Proverbs 12:14

The book of Proverbs gives us a lot of instruction on a lot of different subjects. One subject that can keep us in God’s wisdom is Godly Follower-ship. Who we follow; where we follow; how we follow are all spoken about in Proverbs. Here is one of them about our conduct and speech:

Proverbs 12:14 (ESV)

From the fruit of his mouth a man is satisfied with good,

and the work of a man’s hand comes back to him.

Making sure our words match our work is the content of this verse. Both lines are written in conjunction with the other. You can’t have good come from your lips and not have good works from your hands. You can’t wish someone a Merry Christmas with your lips and not give them what they need with your hands. That is hypocrisy. Solomon is telling us that we will be rewarded if we have consistency between our lips and our lives. Doing what we are saying is a theme in the book of James (see James 1:22-27). Those who “walk their talk” will have great reward from God. He does not mention what the reward will be. However, there are plenty of verses in Proverbs that tell us what the penalty is for not matching the two. We must make our walk match our talk.  Folly does not do that.  She talks a good game, but in the end she is death.   That is what Solomon has been trying too tell us throughout the book.   Each, single, proverb is to drive home the point that Lady Wisdom can be trusted (her works match her words) but Adulterous Folly can’t be trusted (her works do not follow her words ... they go in opposite directions).    

However, another way to read this proverb is that when speak (the fruit of his mount) and it is intended to be something good that we say, we can be satisfied, as those words won’t come back to hurt us.   The second line, then is to warn us and remind us, that our words come back at us.   So, we should be careful what we say about life, about others, about our views, about our actions.  Because, our words can bite us in the end.   If we have a pure heart and speak from a pure heart, we will be satisfied, because those words will come back and satisfy us.   Either way we interpret this proverb our heart must match our words and our words our heat.  If we are doing that, we will be satisfied.