Proverbs 10:20 - Meaning and Application

Here we are taught how to judge people, not by their wealth or place in the world, but by their character.

Good people are useful, even if they are poor and low in this life. They may have no great power or riches to do much outward good, but as long as they have a tongue to speak, they are valuable. We should honor those who fear the Lord, because from the good treasure of their hearts they bring out good things.

This makes them valuable. “The tongue of the just is as choice silver.” They are sincere, with no mixture of deceit or evil intent. God’s words are compared to purified silver (Psa 12:6), because they can be trusted. So the words of righteous people also have weight and worth. They enrich those who hear them with wisdom, and wisdom is better than choice silver.

It also makes them useful. “The lips of the righteous feed many.” They are full of God’s Word, the bread of life, and of sound teaching, which nourishes souls. Godly conversation is spiritual food for needy and hungry people. It strengthens them and helps them grow.

Evil people, on the other hand, are good for nothing. No real good can be gotten from them, because “the heart of the wicked is little worth.” What comes from a heart full of evil cannot be worth much. Their ideas, thoughts, plans, and desires are worldly and fleshly, and so they have no lasting value. The one who is of the earth speaks about earthly things and does not understand or enjoy the things of God (Joh 3:31; Co1 2:14).

A wicked person may claim that, even if he does not speak about religion like the righteous do, he still has it in his heart, and that his heart is good. But God, who searches the heart, says otherwise, it is worth nothing.

Evil people are also no help to themselves. Many are fed by the lips of the righteous, but fools die for lack of wisdom. They are fools indeed to die for lack of what they could have so easily received. They die for want of a heart, that is, they perish because they will not think seriously or make up their minds to seek their own good. While the righteous feed others, fools starve themselves.