whole heart
Last week we talked about what it can look like if we let our minds (only) control our actions. To recap, when we begin to rely only on what we know and don’t truly believe what the bible says, our faith becomes religion and we become legalistic. God doesn’t call us to be legalistic. On the contrary, when we make decisions out of our emotions, we often negate the knowledge God has given us in the bible.
Emotions can lead us astray. A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the example of Peter rebuking Jesus. In Matthew 16, Peter rebukes Jesus after Jesus explains His plans to go to Jerusalem. Peter responds to Jesus by saying:
“Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
Matthew 16:22
I can understand Peter here, he was shocked and probably sad and frustrated hearing Jesus’ plans. But that’s the important part–he let the way he was feeling, dictate the way he reacted. He let his heart guide his actions. Peter was not connecting his emotions with the knowledge he has of Jesus’ purpose & on account of this, he’s telling Jesus to forget His greater objective, death on the cross.
Another example is in Romans 10. Israel had a zeal for God, but their zeal did not align with the knowledge of God. Romans 10:2-3 says,
“For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
They had their own passion for the Lord but without the accurate knowledge of the righteousness of God, they ended up not being able to correctly submit to God.
This is where we can often go wrong. Christians often have a ton of passion for the Lord, which is great, I’m not discounting that. But without the knowledge, we cannot properly apply that passion. In the first few chapters of Romans, Paul demonstrated how important having zeal with knowledge is.
You can’t make a decision rooted in anger, selfish desires, frustration, sadness, etc. We’re human, I get there will be times when a decision is made purely out of emotion. Trust me, I’ve done it and will probably do it again. But a decision made purely out of emotions has never led me in the best direction.
Israel has a lack of knowledge, but that wasn’t their only problem. They also had a moral problem– they “have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” People cannot come to Jesus without the right information about the gospel, but information alone is not enough to save anyone. There has to be a radical submission to the righteousness of God, putting away our own righteousness.
God calls us to serve him with “a whole heart AND a willing mind.” Like Israel, we can have a radical passion for the Lord, yet that passion has to align with the knowledge God has given us.
