illustration of the tongue of the wise. After the resurrection of Christ Peter suddenly understood some doctrine. He began to think. The tongue of the wise is the believer who has doctrine and has filew as well as the a)gapaw type love. Filew is total rapport. Peter has doctrine in the soul now, and it gives him a rapport love plus it puts him in a position to serve the Lord. Every believer in Jesus Christ must know doctrine. The “tongue of the wise” is the believer who has enough doctrine to fall into the filew category. He can use the doctrine. Doing good refers to the production of divine good. The word for “knowledge” is the qal infinitive of jada. Jada means to know, and this is a qal infinitive which expresses God’s purpose. It is God’s purpose for the believer to learn doctrine. No matter who you are your job is to know, to know, to know. Corrected translation: “The tongue of the wise knows to do good.” Wisdom means doctrine going to the facets of the soul, and therefore with Bible doctrine the believer can produce divine good.
“but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness” – the mouth of the fool is the believer minus doctrine and out of fellowship. Literally be “bubbles out” foolishness, i.e. the human viewpoint of life. Then human viewpoint of life causes the believer who is minus doctrine to bubble out foolishness.
Verse 3 – the concept is that in eternity past God the Father knew about the circumstances of this generation. God is perfect in His essence, and because He is perfect essence He devised a perfect plan. “The eyes of the Lord” refers to eternity past when God knew everything that would happen in time. This is His omniscience. His omnipresence is also involved because in time He is right here, He knows that is going on. These “eyes of the Lord” … “behold the evils [plural in the Hebrew] and the goods [plural].” The “evils” is that which emanates from the old sin nature and the “goods” is that which results from the filling of the Spirit.
Verse 4 – the principle of expressing and communicating that which is the divine plan. “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life.” The wholesome tongue actually refers to a relaxed mental attitude. A relaxed mental attitude in the mentality of the soul produce something that is dynamic. In other words, a person with an RMA is going to produce something which is dynamic in his conversation—the communication of the gospel. So we have the principle of witnessing.
“but perverseness” – a believer with mental attitude sins, a believer who is implacable, jealous, vindictive, hostile toward others. This person is not going to be able to communicate anything by way of the gospel because he is as phoney as a lead nickel and anyone can see right through him.
Verse 5 – A fool despiseth his father’s instruction.” The word for “father” means parent. The parent or parents in the home represent authority, and not simply authority in Christianity but authority in the human race. “A fool” is a believer, in this case a teenage believer. A fool is a believer who rejects Bible doctrine. In this case it is a teenager who rejects parental instruction.
“but he that regardeth reproof” – the word for “reproof” gives us the key. This means admonition by the Word. It means not only the communication of Bible doctrine but applying it to specific situations. Cf. 1 Peter 4, operation fast crowd. The corrected translation of the second part of this verse: “but the one who preserves in the soul doctrinal communication shall become wise.” It is possible for a teenager to become wise. Wisdom is the application of doctrine to the soul, and then to experience. The word for “regard” in the KJV doesn’t mean regard. It is the Hebrew word shamar which means to preserve. It is a qal active participle denoting linear aktionsart, it means you have to do something consistently. This is something parents have to do when teaching their children. They have to preserve, keep on preserving. The word “reproof” means admonition by doctrine, it means discipline and punishment, it means the whole system of training people.
Verse 6 – “The house of the righteous.” If you are a believing parent you belong to the house of the righteous. The house of the righteous is a technical term for Christian families. Since believers are the salt of the earth because they preserve the nation every nation must have X number of Christian families to keep it going.
“is much treasure” – much treasure is Bible doctrine. The greatest thing a believer has in his home is doctrine. The communication of this doctrine is the solution to the problems of the next generation. If doctrine is not a treasure to you, it will not be a treasure to him.
“but in the revenue of the wicked” – even though you have Bible doctrine and the potentialities of Bible doctrine in your home there is something that can eliminate the effectiveness of Bible doctrine. “In the revenue of the wicked” is literally “in the gain of the wicked.” Details of life are not necessarily wrong but that isn’t the issue here. The issue here is to place your emphasis on these things.
