Proverbs 25:25 (ESV)

[25] Like cold water to a thirsty soul,

so is good news from a far country.

[26] Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain

is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

[27] It is not good to eat much honey,

nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.

[28] A man without self-control

is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Four concepts or principles run through this chapter. 1. Be careful who you listen to. 2. Be careful what you say. 3. Be careful to minister to the less fortunate. 4. Be careful not to think too highly of yourself. First, be careful who you listen to. Good news is “like cold water to a thirsty soul” (Prov 25:25),  but listening to the wicked, or to unwise counsel has consequences. Part of the political divide in our country today is the result of people listening only to those who think like they do. We fail to listen. We fail to seek to understand. We fail to respect others. “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (. Prov 25:2). Rather than searching things out we prefer to listen to those who agree with us.

This is a result of failing to heed the fourth principle: Be careful not to think too highly of yourself. We assume that our perspective is right. We assume that those who think like us must be right. But there is always another side to the story. Proverbs 25:7b-8 warn, “What your eyes have seen do not hastily bring into court, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbor puts you to shame?” Our perception is not always right. We need to learn to listen well.

We also need to learn to speak slowly. James 1:19 warns, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Too often the opposite is true. We are quick to speak and slow to hear. We react instead of discerning. The result is that we speak words that reveal ignorance. We speak words that pass on misinformation. We speak words that lack God’s wisdom. We speak words that harm and destroy rather then heal and build up. We fail to exercise self-control over our tongues.

The third principle, be careful to minister to those less fortunate, almost seems out of place with the other three. Principles one, two, and four all are related to listening and speaking. But, there is a cross-over between them. Principle Four, Be careful not to think too highly of yourself, is related to what we listen to and what we speak, but it is also related to how we treat others. Further, our words can deliver life or they can wound terribly. Finally, listening well to those who are less fortunate is the first step to ministering effectively to them. All four principles work together.

So, that leaves us with four questions. First, who are we listening to, and are we listening well? Second, what are we speaking. Are we speaking words of life, health, and peace, or words that wound, kill, and destroy? Third, are we even aware of the hurts of those around us. Those less fortunate may be the poor, but they may also be the hurting, the lonely, and the broken. Fourth, are our thoughts and decisions based on self-focus or on listening well to others? Are we more interested in our own acknowledgement then on serving others? In the end, all of these principles come down to this last one. Don’t think too highly of yourself.

The Apostle Paul warns us, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom 12:3). Perhaps if we heeded his warning we would listen better, speak less, seek to understand, reach out to serve others, and think less of ourselves. That is really what Proverbs 25 is calling us to do. Will we listen?