The Atmosphere of Truth Text: Proverbs 12:17
Introduction: The War of the Words
We live in an age that is drowning in words. We are bombarded by them, from every screen, every device, every billboard. And because of this constant deluge, we have become careless with them. We treat words like packing peanuts, as disposable filler, forgetting that every word is a seed. Every word you speak plants something, and you will, sooner or later, eat the fruit of what you have planted. The book of Proverbs is intensely practical about this reality. It does not treat speech as a neutral activity. For Solomon, your words are either building a cathedral of righteousness or digging a mass grave.
Our text today presents us with a stark, binary choice. There is no middle ground, no demilitarized zone. Your speech either participates in the grammar of God's reality, which is truth, or it engages in the devil's insurgency, which is deceit. We have convinced ourselves that we can be mostly truthful, that a little lie here or there is just social lubrication. We think we can fudge the truth for the sake of niceness, or to spare someone's feelings, or to get ourselves out of a tight spot. But the Bible will not have it. This proverb tells us that our words are not just descriptive; they are generative. They create an atmosphere. One man speaks, and the air is cleared, righteousness is established, and things are set right. Another man speaks, and the fog of deceit rolls in, choking out trust and creating a world of shadows and suspicion.
We must understand that the Ninth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," is not simply about perjury in a courtroom. It is about the fundamental integrity of the covenant community. God is a God who speaks, and His speech creates worlds. We are made in His image, and our speech creates worlds as well, little worlds. The question is, are we building outposts of the Kingdom of Heaven, or are we building satellite offices for the father of lies?
The Text
"He who breathes out truth declares what is right, But a false witness, deceit."
(Proverbs 12:17 LSB)
The Exhalation of Reality (v. 17a)
Let's look at the first clause:
"He who breathes out truth declares what is right..." (Proverbs 12:17a)
Notice the language here. It is not "he who occasionally tells the truth," or "he who thinks true thoughts." It is "he who breathes out truth." The Hebrew word for "breathes out" or "speaks" is puach, which has the sense of puffing or exhaling. For the righteous man, truth is not a foreign language he has to look up in a dictionary. It is his native tongue. It is the very air in his lungs. It is what he exhales naturally, without thinking about it, because his heart is full of it. Jesus tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). A man whose heart has been captured by the God of truth will find that truth is his default setting.
And what is the result of this exhalation of truth? It "declares what is right." The word for "right" is tsedeq, righteousness. When a man of truth speaks, he is not just relating bare, disconnected facts. He is putting the world back into its proper order. He is aligning the situation with God's reality. When a true witness speaks in court, justice is served. When a true friend speaks to a brother in sin, repentance and restoration are made possible. When a true preacher proclaims the Word, the world is reoriented around the throne of God. Truth-telling is an act of establishing righteousness. It shines a light that allows everyone to see where things really are, to navigate reality successfully. This is why God hates a lying tongue; it is an act of cosmic vandalism. It pollutes the air and makes it impossible for righteousness to flourish.
The man who breathes out truth is a stabilizing force in his family, his church, and his community. You know where you stand with him. His "yes" is yes and his "no" is no. He is building a world of high trust, which is the necessary precondition for any godly society to prosper. He is a creator, building a habitable world with his words.
The Poison of Deceit (v. 17b)
The contrast could not be more stark. The second half of the verse shows us the alternative.
"...But a false witness, deceit." (Proverbs 12:17b LSB)
The structure here is potent. The first man breathes out truth and the result is righteousness. The second man is a false witness, and the result is deceit. The Hebrew word for deceit is mirmah. It carries the sense of treachery, fraud, and guile. It is not just about saying something that is factually incorrect. It is about the intent to mislead, to betray, to gain an advantage through falsehood. The false witness is not just mistaken; he is a traitor to reality.
And notice, the verse does not say a false witness "tells" deceit. It says a false witness, deceit. He embodies it. His very presence in a situation introduces the poison. His words are not just words; they are acts of warfare against the peace of the community. When you bear false witness, you are introducing a state of civil war where there ought to be peace. You are destroying amity. This is why lying is not a "peacetime" sin. All sin is an act of rebellion, an act of war against God, and lying is one of the principal weapons in the devil's armory.
The false witness creates a world of mirrors and smoke. In his world, nothing is as it seems. Contracts are worthless, promises are empty, and relationships are built on suspicion. He is a de-creator. He takes God's orderly world and speaks tohu wa-bohu back into it. He sows discord among the brethren, which is one of the seven things the Lord calls an abomination (Prov. 6:19). Why? Because he is attacking the very fabric of covenant life, which is held together by the bonds of trust, which are woven with the threads of truth.
Our culture has come to believe that deception is a necessary tool for getting by, or even for getting ahead. We call it marketing, or spin, or political maneuvering. But God calls it deceit. And the man who traffics in it is not merely a flawed individual; he is a false witness, an agent of chaos.
Living in the Truth
So what is the application for us? This proverb forces us to ask a fundamental question: What kind of world are my words building? When I speak, am I exhaling the clean air of truth, or the toxic fumes of deceit?
First, we must recognize that the ultimate source of all truth is Christ. He did not just come to teach the truth; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). To breathe out truth, therefore, is to have Christ dwelling in you richly. It is to be so saturated with the Word of God that what comes out of you is a reflection of His character. You cannot be a truth-teller in any ultimate sense if you are alienated from the God of truth.
Second, this means we must be ruthless with our own tongues. We must repent of the "little" lies, the exaggerations meant to make us look better, the convenient omissions that paint a false picture, the flattery that is a cloak for greed. James warns us that the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity (James 3:6). It must be brought under the dominion of Christ. This is not a matter of simply trying harder. It is a matter of consecration. You must present your mouth to God as an instrument of righteousness.
Finally, we must understand that speaking truth is not the same as being a tactless brute. The Bible commands us to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). The man who breathes out truth also declares what is right. Sometimes the most righteous and loving thing to do is to speak a hard truth. But it must be done for the purpose of building up, not tearing down. The false witness uses deceit to serve himself. The true witness uses truth to serve God and his neighbor, even when it is costly.
The gospel itself is the ultimate act of truth-telling. It tells us the hard truth about our sin, that we are false witnesses by nature, full of deceit. But it also declares the glorious truth of God's righteousness in Christ, that He became sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). When God saves you, He performs a heart transplant. He takes out a heart that pumps out deceit and puts in a new heart that breathes out truth. He makes you a true witness to His grace, so that your words no longer create chaos, but instead declare the righteousness of the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.