Guard Like Jesus

Guard Your Heart

Proverbs 4:23 “23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

“Above all else” Greek translation means In every way, with all possible vigilance and diligence

The Heart According to the Bible

“Heart” appears in the Bible approximately 1,000 times and has an immense range of meanings.

More than 90% of its use is focused on a person’s thoughts, will, emotions, and knowledge of right from wrong - also known as our conscience

It debates: Mark 2:6-8 “6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?”

What Jesus Said About the Heart

Matthew 5:8 “8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Notes to Incorporate

Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (5) The Fourth Exhortation: A Father’s Plea (4:1–27)

The heart, v. 23 says, is “the wellspring of life.” “Heart,” here as always, refers not to the physical organ but to the mind and even the whole personality of the individual. It is “the wellspring of life” in that the capacity to live with joy and vigor ultimately comes from within and not from circumstances. The corrupt heart draws one down to the grave, but Wisdom protects the heart from that corruption. This verse, perhaps in conjunction with Ezekiel’s vision of the River of Life (Ezek 47:1–12), apparently was the source of Jesus’ perplexing citation in John 7:38.

Ezekiel 47:1–12 NIV

1 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side. 3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. 6 He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 7 When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 9 Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 10 Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 11 But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

John 7:38 (NIV)

38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Proverbs: An Introduction and Commentary Concentrate (4:20–27)

23. Heart. This word most commonly stands for ‘mind’ (e.g. 3:3; 6:32a; 7:7b; etc.; cf. Hos. 7:11), but it can go beyond this to represent the emotions (15:15, 30), the will (11:20; 14:14) and the whole inner being (3:5).

Verse 23, which strikingly anticipates our Lord’s teaching, needs to be taken with its less famous companions, 20–22, if life is to have its full meaning. That is to say, true life (see subject-study: Life and death, p. 50) is no superficial or static possession (cf. Luke 12:15ff.) but the spiritual vitality which wells up as truth is made a man’s own (20–22), and flows abroad (the issues, AV, RV = ‘the outgoings’; RSV: the springs) wherever his renewed outlook makes itself felt. Cf. Mark 7:15–23; Luke 6:45; John 4:14; 7:38. (Our verse may well be ‘the scripture’ alluded to in the last of these references.)

A Handbook on Proverbs 4:23

Verses 23–27 close chapter 4 and this subdivision. The teacher uses as images various body parts from the heart to the head and finally to the feet.

Keep your heart with all vigilance: Keep your heart means to guard your thoughts; see TEV. In some languages this is expressed as “Watch your mind,” “Keep a hand on your head,” or “Take care of your thoughts.” According to Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB), with all vigilance is literally “above all guarding,” that is, “more than anything else you may guard.” NJB translates “More than all else, keep watch over your heart,” and NJPSV has “More than all that you guard, guard your mind.” We may also say, for example, “The most important thing you can do is be careful what you think” or “The most important … is to think good thoughts.”

For from it flow the springs of life: The thought expressed here is that what people think, what is in their minds, determines how they will act. See Matt 15:19. From it means “from the heart [mind].” The word rendered flow the springs usually refers to the extremity or border of a geographical territory, but in association with life it seems to have the sense of a source or place of origin. The thought is that a person’s life is somehow determined by the thoughts stored in the heart or mind: “Everything you do comes out of your heart.” CEV says “Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.” TEV translates this verse into very direct language and may serve as a model for translation.