Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded; for out of it are the issues of life.
The counsel here turns from words and eyes and feet to the one thing behind them all. It points to the inner life no one else can see. Two questions follow. Why does God single out the heart? And what flows out of it into a life?
Scripture treats behaviour as a stream and the heart as its spring. One writer sets this verse beside the Pharisees, a strict religious group of Jesus' day who kept up a careful outward show:
The stream was bitter because the fountain was bitter; and the fruit was bad because the tree was bad. The source of a man's defilement lies in his own heart. Going through a religious ritual could do no good. It only made men hypocrites. The Pharisees could wear holiness and goodness like an outer coat, and they did. The disease inside went untouched.
The word covers more of us than feeling. One writer defines it from the way Scripture uses it elsewhere:
In Scripture the heart is the centre of the thoughts, the affections and the will (Matt. 9:4; 12:34; 24:48), that is, the inner "switchboard" of man. This is why Proverbs had already said, "Keep your heart more than anything that is guarded; for out of it flow the springs of life." This is an important warning!
(That writer is using an older translation: "more than anything that is guarded.") The wording pictures a walled garden. One writer draws it out:
The wise man urges us to keep our hearts like a walled garden when he says, "Keep your heart more than anything that is guarded"? Again we do well to listen to the Lord's own words, "Stay dressed for action". Unless the belt of truth holds our affections and thoughts, the things of this world will soon draw our minds away.
Every drift outward begins with a shift inward. One writer traces the order of a fall:
Sad progress downward! The heart deceived. This is the beginning of all decline. "And you turn aside." The feet are sure to follow the heart. So there is deep need to keep the heart with all diligence. The heart is the stronghold of the whole moral being. Keep it for the Lord and the enemy can gain no advantage. Hand it over, and everything is gone.
This explains how a life can look right and still be failing. Another writer applies the verse to people whose outward conduct stayed correct:
Of old the wise man had said, "Keep your heart more than anything that is guarded." Sadly, while outwardly correct in conduct, they failed to guard the heart. They left their first love.
Guarding the heart is not only about morals; it decides what a person is able to understand of God. One writer notes which comes first in the slide into darkness:
The heart foolish and darkened came before the corrupt mind. Again, Paul prays for the Ephesians that God would give them "the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened"… So the knowledge of God was lost when the heart went dark. The full knowledge of Him is now given when the heart is lit up. The heart is therefore the road to every true grasp of the things of God. So nothing matters more than guarding it.
Will-power alone cannot guard an empty heart. The answer is a heart filled with Christ. The danger is a heart only half given:
An unsatisfied heart is a constant danger. A divided heart is the constant cause of an inconsistent life. On the other hand, when Christ has and fills the affections, we stand above every temptation of the enemy… Remember this. If our hearts are set on one thing that the heart of God is not set on, that far we are out of communion.
That leaves a test of how much of the heart Christ holds:
I do not ask, is He first? That will not suit Him. No; but is He all? Has He every place?… If Christ has the first place, the question is, who comes afterwards? If it satisfies the blessed Lord to take the first place in my heart, then I am free to put next to Him whom I please. But if Christ has every place, then all that comes in there must come in under Him.
- Source. The heart is the fountain; conduct is only the stream. Cleaning the outside while the spring stays bitter produces hypocrites, not holy people.
- Stronghold. It holds thoughts, affections and will together — the inner switchboard. Guard it above everything else you guard.
- Slip. Decline always starts here: the heart is deceived, then the feet follow. A life can stay outwardly correct and still have left its first love.
- Sight. A darkened heart came before a corrupt mind; an enlightened heart is the highway to knowing God. Guard the heart and you guard your understanding.
- Supply. An unsatisfied or divided heart is the standing danger. The guard is a filled heart — and the test is not whether Christ is first, but whether He is all.
Put away from thee perverseness of mouth, and corrupt lips put far from thee.
Solomon has just told his son to guard his heart above everything else, and the next command reaches to the mouth. Words are the outlet of the heart, so the call to remove crooked speech is a call to deal with its source.
Commentators tie the two commands together. Words show what the heart holds.
Next, the mouth and the lips are to be guarded. This follows on from the command we just looked at, because our words are the index of the heart. The Lord Jesus taught this when He said, "You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil." (Matt. 12:34-35.)