“is trouble” – niphal participle from the verb akar. The niphal is the passive stem and this is the word to be troubled. Here is means to receive trouble. So the literal translation in this verse would be, “”In the house of the righteous much treasure, but the gain of the wicked receives trouble.” In other words, the details of life become trouble. When parents emphasise the details of life they receive sorrow—their children receive sorrow. What makes the sorrow? We are talking about a child who grows up thinking that money/details of life is the most important thing in life. This goes back to the same old thing: failure to communicate Bible doctrine, apathy toward doctrine, indifference toward the Word of God. This is manufacturing a greater failure than such a parent will be.
Verse 7 – the foot in the mouth passage. People can talk and ruin themselves; nations can talk and ruin themselves collectively. Nationally a country can talk itself into trouble by subjective policies. Personally we can talk ourselves into trouble with God. Words are formed in the mind, in the mentality of the soul. Whatever you say, you think it first. To be able to think requires a vocabulary. To have a vocabulary and to have the ability to express it you must have a certain type of greatness. So who is great when it comes to vocabulary and brains and mind, and the ability to think it? A person to be a great person can never be a petty person. This is true of believer and unbeliever alike. A petty person is a person who basically in the mentality of his soul has mental attitude sins. When a person has mental attitude sins this contributes to a very limited vocabulary expression. A person with mental attitude sins may have a very large vocabulary but he will never use it. Instead he will use a very limited number of words to express these mental attitude sins. And this kind of person is going to talk himself into trouble with God. When there is constant dwelling on mental attitude sins God will discipline with an atrophied mind. The person thinks of little else but the use of mental attitude sins.
The first line of verse 7: how to stay out of trouble. “The lips of the wise disperse knowledge” – there is a mouth that God can use. The lips are used in pronunciation and enunciation in a language. First you have a vocabulary in the mentality of the soul, then you have a thought by putting words together, and that is followed by the thought being expressed. The wise believer is the believer who has learned Bible doctrine. With this doctrine in the mentality of the soul you have the expression of the divine viewpoint—“the lips of the wise.” And by the way, when doctrine goes into the soul there is the absence of the mental attitude sins. The lips of the wise “disperse knowledge” – he has the doctrinal viewpoint. He has a relaxed mental attitude produced by doctrine and the expressions that come out of the mouth are expressions of grace. They are expression which are relaxed. Knowledge has to do with perspective of life. The word for “knowledge” here is knowledge of Bible doctrine expressed, not necessarily in Biblical terms, but in viewpoint terms.
On the other hand it says, “but the heart of the foolish, not so.” The foolish is simply the believer minus Bible doctrine. The words “not so” introduce the subject: how to talk yourself into trouble with God.
Verse 8 – “The sacrifice of the wicked.” This is a difficult phrase to understand because you have to go back to the time in which this was written. Verse 9 mentions the way of the wicked. The first few lines tell us how we can get into trouble with prayer and how prayer can be effective. Prayer is talk! But it is talk to God. But what do you say to God when you talk to him? What do you express? How do you get into trouble when you talk to God in prayer? Psalm 56:18. You get into trouble with God every time you pray and have mental attitude sins. This is expressed by the “sacrifice of the wicked.” The wicked is simply the believer out of fellowship, a believer under the control of his old sin nature. Here we have a believer in the Old Testament who is out of fellowship and yet he offers an animal sacrifice. Ritual without reality is meaningless.
“but the prayer of the upright”—the believer in fellowship; the Father is “delighted.”
Verse 9 – “The way of the wicked” is the believer out of fellowship.
“but he that loveth him that pursues righteousness” – the pursuit of righteousness is the dynamic equation of phase two: knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good.
Verse 10 – When you talk, whatever you are expressing by way of mental attitude sins you are going to wind up under the sin unto death. “Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way.” The way is the whole system of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine corrects all of us. The believer who rejects Bible doctrine also resents discipline, therefore the discipline instead of being beneficial is grievous. This is for those who have abandoned the way.
