The moral heart is widely misunderstood, and one of our major concerns about being sound and faithful has to do with heart problems. Although great progress has been made in understanding the disorders of the physical heart, many are dying spiritually each day because of moral heart disease.
Let’s study the four chambers of the moral heart. Notice that when we keep these in good working order, we will be the kind of Christians God wants us to be.
I. INTELLECT IS THE DIGESTIVE CHAMBER OF THE MORAL HEART
This chamber equips man for three activities: knowing, thinking, and understanding. Its function for the moral man is closely related to that of the digestive organs for the physical man. It is more than a receptacle; it is also a facility for knowledge, just as the stomach is not just a silo but also a refinery for food.
The intellect collects and stores (knowing), chews and breaks down (thinking), and then distributes and assimilates (understanding) the information and experience gathered through the five senses. Faith is an act of intellect, not an act of the emotion. Paul said, “For with the heart man believeth . . .” (Romans 10:10).
Paul is speaking of the intellect because faith is an intellectual persuasion based on knowing, thinking, and understanding the evidence about God (Romans 10:17).
There are three rules for the care of the intellect that correspond to the three God-given faculties that it possesses: proper diet, proper exercise, and proper clothing. The proper diet for the intellect is “truth” (John 8:32; 14:6). The proper exercise for the intellect is the “study and meditation” of truth (1 Timothy 4:13; 2 Timothy 2:15). The only way to clothe the intellect and protect it from falsehoods and myths is by “applying the truth to oneself.”
II. EMOTION IS THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER OF THE MORAL HEART
As the word suggests, emotion is the portion of the heart that moves a person. Emotions are fueled by intellect. Information and experience gathered through the five senses and digested by the intellect feed and ignite reactions within the emotional chamber. These reactions (emotions) then spark a chemical change within the body that motivates us for action—to flee, fight, cry, rejoice, love.
The physiological changes that accompany the emotions are so intense that the ancients identified the seat of the emotions in the belly and loins. First Peter 1:13 indicates that emotional reactions can and must be controlled reactions that prepare us to run in the right direction.
We control our emotions by steering our intellect. We turn off our emotional burners by turning our heads or attention and by refining the mixture of information and experience which fuel our emotions. We control our emotions by pondering wholesome things (Philippians 4:8).
III. CONSCIENCE IS THE JUDICIAL CHAMBER OF THE MORAL HEART
Conscience is the apparatus that sits in judgment over a man’s actions; for this reason, conscience is described as the judicial chamber of the heart. As the judge of our moral condition, the conscience is constantly on guard, delivering its verdict on past, present, and even future actions. It commends or condemns past action, accuses or excuses present conduct, and approves or disapproves contemplated activity (Romans 2:15).
The conscience is properly a judicial, not a legislative, chamber. The conscience does not make laws; it only enforces them. The conscience must be informed properly of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil, sin and righteousness, vice and virtue. The conscience is good at judging and policing action, but it is only as dependable as the standard it has been taught.
The conscience is quite vulnerable to some sorts of injuries. An uneducated or misinformed conscience is like an ignorant jury or a sleeping dog that permits trespassers to go free; so Paul said when he persecuted the church (Acts 26:9). If, like unshod feet, the conscience is regularly disregarded and trampled upon, it will grow calloused and become dull and insensitive (Ephesians 4:19).
IV. THE WILL IS THE EXECUTIVE CHAMBER OF THE MORAL HEART
Man is endowed with the power of choice, and the will is the seat of that faculty. The other chambers of the moral heart are subject to the will. The intellect empowers the will to make informed decisions, but the attention of the intellect is turned by the will.
Just as we decide what foods to put in our bodies, we also choose what we want to put into our minds. By our choices, we develop habits of thought. While the will must push the intellect, it must also restrain the emotions. The emotions tug at the will like a horse at the reins, but the will is in the saddle and tames the heart (emotion) by turning the head (intellect) this way and that. In fact, we sometimes say to the impatient, “Hold your horses!”
CONCLUSION
The physical heart is a thing of wonder, but the moral heart is even more amazing. See how it is made, learn how it functions, know the risk factors, and understand how to care for your moral heart. Keep it healthy.
General Conference Ministerial Association