GOD AND OUR “HEART”
Pastor Emeritus Ron Simkins challenges us to attend to our hearts, allowing God to reorient our deepest selves to living the way God wants us to live, with tamed hearts and without concern for social status. May we be drawn deeper into God’s heart with these reflections on scripture. – Pastor Renée
The word “heart” is used quite often in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament to describe the deepest core reality of who a person is—human or God. I was surprised to find that the first uses of the word “heart” (Hebrew lev) contrast the evil that often resides at the core of us humans with the loving, gracious, broken heart of God who created us and wants good for us (Genesis 6:5-6 and 8:21).
Since the word “heart” is used almost 800 times in the Biblical materials, this essay will not attempt to be exhaustive—aren’t you glad! The following is a sampling of how we are challenged to turn our “heart” (the deep structure of who we are) toward God and toward blessing our fellow humans. This seems to always also involve turning our “heart” away from the evils that tempt us to hurt God, fellow humans, and ourselves.
Here are 3 fairly representative quotations from the book of Deuteronomy which often emphasizes the “heart.”
10:12-19 – 12So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all God’s ways, to love God, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and God’s decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. 14Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the LORD your God, the earth with all that is in it, 15yet the LORD set the LORD’S heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. 16Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. 17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, 18who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. 19You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
15:7-8 7If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not harden your heart or tighten your fist toward your needy neighbor. 8You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.
30:6-10 (30:1-17) 6Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. . . . For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, just as the LORD delighted in prospering your ancestors, 10when you obey the LORD your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the Torah, because you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
In each of these passages, loving God means letting our deepest self be oriented toward living the way God wants us to live. And, in addition to resisting the gods of this world that draw us away, the other consistent emphasis is on truly caring for those who are most at risk in society.
Jesus too seems to have talked often about the heart. Here are a few examples from the Gospel of Matthew.
5:8 8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
5:27-28 27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who keeps on looking (Gr. present tense stresses ongoing process) at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
6:19-21, 24 19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. . . .24“No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
11:28-30 28“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle (tamed) and humble (willing to be lower in status) in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
12:34b For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
22-36-40 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Jesus emphasized that authenticity at our core allows us to see God’s presence and God’s activity in our daily lives. He also restated the Hebrew Bible teaching that it is very easy for us to fool ourselves into thinking we can serve wealth, and the social status it can buy, while trying to convince ourselves that we put God first. Do we take his promise that he is glad to teach us to live as he lived seriously—living with tamed hearts and without concern for social status? And, unsurprisingly, Jesus the summary of Torah from Deuteronomy—love God with the very core of your existence!
So – my question for myself, and for you today: Am I, are you, willing to say, “God please keep renewing me at the very core of my being, keep creating in me a new heart?” -Ron Simkins