Chapter 4.1

The Human “Heart”

Our Connection to God

Overall Objective

Better understand the complex but critical topic of our “heart” and its God-ordained purposes.

Table of Topics

A) The Importance of the “Heart”

A.1) God’s “Heart”

A.2) The Human “Heart”

B) The Nature of the “Heart”

B.1) The Complexity of the “Heart”

B.2) A Definition of the “Heart”: the reasoning functions of our inner life that direct our outer life.

B.3) Functions of the “Heart”: Decisions & desires based on beliefs resulting in emotions

B.4) The Essence of the “Heart: Reason, not emotion

C) The Goal of the “Heart”: Happiness

Extras & Endnotes

Primary Points

• God has a “heart” and ours is an image of His.
• More than anything else the human “heart” defines who humans are.
• Without our “heart” we cannot know or experience God, let alone anything else. Which is why we must study the topic of epistemology and not just revelation.
• The human “heart” is referenced over 1000 times in Scripture.
• Not even God does anything in or through us apart from our “heart.”
• The human “heart” can be described as the reasoning functions of our inner life that direct our outer life.
• The functions of the “heart” can be described as: decisions based on beliefs and desires, which result in emotions. (cf. 2 Cor 9:7)
• The most foundational product of the “heart” is decisions.
• Emotions are based on our desires which are based on our beliefs, all of which are decisions of the reason of our “heart.”
• If we diminish any part of the human “heart” (beliefs, desires, or emotion) we obscure the image of God in us, and despise a part of God Himself.
• Everything that is commonly described as a function of a “will” as distinguished from our reason, is actually a function of the latter (including decisions and desires), therefore making the concept of a “will” inaccurate and misleading.
• Reason is ultimately at the bottom of all desires and emotions.
• The God-given goal of the human “heart” is happiness.
• God’s greatest glory from our lives comes from Him making us happy.

A) The Importance of the “Heart”

A.1) God’s “Heart”

Any attempt to understand and write about the importance and nature of the human “heart” is akin to attempting the same concerning the importance and nature of God Himself. This is because our “heart” is modeled after the “heart” of God. Accordingly, John Calvin (1509-1564) wrote: “The mind of a man is [God’s] true image.” ^[1] When Scripture says we are made in His “image” (cf. Gen 1:26) and that we have a “heart,” then we can be sure God has a “heart,” and in fact the Bible says so.

God can be “grieved in His heart” (Gen 6:6), make “plans” in “His heart” (Ps 23:11), “shepherd . . . according to the integrity of His heart” (Ps 78:72), “carry out the purposes of His heart” (Jer 23:20), and “accomplish the intent of His heart” (Jer 20:34). He told Eli “I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and My mind” (1 Sam 2:35), and Samuel told Saul, “The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart” (1 Sam 13:14).

He said of Solomon’s temple, “My heart will be there perpetually” (1 Kgs 9:3). He told Jehu, “you have . . . done . . . all that was in My heart” (1 Kgs 10:30). He told the Israelites a “day of vengeance was in My heart” (Isa 63:4). He told Jeremiah, “My heart would not be with” the Israelites (Jer 15:1), and yet, “My heart yearns for” them (Jer 31:20) and “I . . will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and soul” (Jer 31:41). Finally, in a rather powerful statement God says, “My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled” (Hos 11:8).

A.2) The Human “Heart”

If God then has a “heart” from which all of His decisions, desires, and deeds come from, and our “heart” is made in His image, then a study of this “heart” is of utmost importance to understanding God, ourselves, and our relationship to Him. What in all the Universe is more important and awe-inspiring than the “heart” of God? Likewise, on this Earth, concerning the whole of human existence, what is more critical and complex than the human “heart?”

A human can be a human without legs, arms, eyes, ears, or even with a mechanical heart pumping blood through their body. But you cannot be human without a “heart.” It is, in fact, the thing that sets us apart from the beasts. Animals have hearts, but not “hearts.” ^[2] Virtually everything uniquely human comes from their “heart” including all of their beliefs, desires, decisions, actions, and emotions. Remove these from a human and you no longer have one.

Considering the fact that Scripture is a divine revelation to humans, it should not surprise us that the human “heart” (Heb. lēb, Gr. kardia) is mentioned over 1000 times. ^[3] This does not include the hundreds of rather synonymous references to the human mind, spirit, soul, and conscience (e.g. rûah, nous, pneuma, psuchē). The fact that the human “heart” is addressed this often tells us something about its importance in our relationship to God.

It is, in fact, because God designed us with a “heart” that human epistemology is such a critical area of theology, and not just divine revelation. Revelation is the divine side of the relationship, while epistemology is the human side, all of which occurs in our “heart.” It is our link, connection, with God and without it we cannot know or experience Him, let alone anything else.

