Exclude or Contain?

(Proverbs 13:3 KJV)  He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.

Is a gate to exclude or contain?  Don’t we usually think the security guy at the door is to keep out the unwanted?  Here he is facing in.  Solomon is laying the groundwork for the teaching of Jesus.

(Matthew 15:17-19 NAS77)  "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?  "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.  "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

When a company or a nation loses vital secrets the culprit is usually an insider.  It doesn’t matter what kind of security software you have on your computer if there is a backdoor in the program.  History is rife with examples of stout-hearted defenders betrayed by someone they trusted.

So what is the best way to guard your mouth?  We want to blame extreme circumstances or provocations.  That isn’t the real problem.  Make sure your heart is right with God.  Have Him do an upgrade on your attitudes and deal with the sin that resides.  Notice that it is a matter of “life” (5315) and death.