“he that hateth reproof shall die” – the sin unto death. The reproof here is not someone personally, it is the Word of God, the divine standard. When you reject the Word of God you reject its standard.[1]
Verse 11 – “Hell and destruction” is not what the Hebrew says. The word “hell” here means the grave. All the believer gets when he dies the sin unto death is the grave. “Destruction” means the removal of the rest of his life. Cut had a plan for that believer from eternity past, but that plan was cut off X number of years before its completion.
“how much more, then, the children of men.” If God in the past has been able to take believers out of this world because he knew what was going on inside, how much more people today? The words “children of men” are the sons of Adam. God reads minds, He knows what you are thinking. Since He knows, He can pull you out quickly.
Verse 12 – “A scorner loveth not the one that reproveth him.” The scorner is the one who rejects Bible doctrine, the believer who refuses to accept the simplest principles of grace. E.g. rebound. The one who reproves is the one who communicates doctrine.
“neither will he go to the wise” – he will not expose himself to the one who knows doctrine.
Verses 13-18, a dissertation on mental attitude.
Verse 13 – “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.” The word for “merry” in the Hebrew is samach, and it does not means some type of animated overt activity. It is actually here comparable to the Greek noun for “joy,” and is the verb “rejoice. It means inner happiness, mental attitude happiness. This is said to occur in the heart, which refers to the entire soul or sometimes a part of the soul. It would be legitimate to translate this “Inner happiness,” a soul operating on all systems go. Regardless of what goes on in your life you have inner happiness. When the real you, the inner life, is so operating it becomes obvious on the exterior. When it says “maketh cheerful” this is a hiphil imperfect of the verb jatab, which really means to produce good. Usually it means to produce divine good but here we find it in the hiphil stem which means to cause to do good. When it is used with the face/countenance it means to animate. So we have inner beauty brought in as a part of inner happiness. The merry heart, then, comes from Bible doctrine, the inner resources of the soul. So the first line of this verse says, “Inner happiness causes animation of countenance.” This simply means that what you think is reflected.
“but by sorrow of the heart” – every type of grief and trend that you bring on yourself. This word “sorrow” means self-induced misery.
“the [human] spirit is broken” – dejected or despondent. In other words, the human spirit cannot properly function. No matter how much doctrine you have in the soul, if you have mental attitude sins you have blocked up the pipe.
Verse 14 – the need for Bible doctrine. When the human spirit is empty, pressure and disaster collapses the human spirit, There is nothing in the human spirit to meet these pressures. There are two kinds of believers in this verse. First there is the kind of believer who is positive toward doctrine, and then the kind of believer who is negative toward doctrine. In the first half of the verse we have a description of the wise, and in the second half a description of the fool. Both are believers and will be in eternity, and the difference between the two is one in time. In time one was in constant blessing regardless of circumstances, and one is under constant misery—really, it is self-induced misery because there is a rejection of Bible doctrine whereby God has designed His plan to function in the life of the believer.
“The heart” – where the issue is finally noted. The heart often refers to the entire soul. Generally speaking the word “heart” is used for the mentality of the soul. “he fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” This is something he is thinking. All salvation faith comes from the mentality of the soul. Faith is something you think.
“of him that hath understanding” – here is a believer who went positive toward Bible doctrine and has understanding. The word for having understanding here is the Hebrew word bin. This word has a lot of different meanings but here it has a very clear meaning. It means that on the basis of doctrine you have, you have discernment. It means you have something in the mentality of the soul and you use it. This word is in the niphal stem which is passive, and plus the fact that it is a participle it means here is a person who has been studying the Word, who has stored up in his human spirit Bible doctrine, who can use it at any point under any circumstance, and therefore has discernment. So the word bin comes to mean discernment. The passive voice means they have received the doctrine from which they receive the discernment. This should be translated, “The heart of him who has discernment [based on Bible doctrine].” What does he do? He seeks more doctrine.