As the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) puts it, our “heart” is, “the place where God deals with man” and that part of a man “where, in the first instance, the question for or against God is decided.” ^[4] Accordingly, our “heart” is where we get saved, as the Apostle explains that if you, “believe in your heart [kardia: “heart”] that God raised Him [Christ] from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart [kardia] that you believe and are justified” (Rom 10:9-10). It is in our “hearts” that a relationship with God takes place, therefore Christ said, “the first and greatest commandment” is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart [kardia] and with all your soul [psuchē] and with all your mind [dianoia]” (Matt 22:37-8). As we will see below, all of these terms are rather synonymous with the biblical use of “heart.” ^[5]

Following the fact that the human “heart” is the place in which a relationship with our Creator occurs, it is also, for believer and unbeliever alike, the “god” within them, directing and controlling every aspect of our life. Not even God does anything in or through us apart from our “heart.” This is because God doesn’t do anything apart from His “heart” either. All of this led Solomon to write, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov 4:23). This is because the “heart” dictates who I am and who I will be. ^[6] Or as the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT) puts it: “[T]he heart is regarded as the center or focus of man’s personal life, the spring of all his desires, motives, and moral choices–indeed, of all his behavioral trends.” ^[7] All of which, again, makes its importance virtually impossible to exaggerate. ^[8]

B) The Nature of the “Heart”

B.1) The Complexity of the “Heart”

Fully understanding the functions of the metaphorical human “heart” is beyond human ability. What Solomon said about his own heart, is true of all human “hearts”: “As the Heavens are high and the Earth is deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable” (Prov 25:3). Only God truly knows the full truth about His Creation, including “the Heavens . . . and the Earth” that Solomon mentions, and the inner workings of a human “heart.”

The complexity of the “heart” is revealed in any attempt to understand how it makes the decisions that guide our life. The inner workings of humans involve the interaction of different strands of mental, moral, spiritual, physiological, and emotional elements all interwoven so intricately that it is humanly impossible to clearly separate or distinguish them (cf. Heb. 4:12). The fact that all of these elements (e.g. heart, spirit, soul, mind) are used rather synonymously in Scripture makes our study even more difficult. As the New Dictionary of Theology remarks: “[T]he Heb. and Gk. words used to express physical, emotional and psychological being are an interpreter’s minefield.” ^[9]

Any discussion, even a detailed one, will probably only scratch the surface of such a topic, and will, therefore, entail shortcomings. Therefore, a discussion of this nature is to be approached with a great deal of humility. Nonetheless, in an effort to understand how God interacts with humanity, it is helpful to offer some broad descriptions of the workings of the human “heart.” Such a discussion may seem merely theoretical or too psychological to the practical Christian. However, the human “heart” or our “inmost being,” (Ps 139:13) ^[10] is a creation of God that can be studied and marveled at much like a scientist might be awed by any other aspect of God’s Creation. More than anything else it defines who humans are. In addition, the “heart” is a central topic of Scripture, and is therefore worth the following study.

B.2) A Definition of the “Heart”: the reasoning functions of our inner life that direct our outer life.

So what is the “heart?” While the word is used in Scripture to refer to a human’s physical heart, ^[11] it is most often used in a metaphorical sense. If we were to offer a succinct description of the metaphorical human “heart” we would say it is the reasoning functions of our inner life that direct our outer life. ^[12] Accordingly, the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT) relates:

In the English versions several Hebrew expressions are translated “heart,” the main words being lēb and lēbāb. [L]ike other anthropological terms in the OT, heart is also used very frequently in a psychological sense, as the center or focus of man’s inner personal life. The heart is the source, or spring, of motives; the seat of the passions; the center of the thought processes; the spring of conscience. Heart, in fact, is associated with what is now meant by the cognitive [mental], affective [emotional], and volitional [willing] elements of personal life.

The book of Proverbs is illuminating here: The heart is the seat of wisdom (2:10; etc.); of trust (or confidence) (3:5); diligence (4:23); perverseness (6:14); wicked imaginations (6:18); lust (6:25); subtlety (7:10); understanding (8:5); deceit (12:20); folly (12:23); heaviness (12:25); bitterness (14:10); sorrow (14:13); backsliding (14:14); cheerfulness (15:13); knowledge (15:14); joy (15:30); pride (16:5); haughtiness (18:12); prudence (18:15); fretfulness (19:3); envy (23:17).

The NT word is kardia. It, too, has a wide psychological and spiritual connotation. Our Lord emphasized the importance of right states of heart. It is the pure in heart who see God (Matt. 5:8); sin is first committed in the heart (Matt. 5:28); out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and acts (Matt. 15:19); forgiveness must come from the heart (Matt. 18:35); men must love God with all their heart (Matt. 22:37); the word of God is sown, and must come to fruition, in the heart (Luke 8:11-15).

Paul’s use of kardia is on similar lines. According to H. W. Robinson, The Christian Doctrine of Man, in fifteen cases heart denotes personality, or the inner life, in general (e.g., I Cor. 14:25); in thirteen cases, it is the seat of emotional states of consciousness (e.g., Rom. 9:2); in eleven cases, it is the seat of intellectual activities (e.g. Rom. 1:21); in thirteen cases, it is the seat of the volition (e.g., Rom. 2:5). Paul uses other expressions, such as mind, soul, and spirit, to augment the conception of man; but, on the whole, it may be said that the NT word kardia reproduces and expands the ideas included in the OT words lēb and lēbāb. . . .

B.3) Functions of the “Heart”: Decisions & desires based on beliefs resulting in emotions

In order to understand the human “heart,” it is best to begin with what comes from it, rather than how these things occur. The most foundational product of the “heart” is decisions. These are what the “heart” was designed to continually work toward, and how it controls our life. The most fundamental decision made by the heart is what to believe. As Proverbs says, “For as he thinks [shāar: “reckon, calculate”] within himself, so he is” (23:7 NASB), ^[13] and “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man” (27:19). This is because our “heart” ultimately decides what we will believe, which then ultimately determines virtually everything else about our life.

Accordingly, based on what our “heart” believes is true, it decides what we desire. All of our desires are simply decisions made based on what we believe. And our emotions, then, are based on our desires because they result from the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of our desires. Emotions, then, are based on our desires which are based on our beliefs, all of which are decisions of the “heart.” This trinity of the “heart” (beliefs, desires, and emotions) encompasses all of what the “heart” produces, all in the context of reasoning to decisions.

