What does it mean that "as a man thinks, so is he" in Proverbs 23:7?

But the heart lies at the back of the mind and that which we love most occupies our thoughts most. The low punch-drinkers love their punch, the sensual man thinks sensually because he loves sensuality, and the man who loves the Lord Jesus thinks of Him, and consequently, speaks of Him and he becomes like Him in his ways. It was so with Paul, and we are to be like him. I need not say that we love and rejoice in the Lord as we realize His love to us. But this exhortation as to thinking is necessary or it would not be given. We shall have to set our minds with purpose to it, and fill them up with Christ, or the "low punch-drinkers" will fill them, for none of our minds can be a vacuum.

Anxious care being driven out of our hearts there is room for all that is good to come in. Of this verse 8 speaks. One can hardly exaggerate the importance of having the mind filled with all that is true and pure and lovely, the highest expression of which is found in Christ. Our lives are so largely controlled by our thoughts, and hence it says, "As he thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). Hence to have our minds filled with what is true and just and pure is like a high road leading to a life marked by truth and justice and purity. We have of necessity to come into contact with much that is evil, but needlessly to occupy ourselves with it is disastrous, and a source of spiritual weakness.

Verse 1 has spoken of “your bodies”; verse 2, “your minds.” Let the mind be renewed by engaging itself with God's standards, ways, and objects: this is transformation. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Thoughts are clearly the spring of all conduct. While we were “of the world” our thoughts could only centre in the world: but now that we “are of God,” shall we turn our thoughts back to the world again?

How wise is God to say, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23). Again, as a man "thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). It is not what I do, or what I say with my lips: but what I really am, is what my heart is, what the affections are occupied with. I believe we are in a day when intelligence goes very far ahead of the heart. I shall not be speaking too plainly if I say, the secret of the want of a great deal of spiritual power is pride of heart. Hence would I say before God, let us beware of backsliding in heart. God must have reality.

An important principle is stated in verse 23, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." If, as having put on the new man, we are to come out in the features of Christ, we shall have to guard our minds. What are the objects which engage us? the things which constantly come into our minds? Do we continue to think of the old path in which we walked before we believed the gospel? Do the interests of this world engage our thoughts, or do the interests of Christ engage them? These are questions which we need to put to ourselves for, as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he," Proverbs 23:7. If we persist in thinking of these evil things they will mark us in our ways, as will good things, right things which are for the pleasure of God, if we set our minds on them. Let us guard our minds, let us "think on these things," those beautiful features listed by the Holy Spirit in Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 4:8.

If God draws the sword here tonight, it is to declare that all are sinners, that there is not one here but is a lost sinner before God, if he has not found His way of salvation. Apply this Word to the saint of God, it searches not merely his outward life, it corrects not merely certain things that he may do, but it searches also his inward thoughts, as we read here. It is not merely what I do outwardly, but "as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." We are very apt to make distinctions in our lives, to divide them; a certain part is secular, another part religious. The sharp two-edged sword of God's word cuts in both directions. It shows a man that he cannot be for God on one day of the week and for self or the world on the other. He must be altogether for Him.

“My head, ” said one of the most famous men in English literature, “is like a tavern in which a company of low punch-drinkers have taken up the room that might have been filled with lords drinking burgundy.” It was an arresting saying and many of us may have to confess that our heads are not unlike that. Having the flesh within us and the world around us it is easy for us to become carnal and worldly in our thoughts, and our characters and ways cannot be better than our thoughts, for the Scripture says of man, “As he thinketh in his heart so is he” (Prov. 23:7). If it is so with us, what a dishonour it is to God who has made us His children, and what a loss of present joy and blessing it is to us. The importance of our thinking cannot be exaggerated, everything indeed, whether of joy to ourselves, testimony to others, or glory to God, depends upon it. The Epistle to the Philippians was one of the last written by the Apostle Paul, probably the very last written to a church. It is a beautiful epistle, full of Christ, and of the wonderful effect that the knowledge of Him has in the lives of men upon earth. Paul wrote this farewell letter to that church that he loved so well that they might understand all this better, and we know that he was moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost to do this. He closes the Epistle with a series of exhortations, and the last of these is certainly not the least important. It comes down to us with all its force, and only as we heed it can we be kept from slipping away from our steadfastness and joy in the Lord.

"My head, " said one of the most famous men in English literature, "is like a tavern in which a company of low punch-drinkers have taken up the room that might have been filled with lords drinking burgundy." It was an arresting saying and many of us may have to confess that our heads are not unlike that. Having the flesh within us and the world around us it is easy for us to become carnal and worldly in our thoughts, and our characters and ways cannot be better than our thoughts, for the Scripture says of man, "As he thinketh in his heart so is he" (Prov. 23:7). If it is so with us, what a dishonour it is to God who has made us His children, and what a loss of present joy and blessing it is to us. The importance of our thinking cannot be exaggerated, everything indeed, whether of joy to ourselves, testimony to others, or glory to God, depends upon it. The Epistle to the Philippians was one of the last written by the Apostle Paul, probably the very last written to a church. It is a beautiful epistle, full of Christ, and of the wonderful effect that the knowledge of Him has in the lives of men upon earth. Paul wrote this farewell letter to that church that he loved so well that they might understand all this better, and we know that he was moved and inspired by the Holy Ghost to do this. He closes the Epistle with a series of exhortations, and the last of these is certainly not the least important. It comes down to us with all its force, and only as we heed it can we be kept from slipping away from our steadfastness and joy in the Lord.

Then we come to something that probes the inner man. The Lord brings the light of Heaven to bear upon the motives of the heart, for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). Violence and corruption marked the ways of man from the fall (Gen. 6); but every trace of either in the child of the Kingdom must be dealt with in unsparing self-judgment.

Another mark of this remnant was that they thought upon the Name of the Lord. Our thoughts give character to our walk, and indeed manifest what we are, even as the Scripture says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." If we are thinking of the Name of the Lord, we shall endeavour to walk worthy of it, and eschew anything that would bring dishonour upon it. In Christianity the Name of the Lord is of supreme importance for our gatherings, "For where two or three are gathered together to My Name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). If we are thinking of the Name of the Lord in our gatherings, everything there will be in consonance with it.