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Proverbs 4:24 · World English Bible

Proverbs 4:24 Meaning Put Away From Yourself a Perverse Mouth

Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

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What does Proverbs 4:24 mean?

Speech that twists and accuses is guilt looking for an outlet. When a mind believes itself separate and stained, it cannot hold that shadow, so it speaks it outward, and every crooked word is guilt aimed at another to be rid of it for a moment.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 4:24 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

Speech that twists and accuses is guilt looking for an outlet. When a mind believes itself separate and stained, it cannot hold that shadow, so it speaks it outward, and every crooked word is guilt aimed at another to be rid of it for a moment. To set such speech aside is not to police the tongue but to withdraw the projection at its root, refusing to make an enemy out of one's own fear.

The correction happens in the mind that would speak. When it stops needing someone to blame, the crooked words simply have nothing to carry, and love, which accuses no one, is left to speak instead.

Mouth: the mind's outlet for projection, the channel through which hidden guilt is thrown onto another as blame. Lips: the finer edge of that same voice, the mind shaping its inner fear into words that seem to make another wrong.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 4:24 today

  1. Go one full day without saying anything critical about a person who is not in the room. When the urge comes, ask what you were hoping to put down by saying it.
  2. In the group chat, let the easy dig go unposted. You will feel the small pull to be funny at someone's expense, and letting it pass costs you nothing.
  3. When someone gets it wrong in a meeting and you are right, say the correction without the edge. Same information, none of the blame riding on it.

What was I actually trying to get rid of the last time I spoke badly about someone?

The same truth in other traditions

Buddhism · right speech

Speak only what is true, kind and timely. What fails those tests was usually trying to unload something in the speaker, not inform the listener.

Sufism · the three gates

Before a word leaves you, let it pass three gates: is it true, is it necessary, is it kind. Most complaints do not make it through the first.

Taoism · Tao Te Ching

Those who know do not need to talk much. The need to make another wrong is a kind of noise.

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