Heart Condition
We, as the church universal, have a heart condition. To address this condition, we first need to understand the biblical definition and description on the heart. As the image and likeness of God, people are animated subjectively from the core and throughout their being by that primary faculty of thought, affection, and will which the Bible calls the “heart.” Unquestionably, of all the words that are crucial to biblical anthropology, the word ‘heart’ is by far the most important. The term possesses the nuance of “centrality” since it is used in the Scriptures to refer literally to the inner most part of things, including that of a tree (2 Sam. 18: 14), the sea (Exod. 15: 8; Psa. 46: 2; Jonah 2: 3), the heavens (Deut. 4: 11), and the earth (Matt. 12: 40). In a few texts, ‘heart’ contains physiological meaning and designates the actual organ which pumps blood (2 Sam. 18: 14; 2 Kings 9: 24; Psa. 37: 15; Jer. 4: 19), and can be strengthened by food and drink (Gen. 18: 5; Judg. 19: 5, 8; 1 Kings 21:7; Psa. 104: 15; Acts 14: 17; James 5: 5). The preponderance of biblical passages, however, speak of the ‘heart’ as the central, defining element of the human person.
The New Testament and the teaching of Jesus advance this perspective. The 150 or so uses of ‘heart’ from Matthew to Revelation demonstrate that it is “the main organ of psychic and spiritual life, the place in man at which God bears witness to himself, . . . the whole of the inner being of man in contrast to his external side, . . . the one center in man to which God turns, in which the religious life is rooted, which determines moral conduct.” Indeed, according to various New Testament authors, the heart is the psychic center of human affections (Matt. 22: 37-39; John 14: 1, 27; 2 Cor. 2: 4), the source of the spiritual life (Acts 8: 21; Rom. 2: 29; 2 Cor. 3: 3), and the seat of the intellect and the will (Rom. 1: 21; 2 Cor. 9: 7; Heb. 4: 12). Jesus shares this point of view, teaching that the heart is the spiritual nucleus of the person about which life orbits. He affirms this anthropological reality in the Sermon on the Mount. There Jesus offers a warning about earthly and heavenly treasures as contrasting options for a person’s basic pursuit in life. Terrestrial treasures, he says, are subject to corruption and theft, whereas celestial treasures possess eternal durability. The choice of either is all determinative, and for this reason Jesus associates it with that unifying faculty and hub of life, stating “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6: 19-21; cf. Luke 12: 33-34).
Once one’s treasure is identified, the heart will not be far behind. Neither will a particular way of life. Jesus knew that the kind of treasure occupying one’s heart will manifest itself in practical ways through patterns of speech and conduct. He also employed a metaphor to communicate this point. In fact, he uses both “trees” and “treasures” in several gospel texts, including this one, to illustrate that out of the heart are the issues of life.
For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart (Luke 6: 43-45; cf. Matt. 7: 17-20; 12: 33-35; 15: 18-20; Mark 7: 21-23).
“Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” Proverbs 4:23 NASB