“seeketh knowledge” – he keeps on seeking doctrine. Here we go from the niphal stem which causes us to receive discernment to the piel stem. The Hebrew word for “seeketh” is baqash in the imperfect tense. Batash in itself means to really go for something, to have an intense desire for something. In other words, it is a very strong positive signal from the volition of the soul. But in the piel stem, the stem of intensity, it is concentrated. So this is a strong insatiability. This is really your spiritual life and you have an insatiability for it. The imperfect tense means you keep on having it, it won’t stop over night. This is +V toward doctrine. You have doctrine; you want more doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine motivates the believer to learn more doctrine because the more you know the more you apply.
“but” – conjunction of contrast taking us back to the believer who is negative toward Bible doctrine; “the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.” Notice the contrast here. We have the heart of the one who has discernment, but we have the mouth of the one who is minus doctrine. Whenever the Hebrew talks about someone having a mouth they are talking about a person who has a vocabulary, but they never say anything. Brain in neutral; mouth in gear! Why is the word “mouth” used here? There is no doctrine in the human spirit and therefore the pipe is empty going into the mentality. The mentality has a vocabulary which can put sentences together and talk, talk, talk; but anything that comes out is minus the doctrinal viewpoint. A “fool” is the believer minus Bible doctrine. He keeps on feeding, and this is a qal imperfect of the word ra’ah, he keeps feeding on foolishness. He looks for the details of life. The fool feeds on the crutch of the details of life for his happiness. But when the crutch is knocked out from under him he falls flat on his face. The believer minus doctrine is the believer losing his salt—the salt of the earth principle.
Verse 15—“All the days.” The Christian way of life is always counted by days, never by months or years.[2]
“of the afflicted” – a believer minus doctrine. The Hebrew word for “afflicted” is ani, it means to be miserable, to be distressed, and it is reference to what a believer does to himself when he rejects Bible doctrine; “are evil” – not really evil, the word is “worthless.” The Hebrew word is ra’ah. All of the days of the believer minus doctrine are worthless.
“but he that is merry of heart” – tob leb in the Hebrew, the word for heart and the word for good. The good here is divine good, and that is divine good in the soul. So the merry of heart is the person who has divine good in the soul: inner happiness or joy in every circumstance—“he that is of divine good soul.” Divine good here comes from knowledge of doctrine. Remember the divine equation of phase two: knowledge of doctrine plus the filling of the Holy Spirit equals the production of divine good. On the other hand: Ignorance of doctrine plus carnality equals the production of human good.
“hath a continual feast” – literally, “a perpetual banquet.” This is the best possible meal perpetuated.
Verse 16 – mental attitude and occupation with Christ. “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord” – there is no verb here. The key to this phrase is the meaning of the word “little.” The word refers to some of the details of life. The Christian way of life includes some or all of the details, and they all have a framework where they operate and where they can be a great blessing to the believer. However, there is a warning which comes from Proverbs which says that if you depend upon these things for happiness they are going to make you miserable because your happiness comes from Bible doctrine. Your life is Bible doctrine. You belong to the Lord, you are in full time Christian service, and Bible doctrine must be your life. Behind this verse is a principle. If you have doctrine, lots of doctrine in your soul, you are going to have inner happiness. Your happiness depends on the Word of God and the relationship that you have with the Lord on the basis of doctrine. Therefore you have occupation with Christ, and inside you are thoroughly stabilised, you are spiritually self-sustaining, and you are qualified to handle the problems and disasters of life.
“Better to have a little” is a concept which is foreign to our thinking. The idea of having a little and that it is better to have a little than a lot is so contrary to our thinking that it is almost impossible to communicate the idea. However, this is what the Scriptures say. This is a reference to some of the details of life when you have something accompanying this. That something is described as “fear of the Lord.”
