Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

If one had to come up with an analogy that describes the nature and relationship of body and soul, then one could do worse than to say they are like the nature and relationship of car and driver.

On the one hand, a car makes driving down the road possible. A car has all the equipment and features necessary to take its driver to where the driver wants to go. A driver can’t drive down the road without a car. Likewise, a body makes living life on earth possible. A body has all the functional capability necessary to allow its soul to do what it wants to do in life. A soul can’t do what it wants to do in life without a body.

On the other hand, a driver controls the direction that a car takes down the road. A driver has the responsibility and accountability necessary for determining the direction that a car takes. A car can’t go anywhere apart from the direction of a driver. Likewise, a soul controls the direction that a body takes in life on earth. A soul has the responsibility and accountability necessary for determining the direction that a body takes. A body can’t do anything in life apart from the direction of a soul.

Given this analogy, one can see that the soul of an individual person is the key to determining the direction that the person takes in life. A person is a creature made in the image of God. A person’s body is that which makes the person a creature like every other creature that God has made. But a person’s soul is that which makes the person an image of God. Like God, but under God, a soul is spiritual. Like God, but under God, a soul can rule and reign in created reality, can direct and take control of things (Genesis 1:28).

As can be seen from our verse for today, the soul of an individual person is the responsible and accountable source of the very issues of life. Will that source resolve the issues of life in accordance with God’s will and ways? Or will it resolve them in disobedience to God? It all hinges on the direction the soul, working through its body, takes.

It can now be seen why we must keep (or guard) our hearts—the very core of our souls. We must keep them so that we will move in the right direction in life and properly address the issues of life.

By John Huisman, Friend of Bible League International