Proverbs 4:23

Proverbs 4:23 NIV84

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Above all. It means the totality of if all. With all diligence.

Guard. Confinement; imprisonment; guard from dangers; it is the indwelling of the dwelling.

We must guard the inner motions of our inner self.

Your. You worry about your own.

Heart. The heart is the depository of all wisdom and the source of whatever affects life and character. It encompasses one’s values.

Matthew 6:21 NIV84

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 12:35 NIV84

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

Wellspring. Outgoing; source; the escape from that which is inside.

Mark 7:15–23 NIV84

Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’” After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ”

Luke 6:45 NIV84

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

John 4:14 NIV84

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

God gives us our hearts, minds, souls and desires for us to keep strict charge of them.

Deuteronomy 4:9 NIV84

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume Proverbs 4:20–27

We must maintain a holy jealousy of ourselves, and set a strict guard, accordingly, upon all the avenues of the soul; keep our hearts from doing hurt and getting hurt, from being defiled by sin and disturbed by trouble; keep them as our jewel, as our vineyard; keep a conscience void of offence; keep out bad thoughts; keep up good thoughts; keep the affections upon right objects and in due bounds.