The Tongue’s Harvest: A Theological Meditation on Proverbs 18:21
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”
– Proverbs 18:21 (ESV)
It is a sobering truth that the tongue, though small, bears within it the weight of eternity. C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are no ordinary people; every person you meet is either moving toward unimaginable glory or unthinkable horror. In the same way, there are no ordinary words. Each phrase we speak carries spiritual force, bending reality toward life or toward death.
Billy Graham often preached that the Christian life is a witness not only in deed but in word. For the words of a believer are not idle echoes; they are, in a very real sense, confessions that align us with either the Kingdom of God or the dominion of darkness.
Creation and Ruin
When God spoke, the universe leapt into being. When Christ spoke, the dead rose, the blind saw, and demons fled. When we speak, though not with the same divine authority, we echo this creative reality: our words build up or tear down, bless or curse, heal or wound.
Proverbs 18:21 warns us that those who “love” the tongue will eat its fruit. This is not a condemnation of language itself, but of the unguarded delight in speech without discernment. For if we love words merely for their power to persuade, manipulate, or display cleverness, we will find their fruit bitter in the end. Yet if we love words as instruments of truth, mercy, and life, their harvest will be sweet both to ourselves and to those we touch.
The Theological Reality of Words
C.S. Lewis would remind us that words are not mere sounds, but signs of eternal realities. Every careless insult or biting sarcasm reveals a fracture in our own souls, while every word of grace, blessing, and wisdom reveals the redeeming work of Christ within us. Words are litmus tests of the heart’s condition.
“Your words are a reflection of your heart, and your heart is a reflection of your relationship with God.”
– Billy Graham
Thus, theology teaches us that the tongue is never neutral. Just as faith without works is dead, so faith expressed with a poisonous tongue is hypocrisy. The mature Christian life is marked by speech seasoned with grace, truth, and love.
Speaking Life Daily
Ask yourself today:
- Do my words bring life or death to those around me?
- Do I speak more of hope, mercy, and truth, or of judgment, fear, and scorn?
- Do my words build up my community and family, or do they slowly corrode it?
“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
– Matthew 12:34 (ESV)
Billy Graham often ended his messages with an invitation to choose life, to choose Christ, to choose blessing. Likewise, Proverbs 18:21 is an invitation to choose the words of life each day, to become ambassadors of a kingdom that is not built by force or wealth, but by truth spoken in love.
May our words be seeds of light in a dark world, carrying the fragrance of Heaven to weary souls. For in the end, we will eat their fruit – and so will all who hear us.