Do Your Words Nourish or Crush? Proverbs 15 Sermon
Scripture: Proverbs 15:1–8
Series: Proverbs Advance
Preacher: Russell Smith
Date: July 19, 2026
Church: Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, OhioT
heme verses: Proverbs 15:1, 4
Are words really that powerful?
Yes. We think words are cheap, but they may be some of the most powerful tools in our kit. Words have power to heal and to destroy, to build up and to tear down. The way we talk shapes the way we think, the way we act, and ultimately reality itself. And Jesus says we will give account for every empty word, because our words reveal what is stored up in our hearts.
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We are continuing through this Sabbath month series, Advance: Taking a Step with the Spirit. We are inviting you to read your way through the book of Proverbs this month, a chapter a day: thirty-one days in July, thirty-one chapters of Proverbs. If you haven’t been doing that, you can always pick up now. The idea is to identify a topic for which we are seeking God’s wisdom, something where we need direction and want discernment about our next step of faith. Then, as we marinate in the Proverbs, day in and day out, we trust that God will speak to us and apply particular proverbs to particular parts of our lives.
We are now in what I call the “fortune cookie” section of Proverbs: little tidbits where each verse looks like it came right out of a fortune cookie. That makes it really hard to preach. These are compact little verses in Hebrew, and the riddles sometimes turn on a pun or on similar-sounding words. Translators do the best they can, but it is really challenging, and sometimes it’s helpful to try different translations. So this week we are taking a small selection with some thematic connectedness, and I want to step through those eight verses.
Each proverb stands alone. And yet I do believe that if there is not intention in the arrangement, there is certainly providence in the arrangement. The very arrangement of these fortune cookies invites you to ponder how they interconnect, how they comment on one another, how they build. That is part of the skill of learning to linger in Proverbs.
Proverbs is not designed for you simply to go through and say, “Okay, verse 1: ‘A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.’ Don’t be angry. Check. Got it.” The point of a proverb is never to say, “I’ve mastered this.” Each proverb is an invitation to explore, to ponder, and to wonder, which is kind of maddening in our hyper-efficient age. It’s not simply about cognitive understanding of the content. It’s about pondering it so that it sinks into your heart and actually shapes who you are. As we linger over things that seem painfully obvious, they begin to sink into our minds, shape the synaptic pathways in our brains, and form how we think. That’s why a slower read is worthwhile.
The power of the tongue runs through this passage. Our words have greater power than we ever dare admit. The way we talk and frame things shapes our way of thinking about them, our way of acting, and ultimately reality itself. We think words are cheap, but what if they are actually some of the most powerful tools in our kit?
Words Are Not Neutral
The first theme, and I suspect it’s one you have seen all throughout Proverbs, is this: words are not neutral. Words have power. They have power to heal and power to destroy, power to build up and power to tear down. When you put words out there, they will have some effect, whether we like it or not. About half of these eight verses deal explicitly with the power of the tongue.
Take the first two: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” In one sense, it’s “Don’t be angry, check. Don’t just vomit words out, check. Got it.” But let’s dive in a little deeper.
Let’s take a momentary lesson in reading Old Testament poetry. Whether you are reading Proverbs, the Psalms, or the poetic sections of the prophets, all Old Testament poetry is built around parallelism. Each verse is broken into two parts, A and B, and most translations make that clear by indenting part B. English poetry is often structured around rhyme or meter. The structure of Hebrew poetry is always A and B: how does part one relate to part two? Does it add? Does it restate the same truth another way? Does it present a puzzle? In this passage it is pretty much all contrast. But that’s just the beginning. Then you get into the details. How do the particular words comment on each other? What is the nature of the contrast? Is it a direct contrast, or a bit of a flip and a turn?
So let’s play with this a little. “A gentle answer turns away wrath.” The Hebrew word for gentleness here deals with softness, suppleness, delicateness. But I want you to understand: it is not weakness. When we think “gentle” in English, we sometimes think “weak.” It’s not. Gentleness, in the broader Christian understanding, is proportionate, rightly suited, measured. Gentleness is wisely controlled strength. Contrast that with the harsh word. The hebrew word used here connotes a painful word, a word that causes hurt; the King James renders it “grievous.” The emphasis is on the effect in the listener.
Then there is the “answer” versus the “word,” two different terms, both very accurately translated. A word is a declaration. An answer only happens after you’ve listened. An answer only happens when something else has happened before it; it is a response. An answer is not a first word; it is a second word. The implication is this: if I offer a gentle answer, I’ve been listening. I’ve been paying attention. I’ve been adjusting my words to what has come to me. A harsh word is different. A harsh word says, “I am declaring. I’m putting it out there, regardless of what has come to me.”
