Proverbs 25:16-28
Honey is good, but if we were to make it our only food we should soon be sick of it. It is the same with natural affections: friendship, the joys of the family . . . they are pleasant and sweet but they must not take up too much of our time or we shall become very selfish and be sated with them (vv. 16, 27).
The Gospel is the best good news there has ever been, living water for thirsty souls (cf. v. 25). Each believer is like a channel by which this fresh water of grace can flow out to supply others (John 7:38). But beware! a little mud in a fountain is enough to make the water undrinkable. A lack of firmness toward the wicked, a moment off guard, and the spring is disturbed and made dirty just as when one stirs up the bed of a clear stream with a stick (v. 26).
Not to control our spirits is to surrender to all the enemy’s assaults without defence, like a town without walls (v. 28). Impatience, resentment, jealousy, pride, doubts, evil desires . . . hosts of evil thoughts soon come crowding in. 1 Peter 1:13 invites us in this sense to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober, in other words, to keep our imagination under control.