The crookedness named here is deceit, and it starts inside.
"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). Is there deceit in the heart? If so, it will come out through the mouth (v. 24). Again, we are responsible to watch our words, and so to put away a deceitful mouth and perverse lips.
This is not one small failing among many. Control of the tongue shows whether a person has any rule over himself at all.
But we have to deal with evil in ourselves — here the ways of evil. (The Old Testament does not deal with the old man and the new man; that supposes knowledge of Christ.) "Crooked speech" and "devious talk" are to be put away. He who governs his tongue is a perfect man, able also to govern his whole body. It is the first index of whether a man's will and passion are unsubdued, or whether he has perfect rule over himself. This we must put away, not only following evil.
The verse gives two commands, not one: put it away, and put it far away.
Bad speech does not stay put. One writer traces how allowed words end in a changed walk.
Violence and greed are not the only dangers; there is also the way of evil through deceitful speech. Silence is not always golden, but "the tongue of the righteous is choice silver" (Prov. 10:20); or, as the New Testament exhorts, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt." How powerful is the soft and pure answer! It turns away wrath. It also checks heat, pride and self-will. It is dangerous to hear perverse things; it is wicked to speak them. How soon after this people leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness! Evil words that we allow lead to a walk that God's light never shines on.
Why does someone who belongs to God still need this command? One writer answers: the old nature is still here, even though faith knows it was crucified with Christ.
But meanwhile evil is still allowed to go on around us. What is so trying, it is in our nature, the old man. By faith we have the blessed knowledge that it was crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be annulled and we might no longer be slaves to sin. This is no real reason to deny that this evil thing exists in us. It is the best and most powerful ground why sin should not "reign" in our mortal body… So, though no one could have this knowledge then, the word then as now is, "Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you."
So what can restrain the tongue?
Nothing but the power of the Spirit filling the heart with the grace of Christ can restrain the tongue. When the heart is enjoying the grace and love of Christ, the tongue will speak in grace out of the abundance of the heart.
Verse 24 is one link in a series that moves outward from the centre: heart, mouth, eyes, feet. Each member is put under the same discipline, and the eyes come next.
Our eyes too we are to keep subject to proper control, looking straight ahead, not attracted by the temptations on either side (v. 25). Also, pondering the path of our feet is to consider wisely the way in which to walk (v. 26). Only so will our ways be established in subjection to the Lord.
- Source. The heart is the spring; the tongue is only the outlet. Deceit inside will find its way out through the mouth.
- Signal. Speech is the index of the heart. It is the first sign of whether a person's will and passions are under control.
- Spread. Evil words that we tolerate do not stay words. They lead on to a walk where God's light never shines.
- Struggle. The old nature remains in the believer. That is why the command to put devious talk far away still stands.
- Solution. Control of the lips alone fails. When the Spirit fills the heart with the grace of Christ, the tongue speaks in grace.
Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Proverbs 4 is a father's counsel, working through the heart, the mouth, the eyes and the feet. Verse 25 stops at the eyes: what holds your gaze, and where does that gaze take your feet?
The words of this verse turn up again in Proverbs 8:9. One writer links the two, quoting an older wording, to show what a "straight" path is.
"Plain" means what is straight before us. "Let their eyes look right on"; compare chapter 4:25, where the word "right on" is the same as "plain" here (Prov. 8:9), and "straight" the same as "right" here. It is all simple to anyone who takes divine light as his guide, in thankful submission to Him who gave it. The path of Christ is the perfect expression of it: He is the wisdom of God.
(ESV renders Proverbs 8:9 with the same pair of words: "They are all straight to him who understands, and right to those who find knowledge.")
The wrong roads do not all need to be studied. Everything turns on what you see at the end of the right one.
I have sometimes seen on a mountain that there is only one path that is simple and right. It is a real comfort to know it, even though any number of crooked ones wander over the open ground. That is just where we are now. If a person has the right path, he does not need to inquire about the fifty wrong ones. "Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you." If I look on, I see Christ, and then all is easy, and with my eyes on Him, I go straight.
Direction is not the whole of it. The eye itself can be healthy or bad, and that decides whether we are full of light or darkness.
