Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 26:7 · World English Bible

Proverbs 26:7 Meaning Like the Legs of the Lame

Like the legs of the lame that hang loose, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 26:7 mean?

Truth cannot walk on a mind divided against itself. When a thought of love is carried by one who still believes in separation, it limps, because the words are borrowed while the belief beneath them remains fear.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 26:7 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

Truth cannot walk on a mind divided against itself. When a thought of love is carried by one who still believes in separation, it limps, because the words are borrowed while the belief beneath them remains fear. The teaching is sound; the teacher is uncertain, and so it cannot bear him anywhere.

The correction is to let the mind be made whole before it speaks of wholeness. A thought only carries a mind as far as that mind has accepted it, and love repeated without conviction stumbles at the first step. What heals is not better words but a single loyalty, so that what is said and what is believed at last move together.

Lame legs: the mind split between fear and love, so that even a true thought it carries cannot walk straight Parable: a teaching of love the mind repeats without yet believing, sound in itself but unsupported by the one who speaks it

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 26:7 today

  1. Pick one thing you have said more than once about how you want to live, and do the smallest version of it today instead of saying it again.
  2. Before you pass on good advice to someone, ask quietly whether you are living it. If not, you can say that out loud. It will land better than the advice would have.
  3. When you are stressed and catch yourself telling someone to stay calm, start with your own breath and your own tone. They are reading that, not your words.

What do I say that I have not yet let change me?

The same truth in other traditions

Analects · Confucius

He had little patience for fine words without the conduct behind them. The saying goes no further than the person saying it.

Stoicism · Epictetus

Sheep do not bring the shepherd grass to prove they ate. Do not recite the teaching, show it in how you act, or the words stand on nothing.

Zen

A finger pointing at the moon is useful only if the one pointing has looked up. Repeated instructions from someone who has not practiced them simply do not travel.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 26 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store