This would seem to be illustrated when the Apostle writes: “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly [but with desire] or under compulsion [but according to what he really believes], for God loves a cheerful [appropriately emotional] giver” (2 Cor 9:7). Here, it would seem that all of the functions of the “heart” are involved in a God-pleasing decision, including the beliefs and desires that lead to the decision and the resulting emotion. ^[14]

Accordingly, the Apostle says in Romans, “it is with your heart that you believe” (10:10), that his “heart’s desire . . . for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (10:1), and he said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish [emotions] in my heart” (9:2). So then, the functions of the “heart” can be described as the making of decisions based on beliefs and desires which result in emotions. Accordingly, if we diminish any part of the human “heart” (beliefs, desires, or emotion) we obscure the image of God in us, and at least indirectly, despise a part of God Himself. And it is because we are essentially our decisions, based on our beliefs and desires, resulting in emotion, that our “heart” is virtually synonymous with us.

How all of these functions of the “heart” work in making decisions and directing our life is one purpose of the discussion below. Let it be simply said here that all of the functions of the “heart” ultimately depend on its beliefs, again reflecting the foundational purpose of human reason.

Pastoral Practices

• We must ensure that the ministries of our church reflect and minister to all the aspects of the human “heart.” For example, it can be suggested that in a general way the teaching of the church builds and corrects our beliefs, the mission of the church engages our desires, and its worship gives us the opportunity to emotionally celebrate. If any of these ministries are neglected, a part of the “heart” of the church and the Christian will be deprived.

Unfortunately, this is the case in many churches. A teaching church can devalue doing something for God and putting all that teaching into practice. A worshipping church can simply focus on an emotional singing service, and not grow spiritually in its doctrinal convictions at all. Nonetheless, no church should neglect the importance of emotion in our experience of God. For further discussion of this last point see chapter 4.8.

Evaluate your church on the aspects and needs of the human “heart.”

B.4) The Essence of the “Heart: Reason, not emotion

The relationship between beliefs, desires, and emotions is a hierarchical one, with beliefs being at the bottom, supporting all else. Desires are the result of beliefs, and emotions stem from desires. In other words, our beliefs are the beginning point for everything we do as human beings. What are desires other than decisions based on what we believe? And what are emotions except our response to the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of our desires? ^[15] Therefore, we suggest that the processing and production of our beliefs is the dominant function of the “heart” that directs and determines all else. ^[16]

Many writers today, as noted below, attempt to limit human reason to the task of collecting data. In reality, however, human reason is the source of desires and ultimately emotions, and is superior and prior to both. It is our reason which not only seeks, researches, and receives data, but also evaluates and makes judgments upon it in order to produce what we believe, which is the foundation of what we desire and will feel—all occurring in our reason. Therefore, everything that is commonly described as a function of a “will” as distinguished from our reason, is actually a function of the latter (including decisions and desires), therefore making the concept of a “will” inaccurate and misleading. ^[17]

This then points to the foundational function of human reason. Everything human comes from it. It is the reason of the “heart” that processes and produces beliefs, which in turn dictate our desires and decisions, all of which determine our emotions based on our circumstances. Our reasoning is at the bottom and in first place of it all, and therefore the essence of our “heart.” Accordingly, we have defined the human “heart” above as the reasoning functions of our inner life that direct our outer life. Not surprisingly, then, we devote a whole chapter (4.3) to the practical importance of reason in the Christian life. ^[18]

Our view of the “heart” is not popular today as it is common to confine the concept of the “heart” to desires and emotions, and distinguish it from the reasoning that occurs in our “head” or mind. This fallacy of “faculty psychology” is dealt with in more detail in the next chapter (4.2). Here, we only want to make it clear that, in Scripture, reasoning is by far the most common function described for the “heart.” This is especially clear when we recognize that desires are decisions of reason.

For example, we read in Matthew 13:15 and 19:

For this people’s heart [kardia] has become calloused. . . . Otherwise they might . . . understand [suniēmi] with their hearts [kardia]. . . . When anyone hears the message about the Kingdom and does not understand [suniēmi] it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart [kardia].

Contrary to popular Christian psychology then, biblically speaking, the “heart” is the place of understanding and reasoning, not just desiring or feeling.

Along these lines the Christian philosopher Gordon Clark (1902-1985) commented in an extensive study on this popular misunderstanding of the “heart”:

The Scriptures make no distinction between the head and the heart, as if mathematics came from the head and faith from the heart. . . . [T]he term heart, at least seventy-five percent of the time in the Old Testament, means the mind or intellect. . . .

The aim of citing the following Biblical data–an unusually extended list for such studies as this, but only a small fraction of the textual instances–is to show as clearly as possible what the term heart means. Were the misunderstanding less pervasive, were the pastors less Freudian and more Biblical, were the congregations less confused and misled, a much briefer list would have sufficed. Present ignorance, however, would justify even a more extensive documentation than that which follows. ^[19]

After the extended list of passages that describe the “heart” as the place of reasoning and understanding as the passage quoted above, Dr. Clark concluded:

Could it be any more clearly expressed that understanding is the function of the heart? . . . The term heart occurs about 160 times in the New Testament. The instances now given, both from Old and New, conclusively show that the basic meaning of the word is mind or intellect. Volition [desires], usually the [rational] assent to intellectually understood propositions, is also a meaning, and emotion is rarely the point of the passage. ^[20]

The essence of the human “heart” then is reasoning, not feeling.

