The Unwalled Man: On Honey, Hubris, and a Ruined City Text: Proverbs 25:27-28
Introduction: The Architecture of the Soul
The book of Proverbs is intensely practical. It is divine wisdom for calloused hands and muddy boots. It does not give us abstract platitudes for decorating a quiet study; it gives us hard-nosed instructions for governing our tongues, our wallets, our homes, and, most fundamentally, our own souls. And here, in these two verses, the men of Hezekiah have compiled for us a sharp, potent distillation of wisdom concerning two great temptations that threaten to level any man: the temptation of indulgence and the temptation of pride. These are not separate problems; they are two heads on the same dragon.
The first verse warns us about a good thing taken to excess, and the second gives us a devastating architectural image for the man who fails to heed this kind of warning. We are being told that the human soul has a structure, a design. It is meant to be a city, a fortress, a habitation for the Spirit of God. It requires walls, gates, and a governor. But our modern sensibilities recoil from this. We are told to follow our hearts, to let it all hang out, to be unrestrained. Our culture celebrates the unwalled man. He is authentic, they say. He is vulnerable. He is free. The Bible says he is a ruin. He is a city broken into, a pile of rubble, open to every passing marauder, every stray dog, every foolish whim, every demonic suggestion.
These two proverbs, set side by side, teach us a crucial lesson. The man who cannot say "no" to a good thing like honey is the same man who cannot say "no" to the intoxicating poison of his own glory. And the man who is drunk on himself is a man who has abandoned his post. He has left the city gates unmanned. He has torn down his own walls. This is not a small matter of personal discipline. This is the very essence of sanctification. God is in the business of building cities, and the devil is in the business of tearing them down, one soul at a time.
The Text
To eat too much honey is not good,
Nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.
Like a city that is broken into and without a wall
Is a man without restraint over his spirit.
(Proverbs 25:27-28 LSB)
Good Things and Gaudy Traps (v. 27)
The first proverb sets up the principle with a simple, physical illustration before driving home the spiritual point.
"To eat too much honey is not good, Nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory." (Proverbs 25:27)
Honey, in the Scriptures, is a picture of blessing, sweetness, and the goodness of God's provision. The promised land was one flowing with milk and honey. The words of God are said to be sweeter than honey. Honey is a good thing. But the warning here is about surfeit, about gluttony. A good thing, when pursued without restraint, becomes a bad thing. Too much honey will make you sick. It is a simple, undeniable lesson in the law of diminishing returns. The goodness is not in the thing itself, but in the proper use of the thing within the boundaries God has established.
This is the foundation of all temptation. The devil rarely tempts us with things that are utterly foul on their face. He tempts us with good things, twisted and taken to excess. Food is good, but it becomes gluttony. Rest is good, but it becomes sloth. Love is good, but it becomes lust. God has given us a world full of honey, but He has also given us the gift of limits. To reject those limits is to turn a blessing into a curse.
And then the proverb pivots: "Nor is it glory to search out one's own glory." This is the spiritual application of the honey principle. Glory, honor, reputation, the esteem of others, these things can be good. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. We are to live in such a way that others see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. But the moment we begin to "search out" our own glory, the moment we start to chase it, to manufacture it, to consume it for our own satisfaction, it turns to poison. It becomes vainglory.
The glory-seeker is a spiritual glutton. He is stuffing himself with the praise of men, and it is making him sick to his soul. He thinks he is pursuing honor, but the proverb tells us his quest is not glory. It is an inglorious business. True glory is something God gives; it is not something we can find by searching. The man who seeks his own glory is like a man trying to bottle sunlight. The moment you cap it, the light is gone. The moment you grasp for glory, it turns to dust in your hands. Christ tells us the principle: whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Glory is a byproduct of faithful service, not the goal of it.
The Defenseless Soul (v. 28)
The second proverb gives us the consequence of this unrestrained appetite for honey and honor. It provides a stark and memorable image of the man who lives without internal government.
"Like a city that is broken into and without a wall Is a man without restraint over his spirit." (Proverbs 25:28 LSB)
In the ancient world, a city without walls was not a city. It was a temporary settlement, a campsite, a future ruin. It was utterly defenseless. A wall was the line between order and chaos, safety and slaughter, civilization and the wild. A city without walls had no way of distinguishing between friend and foe, citizen and invader. It was open to every marauding band, every wild animal, every corrupting influence. Its wealth could be plundered in an hour. Its people could be enslaved or killed at will. It was a place of constant anxiety and inevitable destruction.
This, the Bible says, is the state of the man "without restraint over his spirit." The word for spirit here is ruach. It refers to his breath, his will, his inner man, his disposition. The man who cannot govern his own spirit, who has no self-control, is this broken-down city. His lack of internal rule makes him vulnerable to every external assault.
Think of what this means. A man without restraint over his anger is open to the devil's invasion. A man without restraint over his appetites is a slave to his belly. A man without restraint over his tongue will set his whole world on fire. A man without restraint over his eyes will be led into a thousand lusts. He has no defenses. Every stray thought can become a resident. Every fleeting temptation can become a tyrant. He is not a free man, as the world would have him believe. He is the most pitiable of slaves, a slave to the chaos of his own heart.
And we must be clear. This "restraint" or "self-control" is not something we can manufacture through sheer willpower. This is not a call to Stoicism. Remember Galatians. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23). It is God who builds the walls of the soul. Sanctification is the process of God, by His Spirit, teaching us to govern the city He has redeemed. He gives us His law as the blueprint for the walls. He gives us His Spirit as the power to build them. Our part is the active, diligent, faith-fueled work of mortifying the flesh and yielding to the Spirit. It is to, in the strength God provides, post guards on the gates of our eyes and ears and mouths.
Building the Walls in a World of Rubble
So what is the takeaway for us? We live in a culture that is actively engaged in tearing down walls, both literal and spiritual. We are told that all boundaries are oppressive, that all restraint is inauthentic. Our entire civilization is becoming a city broken into and without a wall, and it is wondering why the barbarians are running rampant in the streets.
The Christian response must be to become master builders. We must, by the grace of God, be men and women who have rule over our own spirits. This begins by renouncing the search for our own glory. The humble man is the one who knows he cannot defend his own city. He has surrendered the keys to the King. He has asked the Lord Jesus to be his wall and his defender.
When we are justified by faith, God declares our ruined city to be His own. He moves in. And then the glorious work of rebuilding begins. This is sanctification. Every time you, by the Spirit, say no to that second helping of honey, you are laying a stone in the wall. Every time you refuse to click the link, you are reinforcing a gate. Every time you bridle your tongue and refuse to pass on that juicy bit of gossip, you are setting a watchman on the parapet. Every time you confess your sin and turn from it, you are kicking out an enemy who had breached your defenses.
The man who seeks his own glory is too proud to admit his city is in ruins. He pretends the rubble is a monument to his freedom. But the man who seeks God's glory knows that his only hope is for God to be his defense. And paradoxically, the man who is walled in by the grace and law of God is the only man who is truly free. He is free from the tyranny of his own appetites, free from the fear of the enemy, free to be what God created him to be.
The unrestrained man is a ruin. But there is a great promise in the prophet Zechariah. He foresees a day when Jerusalem will be a city without walls, not because it is defenseless, but because the multitude of people is so great, and because, the Lord says, "I will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst" (Zech. 2:4-5). This is our hope. We build the walls of self-control in our own lives now, in faithfulness to God, as we look toward that day when our ultimate security will not be our discipline, but the fiery, glorious, all-encompassing presence of God Himself.