Heart: the radical region of life - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter IX Heart: the radical region of life
1. Center of physical life
(a) lifeless objects (Deuteronomy 4:11; Matthew 12:40; Jonah 2:3; Ezekiel 26:5; 27:6)
(b) lowest life power (genesis 18:5; judges 19:5)
(c) life power (psalm 38:10; Luke 21:34)
(d) life of the whole person (acts 14:17; James 5:5)
2. Center of practical life
(a) emporium (psalm 5:9; 49:11; 1 peter 3:4)
(b) export (mark 7:21; Esther 7:5)
(c) import (acts 5:3; 16:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6)
N. B. The relative position of head and heart in the bible and modern thought will be explained. The head is to the external appearance what the heart is to the internal agency of the soul .
1. Center of physical life
In the bible the heart, and not the brain, is revealed to be the centre of thinking. For a long time science maintained a steady opposition to the bible stand- point; but modern psychologists are now slowly coming to find it necessary to revise their previous unbiblical findings in order to explain the facts of conscious life.
The heart is the first thing to live physically, and the bible puts in the heart all the active factors we have been apt to place in the brain. The head is the exact outward expression of the heart. In the mystical body of Christ, Christ is the head, not the heart. Christ is the head of the church . . . (Ephesians 5:23; see also colossi ans 2:19; 1 Corinthians 11:3). Then how can people who are not rightly related to god, whose inward disposition has not been changed, be part of that body, if Christ is the head, i. E. , the true expression of the body, especially in the center of its life?
In the old testament the head has the prominence of blessing given to it because it is the outward expression of the condition of the heart. Blessings are upon the head of the just (proverbs 10:6; see also genesis 48:14; 49:26; Leviticus 8:12; psalm 133:2). The other passages refer to the countenance, meaning not only the face and front of the head, but the whole carriage which is an external expression of the person. The countenance becomes the true mirror of the heart, when the heart has had time to manifest its true life. . . . Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him (exodus 34:29). The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not (Isaiah 3:9; see also Matthew 17:2; 2 Corinthians 3:13; 1 Samuel 16:7). The bible puts the head in the prominent position, not the central position; the head is the finish off, the manifestation of what the heart is like; the outward expression of the heart, as a tree is the outward expression of the root. This is the relation- ship between the head and the heart which the bible reveals. Materialistic scientists say that the brain secretes thinking as the liver does bile, they make the brain the center of thinking. The bible makes the heart the center of thinking, and the brain merely the machinery the heart uses to express itself. This point is very vital in our judgement of men. Carlyle,8 for instance, repre- sents the judgement of men by those who do not accept the bible standpoint on this matter. He judged men by their brains, and came to the conclusion that the majority of the human race were fools. God never judges men by their brains; he judges them by their hearts.
The use of the bible term heart is best under- stood by simply saying me. The heart is not merely the seat of the affections, it is the center of everything. The heart is the central altar, and the body is the outer court. What we offer on the altar of the heart will tell ultimately through the extremities of the body.
The heart, then, is the center of living, the true center of all vital activities of body and soul and spirit. When the apostle paul says with the heart man believeth he means by the word heart more than we are apt to mean. The bible always means more than we are apt to mean. The term heart in the bible means the center of everything. The human soul has the spirit in and above it and the body by and about it; but the vital centre of all is the heart. When we speak of the heart, figuratively or actually
We mean the midmost part of a person. The bible teaching differs from that of science in that it makes the heart the soul center and the spirit centre as well. In dealing with the bible the danger is to come to it with a preconceived idea, to exploit it, and take out of it only what agrees with that idea. If we try, as has been tried by psychologists, to take out of the bible something that agrees with modern science, we shall have to omit many things the bible says about the heart. According to the bible the heart is the center: the center of physical life, the center of memory, the centre of damnation and of salvation, the center of gods working and the centre of the devils working, the center from which everything works which moulds the human mechanism.
(c) Life power
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life. . . . (luke 21:34; see also psalm 38:10)
These passages are typical of many others where the heart is revealed to be the centre of all life power, physical and otherwise. Anything that makes the heart beat more quickly works towards a higher or lower manifestation of the life; our lord produces the kind of life that instantly alters the heart life. There are people you come in contact with who freeze you, you cannot think, things do not go, everything feels tight and mean; 9 you come into the zone of other people and all those bands disappear, you are surprised at how clearly you can think, everything seems to go better. You take a deep breath and say, why, i feel quite different; what has happened? The one personality brought an atmosphere that froze the heart not only physically, but psychically; kept it cold, kept it down, kept it back; the other personality gave the heart a chance to expand and develop and surge throughout the whole body. Taken in the physical domain, if people knew that the circulation of the blood and quickening of the heart life would remove distempers from the body, there would be a great deal less medicine taken and a great deal more walking done. The heart is the centre of all physical life and of all the imaginations of the mind. Any- thing that keeps the physical blood in good condition and the heart working properly, benefits the soul life and spirit life as well. That is why Jesus Christ said, take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting. . . . Whenever Paul mentions certain kinds of sins he calls them idolatry. Covetousness is called idolatry because every drop of blood in the life of a covetous man is drawn away from god spiritually. And so it is by sensuality and drunkenness and vengeance. Vengeance is probably the most tyrannical passion of the carnal mind. The first wonderful thing done by the new life given to us by the holy spirit is to loosen the heart, and as we obey the spirit the manifestation in the life becomes easier. Satan, however, is as subtle as god is good, and he tries to counterfeit everything god does, and if he cannot counterfeit it, he will limit it. Do not be ignorant of his devices!