Another mistake has been that many have suggested a reciprocal relationship between such concepts as reason, will, and emotion, with each having a potential and foundational effect on the other. For example, the Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland has written, “Beliefs are the rails upon which our lives run.” However, he immediately qualifies this by saying, “We almost always act according to what we really believe.” ^[21] This implies that other factors such as desires and emotions may influence our decisions in a more foundational way than our beliefs. However, upon more careful reasoning, this does not seem true. While our desires may influence what knowledge, truth, and beliefs we pursue, those very desires were ultimately decisions based on beliefs produced by our reasoning in the first place. Accordingly, Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) wrote: “The will is simply the mind [reason] choosing what the mind [reason] deems best.” ^[22]

Our point may be illustrated by the irrationality of those who smoke cigarettes. Most of them believe the warnings on the package of cigarettes that this habit damages their health and even shortens their life. In fact, they believe these medical facts so strongly that they will not allow their children to smoke and will urge them never to do so. Yet, they will still inhale their poisonous vapors themselves. Why? Is it ultimately because they have some separate faculty or part of the “heart” called the “will” that acts against their reason? Can this be explained by simply saying their desires prevail over their real beliefs and dictate their final decision to shorten their breath and life some more? No. All smokers have reasoned to the decision to keep smoking. Bad desires and inappropriate emotions are simply a matter of bad reasoning resulting in bad beliefs.

More specifically, while the smoker believes that smoking is hazardous to their health, they have a more important belief (not merely desire) that leads them to smoke anyway. This more important belief is that the temporary pleasure or perceived benefit of smoking will result in more overall happiness for their life than the beneficial health effects of not smoking. In the end, and at bottom, all decisions (and desires) result from a cost/benefit analysis by our reason, based on our beliefs, as to what will make us the happiest. This is because happiness is the God-given goal of the human “heart.”

Pastoral Practices

• The fact that everything human depends on our beliefs highlights the importance of teaching in our ministry. People will desire and act upon what they believe and it is our responsibility to do all we can to ensure they believe according to the Scriptures. And contrary to current popular thinking in the Church, it is because teaching especially affects beliefs, that it is the most foundational ministry in the Church. Everything else will flow from this.

C) The Goal of the “Heart”: Happiness

In understanding the nature of the human “heart,” it is important to understand what it seeks. In a word, it is happiness. Webster’s defines it as “a state of well-being and contentment; Joy; a pleasurable or satisfying experience.” ^[23] These are the God-ordained purposes of our “heart’s” every action. By experience our reason produces beliefs regarding what will make us happy, therefore creating desires for those things. Our emotions then result from the obtaining or obstruction of those desires, or what we believe will make us happy. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy” (Prov 13:12 NLT).

Human beings, whether Christian or not, ultimately seek happiness on this Earth, and therefore, their desires are constantly conforming to this God given “law of delight.” The reason we do what we do is to be happy. This includes obeying God. If we do not believe that obeying God will actually bring us the most happiness, we will struggle to do so, because happiness is the God-given goal of our “heart.” Of course, God knows that obeying Him even sacrificially will bring us the greatest happiness in this life.

Accordingly, the King said:

If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:10-11; cf. Matt 6:32-33; 16:25)

Even God’s goal for us is that our “joy may be complete.” However, if our whole “heart” does not believe that obeying God no matter the circumstance will bring us the greatest happiness, then our obedience (and our happiness) will be inconsistent. This is because whether a person is a Christian or not, they possess the built-in all-encompassing desire to be happy.

Along these lines, Augustine (354-430) said in a sermon:

Every man, whatsoever his condition, desires to be happy. There is no man who does not desire this, and each one desires it with such earnestness that he prefers it to all other things; whoever, in fact, desires other things, desires them for this end alone. ^[24]

Likewise, he wrote in his Confessions:

Without exception we all long for happiness. . . . All agree that they want to be happy. . . . They may all search for it in different ways, but all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is, joy. ^[25]

The Christian philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) wrote:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. . . . The will [i.e. “heart”] never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. ^[26]

More recently, C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) wrote:

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it as a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. ^[27]

As Solomon put it: “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy” (Eccl 3:12), and this is why it is our ultimate, God-given desire.

This “law of delight” which resides in us is clearly demonstrated by what people will do in order to be happy, including killing others or even themselves if they think it will accomplish their goal. Accordingly, the Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) made happiness a “law of the will” determining our desires, much like logic determines our beliefs, when he wrote: “For as the intellect of necessity adheres to the first principles [logic], the will [i.e. desires] must of necessity adhere to the last end, which is happiness.” ^[28]

While we do not adhere to the “faculty psychology” of Aquinas that implies an “intellect” being distinguished from a “will,” he illustrates the foundational nature of the human desire for happiness. All of the reasoning of our “heart” ultimately seeks happiness. Accordingly, we abide by moral reason (conscience) to avoid the pain of guilt. We seek proper logical reasoning to avoid the inevitable pain of deception or the cost of making a foolish mistake.

We will argue in the next chapter that the laws of logic in our “heart” by which we reason are innate, not acquired, and a God-given part of our being created in His image. We would likewise suggest that the “law of delight” in our “heart” is likewise a part of our being made in His image, as God’s own ultimate goal is happiness as well, as argued below. Therefore, God created us not only with the goal of reason implanted (happiness), but the means to attain it (logic- i.e. making the right decisions or having the right beliefs).

However, while what we seek may be created in us by God, how to find it would seem to be a process of human experience, and discovering what truly does make us happy. Thus, the Psalmist says, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him” (Ps 34:8).

