Building On The RockSample

A New Heart Standard

A place you don’t want your picture to appear is on the “Most Wanted” poster in the police station. The people portrayed there will one day stand before a judge or jury and be assigned a penalty for what they have done. Jesus speaks of one class of such people: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22) They are in Jesus’ words, “subject to judgment.” 

Courts judge people on the basis of evidence that the accused has done something illegal. But Jesus says something different here. He says that “anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” This is not doing something illegal. It is not even an outward action, but an inner attitude. What jury is capable of making such a judgment? What judge? Only One. Only God can judge the heart. He needs no external evidence, no testimony of an eyewitness, nothing. He sees into the depths of the human heart.

God can see, and God can judge. We were fishing once on a lake in southern Ontario, and this lake was reported to be very deep. At one point we said, “Let’s see if we can find out how deep it is.” We put a good heavy weight on a line and let it down. We couldn’t reach the bottom. Our line was not long enough. But God’s line is long enough. He can see deep into our hearts, and that’s where He wants us to meet the standard. He wants our hearts to be so aligned with His that murder is not an issue, stealing is not an issue, lying is not an issue, coveting is not an issue; our evil thoughts never express themselves in actions because we deal with them long before they reach that stage.

How is your heart? Don’t worry about breaking the law. Aim for Jesus’ deeper standard. Aim at pleasing God in your thought-life, in your heart. We have a deeper calling than merely to keep the law. Our calling is “to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, . . .” (Philippians 3:10). This is not a behavioral standard, but a heart standard.

Prayer: Father, I confess with David in his opening words in Psalm 139: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” And I also issue this invitation with David in his closing words: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”