Let Your Heart Be Your Guide, Part 2

August, 2004

by: Brodie McClain

Last month we saw that the Bible defined “heart” as the complete inner self. In light of this definition we also considered the question: Where is your heart taking you and why? This, however, is a difficult question to answer because what person can probe the unseen world of the heart? Who can understand the inner workings of the inner person? As much as mankind attempts through modern devices to study the non–physical, he is left only to observe the outward workings and is unable to truly investigate the force behind them. So again we turn to the Bible, where we find One who knows the secrets of the heart (Ps 44:21). While man looks only at what he can see with his eyes, God peers at the very “heart” of man (1 Sam 16:7). Indeed the heart lies open and bare before the Lord who is able to weigh every intention (Pr 15:11; Pr 21:2). So what does God find?

God does not find the heart–condition of man in a very favorable state. In fact He finds the heart not as the trustworthy entity that society claims, but the exact opposite. God searches the heart and finds that, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jer 17:9). Furthermore, all the vices that defile a man are rooted in the heart as Jesus Christ proclaimed, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication's, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matt 15:18-20). This is in perfect opposition to the societal view of the heart, which is seen in its Valentine glow of goodness and trustworthiness.

This novel definition, however, can not be adhered to when approaching the Bible for it goes against the essential understanding of the heart. Society tells us to open our hearts, but the Bible tells us to guard them — Pr 4:23. Society tells us to trust in our hearts, but the Bible says that he who does so is a fool — Pr 28:26. Society tells us to search our hearts, but the Bible states, “who can understand the heart?” (Implied answer — no one) — Jer 17:9. Society tells us to let your heart lead you to experience love with whomever, but the Bible says that the one who commits adultery is lacking heart (sense or reason) — Pr 6:32. Society tells us to mourn over a broken heart and idolize a proud heart, but the Bible exalts a broken heart and condemns a proud heart — Ps 51:17; Pr 16:5.

Behold, both society and the heart are unworthy guides and common reason will attest to this as well. If we hit someone out of anger, it is not the hand that is guilty, but the heart — the hand was merely the most convenient instrument to carry out the action. If we look with lust after a person or picture it is not the eyes that are to blame, but the heart that directed their gaze. The heart, then, is the center of man's sinful culpability. Thus wicked acts and the deceitfulness and lust permeate and define the heart of man. That is, “heart,” as understood biblically, the entire core of his being. This is not a wicked feeling or a negative emotion, but wickedness as the very definition of what man is. This was the state of man before Noah and this will be the state of man in the last days (Gen 6:5; 2Tim 3:1-5). The greatest commandment in the Bible is to love God with all your heart (not an emotion, but a conscious devotion of the will) and yet the heart is desperately wicked. That places all of mankind in a despairing position. The Bible defines the heart as the entire inner being and then defines the state of the heart as evil leaving us in a quandary of sin. What then is the solution to this seemingly hopeless predicament?

Two Old Testament prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, resolve this problem not through reformation of the heart or training of the heart, but through replacement of the heart. The prophets call for a heart transplant in which God Himself will remove the dead heart and replace it with a living one (Jer 24:7; Ez 36:26). The New Testament reveals that this will take place through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In one conversation with a religious man named Nicodemus Jesus described the process as being born again. Nicodemus immediately thought of physical rebirth and concluded that it was impossible. Jesus, however, was not referring to a rebirth of the physical man but a rebirth of the spiritual man, the equivalent to a full heart transplant (John 3:1-8). This transplant would be the work of God upon those who believed in Jesus Christ (John 3:16).

The only response of man is to admit that his will, his mind, his intellect, his feelings, his understanding, his discernment, his insight, his entire being are all corrupted by sin and to cry out to God to give him a new heart. Will he be like the fool who says in his heart, “there is no god,” or like the wise man who believes in his heart that Jesus is the resurrected Lord (Ps 14:1; Rom 10:9)? “Let your heart be your guide?” That's the wrong question. Your heart is your guide. The better question is, “Which direction is your heart headed?”