The foundational part of beliefs in obtaining our ultimate desire is illustrated by the fact that they are more instrumental in our experiencing happiness than even our circumstances. Beliefs, not circumstances, dictate joy. Accordingly, the King said:

Blessed [makarios: happy because of divine approval ^[29]] are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because [you believe that] great is your reward in Heaven. (Matt 5:11-12)

The King expects us to experience happiness even when we are being persecuted because we reason according to the divine revelation that we will be greatly rewarded for it. Therefore, the logic of our “heart” can work to accomplish the goal of our “heart,” even if we cannot immediately obtain it from our circumstances.

This is why we read in James:

Consider [an act of reason] it pure joy [a state of happiness], my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know [through the beliefs of reason] that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything [which must be a desire of reason]. (Jas 1:2-4)

Here, we see that by proper reasoning we can have happiness even in difficult circumstances. It is because the proper beliefs of our reason have resulted in the proper and over-riding desire for spiritual maturity, that our reason can decide that a difficulty is actually accomplishing what we want, and therefore experience the emotion of joy.

However, our happiness will only be found if we properly reason with our logic to find our happiness in God. Idolatry, and its resulting emptiness and despair, is ultimately the result of false reasoning because we have applied our logical abilities to the false information provided by the world about what will truly make us happy.

Regarding our God-given makeup to pursue happiness, Jonathan Edwards wrote in his classic treatise, The End for Which God Created the World: ^[30]

It is not a thing contrary to Christianity that a man should love himself; or what is the same thing, that he should love his own happiness. Christianity does not tend to destroy a man’s love to his own happiness; it would therein tend to destroy the humanity. . . . That a man should love his own happiness, is necessary to his nature, as a faculty of the will [heart] is; and it is impossible that it should be destroyed in any other way than by destroying his being. ^[31]

Again, however, while God created us to reason toward happiness, we will only find that happiness in believing in Him. Accordingly, the popular Reformed teacher John Piper comments on Edwards’ insight above:

[T]he sheer faculty of desiring and liking and approving and being pleased, or not, is neither virtuous nor evil. . . . This means that God’s Word assumes the legitimacy of the principle of self-love in the simple meaning of desiring and being pleased by what we think is good for us. . . . Self-love is to the soul what hunger is to the stomach. It is simply there with our creaturehood; it’s the inescapable desire to be happy. . . .

So self-love is a natural trait that man has before and after the Fall, and it becomes evil only because of its narrowness and confinement. We are evil because we seek our satisfaction in our own private pleasures but do not seek it in the good of others. We cherish our health and our food and our homes and families and jobs and hobbies and leisure. And we do not seek to expand that joy by drawing others into it. Our self-love, our desire for happiness, is narrow and confined and limited. ^[32]

God created our “hearts” to desire happiness, and created us to find that happiness in our relationship with Him, making sin a deceived and destructive pursuit of pseudo-happiness. Accordingly, Augustine wrote concerning the unconverted “heart:” “Seek what you seek, but it is not where you seek it.” ^[33] Likewise, Aquinas said, “Those who sin turn from that in which their last end [happiness] really consists; but they do not turn away from the intention of the last end, which intention they mistakenly seek in other things.” ^[34]

The Psalmist put it this way: “The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods,” (Ps 16:4) however “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps 37:4). God personally invites us to a happy life in serving Him, rather than false gods. Along these lines, A. W. Pink (1886-1952) wrote:

The central thing which we wish to make clear, and to impress upon the reader is that God has established an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness; between our pleasing of Him and our enjoyment of His richest blessing; that since we are always the losers by sinning–so we are always the gainers by walking in the paths of righteousness; and that there will be an exact ratio between the measure in which we walk therein and our enjoyment of “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11). ^[35]

Not only this, but He promises that happiness is His ultimate goal for us when we read: “You [God] will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand” (Ps 16:4, 11). The human desire for happiness is constant, controlling, and comprehensive, but the knowledge of how it can truly be obtained is confined to those who know the One Who created them to be happy, and will make them happy forever with Him.

As noted above, our human “heart” is a reflection of our Creator’s “heart,” and so is our desire for happiness. There is nothing more human or divine than happiness. God Himself seeks happiness ^[36] and does so in the true happiness of His creatures. As the writer of Hebrews states, it was “for the joy set before Him” that the King “endured the cross” (12:2). Regardless of how painful the cross was for God, its purpose was to fulfill God’s own goal for Himself and us to never experience pain again, but rather, eternal happiness. Because the ultimate goal of God is eternal, unwavering, effortless happiness, He will one day bring Heaven to a New Earth on which, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4).

Finally, we can suggest why God created our “hearts” with the goal of happiness. Not only is it because God’s “heart” seeks happiness and our “heart” is made in His image, but because happiness glorifies God. So again, Edwards states in his typically dense but illuminating fashion in the treatise noted above:

God in seeking his glory seeks the good of his creatures, because the emanation of his glory . . . implies the . . . happiness of his creatures. And in communicating his fullness for them, he does it for himself, because their good, which he seeks, is so much in union and communion with himself. God is their good. Their excellency and happiness is nothing but the emanation and expression of God’s glory. God, in seeking their glory and happiness, seeks himself, and in seeking himself, i.e. himself diffused . . . he seeks their glory and happiness. . . .

Thus it is easy to conceive how God should seek the good of the creature . . . even his happiness, from a supreme regard to himself; as his happiness arises from . . . the creature’s exercising a supreme regard to God . . . in beholding God’s glory, in esteeming and loving it, and rejoicing in it. . . .

