Proverbs 14:30 Commentary and Bible Study

This proverb speaks of the great power of the heart – the attitudes and thoughts that exist within it – to affect the whole man, soul and body. Though they cannot be seen by others, the dispositions of the heart have an enormous effect on our lives. One person is sound in heart (the Hebrew is ‘heart of health’) because what dwells in his heart are thoughts of kindness, generosity, willingness to share sympathetically with others, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. He is secure in the knowledge that God’s allocation to him is perfect and cannot be improved, and he is therefore content with what he has. He lives by grace and whatever he has, it is far more than he deserves, and he owes all to the goodness of God. He is content to see others blessed and used by God in his service, and is able to rejoice in this without feeling any sense of loss as a result.But another is eaten away inside with strife, anger, envy which will not let him be at peace, but constantly stirs up discontent within him. This inner turmoil is triggered so easily by all manner of things which remind him of those he has made the objects of his envy, so that his thoughts scarcely ever stop revolving around petty grievances that Satan magnifies in his heart. He is such easy prey to these things because he has not learnt to fight back and repel them as unworthy. He cannot see that each one can receive only what is given him by the Lord and this is what is best for him. If envy is allowed to take root in the heart, it brings not only much sorrow and misery, but it leads to ultimate destruction. Both parts of the proverb describe an effect on the body of the innermost thoughts, for what is unseen within us is so powerful an influence that it affects the whole person, soul and body.