You Need a Change of Heart

Proverbs 4:23

This is one of the key verses to understanding Proverbs and all of life. Guard your heart because from it flow the springs of life. The heart is the key and source to everything in your life. The heart is the source of the river of your life; it’s the command center. Everything you do flows from your heart. The way you think, talk, and act flows from your heart. The heart is the agent governing all your body’s actions.

But we have a problem. We have broken and sinful hearts that lead us astray. We inherited this heart from Adam. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is bound to the heart of a youth.” Proverbs 20:9 says, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin’?” The answer is, no one! Proverbs 28:26 makes clear, “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool” (NASB). Your heart will lead you astray, so “follow your heart” or “trust your feelings” is stupid advice.

The reason we have bad behavior is because the source of our behavior—our heart—is bad. Jesus teaches this in Matthew 12:33-37.

Either make the tree good and its fruit will be good, or make the tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good person produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil person produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

Proverbs and Jesus tell us that sin starts in the heart before it manifests itself in our behavior. All throughout Proverbs Scripture tells us that lust, perversion, deceit, anxiety, backsliding, pride, jealousy, and wrong speech reside first in the heart. Jesus makes this clear again in Mark 7:20-23.

And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

Behavior modification is a joke that is not funny. The Pharisees were good at it, and Jesus called them evil. Why? Because Jesus is concerned with the heart—with our motives and attitudes—not just our outward actions. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that sexual sin does not start with the outward act; it starts in the heart, and we will be judged for that! But not only will we be judged for it later; we also will not be able to see lasting change now. If all we do is modify behavior but leave the source issue untouched in our hearts, it will spring up and break out elsewhere. What’s in the heart will come out in words, actions, and course of life. It is inevitable. Both Solomon and Jesus are clear on this.

Your behavior reveals the state of your heart. Outward gossip can reveal jealousy, bitterness, or pride in the heart. Adultery or pornography reveals lust in the heart. For real and lasting change to happen in your life, you need to assess what’s happening in your heart. Maybe your money problems can be traced back to a lack of contentment in God in your heart. Maybe the lies you tell reveal insecurity in your heart where you worship the approval of others. Examine your heart to figure out the motivations for your behavior.

Since we all have heart issues, we need new hearts for real and lasting change. Deuteronomy said that we fail to obey the law because we lack the hearts to obey (Deut 5:29; 10:6; 29:3). But it also promised that one day the Lord would perform an inner transformation of the heart that would enable obedience (Deut 30:6). This promise is repeated in Ezekiel where the Lord says he will give his follower a new heart (Ezek 36:26) and in Jeremiah where the Lord says he will write the law on our hearts ( Jer 31:33). Proverbs promises the same—a new heart with the law written on it (Prov 3:3; 7:3). Foolishness, or “lacking sense,” is described in the Hebrew of Proverbs as literally “lacking a heart” (6:32; 7:7; 9:4; 10:13; 11:12; 12:11; 17:18; 24:30; cf. Deut 5:29). The adulterer lacks a heart (Prov 6:32; 7:7). Woman Wisdom and Woman Folly seek the affection of the one who lacks heart (9:4,16). The one who lacks heart will die (10:21). The lazy fool is one who lacks a heart (24:30). In contrast, the wise person who listens to wisdom “acquires” a heart (15:32; cf. Ezek 36:26).

So we need to be born again with a new heart—a new source of power we did not have before. This happens through belief in Jesus. Once you trust Christ for salvation, you are born again and given new appetites for God, his Word, his church. You’re not given perfection—yet—but you are being changed. Solomon warns us to guard our hearts. Guard what you hear and see—what you allow into your heart—because it will have a tremendous impact on the course of your life. After all, the heart is the command center for your life.

Proverbs 4:24-27

In the last section of Proverbs 4 Solomon says that our actions reveal what is in our hearts. He starts in verse 24 with our words. Your mouth reveals the state of your heart (Wiersbe, Be Skillful, 3). He tells his son to put away devious speech. This is a command for good behavior, but the son will only be able to obey it if he has guarded his heart. You must have a new heart—and guard that heart (v. 23)—to keep your tongue in check (cf. Jas 3). Evil speech reflects an evil heart. If you use your speech to hurt others, deceive others, gossip about others, or falsely flatter others, then it’s the overflow of a sinful heart. Again, Jesus told us this clearly in Matthew 12:34—“The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.” Jesus says that our words will justify or condemn us on judgment day. That’s not because good works—or good speech in this case—gets us to heaven. It is because your speech reveals whether or not Jesus has changed your heart!

This is also true of our actions—the course of our life (Prov 4:25-27). You must have the right heart to stay on the right path where things will go well. Solomon exhorts his son to keep his eyes on the path (v. 25) because if he gets distracted, he will swerve off the path and injure himself. When my twin brother and I ( Jon) were very little we lived in a parsonage across the street from the church where our dad was on staff. We were poor and could not afford even a plastic pool, so on warm days our mom would turn on the sprinkler, and we would strip down to our birthday suits and run through the water. One day we were doing this when a ladies’ Bible study let out at the church. A lady was so distracted by the naked jaybirds across the street that she walked into a telephone pole and split her head open. Solomon warns his son not to get distracted and go off the path into the danger zone. If you do find your foot slipping, then repent—turn away from evil (v. 27). Again, we will not be perfect in this life. That’s not the expectation. But there should be gradual, sanctifying change in the course of our lives. If there is not, there is the danger of judgment.

Solomon is very concerned that his son get this—and we need to get it too—because we cannot walk in the wisdom of Proverbs 10–31 that leads to life if we do not have a new heart. If you are off the path of the wisdom of this book, it is because your heart is not right. You can see this in your speech and actions. They will testify for all to see and hear what is in your heart.

Change must take place at the heart level. That, not behavior modification, is the message of Christianity. You need to be born again by Jesus, and then the Spirit of Jesus will empower you to work on your heart issues. Proverbs hopes for this here, and Jesus gives it. This is absolutely critical because Jesus says that only the pure in heart will see God. That means that we have a big problem because our hearts aren’t pure (20:9). But here is the good news: Jesus lived the life you couldn’t live, died the death you should’ve died, and was raised from the dead. He will grant his Spirit and a new heart to all who believe in him. He will account you righteous before God, and then he will begin the work of progressively growing you in righteousness by the power of his Spirit through the Word. So it’s OK to not be OK, but it’s not OK to stay that way. Ask yourself some probing questions: Do I have a new heart? What do my struggles reveal about my heart? Then ask Jesus to change you at the heart level. He can. He will.