God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at is happiness in union with himself. ^[37]

Dr. Piper has rather famously summarized Edwards’ insight by saying that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied (happy) in Him. ^[38] In other words, God’s greatest glory from our lives comes from Him making us happy. Accordingly, the Westminster Confession famously states: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Dr. Piper has insightfully modified this somewhat by saying in effect: Man’s chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. ^[39] Our glorification of God is dependent on our happiness, and this is why He has created humans with the desire for happiness in their “heart.”

And so God Himself intends that the goal of our “heart” which He created in us will be satisfied. This explains much of what He has done and will do. Such seems implied when the King says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). ^[40] All of which is why the King summed up the ultimate goal of God’s “heart” and our “heart” when, at the end of time, He says to one of His own: “Come and share your Master’s happiness!” (Matt 25:21).

Pastoral Practices

• Have you ever taught on the biblical fact that God’s goal for our life is to be happy? Perhaps this strikes you as unbiblical, but we believe a further study of this in the Scriptures will prove our point. God wants to give humans what they really want!

Perhaps no one in our day has articulated this biblical doctrine better than the popular Christian teacher John Piper. His book, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 2003), is well worth your study.

Extras & Endnotes

A Devotion to Dad

Our Father, we thank you that you have created us in Your image, and that even our reason, desires and emotions reflect this. Help us to commit all the fruits of our “heart” to your purposes and glory and to love You “with all [our] heart and with all [our] soul and with all [our] mind” (Matt 22:37). And help us to pursue this so that we may have the desire of our “heart” which is happiness. Amen.

Gauging Your Grasp

1. Why is a biblical study of the human “heart” important?
2. How have we defined the human “heart”?
3. What are the “fruits” of the human “heart”? Give examples of these in Scripture.
4. Where do all the functions of the “heart” occur?
5. Why do we suggest the notion of a “will” separate from reason is inaccurate? Do you agree or disagree and why?
6. What do we claim is the God-given goal of the human “heart”? What applications does this have for understanding humans, including regenerated ones?

Recommended Reading

• The rest of Book 4: Biblical Psychology
• Your Mind Matters by John Stott (InterVarsity, 1973). Short and very well done.
• With All Your Mind: A Christian Philosophy, Yandall Woodfin, (Abingdon, 1980). Maybe the best book of all on Christian epistemology.
• Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by J. P. Moreland, (NavPress, 1997). Corrects many myths about current ideas concerning the place of the mind in Christian spirituality. Moreland’s critiques and instruction are excellent, however, the value of his emphasis on influencing the secular world in the latter half of the book is debatable.
• Faith Beyond Reason, C. S. Evans, (Edinburgh University Press, 1998). While we would not agree with the author’s conclusions, this book is well written and informative, in contrast to the vast majority of others on the topic.
• Classical Apologetics: A Rational Defense of the Christian Faith and a Critique of Presuppositional Apologetics, R. C. Sproul, John Gerstner, and Arthur Lindsey (Academie Books, 1984). Good introduction to epistemology in section 1. The debate with presuppositionalism in section III will not probably be of interest to many. There is more than a few things to disagree with the authors on, but it is certainly well worth reading.
• Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Multnomah, 2003), John Piper. A good theological and practical study on the place of happiness in the Christian life.

Publications & Particulars

1. Calvin’s Bible Commentaries, Act 17:22; online at http://www.ccel.org. ↑

2. Many today are attempting to decrease the gap between humans and animals, often to either support evolutionary theories or encourage us to be more compassionate to animals. The latter is biblical (cf. Prov 12:10), the former is a farce. Nonetheless, the gap between humans and animals remains wide, as wide as the fact that we are made in God’s image and they are not. More specifically, it is the higher functions of the human “heart” such as self-awareness, abstract reflection, and moral judgment that puts us in an entirely different species of Creation from animals. It is not merely that we have the capacity for these things to a greater degree, but that even the most intelligent animals know nothing of them. ↑

3. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) counts 850 times that lēb and lēbab are used in the OT (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ed., 4 vols., [Eerdmans, 1988]). This fact makes it inexcusable that The Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Desmond T. Alexander and David W. Baker, eds. [Intervarsity, 2003]) does not even have an entry for “heart.” According to the New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, kardia is used in the NT 157 times and translated “heart” 152 times (Robert L. Thomas, ed. [Foundation Publications, 1998]). ↑

4. T. Sorg, “Heart,” in New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) Colin Brown, ed., 4 vols., (Zondervan, 1986), II:183. ↑

5. For a defense of the unity of the “heart” see the next chapter 4.2. ↑

6. A. W. Tozer wrote along these lines:

   Anyone who wishes to check on his true spiritual condition may do so by noting what his voluntary thoughts have been over the last hours or days. What has he thought about when free to think of what he pleased? Toward what has his inner heart turned when it was free to turn where it would? When the bird of thought was let go, did it fly out like the raven to settle upon floating carcasses or did it like the dove circle and return again to the ark of God? Such a test is easy to run, and if we are honest with ourselves we can discover not only what we are but what we are going to become. We’ll soon be the sum of our voluntary thoughts. (The Best of A. W. Tozer, comp. by Warren Wiersbe [Baker, 1978], 45). ↑

7. O. R. Brandon “Heart” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (EDT), Walter Elwell, ed. (Baker, 1984), 499. ↑

8. Along these lines, Karl Barth (1886–1968), in a section of his Dogmatics entitled “Man as Soul and Body,” wrote regarding the “heart” in both Old and New Testaments:

   If we are true to the biblical texts we must say of the heart that it is the whole man himself, and therefore not only the locus of his activity but its essence. . . . Thus the heart is not merely a but the reality of man, both wholly of soul and wholly of body. (quoted in Anthony Hoekema, Created in God’s Image ([erdmans, 1986] 215).