(d) Life of the whole person
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (acts 14:17; see also James 5:5)
these passages refer to the power of the heart life. If our hearts are right with god, we realise what is mentioned in acts 14:17, that everything nourishes and blesses the life. James 5:5 indicates the other side of this truth (ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter). We can develop in the heart life whatever we will; there is no limit to the possible growth and development. If we give ourselves over to meanness and to Satan, there is no end to the growth in devilishness; if we give ourselves over openly to god, there is no end to our development and growth in grace. Our lord has no fear of the consequences when once the heart is open towards him. No wonder the bible counsels us to guard our heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life; Solomon prayed for an understanding heart, and paul says that the peace of god will garrison our hearts.
2. Center of practical life
(a) The emporium for there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness. (psalm 5:9) the phrase inward part is simply another phrase for heart, and in psalm 49:11
the phrase inward thought means heart. Whose adorning . . . Let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of god of great price (1 peter 3:34 rv ). The heart is the exchange and mart; our words and expressions are simply the coins we use, but the shop resides in the heart, the emporium where all the goods are, and that is what god sees but no man can see. That is why Jesus Christs judgements always confuse us until we learn how to receive, recognise and rely on the holy spirit. The way people judged Jesus in his day is the way we judge him to-day. The way the bible is judged and Jesus christ is judged is an indication of what the heart is like if we have not received the holy spirit. When we receive the holy spirit we are in the condition of the disciples after the resurrection: their eyes were opened and they had the power to discern. Before they received the holy spirit they could not perceive correctly, they simply recorded physically; they saw that Jesus Christ was a marvellous being whom they believed to be the messiah; but after they had received the holy spirit, they discerned what they had seen and heard and handled, because their hearts had been put right; the whole shop inside had been renovated and re- stocked by the holy spirit.
Notice the difference in the characteristics of the man who makes the head the center and the man who makes the heart the center. The man who makes the head the center becomes an intellectual being, he does not estimate things at all as the bible does. Sin is a mere defect to him, something to be overlooked and grown out of, and the one thing he despises is enthusiasm. Take the apostle Paul, or any of the new testament saints, the characteristic of their life is enthusiasm; the heart is first, not second. This is the antipodes of modern intellectual life. Mere intellectuality leads to bloodlessness and passionlessness, to stoicism and unreality. The more merely intellectual a person becomes the more hopelessly useless he is, until he degenerates into a mere criticising faculty, passing the strangest and wildest verdicts on life, on the bible, and on our lord.
(b) Export
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders. . . . (mark 7:21)
This passage is detestable to an unspiritual person, it is in absolutely bad taste, nine out of every ten people do not believe it because they are grossly ignorant about the heart. In these verses jesus christ says, to put it in modern language, no crime has ever been committed that every human being is not capable of committing. Do i believe that? Do you? If we do not, remember we pass a verdict straight off on the lord jesus christ, we tell him he does not know what he is talking about. We read that jesus knew what was in man, meaning that he knew mens hearts; and the apostle Paul emphasizes the same thing dont glory in man; trust only the grace of god in yourself and in other people. No wonder Jesus Christ pleads with us to give over the keeping of our hearts to him so that he can fill them with a new life! Every characteristic seen in the life of Jesus christ becomes possible in our lives when once we hand over our hearts to him to be filled with the holy spirit.
(c) Import
But peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost?. . . (acts 5:3)
A pentecostal liar. That is a terrible statement, a statement with a shudder all through it. Such a lie has never been mentioned in this particular profundity before, but it is mentioned here because it is actually possible for the heart to try and deceive the holy ghost. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto god. Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the holy ghost?
Our lord undertakes to fill the whole region of the heart with light and holiness. For god, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). Can he do it? Do i realise that i need it done? Or do i think i can realise myself ? That is the great phrase to-day, and it is growing in popularityi must realise myself. (if i want to know what my heart is like, let me listen to my mouth, in an unguarded frame, for five minutes! ) thank god for everyone who has been saved from this perilous path by yielding himself to the lord Jesus, and asking him to give him the holy spirit and obeying the light he gives!