But in a moral sense, the eye matters greatly — the state of our spiritual vision. Christ gives sight to us who were born blind, and only He makes and keeps our vision clear. "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness" (Luke 11:34-35). Let us not forget the searching word. Christ guides us safely, but only by the single eye.
Kelly quoted an older translation that reads "when your eye is single." That is his "single eye."
Temptation needs a way in, and one writer points to the eyes.
The desire of the eyes is one of the ways into our souls (1 John 2). Remember that, and we see at once the force of the call to let our eyes look straight ahead, and our eyelids look straight before us. How often unguarded eyes — eyes roving in every direction — have tempted us as we passed through "Vanity Fair." Some mountain paths are so narrow, and run beside such huge drops, that one careless moment could destroy the walker.
There is a particular sideways look the verse rules out: the one that checks how others are reacting before deciding what to do.
When the servant of Christ stands on this raised ground, he will not "look this way and that way." He will act on wisdom's heavenly counsel: "Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you." Divine intelligence will always lead us to look upward and onward. Whenever we look around to avoid someone's frown or catch his smile, we may be sure something is wrong; we are off the proper ground of divine service.
The forward look has a destination. It also has a ditch on either side.
The path of Christ is narrow, but direct through this world to Himself in glory. The saints were always called to walk with God before their eyes. Now His declared will is to honour the Son in this way. So, "Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil." For evil lies on both sides.
- Look — the command is about where you aim your gaze. To anyone who takes God's light as his guide, the road ahead is plain.
- See Christ — looking ahead is not staring at nothing. Look on, and you see Christ; then you need not study the fifty wrong paths.
- Single eye — direction is not enough if the sight itself is bad. Christ gives sight to the blind and keeps that sight clear.
- Guard — roving eyes let temptation in. On a narrow mountain path, one careless glance can ruin the walker.
- Walk straight — the eye rules the feet. Keep the gaze forward and the step will not swerve right or left, where evil lies on both sides.
Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be well-ordered.
Proverbs 4 moves from the eyes to the feet — from what you look at to where you walk. This verse asks for something most of us skip: weigh where your steps are taking you, and your whole way of life becomes settled.
Weighing your path is not fussiness. It is what it means to take God seriously.
But further, we have to "ponder the path" of our feet. A careless, thoughtless walk is not the fear of God. It is carelessness about God, who has given us a path of wisdom in which our steps can go. "And let all your ways be established." … There is firmness in our path, because it is a known one. It is not blown about by winds of doctrine. Nor is it blown about by advice we take, not because it is wise, but because we do not know what to do — that is the influence of the world. There is firmness of purpose. … It is the simple settled intention of doing God's will, as both a delight and a duty. It is then pondered before God to find His will in the particular case, and the feet are guided.
The quotes on this page follow older translations. They read the second half as a command — "let all your ways be established," or "well-ordered." The ESV reads it as a promise: "then all your ways will be sure."
Most of us picture the danger as rushing ahead. There is a second failure that looks safer and is not.
We are not left without direction in detail. "Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be well-ordered." Carelessness is no more a matter of faith than haste is. We slip in both ways, because we fail to depend on the Word of God and to give it attention.
First be certain the road is God's. Only then settle your whole life into it. One writer shows the stakes with a mountain path.
Some mountain paths are so narrow, and run beside such huge drops, that one careless, unwatchful moment could destroy you. So in our verse, right after the instruction about the eyes, it says, "Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established." That is, see to it that you are in God's way. And so that you may be, think it over carefully and be sure you are in it. Once you have that certainty, let all your ways be established in it and according to it.
What do you weigh your path against? Not instinct or results, but the written Word — and the weighing should end in obedience, not in argument about error.
We rejoice in every faithful effort on behalf of the truth… Yet we would not be faithful to the light of the Word of God if we failed to point this out once more. Fighting against error and evil is at best only negative. What is far more powerful, and what God especially approves, is obedience to His Word. … On all this we can take up the words of the wise in Proverbs 4:24-25 and say: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Look at the truth of God as we have it in Scripture. Then, "Ponder the path of your feet" — that it may be in line with that truth — "and let all your ways be established."
Weighing every step can sound crushing. One writer answers that objection, and starts by contrasting two kinds of path.
