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?
The Fountain, Not the Surface
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.
What "Heart" Means Here
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.
Why the Heart Comes First
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.
The Heart and the Mind
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.
Full Hearts, Not Empty Ones
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.
Summary
- 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.