Have you noticed how often the Bible mentions our hearts? It’s a way of speaking about our deepest self, our private thoughts, and secret motives. It’s basically who we really are when no one’s looking.
“Apply your heart to what I teach.” Proverbs 22:17
“Keep your heart on the right path.” Proverbs 23:19
“Above all else, guard your heart.” Proverbs 4:23
“Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil.” Psalms 141:4
“Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34
Other than God, no one knows your heart but you, right? Well, not really, for we actually can fool ourselves. As Psalm 14:1 puts it, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.'” How can he think that? “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him (Proverbs 26:12). In the secret chambers of our hearts, we dialogue alone, with input only from our inner voice (or voices).
That’s a dangerous place to be. Jeremiah (17:9) explains it well, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” This is why we look back and say, “What was I thinking?” Or rationalize, “I know it was wrong, but what could I do?”
It’s much better when we allow God into our hearts (Jeremiah 17:10; Psalm 139:23; etc.), and that means subjecting ourselves to His Word and to godly people. That is the antidote for our own folly. It is so easy to criticize the glaring faults of others while ignoring or justifying our own, as did the Pharisees. But, as a friend of mine observed, “Because someone else lacks wisdom doesn’t mean I am wise.”
But that is the game of self-righteousness the heart plays. And so Jesus warns us, “Don’t judge.” He is not forbidding discernment, but condemnation. And why? Precisely because we don’t know the whole story. We certainly can judge between right and wrong, but we can never fully and correctly assess motives.
Not even in ourselves. That’s a job for God alone. 1 Corinthians 4:3-5
“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”
Jeremiah 17:10