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They can be beautiful, alluring, deceitful, or righteous. And we all need to manage our own while using discernment to evaluate others. Let’s talk about lips. The Bible references lips over a hundred times and a third of those references are found in Proverbs.

While I was a pretty mature adolescent there were occasions where I offered my opinion about certain instructions my parents gave and I knew I was about to get in big trouble when I heard this line: “I don’t want to hear any lip out of you.” My adolescent sarcasm was sharp, but it could also get me in big trouble. On the other hand, I saw the proud smile on my parent’s face when I used my lips and my voice to sing or lead worship in church. Our lips can be used for righteousness but they can also lead us down a path of destruction if we are not careful.

Here are few lessons about the importance of our lips from proverbs:

– Evil individuals become ensnared by their untruthful lips (12:13)

– Our lips can demonstrate that we have gained wisdom (10:13)

– Truthful lips bring eternal benefits (12:19)

– Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord (12:22)

– Guarding one’s lips preserves one’s life while blabbering words results in ruin (13:3)

And what about the tongue? Practically speaking, it is hard to say anything without your tongue and your lips working together! Many of the Proverbs interchange our lips and our tongue indicating that without the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit our tongues can get us in all sorts of trouble. On the other hand, when we surrender our lives to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will bring encouragement and life to others through what we say.

Consider how James 3:5-12 reinforces the lessons from Proverbs concerning the tongue. James indicates that though our tongues are small they can do lead us into all kinds of danger that results in significant damage to self, to others, and to the kingdom of God. Just think of how much chaos happens in our world every day because of the number of lies that are spread in media. Human safety, the economy, and even one’s mental health can be impacted when lies are told. James said the tongue might be small, but it can set a blazing fire of destruction when not controlled.

Two other things that are reinforced about our lips, our tongues, and the words they produce.

Volume matters: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Yes, soft and harsh might be the literal word choice but often the volume of those chosen words indicate whether they are offered in love and kindness or in anger or revenge.

What we say and how we say brings delight to the king (16:13): King Jesus was clear in Matthew 12 that a tree can be identified by its fruit. He immediately described our words as an example being good fruit or bad fruit:

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Our temptation and maybe our tendency is to evaluate and complain about the words others use around us each day. A better path to become a mature disciple is surrender both heart and mind to God and ask him to transform us that our lips and tongues would be used to praise our father in heaven as we partner with Jesus in expressing his love and grace to those around us.

Father, help us to move beyond just admiration for the truth of scripture to obedience. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our Lord and redeemer, amen.