   Barth is reminding us here that not only does the “heart” reflect all of what we are non-physically, but that it controls all the physical movements made to obey the “heart.” Accordingly, it can be said that everything of a human can be put in two categories, their “heart” and their body.

   God Himself seems to reflect this view when we read:

   [T]he LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, [body] but the LORD looks at the heart. (1 Sam 16:7) ↑

9. J. E. Colwell, “Heart,” New Dictionary of Theology, J. I. Packer, Sinclair B. Ferguson, David F. Wright, eds. (Intervarsity, 1988), 29. ↑

10. The Hebrew for “inmost being” in Ps 139:13 is kilyah. The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) relates:

    Occurs thirty-one times in [ancient literature]. In all of these languages, the term refers to the [kidneys]. . . . When used figuratively, the term refers to the innermost aspects of personality. . . . This is probably so since in dismembering an animal [for sacrifice] the kidneys are the last organ to be reached. In this usage it is frequently paralleled with heart. (Gleason Archer, R. Laird Harris, Bruce K. Waltke eds. [Moody, 1980], 440-1). ↑

11. For biblical references to the human physical heart see 1 Sam 25:37; 2 Kings 9:24; Exod 28:9; Ps 38:9; Lk 21:34; Acts 14:17; Jas 5:5. ↑

12. Accordingly, the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, defines the human “heart” as “an inner reflection of the outer man.” (466) ↑

13. Admittedly, the NASB is unique in translating the Hebrew in this way. However, Keil and Delitzsch make a case for this rendering saying, “Most moderns (Bertheau, Zöckler, Dächsel, etc.) [translate it]: as he reckons in his soul, so is he.” (Commentary on the Old Testament, Electronic Edition STEP Files CD-ROM [Findex.com, 2000]). ↑

14. Accordingly, the NIDNTT notes that the biblical words for “heart” (Heb: lēb; Grk: kardia) refer to these very three things.

    In the metaphorical sense lēb is the seat of man’s spiritual and intellectual life, the inner nature of man. Here the close connection between spiritual and intellectual processes and the functional reactions of the heart’s activity is particularly clearly seen. . . . In the OT lēb is also the seat of man’s feeling, thinking and willing:

    (a) The heart is the seat of the emotions, whether of joy (Deut. 28:47) or pain (Jer. 4:19), of tranquillity (Prov. 14:30) or excitement (Deut., 19:6), etc.

    (b) The heart is the seat of the understanding and of knowledge, of rational forces and powers (I Ki. 3:12; 4:29). But folly (Prov. 10:20 f.) and evil thoughts also operate in the heart.

    (c) The will originates in the heart, also the carefully weighed intention (I Ki. 8:17) and the decision which is ready to be put into effect (Exod. 36:2).

    lēb, however, means less an isolated function than the man with all his urges, in short, the person in its totality (Ps. 22:26; 73:26; 84:2). . .

    The NT use of kardia coincides with the OT understanding of the term. . . . . . . Thus it is the person, the thinking [cf. Rom. 1:21], feeling [cf. Rom. 9:2], willing [cf. Rom. 2:5] ego of man . . . that the NT denotes by the use of kardia. (II:181. See also Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, Ryken, Leland et. al. eds. [InterVarsity, 1998], 369). ↑

15. Pastor Dave Bovenmyer in his article “Emotions and the Heart” notes:

    During the first half of the last century, psychology was dominated by the view that emotions are primarily spontaneous biological and physical reactions to various stimuli—laughing, crying, elevated heartbeat, etc.  This “non-cognitive” theory of emotion followed the teaching of Descartes, Darwin, William James, and others in the belief that emotions consist of these physical reactions and grow out of the most basic instincts for survival.

    In this view, emotional impulses are primitive reactions and come spontaneously upon a person—they happen to us rather than being produced by our thinking.  Thus, according to the “non-cognitive” theory, emotions and passions are fundamentally different from reason, inferior to it, and not to be trusted.

    In contrast to the non-cognitive theory of emotion, recent psychological theory has moved toward a “cognitive” theory of emotion.  This theory defines emotion as a person’s evaluation of an object, situation, or event in relation to himself and according to his values.  Thus emotions reveal whether he sees the person or situation as threatening or safe, pleasant or painful, distressing or comforting. 

    In this view, emotion is tightly bound to reason, interacting with it according to what is valued.  Emotions have objects, and an object must be perceived to have value to produce an emotion.  We don’t get angry when we bend a paper clip, because this object has little value to us.  Emotions may be irrational, but this is only because the thinking and values that produce them are irrational. 

    According to this theory, emotions can show us the truth about our own beliefs and values and give us insight into the beliefs and values of others. . . . Thus emotions are tightly bound to thinking, reason, and belief and can be changed by altering the thinking behind them.

    Clearly, a Christian view of emotions will more closely resemble the cognitive theory than the non-cognitive.  The Bible teaches that we do have some control over our emotions and sometimes commands that we change them. (online at: http://davebovenmyer.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/emotions-and-the-heart) ↑

16. Along these lines, Jonathan Edwards wrote in his rather dense treatise: Freedom of the Will that “the will is that by which the mind chooses anything” (I.1; online at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/edwards/will.html). He went on to describe his understanding of what dictates the will, and seemed to have concluded with us that it is our reason:

    The will is said to be ‘determined’ when some event or influence causes its choice to be directed to and fixed upon a particular end. . . . All I need to say for my purposes is this: What determines the will is the motive that the mind [reason] views as the strongest. . . .

