The physical heart is a very delicate organ. It controls a lot of the activity that goes on the body, and any damage to it would spell doom to the body. The physical is extremely important to us, but it is not as important as the spiritual heart.
What is the spiritual heart?
The spiritual heart is the source of the life of man and the source spring of all man’s activities. Man is a combination of soul, spirit, and body. The heart is a part of man’s soul and a very vital part of it considering the function it performs.
The heart performs functions such as trust and love in the life of a man. Hence, it can be called the love and trust organ (Romans 10:10, Proverbs 4:23). It regulates the flow of love/faith from a man as a result of the fact that all of man’s activities flow from it.
Our willingness to give ourselves to (trust) God is dependent on the state of our hearts. The quality of our walk with God is also hinged on the response of our hearts to God. Therefore, it is expedient that we keep watch over the activity of our heart.
The purity of our giving, praying, talking, and all of our sacrifices to God are judged by him according to the state of our hearts.
Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee
And so, a man might be considered good in the local church he attends: He contributes to the purchase of every building material used in his church, he donates huge sums to the church weekly, and he is an active member of the evangelism department.
These all seem like extremely good works that have touched the heart of God, however, it takes more than just doing many works to please God because God searches the heart to judge the quality of every man’s works.
One bible character worth considering along this line is David. He was very careful about asking God to reveal his heart to him. David wanted to keep a pure relationship with God, so he was careful to always ask God to search his heart and reveal the wickedness in him.
We can’t know our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9), but nothing is hidden from God. And so, David banked on this ability of God when he made that request.
He also asked God to lead him in the way everlasting. David did not only request for a search of his heart, but he also asked God to lead him in the right way. He desired to have the whole of himself aligned to God, and he knew that would not be possible without his heart being pure towards God.
David’s prayer sums up the posture of a genuine Christian. A genuine Christian lives conscious of the purity of his heart toward God and intentionally cuts off anything that threatens that purity. We must be careful not to allow anything to ruin the purity of our walk with God by corrupting our hearts.
Matthew 5:27-30
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. You should lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. You should lose one part of your body rather than for your whole body to go into hell.
In the verses up here, Jesus also emphasized the purity of the heart. He urged us to cut away any part of our body that wants to push us off God’s way, but this statement is not literal. What Jesus was saying is that we should deny any part of us that is leading us to sin.
For example, in tree farming, trees sometimes have diseased branches that can hurt the tree’s growth and productivity. In a bid to ensure the continuous productivity of his tree, the farmer usually cuts the diseased branch. In the same vein, we are supposed to give no part of our body that is tending towards sin access for manifestation.
It is a difficult decision and is akin to cutting off a body part, but it is one that God finds pleasing. It is a choice we must be willing to make if we intend to keep the sanctity of our walk with God.