“Fear of the Lord” is a technical phrase, it does not mean to be frightened by God or about God. The word “fear” is used in two ways in the original languages of Scripture. It is used for fright, but it is generally used for awe or respect or occupation. So here it is the concept of having little of the details of life but maximum in the field of occupation with Christ. When you are occupied with Christ it means that Christ is first in your life. Occupation with Christ is the whole concept of inner happiness.
“than”
introduces a second line in which we have a contrast with the word “little.”
Here we have the words “great treasure.” The great treasure: lots of money,
great success, maximum number of pleasures, etc. The point that is being made
here is that it is your inner life that counts.
“and trouble therewith” – the word for trouble is the Hebrew word mechumah. The word means “confusion.” It means confusion in mental attitude, a breakdown in the inner spiritual system. The human spirit is minus doctrine and therefore the pipes are empty going into the facets of the soul.
Verse 17 – “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is.” There are three Greek words for love. One is a mental attitude love, a)gaph, which is found only in the mentality of the soul. The filling of the Holy Spirit produces this love. Then there is the word, filoj, which is produced by knowledge of doctrine. It is a rapport love. These are the only two types of love which are found in the New Testament. There is a third word, e)roj, which is a sex love and is one of the details of life. When we have knowledge of doctrine we have a rapport love. When we have the filling of the Holy Spirit we have a mental attitude love. When we have a combination of these two we also are the producers of divine good, we fulfil the purpose for which we remain in this life. But we must have doctrine. It teaches us how to be filled with the Spirit so that we can have a)gaph love, and how to produce the rapport love. When these conditions exist for a long period of time a marvellous type of love develops toward God.
It is possible to have a dish of cabbage and like it. Why? Love for God. When you have this love which is on the inside, the things on the outside (a piece of cabbage) which may be ghastly, monstrous, etc. but the soul operates on all systems go, and therefore because of your love directed toward God you can even take a dish of cabbage. The second aspect of love is when it is directed toward someone else.
“than a stalled ox and hatred therewith” – the word for “stalled” means an ox fed in a stall. It represents the principle of sublimation. Anything that you do for sublimation under the principle of pressure simply spells out total misery. “Hatred” refers to the whole realm of mental attitude sins. In other words, it isn’t much fun to eat something nice and be hateful at the same time. Mental attitude sins produces self-induced misery. When you are upset you can’t eat. Mental attitude sins are carried around inside. If you carry them around they first of all produce self-induced misery and you take it wherever you go. If you have this in your soul, whatever you eat you cannot enjoy good food, as represented by the stalled ox. Food is a detail of life but you can’t enjoy the details of life when you are miserable on the inside.
Verse 18 – “A wrathful man” is a believer with mental attitude sins. He has self-induced misery and every direction he goes he is going to run into the hedge of thorns. As soon as a person gets mad he stops thinking. A vindictive retaliatory modus operandi is developed immediately. Immediately this is directed toward someone else it starts trouble—“stirreth up strife,” the piel imperfect of the verb garah. The piel stem is intensive.
“but he who is slow to anger” – the believer with Bible doctrine, the person with a relaxed mental attitude; “appeaseth strife” – the word in the Hebrew is shaqaq which doesn’t mean to be an appeaser. It actually means to have tranquillity of mind. It is in the hiphil imperfect. The hiphil stem is causative active voice—he is caused to relax. What causes him to relax? Bible doctrine causes him to be completely relaxed under pressure.
Verse 19 – “The way of a slothful man is like an hedge of thorns.” The main problem here is, What does slothful mean? It is a Hebrew noun aapsel. It is taken from a verb which means to be lack, to lack self-discipline. It comes to mean to be on negative signals toward Bible doctrine. The slothful man is a believer in Jesus Christ but he is indifferent to Bible doctrine. In to the resultant vacuum in his soul is drawn mental attitude sins, self-induced misery, lack of ability to love, and an emphasis on the details of life. Here is a very miserable person. He is called a slothful man but he is a person on negative signals as far as Bible doctrine is concerned. Since he has refused Bible doctrine there is nothing left for him but the hedge of thorns. He is constantly being disciplined.