Look, too, at the verbs. A gentle answer “turns away” wrath: it defuses, deflects, calms. A harsh word “stirs up” anger: it creates something that wasn’t there. Words have the power to create.
You sit with that for a while, and you realize these contrasts raise questions. That is why, the more you sit with the Proverbs, the more questions they raise, not necessarily the more answers you get. You want a better life? Ask better questions. The more you dig into the Proverbs, the better the questions they ask of you. How much do I spend my life answering versus declaring? How much do I spend listening versus just speaking?
All of this may seem obvious. But in the act of sitting with it and picking it over, it shapes our minds. The truths work their way in, and they are more likely to come to mind when we need them. The point of the pondering is not, “Do I understand this truth?” The point is, “How do I internalize this truth?”
That leads into the next verse: “The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.” The image behind “gushes” is a bubbling fountain, bubbling up without filter and without stopping. Am I just bubbling over with words, without giving them much thought and without much listening? A fool’s speech is just a gush of words. There may not be anything directly harmful or injurious in them, but there isn’t much edifying or encouraging either. They’re just gushing forth.
And the tongue of the wise “adorns” knowledge. What is adorning? You adorn yourself when you get dressed in the morning. Have you ever given thought to how you adorn yourself? How does my outfit look? Does everything go together? Or think of decorating for Christmas: you put up the tree and adorn it, giving thought to how everything goes. The tongue of the wise gives thought, gives direction, and arranges things rightly. It is careful artisanship rather than unfiltered overflow.
See how, when we linger with it, it raises other questions? Do my words just bubble forth thoughtlessly, or do I give thought to arranging and carefully presenting them? Do I give as much thought to my words as I do to my wardrobe? As much as I do to my house décor? As much as I do to managing my portfolio, or to any of my hobbies? These are my questions as I dig in and wrestle. As you dig in and wrestle, you may find that the Holy Spirit presents you with different questions. The Proverbs are compact and tight, but they are deliberately designed to spark questions in us.
The Lord Watches and Weighs Our Words
The next theme that comes out of this little passage is that the Lord watches and weighs our words. Verse 3 says, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” That is really interesting. We are immersed in all these practical admonitions, and suddenly, boom: the eyes of the Lord are everywhere. Scholars argue about whether the Proverbs were intentionally arranged this way. I don’t think it really matters. If we go slowly and carefully through the Proverbs, it hits us, coming right after all these words: the eyes of the Lord are on me, taking note of every word I say. It hits with a punch. God sees all and takes note of all. Nothing escapes God’s notice.
That truth can be terrifying, or it can be deeply encouraging, depending on your relationship with the Lord. If you are in a relationship of trust, reliance, and learning to follow, it can be wonderfully encouraging: the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, I’m trusting in the Lord, and I’m in his hands. If you are holding the Lord at a distance (“Let me just do my religious stuff so I can get on with my life”), that can be a little terrifying.
If you know the back of the dollar bill, you know the all-seeing eye: the Eye of Providence, an eye inside a triangle radiating light, atop an unfinished pyramid. It is worked into our currency. The designers incorporated it into the Great Seal of the United States, adopted in 1782, and it has been printed on the back of the one-dollar bill since 1935. It was a fairly standard piece of Christian iconography in that era, and it represents God’s all-seeing providence watching over our nation. But it also reminds us of the truth of this verse. The eye of the Lord is everywhere, keeping watch and taking note of every action, and I would suggest, in the context of this passage, taking note of every word.
A little further on, Proverbs 16:2 says, “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.” The Lord doesn’t just see; the Lord also weighs. There is an evaluative stance that God takes with us all.
That evaluative piece takes us to Jesus’ words when he confronted the Pharisees. He ties the evaluating sight of the Lord to our words: “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” That all-seeing, all-knowing eye ties back to all of our words. The Lord watches and weighs our words.
Words Have Power to Shape the World
The next theme, and the last one we’ll deal with, is that words have power to shape the world. Verse 4: “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.”
Right there, you see that your words have power. The soothing tongue is active: it is working to heal, to make better, to bind up. Your words have power to nourish, like a tree of life. Trees are strong. They provide shade and security and fruit. Ponder this: do my words bring nourishment? Do my words bring refreshment?
Think about a magnificent fruit tree. We were just down in South Carolina, and somebody brought a bushel of fresh South Carolina peaches over to my mother. Y’all, you just don’t get the good stuff up here. You have to go to a farm and get it fresh off the tree, and it is succulent, it is sweet, it is nourishing, and it is good. Are your words like that? Are your words like a fine, ripe peach that nourishes, delights, and builds up?