A merely righteous path may, in the end, be no more than a fenced pen. I may not go outside the limits, but inside them I may still do my own will. A path of faith is a path which I recognise as God's for me, not my will any longer, except as following His. From one point of view, this makes it as narrow as it can be. At any moment there is only one step which He truly has for me to take — one and no other. So there is no permission to act on my own for a single moment. To the legalist this would be intolerable legality. Only grace can make it a way as broad as it is safe. It is always broad enough for another to walk with us, whose presence is all for strength, for comfort, for satisfaction. And our own will means sorrow, defilement, and the ditch.
- Look — the eyes come before the feet. Fix them on the truth of God in Scripture, then weigh your steps by it.
- Weigh — a careless walk is not the fear of God. Neither is haste. Both slips come from failing to depend on His Word.
- Verify — first make certain the path is God's. Then build your whole way of life on it.
- Step — He has one step for you at a time, and no other. That is not legality: grace keeps the way wide enough for another to walk with you, whose presence is all strength and comfort.
- Settle — set your heart to do God's will, then ask Him about each case. That life is not blown about by winds of doctrine. It is firm, because the way is known.
Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy foot from evil.
God's path for His people runs in a straight line. This closing word of the chapter points to the danger beside it — the slight turn to the right or the left, and the foot that strays onto evil ground.
A turn is never neutral, because of what lies on either side. One writer links the command to the path Christ Himself walked:
The path of Christ is narrow, but direct through this world to Himself in glory. The saints were always called to walk with God before their eyes; and His will is now declared to honour the Son in this way. So, "Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil." For evil lies on both sides.
So the wise place to walk is the middle, not the edge. What draws the foot sideways is the promise of an easier road:
God's path for the believer is a straight one. Once you have found it, there is nothing left to do except to ask for grace to keep going straight on — like the apostle Paul in Philippians 3. The "evil" lies on both sides of this narrow way, and comes right up to its edges. So we are safest when we walk in the centre, fully in the path and delighting in it. Many attractions will be spread out on either side, and many a side path that promises greater ease and comfort. But keep the eye looking straight on to the glorious goal. We will reach that goal when Christ comes to receive us. Then God will deliver us from all these traps, and guard us by His power from every trick of the enemy.
A turn to either side starts with the eyes. One writer weighs that turn by what it costs a person's devotion to Christ:
Our eyes too we are to keep under proper control, looking straight ahead, not attracted by the temptations on either side (v. 25)… Let there be no turning to the right hand or to the left, to involve ourselves in anything that compromises our devotion to the Lord Jesus (v. 27). Our feet should be removed far from evil on either side.
The verse ends with the foot and the ground it stands on. Here the line runs wider than known wrongdoing:
We are to keep our feet in the known path and not allow them in doubtful ones! The heart is to be enlarged, not the path. The path must always be a narrow one — the one clearly marked out for us in Scripture. A wanderer pays too little attention to God's path to be able to guide anyone else into it. "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2:19) should keep us from every doubtful thing, which may therefore be evil, as well as from known evil. It will also keep me from anything in which I may see the Holy Spirit at work, as long as it is still mixed up with things I have to judge as contrary to His mind.
A narrow path can make a person small-hearted. This counsel keeps the narrowness where it belongs:
Keep your feet in the narrow path, and your heart as large as you can. A Christian ought to be like a horse with blinkers on, going on and looking straight ahead.
Later in Proverbs the same picture returns as a highway. Going straight on does something for the one who walks it:
The highway is a direct route to a desired destination. Psalm 84:5 speaks of the blessedness of the man "in whose heart are the highways." Byways may go to the right or to the left. Highways are more visible. Still, the believer should go straight on toward the goal of being with Christ in glory. In this way too we "depart from evil." Keeping in this way preserves our souls.
- One way. God's path for the believer is straight. The path Christ walked runs through this world to Himself in glory.
- Two sides. Evil lies on both sides of that narrow way and reaches right up to its edges, so no turn — right or left — is a safe one.
- Your feet. Keep them in the known path and out of doubtful ones: leave every doubtful thing, not just known evil.
- Your heart. Narrow the path, never the affections: feet in the narrow way, heart as large as you can make it.
- The reward. Side paths promise greater ease and comfort. But the eye fixed on the goal keeps the soul safe until Christ comes to receive us.