The Leaky Bucket and the Strong Box
Introduction: The Currency of Words
We live in a culture that is drowning in words. The internet, our phones, the twenty-four hour news cycle, it is all a constant, torrential flood of information, opinion, speculation, and accusation. And in this economy, the currency that is most valued is the secret, the inside scoop, the confidential report. To know something that others do not is to have a form of power, and to share it is to feel, for a moment, like a king. But this is a fool's kingdom, built on sand and fueled by sin.
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It is not a collection of abstract platitudes for pious needlepoint. It is divine wisdom for the street, for the marketplace, for the dinner table, and for the church potluck. It diagnoses the human condition with terrifying accuracy. And here, in this sharp, antithetical proverb, Solomon puts his finger on one of the central arteries of all human community: the management of information. How we handle the words of others, particularly words spoken in confidence, is not a small thing. It is a test of character, a measure of our faithfulness, and an indicator of our spiritual maturity.
This verse presents us with two kinds of people, and there is no middle ground. You are either a slanderer, a talebearer, a gossip, or you are a man or woman of a faithful spirit. You are either a leaky bucket, spilling secrets all over the floor for everyone to slip on, or you are a strong box, a vault where a confidence can be securely kept. One builds community, trust, and peace. The other sows discord, destroys relationships, and sets fires that can consume a whole town. And make no mistake, God is intensely interested in which one you are.
The Text
He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets,
But he who is faithful in spirit conceals a matter.
(Proverbs 11:13 LSB)
The Character of the Slanderer
Let us first consider the slanderer.
"He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets..." (Proverbs 11:13a)
The Hebrew for "slanderer" or "talebearer" paints a picture of a traveling merchant, a peddler. This is someone who "goes about." He has a route. He collects his wares in one house and unloads them in the next. And what are his goods? Secrets. He traffics in confidential information. He takes what was entrusted to him in private and makes it public currency. He is a retailer of rumor.
Notice the action: "reveals secrets." The man is a blabbermouth. He cannot hold his water. A secret to him is not a sacred trust; it is a hot coal in his mouth that he must spit out before it burns him. He mistakes the thrill of disclosure for the weight of importance. He thinks that by revealing what he knows, he is showing himself to be an insider, someone in the know. But what he is actually revealing is his own profound untrustworthiness. He is advertising to the world that he is a fool, a man with no integrity.
This is not an innocent activity. Leviticus 19:16 says, "You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people." Why? Because it is fundamentally destructive. Slander breaks the bonds of fellowship. It creates suspicion and distrust. As another proverb says, "For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases" (Proverbs 26:20). The slanderer is an arsonist of relationships. He carries the gasoline and the matches, always looking for a place to start a blaze.
And why does he do it? It can be for many reasons, all of them rooted in pride and insecurity. He may do it to feel powerful. He may do it out of envy, to tear down someone he resents. He may do it simply out of foolishness, because his tongue is untethered from his brain. But whatever the motive, the result is the same: broken trust and revealed secrets. He is a walking violation of the ninth commandment, bearing false witness, or in this case, bearing true witness at the wrong time, in the wrong way, to the wrong people, which is its own form of falsehood.
The Character of the Faithful
In stark contrast, Solomon presents the faithful man.
"But he who is faithful in spirit conceals a matter." (Proverbs 11:13b LSB)
The contrast could not be sharper. The key phrase here is "faithful in spirit." This is not just about behavior; it goes to the core of the man's being, his spirit, his inner disposition. Faithfulness is his nature. The Hebrew word for faithful is related to the word Amen. It means he is solid, reliable, trustworthy, true. You can build on a man like this. You can depend on him.
And what is the characteristic action of this faithful man? He "conceals a matter." This does not mean he engages in sinful cover-ups or obstructs justice. The Bible is clear that in certain cases, a matter must be brought to the elders or to the civil magistrate. This is not talking about hiding a crime. This is about personal confidences, private struggles, embarrassing details, and sensitive information that is not yours to share. The faithful man understands that not everything needs to be known by everyone. He has the wisdom to keep his mouth shut.
He is a vault. You can entrust something precious to him, a secret, a vulnerability, and know that it is safe. He doesn't use it as leverage. He doesn't dangle it in front of others to show how much he knows. He covers it. This word for "conceals" is the same root used for covering sin, as in "blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1). The faithful man acts in a godlike way. He covers the matter out of love for his neighbor. He knows that "hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses" (Proverbs 10:12).
This is a man of understanding. The previous verse says, "Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent" (Proverbs 11:12). He has the discernment to know when to speak and when to be quiet. This silence is not a sign of weakness or ignorance; it is a sign of profound strength and wisdom. He has bridled his tongue, which James tells us is the mark of true religion (James 1:26).
Living as a People of the Word
So what is the application for us? This proverb forces us to ask some hard questions. Which of these two characters describes you? When someone tells you something in confidence, what is your first instinct? Is it to guard it carefully, or is it to think about who you can tell next?
We must cultivate the discipline of being a strong box. This means we must mortify the desire to be an insider. We must repent of the sinful pleasure we get from hearing or sharing a juicy piece of gossip. We must decide, before the temptation even arrives, that we will be the end of the line. The story stops with us. We must learn to say, "That sounds like something I don't need to know," or "That sounds like a private matter."
This is especially critical in the church. A church is a family, a covenant community. And like any family, it can be destroyed from the inside by gossip and slander. When we betray a confidence, we are not just breaking trust with one person; we are chipping away at the foundation of the whole body. Paul lists gossip and slander right alongside things like murder and sexual immorality as characteristics of a debased mind that is under the judgment of God (Romans 1:29-32). This is not a minor foible. It is a serious sin.
The ultimate reason we should be faithful in spirit is because our God is a faithful God. He is a covenant-keeping God who can be trusted. He has entrusted to us the glorious secret of the gospel, the mystery hidden for ages but now revealed in Christ (Colossians 1:26). And in that gospel, we see the ultimate act of covering. On the cross, Jesus did not expose our shame to the universe. He took our sin, our filth, our deepest, darkest secrets upon Himself, and He covered them with His blood. God, for Christ's sake, has concealed our matter. He has removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west.
Because we have been shown such covenant faithfulness, we are called to be a covenant-faithful people. We are to be people who can be trusted. Our "yes" should be "yes," and our silence should be golden. We should be known as men and women whose spirits are so faithful that you could trust us with anything. When we live this way, we are not only building up the church and honoring our neighbors; we are reflecting the very character of our faithful God.