Fall tree, courtesy of Rich King.
Trees are marvelous creations. Their designs are pleasing to the eye. They clothe the landscape in restful greens, give shade and provide all sorts of useful products such as lumber, fruit, fuel and nuts. And, as we now know, they reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and pump out healthy oxygen. The Bible mentions special trees which do more. There was, for example, the tree of knowledge of good and evil which brought such woe to our race when violated. There was a tree of life from which Adam and Eve were driven away. In the New Jerusalem there will also be a tree of life, perhaps like a banyan tree, spreading over the river of life. It will bear a different fruit each month and heal the nations.
Solomon compares a wholesome tongue to a tree of life. Jesus had such a tongue. Life-giving wisdom dripped from his lips. One cannot read his words two thousand years later without a thrill. They cut to the core of any pretense and exalt to the skies. They are health-giving like the tree of life in the New Jerusalem.
By contrast, perverseness is the tendency to twist truth into its opposite. A perverse tongue shows a gaping hole in the spirit of its owner. Where Christ’s words defend truth, teach, warn and refresh, the words of a perverse man batter at the spirit with nagging, lying, cursing and destruction. Such a tongue pains its hearers and damns its owner.