In devotional 1 on Puritan John Flavel’s Keeping the Heart, we looked at what the heart is from a biblical perspective. We saw that the hearts of unbelievers are desperately wicked, and that the saved have their hearts transformed towards loving God increasingly. We also saw that the heart is not the seat of the emotions, but pertains to our decision-making, understanding, and will. The heart is “the seat of principles, and the fountain of actions,” and it is the heart that is to be principally fixed upon God. And it is to that greatest of Christian duties that we now turn.
Flavel begins his teaching with looking at Proverbs 4:23, which says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life.” Let us now see how Flavel teaches from this passage. Speaking of his book, and the great task of keeping the heart, he said,
Direction and help in this great work are the scope of the text: wherein we have,
An exhortation, “Keep thy heart with all diligence.”
The reason or motive enforcing it, “For out of it are the issues of life.”
In the exhortation we shall consider,
First, The matter of the duty.
Secondly, The manner of performing it.
The matter of the duty: Keep thy heart. Heart is not here taken properly for the noble part of the body, which philosophers call “the first that lives and the last that dies;” but by heart, in a metaphor, the Scripture sometimes represents some particular noble faculty of the soul. In Romans 1:21, it is put for the understanding; their foolish heart, that is, their foolish understanding was darkened. Psalm 119:11, it is put for the memory; “Thy word have I hid in my heart;” and 1 John 3:20, it is put for the conscience, which has in it both the light of the understanding and the recognitions of the memory; if our heart condemn us, that is, if our conscience, whose proper office it is to condemn.
But in the text we are to take it more generally, for the whole soul, or inner man. What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man; and what health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul. The state of the whole body depends upon the soundness and vigor of the heart, and the everlasting state of the whole man upon the good or ill condition of the soul.
By keeping the heart, understand the diligent and constant use of all holy means to preserve the soul from sin, and maintain its sweet and free communion with God. Lavater on the text will have the word taken from a besieged garrison, beset by many enemies without, and in danger of being betrayed by treacherous citizens within, in which danger the soldiers, upon pain of death, are commanded to watch; and though the expression, Keep thy heart, seems to put it upon us as our work, yet it does not imply a sufficiency in us to do it. We are as able to stop the sun in its course, or to make the rivers run backward, as by our own skill and power to rule and order our hearts. We may as well be our own saviors as our own keepers; and yet Solomon speaks properly enough when he says, Keep thy heart, because the duty is ours, though the power is of God; what power we have depends upon the empowering and assisting strength of Christ. Grace within us is beholden to grace without us. “Without me ye can do nothing.” This is for the matter of the duty.
The manner of performing it is with all diligence. The Hebrew is very emphatical; keep with all keeping, or, keep, keep; set double guards. This vehemency of expression with which the duty is urged, plainly implies how difficult it is to keep our hearts, how dangerous to neglect them!
The motive to this duty is very forcible and weighty: “For out of the heart are the issues of life.” That is, the heart is the source of all vital operations; it is the spring and original of both good and evil, as the spring in a watch that sets all the wheels in motion. The heart is the treasury, the hand and tongue but the shops; what is in these, comes from that; the hand and tongue always begin where the heart ends. The heart contrives, and the members execute: “a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” So then, if the heart err in its work, these must miscarry in theirs; for heart errors are like the errors of the first concoction, which cannot be rectified afterward; or like the misplacing and inverting of the stamps and letters in the press, which must cause so many errata in all the copies that are printed. O then how important a duty is that which is contained in the following proposition—The keeping and right managing of the heart in every condition, is one great business of a Christian’s life.
What the philosopher says of waters, is as properly applicable to hearts; it is hard to keep them within any bounds. God has set limits to them, yet how frequently do they transgress not only the bounds of grace and religion, but even of reason and common honesty? This is that which affords the Christian matter of labor and watchfulness, to his dying day. It is not the cleaning of the hand that makes the Christian, for many a hypocrite can show as fair a hand as he; but the purifying, watching, and right ordering of the heart; this is the thing that provokes so many sad complaints, and costs so many deep groans and tears. It was the pride of Hezekiah’s heart that made him lie in the dust, mourning before the Lord. It was the fear of hypocrisy’s invading the heart that made David cry, “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes, that I be not ashamed.” It was the sad experience he had of the divisions and distractions of his own heart in the service of God, that made him pour out the prayer, “Unite my heart to fear thy name.”
The method in which I propose to improve the proposition is this:
First, I shall inquire what the keeping of the heart supposes and imports.
Secondly, Assign divers reasons why Christians must make this a leading business of their lives.
Thirdly, Point out those seasons which especially call for this diligence in keeping the heart.
Fourthly, Apply the whole.
In what we just read, Flavel laid out why keeping the heart fixed upon God is the principle duty of all Christians. It is something that we must ever be set upon directing towards God. So many things in our life seek to oppose our loving God with all our own hearts, whether it is the tyranny of immediate concerns that steals our hearts, concerns for health or the future, entertainments, or even well-meaning believers or family or friends who work to take our hearts off of pursuing God singularly and with full loyalty. Yes, even those close to us can draw our hearts away from God. The battle is also within, with the state of our hearts being shown in how we spend our time, what we talk about, and in what we do (whether for good or for ill). Such shows what our hearts are fixed upon. All of our decision-making and doing must come to reflect, and be under the canopy of, that which God desires and wills for us to do, which is all laid out for us in Scripture. Keeping the heart, then, entails subjecting everything in life towards a Godward orientation, making every area of our lives into tools of love and obedience to God. Nothing is left out of this duty. It is all-encompassing. And it is only God who can do the work, and it is He who gives us the strength to diligently keep our hearts as He commands us to do. He provides the means and the strength to do so, and we, working within His means and strength, work with due diligence to do battle against all sin and waywardness in us towards the end of blessed singular loyalty to God. That is the Christian life, and all falls under this duty.
The four points at the end of our reading from Flavel is an outline of our study. Let us, with all our strength and diligence, endeavour, with the strength of God, to ever strive to direct our hearts to the One, true God, to Whom we owe all. For He is worthy of all, His Son having died in our place, buying us with His own blood. Yes, it is not without purpose that He bought us. We are not free to live as we please. We were bought with such a great price to become like His Son, who alone perfectly loves the Father with His whole heart. He is our model, our exemplar, our true elder brother, to Whom we owe all and of Whom and by Whom we are directed towards loving the One by Whom are all things. Yes, keeping the heart is our Christian duty. May we stay the course and encourage others to do the same also. Amen.
Next time we will be getting more specific on what the Bible teaches about keeping the heart (six biblical principles for keeping the heart). Please join us for this great purpose as we grow together.