The Heart

The Heart

Sunday, as people shared about the heart, it made me wonder do they have a Biblical understanding of the heart?  The physical heart is an organ, a muscle that pumps blood, much like the brain is not your mind, it also is an organ and both play a very important function in our body.  As people talked about an emotion, a feeling they had and talked about how they felt it inside of their chest, I wonder if maybe I was the only one in the room that had not experienced a feeling inside of my chest cavity?

I was taught by a very wise man that the real us is our soul and it is comprised of three parts: The Mind, it is how we think, and it analyzes data and makes recommendations to your will.  The Emotions are the way we feel, and responds to various stimuli and exerts influence on the will.  The Will makes decisions.  It works like a light switch; it is either on or off.  You don’t actually “make up your mind” about anything; you make up your will.  The Body (what my friend Bill called an earth suit is what houses your soul and spirit while on earth. It is a vehicle by which we relate to others.  Key Concept – you are a spiritual being with a soul in a body, not a physical being with a spirit.

So, with that background of who we are, I went to the Bible dictionary, to see if what was being said held true to what I believed.  You will find this of interest, taken from Baker’s Dictionary of Biblical Studies.

The Heart is the Center of Hidden Emotional-Intellectual-Moral Activity.  "Man looks at the outward appearance, " says Samuel, "but the Lord looks at the heart, ( 1 Sam 16:7 ) The king's heart is unsearchable to human kind. (Proverbs 25:3), but the Lord searches all hearts to reward all according to their conduct (Jer 17:10). In the time of judgment, God will expose the hidden counsels of the heart (1 Cor 4:5).  Jesus says that the heart's secrets are betrayed by the mouth, even as a tree's fruit discloses its nature (Matt 12:33-34). "A wise man's heart guides his mouth, " says Solomon (Prov, 16:23). Most important, the mouth confesses what the heart trusts (Rom 10:9; cf. Duet 30:14.)

Moderns connect some of the heart's emotional-intellectual-moral functions with the brain and glands, but its functions are not precisely equivalent for three reasons.

First, moderns do not normally associate the brain/mind with both rational and

no n rational activities, yet the ancients did not divorce them (Psalm 20:4.)

Second, the heart's reasoning, as well as it’s feeling, depends on its moral condition. Jesus said, "from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts” (Mark 7:21). Because the human heart is deceitful above all things ( Jer 17:9 ) and folly is found up in the heart of a child ( Prov 22:15 ), the Spirit of God must give humans a new heart ( Jer 31:33 ; Ezek 36:26 ) through faith that purifies it ( Acts 15:9; cf. Eph 3:17 ). Third, moderns distinguish between the brain's thoughts and a person's actions, but the distinction between thought and action is inappropriate for the heart. "The word is very near you, " says Moses to a regenerated Israel, "in your mouth and in your heart” (Deut 30:14).

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF "HEART" IN SCRIPTURE? The Bible uses the word "heart" primarily to refer to the ruling center of the whole person, the spring of all desires. ... The heart is the "home of the personal life," and hence a man is designated, according to his heart, wise (1 Kings 3:12, etc.), pure (Ps. 24:4; Matt.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice