Commentary - Proverbs 18:20

Bird's-eye view

This proverb, like so many others, operates on the principle of sowing and reaping, but applies it directly to the realm of our speech. The verse establishes an unbreakable link between what comes out of a man's mouth and what goes into his stomach. In short, you will eat your words. This is not about some mystical karma, but about the profound, world-shaping power of language. The words we speak are not inert; they are seeds. They are productive. They create realities, cultivate relationships, build or destroy opportunities, and establish atmospheres. A man's life, his sense of satisfaction and fullness, is not something that merely happens to him. It is, to a significant degree, a harvest of his own verbal output. He will be filled, one way or another, and the menu is determined by the fruit that grows on the tree of his tongue.

The parallelism in the verse reinforces this central point. "The fruit of a man's mouth" is set alongside "the produce of his lips." This is classic Hebrew poetry, saying the same thing in a slightly different way to add emphasis and depth. The stomach being satisfied and the man being satisfied points to a deep, internal sense of well-being or, conversely, of want and distress. This proverb is a call to radical personal responsibility for our speech, reminding us that our words are boomerangs. They always come back. The wise man understands this and cultivates his speech accordingly, knowing that he will have to dine on the consequences.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

Proverbs 18 is a chapter full of contrasts between the wise and the foolish, particularly in how they interact with others. It discusses the dangers of isolation (v. 1), the fool's love for broadcasting his own opinion (v. 2), the destructive power of a fool's mouth (v. 6-7), and the life-and-death stakes of our words (v. 21). Verse 20 fits perfectly within this stream of thought. It is not an isolated aphorism but part of a sustained argument about the immense power of the tongue. It serves as the foundational principle for the even more famous declaration that follows it: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov 18:21). Verse 20 explains the mechanism of how this power works. It is not abstract. The life and death wielded by the tongue are served up on a platter for the speaker himself to consume. The satisfaction or ruin a man experiences is the direct result of the verbal world he has constructed around himself.

Key Issues

You Are What You Speak

In our modern therapeutic culture, we are often encouraged to "speak our truth" as though the act of speaking were an end in itself. The assumption is that self-expression is the highest good. But Scripture, and the book of Proverbs in particular, operates on a much more robust and realistic understanding of language. Words are not just expressive; they are creative. They do not just reflect reality; they create it. When God spoke in Genesis 1, the world came into being. And as creatures made in His image, our words have a derivative, but very real, creative power.

This proverb is a bucket of cold water for anyone who thinks they can speak carelessly without consequence. It tells us that our words are agricultural. They are seeds planted in the soil of our lives and relationships. Some seeds produce nourishing fruit, and others produce poison berries. But either way, there will be a harvest, and the farmer is the first one to eat from his own crop. A man who constantly speaks words of bitterness, slander, complaint, and folly should not be surprised when his life is full of strife, isolation, and misery. He is simply eating the fruit from the trees he planted. Conversely, the man whose speech is characterized by truth, grace, wisdom, and encouragement will find his own soul satisfied with the peace and health that such words produce.

Verse by Verse Commentary

20 From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied;

The verse begins with the outcome and traces it back to the source. The "stomach" here is a metaphor for the innermost part of a man, his soul, his sense of well-being. To be satisfied in your stomach is to be deeply content. The source of this satisfaction is "the fruit of a man's mouth." Fruit is the end product of a process of growth. It doesn't appear magically. It comes from a tree that has been planted and cultivated. So it is with our words. A life of satisfaction is the fruit of a mouth that has been cultivated in wisdom. Notice the word will. This is not a possibility or a suggestion; it is a statement of fact, a law of God's moral universe. The connection between your speech and your satisfaction is as certain as the connection between an apple seed and an apple tree. You cannot sow thistle seeds and expect to harvest figs. You cannot speak death and expect to feel alive.

With the produce of his lips he will be satisfied.

This second clause drives the point home through parallelism. "The produce of his lips" is synonymous with "the fruit of a man's mouth." The word "produce" again carries that agricultural sense of a harvest, the result of labor. Your lips are like a field. What you plant there will grow, and you are the one who will be nourished, or sickened, by the crop. The verb "satisfied" is repeated, emphasizing that this is the central issue. God has designed the world such that a man's deep, personal contentment is inextricably tied to his own verbal conduct. This is a great encouragement to the righteous and a fearsome warning to the fool. If your life is full of turmoil, a good place to start your investigation is your own mouth. If you desire a life of peace and satisfaction, you must begin by planting the seeds of peace and satisfaction with your lips.

Application

The application of this proverb is intensely practical and must be applied daily, even moment by moment. It requires us to become attentive auditors of our own speech. We must stop thinking of our words as disposable and start treating them as seeds. Before you speak, ask yourself: "What kind of fruit will this word produce? Is this a seed of peace or a seed of strife? Is this a seed of encouragement or a seed of bitterness? Am I willing to eat the fruit that will grow from this comment?"

This principle applies to every area of life. In a marriage, a husband and wife will be satisfied with the fruit of gentle, loving, and forgiving words, or they will be starved by the produce of sharp, critical, and resentful words. In the workplace, an employee who speaks with diligence and respect will eat the fruit of opportunity, while one who grumbles and gossips will find himself eating the bitter fruit of unemployment. On the internet, a man can sow to the wind with angry tirades and find he reaps the whirlwind of public scorn, or he can speak with measured wisdom and find himself satisfied with a harvest of thoughtful engagement.

Ultimately, our only hope of taming the tongue is the gospel. James tells us that no man can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:8). Our mouths naturally produce the fruit of our fallen hearts. This is why we need a new heart. When Christ comes into a man's life, He begins a work of renovation from the inside out. He gives us His Spirit, who produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness in our hearts (Gal 5:22-23). And when that fruit is in the heart, it will inevitably begin to show up in the "produce of his lips." The Christian is one who, by grace, is learning to speak words that are consistent with the new creation he is in Christ, and as he does, he begins to taste the satisfaction that comes from eating the fruit of righteousness.