Messages vs Messengers

A prominent principle in Scripture, especially in the New Testament, is that the quality, e.g. the truthfulness, of the message overrides the quality of the messenger. Following are examples:

• Ac 17.11: The quality of the messenger, the Apostle Paul himself, did not of itself validate the message. Rather Scripture commends the Berean Christians for first evaluating the quality of Paul’s message by comparing it to previously-validated Scripture.
• Phil 1.15-18: Though some of the messengers preaching the Gospel of Christ were of “low quality”, preaching it for sinful motives of selfish ambition and to afflict the then-imprisoned Paul, Scripture records Paul’s joy that the gospel of Christ was nonetheless being preached.

Prov 26 records exceptions to the principle.

• Prov 26.7 presents the wisdom that a proverb, by itself good and useful, is rendered useless when presented by a fool. Here is that verse in the ESV, “Like a lame man’s legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools.”
• Prov 26.9 says a proverb loses its impact when spoken by fools. Just as a thorn in one’s hand should have the effect of jerking one’s hand away from the offending thorn bush, and stopping to remove the thorn sticking in one’s hand, a drunk person doesn’t feel the sharp pain and so does not react correctly to his hand being impaled by a thorn. Here’s the verse: “Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.”