Two Ways to Live: Receiving or Ruin Text: Proverbs 10:8
Introduction: The Great Divide
The book of Proverbs is not a collection of quaint, disconnected fortune cookie sayings. It is a sustained, inspired meditation on the great antithesis, the fundamental divide that runs through all of human history. This is the divide between wisdom and folly, between righteousness and wickedness, between the fear of the Lord and rebellion against Him. Every verse, every couplet, forces us to choose a side. There is no neutral ground in God's world. You are either building on the rock or you are building on the sand. You are either walking the narrow path or the broad one. You are either wise or you are a fool.
Our modern sensibilities chafe at this. We live in an age that worships at the altar of nuance, an age that wants to blur every distinction God has hardwired into the creation. We are told that everything is a spectrum, that truth is relative, and that the worst sin of all is to be judgmental. But the book of Proverbs, and indeed the whole of Scripture, will have none of it. It draws a razor-sharp line down the middle of the human race and says, "Here is the path of life, and there is the path of death. Choose."
This verse before us today is a perfect distillation of this great divide. It sets two kinds of people before us, identified by two different organs: the heart and the lips. One receives, and the other runs its mouth. One is wise, and the other is a fool. One builds, and the other is ruined. This is not just good advice for self-improvement. This is a description of two mutually exclusive covenants, two ways of relating to God and His world. One is the way of covenant faithfulness, which begins with a heart that is soft and receptive to God's commands. The other is the way of covenant rebellion, which is characterized by a mouth full of arrogant, empty talk that refuses instruction. As we break this verse down, we must ask ourselves which man we are. Where is our heart, and what is coming out of our mouth?
The Text
"The wise of heart will receive commandments, But an ignorant fool of loose lips will be ruined."
(Proverbs 10:8 LSB)
The Receptive Heart of Wisdom
Let's look at the first half of the verse:
"The wise of heart will receive commandments..." (Proverbs 10:8a)
Wisdom, in the Bible, does not begin with a high IQ. It does not begin with a university degree or a long list of accomplishments. Biblical wisdom begins in the heart. The heart, in Scripture, is not primarily the seat of emotion, but rather the central command center of the entire person. It is the seat of your will, your affections, your intellect, and your commitments. It is the real you. And a wise heart is, first and foremost, a receptive heart.
What does it receive? It receives commandments. The word is mitzvot, God's instructions, His authoritative directives. This is crucial. The wise man does not see God's law as an oppressive burden, a cosmic killjoy, or a list of arbitrary rules. He sees it as the manufacturer's instructions for life. He understands that the one who made the world knows how it is supposed to be run. Therefore, receiving commandments is the height of sanity. To reject them is to insist that you know better than God how to be human, which is the very definition of folly.
This act of "receiving" is an act of humble submission. It is the posture of a creature before his Creator. It says, "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." This is the opposite of the autonomous spirit of our age, which says, "I will be my own god. I will define my own reality. No one tells me what to do." The wise man knows he is not autonomous. He knows he was created for a purpose, and that purpose is revealed in the commandments of God. He gladly puts himself under authority because he knows that true freedom is found not in rebellion, but in glad obedience.
This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the creaturely recognition that God is God and we are not. It is the awe-filled, trembling, joyful submission to His authority. When your heart is in that posture, it becomes a fertile field, ready to receive the seed of God's Word. A wise man is a teachable man. He is quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. He doesn't just tolerate correction; he welcomes it. He knows that the wounds of a friend are faithful, and that the commandment is a lamp and the law a light.
The Ruinous Mouth of Folly
Now, Solomon sets this wise man in sharp contrast with his opposite number.
"But an ignorant fool of loose lips will be ruined." (Proverbs 10:8b)
Notice the parallel. The first man is wise of heart; this man is a fool of lips. Jesus taught us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). This proverb shows us the same principle from a different angle. The wise man's defining characteristic is his receptive heart. The fool's defining characteristic is his flapping mouth. His lips are the overflow valve for the folly that fills his heart.
The Hebrew describes him as a "prating fool" or a babbler. He is full of words, but empty of substance. He loves the sound of his own voice. He has an opinion on everything, but has submitted his mind to nothing. Because his heart has not received commandments, his mouth has no governor. It just runs and runs, spewing forth arrogance, foolishness, and noise.
This is the man who, when confronted with God's law, argues with it. He quibbles. He makes excuses. He talks back. He cannot simply receive a command because his pride will not allow him to be under authority. He thinks he is smarter than the accumulated wisdom of God's Word. He is the perpetual adolescent, the man who trusts in his own heart, which Proverbs tells us is the definition of a fool (Prov. 28:26).
And what is the end result of this verbal incontinence? Ruin. The text says he "will be ruined," or will come to ruin. The Hebrew word suggests being thrust down, overthrown. His own words trip him up. His refusal to listen means he never learns. He walks straight toward the cliff, all the while chattering about how beautiful the view is. His talk creates a world of illusion, but reality always has the last word. And the last word for the fool is "fall." His ruin is not an accident; it is the direct and necessary consequence of his refusal to receive instruction. He is the author of his own destruction, and his lips are the murder weapon.
The Gospel Application
This proverb presents us with a stark choice, but it also, by implication, reveals our desperate need for a savior. For who among us has a perfectly wise heart? Who among us has never been a fool of loose lips? The Scripture is clear: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Our hearts, by nature, are not receptive to God's commands. They are, as Jeremiah says, "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick." And our lips, as Isaiah confessed, are unclean.
Left to ourselves, we are all the fool in this proverb, chattering our way into ruin. We need a new heart. We need a heart of flesh to replace our heart of stone, a heart upon which God has written His laws (Ezekiel 36:26). And we need a savior who was the perfect embodiment of the wise man in this proverb.
Jesus Christ is the ultimate "wise of heart." He is wisdom incarnate. His entire life was a perfect reception of His Father's commandments. He said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me" (John 6:38). His food was to do the will of His Father. He received every commandment, even the commandment to lay down His life for His sheep. He was the perfectly teachable son, who learned obedience through the things He suffered.
And on the cross, He took upon Himself the ruin that our foolish lips deserved. He who was perfect wisdom was made a curse for us, the babbling fools. He was thrust down into the grave so that we, by faith in Him, could be lifted up. When we are united to Christ by faith, God performs a heart transplant. He gives us the Holy Spirit, who begins the lifelong process of making our hearts wise and receptive, and taming our foolish tongues.
The Christian life, then, is a life of learning to be wise of heart. It is a life of repentance for our foolish words and a life of actively, joyfully receiving God's commandments. We do this not to earn our salvation, but because we have been saved. We obey not out of slavish fear, but out of grateful love for the one who took our ruin upon Himself. So let us come to the Word of God not as critics, but as children. Let us open our hearts to receive His commands, and let us ask Him to set a guard over our mouths, that our speech might be full of grace, seasoned with salt, and a testament to the wisdom that is found in Christ alone.