“but the way of the righteous is made plain” – “the righteous” is the believer learning doctrine and applying it. To make plain means to make a road that is very excellent. It means to be able to face every obstacle and go over it or through it. The word is actually an engineering term. It simply means to make a good road in bad country. The Hebrew word is salal. What does this mean? The good country is our moments of victory and success. The bad country is our moments of disaster and trouble and catastrophe, and so on. When a believer has Bible doctrine it makes a nice smooth road in the good country and in the bad country. It takes the believer through the difficult things of life and through the successes of life. In other words, Bible doctrine handles every pressure, disaster, suffering, and every success of life.
Verse 20 – the effects of Bible doctrine on a family. “A wise son” can either refer to a son or a daughter. He is a wise son because he has been learning Bible doctrine and using Bible doctrine. This doesn’t say he is a success in anything, but as far as God is concerned he is a success and he is a person whom God has promoted.
“maketh a glad father” – this is a continuous process. In other words, when the children learn Bible doctrine whatever they do in life, however they do it, if they please the Lord in what they are doing the parents are going to find this a source of happiness as long as they live.
“but a foolish man” – the believer who is minus doctrine. He is a source of heartache to his parents, and as he becomes an adult is says here that he “despises.” This is a qal active participle which indicates that he keeps on despising his mother. The mother is used here because once a son becomes an adult the mother is more or less helpless to handle him. This indicates failure on the part of the parents to communicate Bible doctrine. It indicates, too, that this son has become an adult with soul kinks. Soul kinks are stronger than human ties. This is literally a despising on the part of the children. The basic principle is this: If the parents fail to communicate Bible doctrine to the children, then the results in life as life develops are going to be horrible—the soul kinks, the human viewpoint, and all of the other attendant problems—and the result is, in this case, when the children become adults actually despise their parents.
Verse 21 – “Folly is a joy to him that is destitute of wisdom.” At the end of verse 20 we find the adult son despising his mother. This sets up a principle. Adult children look back at their parents with hatred instead of love. They have no love or respect, they have disrespect and hatred; they resist the whole situation. Their parents failed them in not giving them Bible doctrine and the children have learned the hard way that their parents failed them. Their hatred obviously indicates they are destitute or void of wisdom—no doctrine in the human spirit. Therefore their happiness comes from folly. Folly is used here for the details of life.
“but a man of understanding walketh uprightly” – the man of understanding is the believer who has grown up with doctrine; “walketh uprightly” – the Hebrew says, “walks into prosperity.”
Verse 22 – “Without counsel.” The word for “counsel” is doctrine, but it means doctrine taught on a personal basis such as a parent communicating doctrine to children.
“purposes are disappointed” – or, “plans are frustrated.” A parent may have great plans for the children but without doctrine these plans are frustrated.
“but in the multitude of counsellors” – should be “much instruction.” This means a parent has to stay with it. You don’t communicate doctrine once in a while; and, “they are established.”
Verses 23-26, doctrine related to the principle of grace. This is actually a parenthesis but it applies to the situation because our children will orient to grace through learning Bible doctrine.
Verse 23 – “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth.” Here’s inner happiness for children when they grow up because they have answers. The answer of the mouth is the expression of the divine viewpoint in any situation.
“and a word spoken in due season” is literally, “a word in a season.” In other words, they will be able to help someone in disaster and suffering and pressure; “how good” is divine good. So here is some of the success which comes to our children personally when they are able to communicate that doctrine to help others.
Verse 24 – “The way of life above” is doctrine for phase two; “to the wise” – this information is in the person who is wise.
“that he may depart from Sheol beneath” – in other words, our children will avoid the sin unto death. They will not be taken out before their time.
Verse 25 – “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.” The house of the proud is the house where the parents have great plans for their children in life. This is actually the destruction of the house. It doesn’t mean the house is going to be blown down, it simply means the family is not going to have happiness in the days to come. And this goes back to the principle: the children despise the parents.
