Mind and Heart

I find it notable that, in Luke 5:20-22, when asking the teachers and leaders of the law who were questioning His right to forgive sins, Jesus says, 

“Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?”

Jesus did not say, 

“Why are you thinking these things?” 

or even, 

“Why are you thinking these things with your mind?” 

He traces their thoughts to the heart. 

As I read this, one of two things come to mind:

Either the teachers and leaders of the law understood perfectly well with their minds what Jesus was doing, but couldn’t stand the thought so they let their hearts accuse and question Christ, 

or

The teachers and the leaders did not understand because the condition of their hearts did not allow them to. Objective reality was denied by subjective presuppositions and predispositions.

The heart is signaled out, not because God does not also know the mind, but because the heart is the source of motivation. 

And Jesus, God incarnate, knowing hearts as He does (Psalm 44:21; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Luke 16:15; Acts 15:8; Romans 8:27) warns in Luke and Matthew how it can lead to duplicity:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. So you blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also” (Matthew 23:25-26).

“…Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).

That is why we pray:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). 

and 

“So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom” Psalm 90:12.

We pray this because, as I have learned personally, I cannot cleanse my own heart (Psalm 19:12). 

I also cannot direct and train my own mind (Romans 8:5-8). Perhaps through sheer willpower or determination I can do it for a while. But if my heart isn’t cleansed, and my mind is not increasingly pre-disposed to the wisdom of God in Christ, then the “room swept clean” in Matthew chapter twelve and Luke chapter eleven will once again become polluted by self-will, perhaps even worse than before. 

Jesus says we are to be of heart and mind, but under the Spirit’s guidance and direction, because a heart left unchecked does not just lead to sentimentalism, infatuation, people-pleasing, enabling, false flattery and covetousness, it also leads to killing, hurting, stealing, selfishness, self-promotion, grudges, resentment, revenge and cheating. 

And a mind left to itself will not develop into the mind of Christ:

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:2-9, italics mine).

In this way, as Paul reinforces in First Corinthians chapter two, we will have the mind of Christ.

Together, a mind free of over-bearing logic, and a heart loosed from excessive or idealistic affection and sinister jealousy, body and soul can work in concert, directed and guided into right action and right living in Christ.

Copyright Barb Harwood