September 8, Proverbs 4
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. - Proverbs 4:23
Many years ago, I preached in a revival at a church in a small town. The local preacher and his wife were my hosts for the week. I commented on how much I liked the taste of the
water we drank at dinner the first night. The preacher told me it was water from a local spring, and offered to show me the spring. On the short ride there, I imagined a pristine spot
on a hillside in the woods where the water spurted out from a rock in a crystal clear stream.
When we got to the spring, I was disappointed to see that the water bubbling up out of the ground and pooling on the ground. The little pool was surrounded by trash, mostly broken plastic jugs. He put a jug down in the pool and let it fill with water. I tried not to show my disappointment, and the water didn't taste the same to me after I saw its source.
Our text pictures a person's heart as the source from which all that person's life flows. The inspired wise advice is to guard that spring carefully, because all your life springs from it. In ancient times, cities carefully guarded their water supply because a besieging enemy would gain tremendous strategic advantage by cutting off or polluting the city's water at its source. Since water is essential to life, it would be foolish to leave the source of your water unprotected.
That's the idea behind this proverb. If the heart is pure, the life emanating from it will be pure. If the heart is defiled, the life will be defiled, too.
Jesus said that our words come from our hearts: "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). In another place he said that the evil things in our conduct
comes out of the heart: "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and defile a person" (Mark 7:21-22). If what we say and do originates within our hearts, we need to be very careful about what we allow to enter and affect that control center and source of our lives.
Threats to the purity of our heart surround us. Can you think of some of them? Do you see that the entertainment you choose may influence you to have evil thoughts in your heart? Paul taught the Philippians to be proactive thinkers, to choose to think about things that were true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable. He said if we know excellent things and things worthy of praise, we should think about such things (Philippians 4:8). We are too easily influenced by what we see and hear to be careless about what we watch and hear.
Speaking of influence, don't we know how easily we can be affected by the people around us? This can work for good or bad. Surrounded by good people, we are under their influence. But when we associate with people who have no regard for God or living right, we'd be foolish to think there's no danger in those relationships. My mother's favorite verse to quote about some of my boyhood friends was 1 Corinthians 15:33: "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners." She may not have known what the verse meant in the context of Paul's resurrection chapter, but she knew the concept should keep me from some folks I thought would be good friends.
Jesus' enemies called him "a friend of sinners" because he associated with people the Pharisees ostracized as "sinners." Jesus did not pray for the Father to take the disciples out of the world but to keep them from the evil one (John 17:15). We can't seclude ourselves from the world and be the salt and light Jesus called us to be, but we must be vigilant about guarding our hearts.
I want the water I drink to come from a clean, pure source. Many people spend lots of money to protect their computers from viruses and other malicious content that could destroy their machines and the data they contain. We're concerned about a loved one's health when their immune system has been compromised, leaving them vulnerable to disease. We insist on tamper-proof packaging for the foods and medicines we buy because we want what is going into our bodies to be pure. Shouldn't we take even more care to protect our hearts (the wellspring of our lives) from evil influence?
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—September 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
Comments