What Does the Bible Say about Our Hearts?
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“Follow your heart.” We hear this statement often in our modern culture, which generally means, “Do what feels right to you.” Different songs and media messages try to inspire us with these principles.
Christianity also uses the idea of the heart in phrases. “Give your heart to Jesus.” “There’s a God-shaped hole in your heart.” “Jesus lives in my heart.” Once, when my wife and I were in Korea teaching at a Christian school, a 2nd grader had gotten saved. She came to the teacher and said, “I think Jesus is growing. My heart hurts.” It was only indigestion.
We know the biological organ called the heart. But when the culture or Christianity references “the heart” in the above ways, they mean something more unseen but real. The phrases may seem cliché or trite, but the Bible does speak about the heart. What does Scripture say about the heart?
What Is the Biblical Definition of the Heart?
The Bible uses the term “heart” to describe the core of a person’s being. It includes their thoughts, emotions, will, and spiritual life. The whole biblical scope often refers to the heart.
In the Old Testament, the primary Hebrew word for “heart” is lev or levav. These words appear over 500 times in the Old Testament, used to point to the intellect, emotions, and moral choices a person makes. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” teaching the necessity of complete life devotion involving every part of our inner life, not just outward observance. The Hebrew “heart” addresses who people are within, where an individual makes choices and has real relationship with God. Another Hebrew term, me’od, also connects with the heart to mean a fullness and intensity, although it’s used less frequently. Me’od refers to how one must engage with God wholeheartedly, not divided.
With so many uses and cases for heart in the Old Testament, it makes sense the New Testament also contains teaching on the subject. The New Testament Greek word kardia means heart, used over 150 times. Kardia means much the same as the Hebrew words lev and levav: the center of human life, the unseen things like thoughts emotions, and will. Jesus uses kardia in Matthew 22:37, referring back to Moses in Deuteronomy: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” The heart again connotates a whole-life commitment to God, where everything in our thoughts, emotions, and decisions is submitted to God.
How Does the Heart Influence Behavior?
The heart encompasses a person’s beliefs, intellect, feelings, and will. People make decisions and act from these interior aspects, a collective interaction producing behavior. While we may academically try to separate intellect from emotion or beliefs, the Bible expresses them as one reality. Therefore, the heart becomes the target of life and change.
Old Testament wisdom communicates this principle in Proverbs 4:23. “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Behavior and direction come from the condition of the heart. The verse points to an outward, visible proof with a poetic “springs of life” — a good life of abundance and peace. That life flows from the source of a good heart, so the writer teaches us to guard the heart (the unseen) to have a good life (what we see).
Jesus connects the heart to actions in his teaching. “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Christ reveals how a person’s words and actions aren’t random but appear as an outward representation of what the person is like within. The heart determines whether someone behaves with righteousness or evil.
The heart not only drives actions but is also shaped by beliefs and desires. In Matthew 15:19, Jesus identifies the heart as the source of sinful behaviors, saying, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander." Sinful actions originate from inner corruptions such as pride, greed, and lust, which take root in the heart before manifesting outwardly.
The apostolic letters teach these truths, as well. Paul writes in Romans 10:10, “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Confession comes from belief. Outward actions don’t change the heart. They might impress others, but an unbelieving heart will eventually reveal itself in rebellion and selfish behavior. Paul makes sure the Roman church understands that with inner belief, confession and action have meaning and truth.
While others may only see the outside – our actions – the unseen God concerns himself with the motives of the heart. He cares what we do (moral action) and why we do it (true belief). God acts from integrity; his behavior naturally comes from his character. He loves because he is love. Being made in his image, humanity was designed to operate the same way, with an integrated and complete person, where the heart and action live in unity. Therefore, God’s Word discerns “the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
As we look around and see the brokenness of the world, the oppression and grief, we realize the true problem. Our hearts.
What Does the Bible Say about the Nature of Our Heart?
The Bible clearly reveals the human heart as sinful, depraved, and corrupt. The inner life, from where people make decisions, is incapable of righteous living due to the heart’s selfishness and rebellion against God.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” This prophet reveals a sobering and harsh truth, although it is one people need to hear. No good thing exists in the heart. It self-deceives and also seeks to deceive others. The heart is sick, a mystery to humanity. Paul describes this mystery of the sinful heart when he says, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18-19). In this chapter, Paul gives his experience under God’s Law. It told him what was right and wrong, but all it did was show him he continually chose the sin, not the good. Even though he had the desire to follow it, he couldn’t.
Trained in the Old Testament, Paul’s teaching connects to Genesis 6:5, which recounts humanity’s state after the Fall. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Again, we see the connection between the heart and action. The people only desired to do evil and committed great violence against one another.
Jesus reinforces humanity’s sinful nature in Mark 7:21-23. “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immortality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Christ teaches how sin isn’t an external issue. It originates from within, a corrupt heart desiring ungodly actions.
Knowing the heart is the core of the person, influencing the whole life, the Devil also focuses there. Lying affects the emotions, the intellect, the beliefs. Believing lies leads to living against God. Therefore, the Devil encourages a person’s sinful nature with temptations and deception, further blinding humanity. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus spoke of this in his famous parable of the sower, where the soil symbolizes the heart. In one example, the Devil snatches the Word from the hearts of men (Luke 8:12).
With these things in mind, the last thing we should do is “follow our heart” or “do what we feel is right.” These are only lies to keep us bound in our own state.
The Law failed, even though it came from God and was righteous in itself. However, it proved insufficient because it relied upon the hearts of men and women to live up to it (Romans 8:3). Sinful hearts can’t live the divine life.
Does this mean we are hopeless? As Paul cries out at the end of Romans 7. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
How Does This Support the Gospel Need to Transform Our Hearts?
Thanks be to God, indeed. God knew the problem the whole time. And he promised a different way in Ezekiel 36:26-27, a new covenant which would change the heart, the only way to live complete and eternally. “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.” God decided to solve the problem himself, offering a heart transformation through the indwelling Spirit.
God’s solution to change a sinful humanity was to send Jesus, fully human and fully divine. Our transformation comes from his work on the cross. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Through faith in Christ, we experience a complete renewal. Our old, sinful nature is crucified with Christ. We die to ourselves, a whole life repentance and submission to God, and the Lord raises us up to new life with a heart now empowered by the Spirit to love, serve, and honor God.
Being born again, we get to participate in God’s manifestation of heaven on earth, the Kingdom of God. Jesus declares in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Since the Kingdom’s nature is from heaven, only those with godly natures can see and enter the realm of peace, joy, righteousness, and justice called the Kingdom of God. Once born again, God’s nature within continues to change and transform us — our thinking, beliefs, and desires. God started and will finish this work as we trust our whole lives to him (Philippians 1:6).
We will continue to wrestle with sin, but now through being in Christ and Christ in us, we can live an integrated life — pure and eternal intentions leading to pure actions. And when we fall or disobey, God is faithful to forgive and restore when we repent. Our new creation lives continue for eternity, when our transformation will be complete with new, spiritual bodies to live in the new heaven and earth in the final Kingdom (1 Corinthians 15). “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5).
Through Christ, the Gospel turns our despair into hope, changing our hearts at our core, giving us a new nature and eternal life now and forever (2 Peter 1:4). With this, we learn not to follow our hearts but to follow the God who loves us.
Peace.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Stephen Emlund
