Have you
ever heard someone say, “Hey, God knows my heart!” If so, it probably came just
before or after the phrase, “Don’t judge me!”
Often when
I’ve heard people repeat this quote of Jesus, that God knows their heart, they seem to be insisting that certain sinful behaviors are
acceptable since God knows they are ultimately good people. I’ve heard that
rationale given to excuse sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, racism, illegal drug use, and many other actions that God calls sin.
But how is the phrase ‘God knows my
(your) heart(s)’ used in Scripture?
No servant can serve two masters;
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted
to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Now the
Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and
were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify
yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is
highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. – Luke 16:13-15
Here in Luke 16, Jesus is trying to lead a group
of Pharisees to repentance. In order to do this, first He must show them how their hearts are in rebellion toward God. Like millions of Western Christians,
their hearts are devoted to the god of money because of the worldly power, influence,
security, comfort and control it affords them.
But Jesus keeps
pressing the issue. He tells these professing lovers of God that because they are
so devoted to wealth, they neither serve God nor love Him.
And the Pharisees’ response to God
incarnate's rebuke?
They scoff
at Him. That word carries the picture of blowing your nose at
someone. Utterly disrespectful and dismissive. Why would they do that? Because clearly, they know their own hearts
better than Jesus does, right? So they tell Jesus to buzz off.
You can
almost see them thinking to themselves, “Hey, You need to calm down, Jesus!
Take that stuff somewhere else. God knows my heart!”
And Jesus,
operating in the power of the Spirit says to them, “You’re exactly right! God
does know your heart, and if you were thinking straight you’d be trembling
rather than scoffing.”
What would
cause someone who claims to love God to scoff at a warning and rebuke from
Jesus? One of the early Christians gives us a clue as he comments on our
passage:
It is written, “But the man that is
proud and boastful shall bring nothing at all to perfection, who has enlarged
his soul as hell.” And the Lord in His Gospel blames and condemns men of that
kind, saying, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows
your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God.” He says that those are repulsive and detestable who please
themselves. –
Cyprian 250CE, Volume 5, p. 653 [CD-ROM]
Pride is
a dangerous quality. God hates it. God opposes those who are characterized by
it. It utterly deceives us. It convinces people to not seek God. It is a
forerunner for destruction. And as Luke 16 describes, pride is behind the drive to constantly
justify our sinful behavior in the sight of others.
If you sense pride in yourself, I
want to encourage you to seek God’s remedy.
“God is opposed to the proud, but
gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he
will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. – James 4:6-8
God gives
special grace to those who humble themselves under His hand. And one of the
most amazing blessings of grace that God offers to the world is to grant a
brand new heart for those who will humbly receive His Son. Our almighty God can
take a prideful, hardened heart and transform it into one like Jesus’.
If God
can take the chief of sinners and turn him into a church-planting apostle who’s
responsible for writing half the books of the New Testament, He can work an
incredible turnaround in you as well! God knows your heart, and He also knows
how to transform it into something beautiful!
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