    When someone is considering whether to choose to pursue some state of affairs S, how agreeable S appears to him [his reason] to be will depend on various properties that S has and various relations that it enters into. Here are examples: (a) Features that S appears to have just in itself, making it beautiful and pleasant or ugly and unpleasant to the mind. (b) The amount of pleasure or unpleasure that appears to come with S or to result from it. (1.2, II)

    We note here as well Edwards’ belief that the end desire of our reasoning is happiness, which we discuss further in section C below. ↑

17. For further discussion of problems regarding the idea of a human “will” see the next chapter 4.2. ↑

18. For further discussion of the practical importance of reason in the Christian life see chapters 4.3-4. ↑

19. Gordon H. Clark, Faith and Saving Faith (Trinity Foundation, 1990), 66-7. ↑

20. Ibid., 74, 75. ↑

21. J. P. Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind (NavPress, 1997), 74 ↑

22. Jonathan Edwards, quoted by James M. Boice, Ephesians (Baker, 1998), 47. ↑

23. Webster’s, online at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ happiness. ↑

24. Augustine, Sermon 306, quoted in John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory (Crossway, 1998), 87. ↑

25. Augustine, Confessions, X:21, (online at http://www.ccel.org). ↑

26. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 113, (online at http://www.ccel.org). ↑

27. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses (Harper Collins, 2001), 25-26. ↑

28. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I.82.1; online at http://www.newadvent.org/summa. ↑

29. D. A. Carson writes concerning the use of makrios (“blessed”):

    The word used in [Matt 5:] 3-11 is makarios, which usually corresponds in the LXX to asre, a Hebrew term used almost as an interjection: “Oh the blessednesses [pl.] of.” Usually makarios describes the man who is singularly favored by God and therefore in some sense “happy”; but the word can apply to God (1 Tim 1:11; 6:15). (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (EBC) Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. CD-ROM [Zondervan, n.d.], in loc.)

    However, Dr. Carson goes on to conclude that “happy” is not the primary meaning intended in the Beatitudes for makarios:

    As for “happy” (TEV [NCV]), it will not do for the Beatitudes, having been devalued in modern usage. The Greek “describes a state not of inner feeling on the part of those to whom it is applied, but of blessedness from an ideal point of view in the judgment of others” (Allen).

    While we are persuaded by Dr. Carson that makarios primarily means to be approved, or in “blessed” circumstances, surely the proper recognition of this would lead to happiness. This would be the case of all the “blessedness” described in the Beatitudes, and as clearly described in the last one as we point out. ↑

30. An edition of Edwards’ The End For Which God Created the World can be found in Piper, 117-251. ↑

31. Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 8, ed. Paul Ramsey (Yale, 1989), 254. ↑

32. Piper, 106-07. ↑

33. Augustine, Confessions, IV, 12, par. i. ↑

34. Aquinas, I-II.1.7. ↑

35. A. W. Pink, ref. unavailable. ↑

36. Some may be offended by our suggestion that God is not always perfectly happy or satisfied. This was particularly taught by John Calvin who felt such concepts, including human emotions, would make God less divine and perfect. Accordingly, it is claimed by such a perspective that when Scripture says something like “The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the Earth, and His heart was filled with pain” (Gen 6:6), that this is mere “accommodation of language” and not to be taken literally as an experience or attribute of God.

    On the contrary, we are made in God’s image, and by retrospect we can then say that He is in our image. Our experience of emotions like happiness and grief are a reflection of God’s own emotions. Accordingly, there is nothing intrinsically evil about sadness, and it is in fact a virtue when felt in the appropriate circumstances (cf. Rom 12:15). However, God’s own goal for Himself and us is to never experience grief again, but rather, eternal happiness (cf. Rev 21:4). ↑

37. Edwards, The End For Which God Created the World, sections 114, 277, 278. Dr. Piper comments on this treatise of Edwards:

    [T]he depth and wonder and power of this book is the demonstration that these two ends [God’s glory and our happiness] are one. The rejoicing of all peoples in God, and the magnifying of God’s glory are one end, not two. Why this is so, how it can be, and what difference it makes is what this book, and my life and Jonathan Edwards’s theology, are about. The first biographer of Edwards describes The End for Which God Created the World like this: “From the purest principles of reason, as well as from the fountain of revealed truth, he demonstrates that the chief and ultimate end of the Supreme Being, in the works of creation and providence, was the manifestation of his own glory in the highest happiness of his creatures. (31) ↑

38. Reference not available. ↑

39. Ibid. ↑

40. Dr. Carson comments on John 10:10:

    Within the metaphorical world, life . . . to the full suggests fat, contented, flourishing sheep, not terrorized by brigands; outside the narrative world, it means that the life Jesus’ true disciples enjoy is not to be construed as more time to fill (merely ‘everlasting’ life), but life at its scarcely imagined best, life to be lived. (The Gospel According to John [Eerdmans, 1991), 385).

    William Barclay writes:

    Jesus claims that he came that men might have life and might have it more abundantly.  The Greek phrase used for having it more abundantly means to have a superabundance of a thing.  To be a follower of Jesus, to know who he is and what he means, is to have a superabundance of life. 

    A Roman soldier came to Julius Caesar with a request for permission to commit suicide.  He was a wretched dispirited creature with no vitality.  Caesar looked at him.  “Man,” he said, “were you ever really alive?”  When we try to live our own lives, life is a dull, dispirited thing. 

    When we walk with Jesus, there comes a new vitality, a superabundance of life.  It is only when we live with Christ that life becomes really worth living and we begin to live in the real sense of the word. (Daily Study Bible, CD-ROM [Liguori, 1996]) ↑