Bird's-eye view
This proverb sets before us a stark and simple contrast, one that is central to the wisdom of God: the way of preservation and the way of destruction. The instrument that determines the path is the tongue, and the battleground is the mouth. Solomon employs a powerful metaphor, comparing a man's life, his very soul, to a fortified city. In this image, the mouth is the main gate. A wise man understands that a city is only as secure as its gate, and so he posts sentries, scrutinizes all traffic, and maintains strict discipline. This vigilance results in life, safety, and peace. The fool, on the other hand, is lax. He flings the gates wide open, celebrating his lack of inhibition as a form of freedom or openness. But an open gate is an invitation to every enemy, and the end of that carelessness is not liberty, but utter ruin. This is a fundamental lesson in spiritual warfare; self-control, particularly over our speech, is not a matter of mere etiquette but of life and death.
The parallelism is antithetical and sharp. "Guards his mouth" is set against "opens wide his lips." "Keeps his soul" is the polar opposite of "comes to ruin." There is no middle ground offered. The tongue is a fire, as James tells us, and you either control it as a tool, keeping your house warm, or it burns the whole city down. This proverb is a call to self-government under God, recognizing that the words we speak have the power to either build up the walls of our life or to tear them down, leaving us exposed to every spiritual marauder.
Outline
- 1. The Two Paths of the Tongue (Prov 13:3)
- a. The Path of Preservation: The Sentry at the Gate (Prov 13:3a)
- b. The Path of Destruction: The Unguarded Opening (Prov 13:3b)
Context In Proverbs
Proverbs 13 is a collection of couplets that frequently contrast the righteous and the wicked, the wise and the foolish, the diligent and the lazy. This verse fits squarely within that pattern. It follows verses that discuss the fruit of a man's mouth (v. 2) and precedes a verse contrasting the lazy soul with the diligent soul (v. 4). The immediate context, therefore, is one of cause and effect in the moral realm. What you say has consequences (v. 2), how you speak has consequences (v. 3), and what you desire without work has consequences (v. 4). The book of Proverbs repeatedly returns to the theme of the tongue. Words can be a tree of life (Prov 15:4) or a deep pit (Prov 22:14). The power of life and death are in the tongue (Prov 18:21). This particular proverb, with its military metaphor of guarding a city gate, provides one of the most vivid illustrations of why such vigilance over our speech is necessary for our very preservation.
Key Issues
- The Mouth as a City Gate
- The Relationship Between Speech and the Soul
- The Nature of Folly as Carelessness
- The Inevitability of Ruin for the Unbridled
- The Practice of Verbal Self-Control
The City of Mansoul
The Scriptures have much to teach us on the subject of guarding our tongues, and this is one place where the instruction is quite pointed. The imagery here is that of a person's life as a walled city. John Bunyan was not the first to think this way. The person who guards the gates, who has watchmen on the tower, who has sentries with spears at the entryway, is a person who keeps or guards his life. The idea is that if you keep the gates, you keep the city. Your soul, your nephesh, is the city itself. Your mouth is the main gate. All commerce, all traffic, all visitors, whether friend or foe, must pass through the gate.
A wise ruler understands this. He knows that the safety of everyone within the walls depends entirely on the discipline maintained at the gate. He doesn't just let anyone wander in or out. He interrogates visitors. He inspects cargo. He is suspicious, in a godly sense. The fool thinks this is all very stuffy and restrictive. He wants to be known as an "open" person. And so he is. He is open to every passing whim, every foolish word, every bit of slander, every corrupting influence. His city has no defense. This proverb tells us that the man who cannot govern his own speech is as vulnerable as a city whose walls have been reduced to rubble.
Verse by Verse Commentary
3a The one who guards his mouth keeps his soul;
The first clause describes the wise man. He guards his mouth. The Hebrew word is notser, which means to watch, to keep, to preserve, to be a sentry. This is an active, diligent, and constant state of watchfulness. It is not a passive silence, but an intentional governance. He is a watchman on the wall of his own life. What does he guard against? He guards against letting foolishness out, and he guards against letting poison in through foolish agreements or oaths. He monitors his words carefully. He asks himself, is this true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? Is it gracious and salty, fit for the occasion? The result of this vigilance is that he keeps his soul. The word for soul here is nephesh, which refers to the whole life, the person, the self. By controlling the gate, he preserves the entire city. His life is kept safe from the troubles that an untamed tongue inevitably brings. As another proverb says, "Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles" (Prov 21:23).
3b The one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Here is the contrast, the path of the fool. He is the one who "opens wide his lips." The picture is one of a gaping, unrestrained mouth. The gates of his city are thrown open and left unattended. He says whatever he thinks, whenever he thinks it. He mistakes this lack of self-control for authenticity or transparency. He boasts, he slanders, he gossips, he jests foolishly, he speaks rashly. For a time, this might even look like a successful strategy. An open city is "open for business," and there can be a lot of traffic, a lot of action. But this is always short-term gain for long-term loss. An open gate does not distinguish between friend and foe, between profitable cargo and a Trojan horse. The end of this policy is not prosperity, but ruin. The Hebrew word is mechittah, which means destruction, terror, ruin. It is an utter shattering. The fool's own words bring about his downfall. He talks himself into poverty, into fights, into disgrace, and ultimately, into judgment. His lack of a verbal filter ensures the complete collapse of his life.
Application
This proverb is a diagnostic tool for our spiritual health. Do you have a sentry posted at the gate of your mouth, or are you an open-city fool? The apostle James tells us that the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, and that it is set on fire by hell (James 3:6). He says that if anyone can bridle his tongue, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body as well. This proverb is the Old Testament root of that teaching.
We live in an age that celebrates "speaking your truth" and letting it all hang out. This is just a modern gloss on "opening wide your lips." The world encourages us to be unguarded, but God calls us to be self-controlled, which is a fruit of the Spirit. This self-control is not a grim, white-knuckled legalism. It is the joyful discipline of a man who knows his own heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and therefore refuses to let it spew its contents all over the landscape. He knows he needs a new heart, one that has been cleansed by the blood of Christ.
The ultimate problem is not our lips, but our heart, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The only way to truly guard our mouth is to have God guard our heart. The gospel is the good news that God has provided a way for our corrupt hearts to be replaced. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, He begins the work of posting His own divine sentry at the gate of our lips. Our job is to cooperate with Him, to mortify the fleshly desire to blurt out every foolish thing, and to cultivate the spiritual discipline of speaking words of grace that build others up. The man who learns this discipline will keep his life. The one who refuses will find that his own words have brought his world crashing down around him.