I want to share some thoughts about a common verse that just happens to relate to the topic of the day- LOVE!
Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Taken by itself, it seems to mean that you are supposed to keep everything from hurting your heart and never experience pain. It seems to be a key to living a life without heartbreak- never let anything in, never be vulnerable and you will be able to keep your heart intact. But what happens when you are so consumed with "guarding you heart" in this way? Something that I would argue is contrary to God's nature- a lack of love.
But taken with the verses around it, it looks a little different:
Proverbs 4:20-27
20 My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Now, it looks more like a prescription for wise behavior. The surrounding verses make this popular verse less into a safeguard. All through the Bible, love is a central theme. I have heard people refer to the Bible as God's love letter to us. So why do we avoid loving people like we should? We are to love with the love of God!!!
1 John 4:7-12
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Ephesians 5:1-2
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
This love is not safe! Loving people can and will break your heart! You will hurt when they hurt, you will ache when you are not able to help them. You will miss them when you're apart. This is the love that sent Jesus to the cross! I have watched two special friends love and hurt through their adoption journey. They love their son more than they can explain. And they hurt when they can't hold him; they hurt when he hurts. But I know that if you ask either of them, they will tell you that they would prefer to sometimes hurt because they love their son so much over not letting him into their lives, their hearts.
So, if this verse isn't a warning against Godly, crazy, out-of-this-world, sacrificial LOVE, then what is it? The heart, on its own, is evil. It isn't inclined toward God in the slightest. It will fail you again and again. Our hearts must be taught to follow Christ, to seek God's face! If we do not protect our hearts against ungodly things, then they will lead us to sin, they will lead us away from God.
Psalm 73:26
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
2 Chronicles 12:14 (referring to an Egyptian king)
And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.
This Valentine's Day, set out to love. Love lavishly, love with abandon. Do not "guard your heart" in the way of this world. Love with an extravagant, Godly LOVE! And train your heart to seek after God so that it will not lead you astray.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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