The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
To pronounce a heart as pure, the Lord thoroughly searches and confirms its root. However, when God considered the natural man’s heart, He found it to be extremely wicked, hopelessly dark, deceitful, and desperate to do evil. This tragedy befell the human heart after the fall in the garden of Eden.
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5 KJV
The narration of the creation in Genesis 1 ended with God’s comment on everything that had been made: ‘…behold, it was very good’ (v31). However, man’s sin affected the best part of the creation, which had earlier been certified as ‘very good’. After God made mankind, He blessed them, but sin robbed them of this blessing. Worst of all, the heart of man became corrupted beyond cure. God, who weighs the hearts of mankind (Proverbs 16:2), realized that what was once very good had become perpetually evil. Today, the same holds true for mankind. Take a deep look within yourself and examine the condition of your heart. Pride, anger, impure thoughts, and many other vices are now the fruits of the unregenerate heart.
Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed. I, the Lord, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 GNT
The Bible declares that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things. It is this very deceitfulness that allows a person to feign love while harboring an evil heart. Consider the tragic reality of partners who claim to love their spouses, yet end up killing them. Similarly, there are those who engage in infidelity, men and women with deceitful hearts. Moreover, we witness many self-proclaimed pastors whose heart is a seat of idols, yet they put on a ‘show’ from the pulpit.
But, I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.
Jeremiah 17:10 MSG
No matter how much veil you put on to cover the evil of your heart, it is all laid bare before the Lord. He knows every detail of the heart. You cannot deceive God with your showmanship; He perceives through it all.
But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 MSG
Therefore, what is the state of your heart? If God were to report about you, would He not eliminate you because of the content of your heart? You can deceive everyone else, but not God. While we may assess your work with limited vision, God scrutinizes your heart. That would be His basis for your approval.