Or are they a perverse tongue? In English, “perverse” carries some odd connotations, but in the Hebrew it simply means twisted. It is like a bad funhouse mirror that distorts everything and makes everything unlike reality: a tongue that twists everything, makes things bigger than they actually are, and takes things out of context. And it crushes the spirit. Do you want your words to nourish and provide security, or do you want them to crush the spirit?
The next few verses may not have a direct connection to words, but they have a tangential one. Verse 5: “A fool spurns a parent’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence.” Here the connection to words may simply be for parents. What kinds of words are you sowing, and what kinds of correction are you sowing, in the lives of your children? And it invites children to hear their parents’ words as something more than just words, perhaps even as a tree of life.
Verse 6: “The house of the righteous contains great treasure, but the income of the wicked brings ruin.” The contrast of house and income is interesting. The house, the household or estate, implies the wholeness of life: one’s whole property and being. The wicked zero in on income. That’s what they focus on: gain. And in so doing, they neglect other things that are important, like relationships, integrity, and community. The house of the righteous contains treasure, and treasure is more than finance. Treasure is anything of great worth, and other parts of Proverbs tell us that wisdom is of great value. We could focus simply on the balance sheet, without the greater context: Is there love? Is there joy? Is there wisdom? Are there relationships? Could it be that one of the reasons this little proverb is nestled here is that your words reflect your treasure? How much do your words impart value and treasure?
As you work through Proverbs, the Lord may be laying other things on your heart, and these verses may hit you differently. I am simply giving an example of how, if you focus on words, the proverbs comment on one another.
Verse 7 brings us right back to words and closes this unit in a way: “The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not upright.” Here you have to ponder the actual contrast. It isn’t “the lips of the wise spread knowledge, and the mouths of fools spread a lack of uprightness.” It’s the lips of the wise versus the heart. It leads us to see that what comes out of our mouths is coming out of the overflow of our hearts. Your words are the overflow of your heart.
The Words We Offer to God
The last verse we get to is verse 8: “The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.” Here it gets interesting, because it shifts from the words we give one another to the words we offer to God. What are the words you offer to God? Think about your prayers. Do your prayers sincerely reflect your heart? Going back to the previous verse, words are the overflow of the heart. Or are your prayers rote, going through the motions? Are your religious observances things you do simply because that’s what you do, or are they deeply rooted in your inner world? Words don’t just have power to affect the world around us. Words deeply shape how we relate to God.
This puts me in mind of a parable Jesus tells in Luke 18: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”’” He has plenty of words, but they reflect something of the pride in his heart and a lack of self-reflection. “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This parable has been illustrated in a number of ways. One painting, by Barent Fabritius in 1661, is part of a series of parables he created for the Lutheran church in Leiden. In the center you see the Pharisee kneeling, looking all pious, pouring out his words, his words just bubbling forth. Back in the corner, hard to see between two pillars, is the publican on his knees, not looking up, expressing his heart. On one side, the Pharisee goes out feeling very justified, and hovering over him is Satan. On the other side, the tax collector comes out with an angel above him. Fabritius is making a comment on the religious words we share. If they are rooted in hypocrisy, they get us nowhere. If they are rooted in a sincere longing to be before God, they get us somewhere.
I prefer another image, though, by John Everett Millais. It comes from his celebrated series The Parables of Our Lord, one of the masterpieces of Victorian book illustration and one of the more popular devotional books of that era. He spent nearly seven years designing twenty parables, and the engravings, produced by the Dalziel Brothers, became enormously influential in nineteenth-century religious publishing. In the background, the Pharisee looks pious. In the foreground, in the darkness, is the tax collector. What I like is that Millais shows the inner world through the actions. You see the genuine contrition, the heartfelt penitence before the Lord, in the tax collector. His words are sincere: “Lord, have mercy on me.” There is sincerity; there is integrity. His words come out of the overflow of his heart, while the Pharisee stands there, blissfully unaware of his own inner world.
So I don’t have a hard conclusion for you, because the Proverbs leave us with riddles and questions to ponder. Do my words nourish, or do they crush? Do they heal, or do they distort? Do my words enrich others, or are they only for me? Am I mindful of the Lord’s watchful evaluation of my words? Do my words reflect a sincere desire to connect with the Lord? I invite you to ponder these. Sit with them, and linger with them.
Invitation to Reflection
Take a few quiet moments to linger with these questions before the Lord. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind a conversation, a relationship, or a prayer where your words need his healing, and offer it to him with the tax collector’s honesty.
Questions for Reflection
How much of my life do I spend declaring rather than listening and answering?
Do I give as much thought to my words as I do to my wardrobe, my home, or my portfolio?
Do my prayers sincerely reflect my heart, or have they become rote?
This sermon is part of the Digital Discipleship Resources of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. We create resources to help people take their next step of faith with Jesus.
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