“but he will establish the border of the widow” – the widow is the helpless parent who has the children all by herself without some man around to provide discipline. So many times the mother who knows Bible doctrine can gather her family around her and by communicating Bible doctrine her border is established. Her border is the periphery of her family, and while she is helpless as far as having a man around to help she is not helpless because she has something greater: Bible doctrine. Contrary to popular opinion, some of the finest children come out of divided homes—only where doctrine is. Bible doctrine takes up the slack.
Verse 26 – “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.” Mental attitude sins; “but the pure are words of grace.” In other words, the believer who stays in fellowship begins to think in terms of grace. Words of grace means vocabulary of grace. If you are going to orient to grace you have to have a vocabulary for it. The children who grow up to love their parents are the children who are oriented to grace. The word “pure” simply means a believer in fellowship.
Verse 27 – “He that is greedy for gain troubleth his own house.” Many times they grow up with the idea that their success and happiness in life depends upon making money, and they make money their source of happiness instead of having the doctrinal perspective of making money simply a detail of life to be enjoyed if you have doctrine and the right perspective.
“but he that hateth unjust gain shall be refreshed” – in other words, life does not depend upon making extra money in an unjust way through false business practice. Consequently a lot of misery is avoided.
Verse 28 – “The heart of the righteous” simply means good children who have grown up and are oriented to grace, who understand Bible doctrine, who are oriented to the plan of God. The word “heart” refers to their thinking.
“studies to communicate” – children on their own will want more doctrine and more doctrine. They will study to learn and to communicate doctrine.
“but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things” – so even in the future what they think and what they say is dependent on what their training was in the home.
Verse 29 – “The Lord is far from the wicked.” The children are going to be in for a great deal of misery. This has to do with divine discipline.
“but he heareth the prayer of the righteous” – if the children are trained properly their prayer life will be effective all of their lives, and their prayers will be heard and answered.
In verses 30 & 31 we have the opportunity of training our children in the home. This is accomplished through the eyes and the ears. The eyes are used as a system of perception, to be able to see something illustrated. The ears hear. Both of these are a basis for communicating Bible doctrine and putting it in the human spirit.
Verse 30 – “The light of the eyes” is simply learning Bible doctrine; “rejoiceth the heart” – when Bible doctrine is learned it is the basic source of inner happiness.
“and a good report maketh the bones fat” – more prosperity. As far as a parent’s responsibility in the home is concerned a good report is simply a good message. A good message is a message that has Biblical content. This is literally, “a good message causes prosperity [and, ‘abundantly satisfy’].”
Verse 31 – “The ear that heareth the reproof of life.” The children have to be reproved and Bible doctrine is the basis for this reproof.
“abideth among the wise” – you have trained them with Bible doctrine. So when you have to reprove them they will respond to the reproof because they have a doctrinal basis for doing so.
Verse 32 – “He that refuses instruction despises his own soul.” To refuse here means to reject. It is a qal active participle and it means a constant rejection of doctrine. This is to the parents. A parent who refuses Bible doctrine destroys his own soul. His own soul refers to his own inner life. The children come from the parents, therefore to despise your own soul also has the concept of despising your own children. You are not willing to learn so that you can communicate what is best for them.
“but he that heareth the reproof of life getteth understanding” – the reproof in this case is to the parents. If your children will receive reproof from you because you have undergirded this by day after day instruction of Bible doctrine then you yourself will respond when you are reproved. Reproof can never be taken unless there is a doctrinal background for taking it. Reproof is designed for profit—“getteth understanding.”
Verse 33 – “The fear of the Lord [occupation with Christ] is the instruction of wisdom.” If you are occupied with Christ you want to know what He is thinking. Occupation with Christ means enough Bible doctrine to think about Him, to know Him, to appreciate Him, to love Him. The instruction of wisdom is how you get to that place.
Why have the children failed?
“before honour is humility” – before the children can have success they must have humility. Humility means orientation to the grace of God. It means understanding Bible doctrine. It simply means thinking grace. Cf. 1 Peter 5:5ff.