Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
All Commentaries on Proverbs 4:23 Go To Proverbs 4
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Let us then guard our hearts, let us guard our mouths. Both have been written about. In this place we are bidden to take heed to our mouth; in another place you are told, “Keep your heart with all diligence.” If David took heed, will you not take heed? If Isaiah had unclean lips—who said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man, and have unclean lips”—if a prophet of the Lord had unclean lips, how shall we have them clean?… Your possession is your mind, your gold your heart, your silver your speech: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire.” A good mind is also a good possession. And, further, a pure inner life is a valuable possession. Hedge in, then, this possession of yours, enclose it with thought, guard it with thorns, that is, with pious care, lest the fierce passions of the flesh should rush upon it and lead it captive, lest strong emotions should assault it, and, overstepping their bounds, carry off its vintage. Guard your inner self. –.
