{"id":542,"date":"2015-11-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=542"},"modified":"2015-11-28T23:17:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T04:17:05","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-a-pure-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/2015\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-a-pure-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about a pure heart?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cNow the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.\u201d 1\u00a0Timothy\u00a01:5<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This verse seems to be one of the best distillations of all that God teaches about the spiritually healthy heart. The heart is the seat of the emotions, will, and intellect of every man. It is a source of great mystery. Spiritually speaking, God teaches that our heart is fallen, \u201cthe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings (Jeremiah\u00a017:9\u201310).\u201d The heart is who you are, in your \u201cheart of hearts\u201d (the innermost personal recognition of reality, deepest feeling).<\/p>\n

When you cut down a tree and observe the growth rings you can see various structures within the wood. In some trees it is easy to discern the difference between the sapwood, where all the growing is going on, and the heartwood, where the oldest tissue of the tree resides. The tree does well until something gets to the heartwood and begins to hollow out the heart of the tree. The tree\u2019s structure fails when the heartwood is not kept intact. No wonder Solomon advises, \u201cKeep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).\u201d<\/p>\n

Since it is vital to protect the heart, it makes sense to find out what exactly is a heart, and how do we assure ourselves our own heart is pure? I find it is an interesting exercise to consider all the words that come from a particular root word in order to understand the central idea of the root word. We use such terms as heart-felt, heart-rending, heart-sick, and heart\u2019s-ease to describe various emotional responses to things we hear and feel deep within. We may say someone \u201chas his heart in the right place\u201d in order to say a person was well-intentioned. We have \u201cheart-to-heart\u201d talks when we are able to speak candidly, intimately, and frankly so that we understand each other. We may take someone\u2019s critical observations \u201cto heart\u201d in such a conversation and give serious consideration to another point of view. This may lead to \u201cheart-searching\u201d allowing even troubling thoughts to have a voice within. As the truth becomes evident in your heart of hearts you can restructure your behavior \u201cwith all your heart\u201d in complete sincerity, devotion, and will, then pursue a different course with \u201cheart and soul\u201d (determination and enthusiasm)!<\/p>\n

Not to mention heartless (lacking in spirit, courage, enthusiasm, kindness; unfeeling and pitiless) heartily (friendly, sincere, zest, enthusiasm, vigor), hearten (cheer up, encourage, strengthen), or hearty (characterized by warmth and friendliness, sincere and not constrained, satisfying and abundant, comrade and a fellow\u2014like fellow sailors from days of old). With all this richness of meaning it does not do to approach getting to know your heart half-heartedly! There is no halfway measure found in Psalm\u00a084:2: \u201cMy soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the definition of the heart is the seat of the emotions, will, and intellect of man, such a definition fails to capture the depth of emotion, the strength of will, and the intense thinking that goes on when someone is serious about the issues of the heart. Now a firmer understanding of Romans\u00a010:9\u201310 is within your grasp, \u201cThat if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the heartwood must remain intact for a tree to stand the storm, so every believer must make it his resolve to enthusiastically grow strong in the Lord and heartily obey Him. Three times David states his resolve to follow God with all he has in Psalm\u00a0119:10, 69, and 145. \u201cWith my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments,\u201d \u201cI will keep Your precepts with my whole heart,\u201d and \u201cI cry out with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD! I will keep Your statutes!\u201d<\/p>\n

Our text from 1 Timothy 1 begins to take the role of the heart in a believer and make it practical. You see the commandment to love fulfilled from the heart, conscience, and faith. Taken in reverse order, you see the practical chronological order of how obedience takes root in a newborn saint. From the energizing<\/em> of genuine faith (Hebrews\u00a010:22), the regulating<\/em> of a cleansed conscience activates (Hebrews\u00a09:22, 10:14), and the total freedom<\/em> of action form a pure heart to pursue the commandment to love God (2\u00a0Timothy\u00a02:22, 1\u00a0Peter\u00a01:22). Then when purity of heart fails along the believer\u2019s pilgrimage on earth, freedom in service suffers; the regulator kicks in and the good conscience begins to turn plagued and threatening, draining the energy of obedience, and the saint must return to investigate the integrity of his faith and sincerity of his love\u2014returning to his first love (Revelation\u00a02:4).<\/p>\n

God\u2019s will for His children has never changed: \u201cYou shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind\u2026. You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew\u00a022:37ff).\u201d All believers would do well to tend to the integrity of their heartwood and enthusiastically, whole-heartedly serve God. Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNow the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.\u201d 1\u00a0Timothy\u00a01:5 This verse seems to be one of the best distillations of all that God teaches about the spiritually healthy heart. The heart is the seat of the emotions, will, and intellect of every man. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}