Christian Philosophy: How Christ Fulfills Proverbs 10:11

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Proverbs 10:11 says: “The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.” What picture of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, do we have here?

The first clause says that a righteous man’s mouth is a well of life. Christ is the Righteous (1 John 2:1). And He is a Man (1 Timothy 2:5), being the Divine Word made flesh (John 1:1-14). So, He is a Righteous Man (Luke 23:47). More than that, He is THE Righteous Man, the Root from which all the fruits of righteousness spring (Philippians 1:11). And it is the Ultimate Righteous Man whose mouth, above all others, is a well of life. Like water is drawn from a well, so life is drawn from the well of Christ’s mouth. Indeed, Christ Himself tells us that the words He speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63). From Christ, the one who trusts Him drinks the water by which he will never thirst and which, in him, will be a well of water springing up into eternal life (John 4:14). It is by this water in him that the believer knows that the Holy Spirit dwells in Him (John 7:37-39). Knowing that water can be a metaphor for Christ’s words, let’s contrast this with other “waters” which, to use the language of the Lord in John 4:13, although a man has, he will “thirst again.” There are many wells in this world (i.e., sources of knowledge) from which words are incessantly drawn out. These wells promise their drinkers satisfaction. Indeed, they may even promise the same everlasting satisfaction that Christ Himself promises. However, unlike the words of Truth Himself (John 14:6), these words are lies, being drawn forth from deceitful wells. If a man trusts them, he will delude himself into eternal destruction (Matthew 7:13). Yes, Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this proverb: the Righteous Man whose mouth is a well of life to all who drink from it.

Next, there is the second clause: “but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.” Given 1) wickedness is the opposite of righteousness (Ezekiel 33:12) and 2) Christ is the Righteous (1 John 2:1), we can rightly conclude that, whatever this text is saying about the wicked, it’s saying about the Christless man, the man who does not trust and love Christ and is therefore not Christlike. Since we covered this clause already in our Proverbs 10:6 post, I’ll repeat what I said about this clause in that post here, concerning what it means for violence to cover the mouth of the wicked: “What does this mean? Obviously, violence can't literally cover a mouth, for violence isn't a tangible object that can keep anything from view. So, we have something intangible (i.e., violence) acting on a mouth in such a way that it may be said (metaphorically) to cover the mouth. Since a covering over something so fills the area around that thing, perhaps it could be said that violence "fills" the mouth of the wicked.” [1] Yes, violence so controls the wicked’s mouth that it can be said to cover his mouth. And to give you concrete ideas of what “violence” means here, I refer you to this link. [2]

And now we come to how this proverb, like others, is a test by which you can examine yourself to see if you are truly following Christ, reader. Do the words of Christ so fill your heart that they come out of you like water out of a spring, giving life to those who trust in them? Or does violence cover your mouth?

[1] https://www.awriterforchrist.com/post/christian-philosophy-how-christ-fulfills-proverbs-10-6 [2] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2555.htm