J. N. Darby

242 The rest of the chapter (v. 20-27) is urgent exhortation. The ear must be attentive, the eye fixed on God's words; in the midst of the heart, the centre and spring of walk, they must ever be kept. And this is indeed what is needed, as indeed it is urged: "keep thy heart with diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." All goes well if that source of thought and object is filled with the word of God. Christ's words must abide in us, the heart's affections be formed in and by them, and we shall find the truth in good as in evil of the saying, Mine eye affects my heart; Lam. 3:51. There is power in the word and revealed wisdom of God for the renewed man (not to speak of its being the instrument by which we are begotten of God) to lay hold on heart and conscience, and to fix the mind of the inner man with formative power. It produces good in us; we live by it, we are changed into the image of what we contemplate. "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." It is the way of life, and health, and freeness of heart to the whole man.