The Arsonist of the Soul Text: Proverbs 16:27
Introduction: The War of Words
We live in an age drowning in words. We are bombarded by them from every screen, every device, every billboard. Words are cheap, we think. They are disposable. We can type them out with our thumbs in a fit of pique and send them out to do their work, and then we can scroll on to the next thing. But the Bible, and the book of Proverbs in particular, takes a far more serious view. Words are not cheap. They are weapons. They are tools. They can build a cathedral or they can burn down a city. And the man who does not understand this is a fool who is playing with dynamite in a nursery.
Our secular culture thinks the problem with words is misinformation or disinformation. If we just had better fact checkers, they reason, if we could just stamp out the unapproved narratives, then our discourse would be healthy. But this is a shallow diagnosis. The problem is not primarily informational; it is moral and spiritual. The problem is not with the words, but with the hearts that wield them. A man can speak nothing but verifiable facts and still use them to destroy a reputation, ruin a friendship, or sow discord in a church. The issue is not the accuracy of the data, but the intent of the soul.
Proverbs is intensely practical about this. It does not give us abstract theories; it gives us character sketches. It shows us the wise man and the fool, the righteous and the wicked. And in our text today, we are introduced to one of the most destructive characters in the social landscape: the vile man, the worthless man, the man whose words are not just words, but fire.
This proverb is a warning, but it is also a diagnostic tool. We must use it to examine the world around us, to be sure, but we must first use it to examine ourselves. We are all tempted to use our words as weapons. We are all tempted to dig for dirt on our enemies. We are all tempted to enjoy the heat of a fiery controversy. But God calls us to be fire extinguishers, not arsonists. He calls us to build, not to burn. This verse shows us the anatomy of a verbal arsonist, so that we might flee from becoming one, and so that we might know how to deal with one when we encounter him.
The Text
A vile man digs up evil,
And the words on his lips are like scorching fire.
(Proverbs 16:27 LSB)
The Malignant Archaeologist (v. 27a)
We begin with the character and the activity of this man.
"A vile man digs up evil..." (Proverbs 16:27a)
The term for "vile man" here is literally a "man of Belial." This is a heavy term. Belial means worthlessness, wickedness, and ruin. In the New Testament, Paul uses Belial as a name for Satan himself (2 Corinthians 6:15). So we are not talking about someone who simply makes an occasional verbal blunder. We are talking about a man whose character is fundamentally aligned with the Accuser, with the father of lies. He is a scoundrel, a worthless fellow whose life is oriented toward destruction.
And what does this man do? He "digs up evil." This is a picture of deliberate, industrious effort. Evil is not something he stumbles upon by accident. He is not a passive observer who happens to see something unfortunate. No, he is an active archaeologist of malice. He has his shovel and his pickaxe, and he is prospecting for sin. He is searching for old faults, forgotten grievances, and buried scandals. He is not trying to find the truth in order to bring about reconciliation; he is digging for dirt in order to use it as ammunition.
This is the man who, when a conflict arises, does not seek to cover a multitude of sins with love (1 Peter 4:8). Instead, he seeks to uncover a multitude of sins with glee. He will spend hours scrolling through someone's old social media posts, looking for a comment that can be twisted. He will call up old acquaintances, not to catch up, but to fish for negative reports. He "digs." It is his project. It is his work. He puts effort into it.
This digging is the very opposite of what love does. Love "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). The man of Belial bears nothing, believes the worst, hopes for disaster, and endures only until he finds the juicy morsel of gossip he was looking for. He is driven by envy, bitterness, or a lust for power and control. He believes that by tearing others down, he can build himself up. But he is a fool. The hole he digs for his neighbor will ultimately become his own grave (Proverbs 26:27).
The Arsonist's Speech (v. 27b)
The second half of the verse shows us what this man does with the "evil" he has so diligently excavated.
"And the words on his lips are like scorching fire." (Proverbs 16:27b LSB)
He does not keep his findings to himself. The evil he digs up becomes the fuel for the fire on his lips. The image is potent. His words are not just warm or illuminating; they are a "scorching fire." This is a destructive, uncontrolled blaze. It is the kind of fire that consumes homes, destroys livelihoods, and leaves behind nothing but blackened ruins and ash.
James uses the same metaphor: "the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness... it is set on fire by hell" (James 3:6). This is precisely what Proverbs is describing. The man of Belial is a hellish pyromaniac. His gossip, his slander, his insinuations, his "just asking questions" routine, all of it is like throwing matches into a dry forest. He sets reputations ablaze. He burns down friendships. He scorches the unity of a church or a family. And like a true arsonist, he often stands back and admires his handiwork, pretending to be an innocent bystander shocked at the sudden conflagration.
Notice the connection between the two clauses. The digging and the burning are part of the same process. You cannot have the scorching fire of slander without first doing the diligent work of digging up evil. The gossip does not just invent things out of thin air, though he is certainly capable of that. His most effective work is done when he finds a grain of truth, a real fault, a genuine sin, and then pours the gasoline of malice all over it and lights the match. He takes a small offense and makes it a capital crime. He takes a past, repented-of sin and treats it as a present, defining characteristic. He is a master of disproportionate outrage.
This scorching fire is the opposite of the speech God commands. The words of the wise are like a honeycomb, "sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" (Proverbs 16:24). The vile man's words are bitter to the soul and bring sickness to the bones. The words of the righteous are for building up, for edification (Ephesians 4:29). The vile man's words are for tearing down, for destruction. He leaves a trail of relational wreckage wherever he goes.
Conclusion: Firefighters for the Gospel
So what is the takeaway for us? This proverb is a mirror before it is a window. Before we start identifying all the men of Belial out there, we must first ask the Spirit to search our own hearts. Have we ever picked up a shovel to dig for dirt on a brother? Have we ever felt the malicious thrill of passing on a negative report? Have our lips ever felt hot with the fire of slander? If so, we must repent. We must confess that we have acted as agents of Belial and not as ambassadors for Christ.
The gospel is the ultimate fire extinguisher for this kind of sin. Why? Because the gospel confronts the pride and bitterness that fuels the arsonist's heart. The gospel tells me that I am a sinner so great that it took the death of God's own Son to save me. This leaves no room for haughty superiority. The gospel tells me that God has, for Christ's sake, forgiven me an infinite debt. How then can I go out and dig up the hundred-denarii debt my brother owes me? The gospel tells me that God has covered my transgressions, that He has buried my sins in the deepest sea. How then can I justify digging up my brother's sins and putting them on public display?
When God saves us, He gives us a new job description. We are no longer to be demolition experts. We are called to be builders. We are no longer to be arsonists. We are called to be firefighters. When we see the small flame of conflict or sin in a brother's life, our first instinct should not be to fan it into a blaze with the winds of gossip. Our first instinct should be to go to that brother privately, gently, and humbly, and seek to help him extinguish it (Galatians 6:1).
A man's character is revealed by what he does with a shovel. The man of Belial digs for dirt. But the man of God, the man of Christ, takes up his shovel for a different purpose. He uses it to cover the sins of his brother in love. He uses it to bury old grievances. He uses it to build up the household of God, stone by stone. May God give us the grace to throw our shovels in the fire, and to use our words not to burn, but to heal, all for the glory of the One whose words first brought light and life into the darkness.