My mouth speaks what is true,
for my lips detest wickedness.
Summary: Solomon’s reference to lips detesting wickedness brings to mind the power of taste. How is our taste developed? Today we look at one small aspect of this question.
From a certain point of view, you might say that Proverbs is the same message said a thousand different ways. Another way of looking at it is the way a wine taster looks at a glass of wine. They sniff and swirl, hold it to the light, take another sniff, and then with the caution of a hunter approaching his game, they stealthily approach the rim of the glass and take a tentative sip.
For many of us, the trip from the lip to the throat is a short one. (Gulp!) Not so our wine connoisseur! He or she allows the wine to rest on the tongue. The taste buds, grouped in clusters, are mapped to different parts of the tongue. Each cluster reports in with its analysis of the taste. With the reporting done, the next step depends on the social situation.
If the wine is to be consumed, our expert gently swallows the beverage (unless, of course, it is terrible wine!). If there are more wines to taste, the juice is expelled, the palate cleansed, and the process repeated.
Reading through proverbs is a bit like learning to tell good wine from bad. One day, a professional taster told me how she learned to distinguish the subtle differences in taste. She would sit blindfolded and her family would bring her different things to smell. Dirt, grass, wood, and rock all have different smells. She had to learn as a child does, and when it comes to distinguishing between right and wrong, so do we.
Like children, we gather around Wisdom and sit at her feet. From God, through Solomon, Wisdom begins with simple things. “My mouth speaks what is true, for my lips detest wickedness.”
This leads us to ask questions like:
“What is truth?” “What is wickedness?” “Do they have a taste?”
That last question might sound silly, but there is a point to it. Tastes are experienced on a level that bypasses our conscious thought processes. In that sense, tastebuds are much more than simply a mechanism for sampling flavor. They are the guardians of the throat. If something foul enters the mouth, there is no waiting for the conscious mind to decide what to do. Instead, tastebuds trigger an immediate response and force the body to spit out the bad taste.
Proverbs trains our spiritual tastebuds to discern the difference between truth and wickedness.
How do wine tasters learn to judge wines? They taste a lot of them! And then they compare the tastes to other wines, they discuss tastes with other wine experts, they read, they study, they do everything we do when we study the Bible, and all for the same reason. We want our tastebuds to discern taste correctly. The wine taster judges wine not on personal preference, but on industry standards. When we taste Proverbs, we learn to train our tastes to match God’s sense of taste rather than our own. With practice, we, too, can have lips that detest wickedness.
Application: Read the Bible. Study it with friends. Learn from people you respect.
Food for Thought: Do we all taste things the same way? If not, how do we find unity in Christ?
Do we all taste things the same way? If not, how do we find unity in Christ?
I believe we definitely do not taste things the same way. Not only do people have different preferences, but physically people have grown differently so taste buds are more or less sensitive.
I liken it to my military experience in that, you can line up a group of folks in uniform and see that they all conform to a standard, but yet simultaneously appear different because of their own preferences or attributes. Height, weight, hair color, skin color, hair style, selection of standardized clothing depending on weather (jacket, hat, gloves) can differentiate people. Unity in Christ mean conforming to His standards of truth, grace, and love, but also holding to a personal relationship with Him (personalized relationship with Him).
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Thank you, Chris!
I guess the proper response would be, “Sweet!” 🙂
I’m with Cris!
03-22-2022, Proverbs 8:7, Do we all taste things the same way? If not, how do we find unity in Christ?
We are united into one body, the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
12 There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. 13 We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. 14 So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.
15 Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 16 And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? 18 God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. 19 If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? 20 As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.
21 The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. 23 The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honor. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. 24 The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And he has given more honor to the parts that didn’t have any. 25 In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy.
27 You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.
Thank you, Ron!
Paul’s logic is hard to argue with.
So if I’m called the appendix?
Hmmm…
Unlikely. You are too functional. 🙂
It gets tricky. When people are searching for local churches, which I often hear described as “church shopping “ they tend to see the church from a consumeristic mindset. They are tasting programs to see how it meets their needs. They are hopefully at least looking a little at theology. They look strongly at the music for their preferences.
Once they find their church they see it as superior to the ones they rejected. I once saw a comment on google – “best church in town. You don’t need to go anywhere else.” It went on to say how their pastor was the best, how everything was the best compared to the other lesser quality churches out there.
This is personal to me because the consumerism has almost driven me out of ministry several times. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth – to use our analogy. I believe it is driven by sinful habits that are encouraged in our consumer culture.
Consumerism divides and does not unify. An attitude of serving one another, loving one another, forgiving one another – all the one another’s, unites us under our one Lord. The verses Chris and Ron used demonstrate this truth.
Consumerism looks only to my personal desires and tastes. It s narcissistic and only cares about me. Consumerism is inward focused while service is outward focused. An attitude of service and obeying the Lord unites. Jesus modeled this and He asks us to follow suit. Mark 10: 42 – 4).
Should be Mark 10: 42 – 45.
Rich,
Thank you for this very open and honest comment. I agree with you. I personally feel the church as a whole should be more open about confronting the consumeristic attitude. As our Lord says:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matt 6: 24a)
Isn’t consumerism its own master? Doesn’t it try and make the church conform to the consumer’s standards rather than the Lord’s? I would rather have consumerism be driven out than lose a pastor who is devoted to the Lord.
Agree with you guy’s. There is a lot of feel good “consumerism today.” There are a number of reasons why people in search for a home church will forget Proverbs 3:5-6 and lean on their own understanding. I have moved a number of times and each time my focus was having my bible opened and seeing if I took notes. If the preaching is biblical, the adult Sunday school is biblical and I am learning more about my God, the rest will be in place.
Thank you for the encouragement gentlemen.
I’m sorry I have never had to do any kind of church shopping. God placed me in a church when I needed him and started to seek him with all my heart. The thought of if the church has what I want never occurred as a requirement. The thought of do I have anything for the church was more of a thought. Maybe that’s my heart trying to serve and not be the one that expects to be served. God didn’t put me in the church just to fix me. God puts me in situations to help glorify Him, to help Him fix others, to share His word, to share His Love.