Set Your Hearts on Things Above

Scripture passage:

"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them. "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean." (Matthew 15:16-20)

Out of the heart

What goes into a man's mouth is merely food, which passes through the body and is excreted. But what comes out of a man's mouth and makes him unclean comes from his heart. Out of the "heart", the center of human personality, the mouth speaks, revealing what is in the heart. In other words, what a person truly is affects what he or she says and does. What is needed is a change of heart. True religion must deal with the inner nature of a person and not with mere externals.

In contrast to the mindset and rituals of the Pharisees, the teachings of Jesus insist that real "cleanness" is of the heart. What concerned Jesus most was to see people transformed and their hearts renewed, because he came to save his people from their sins.

Isaiah prophesied about the hypocrites (Isaiah 29:13) Jesus unmasks these hypocrites. Observe that when a hypocrite is found out, he should be exposed to all because this may lead to his salvation. If he be permitted to retain his falsely acquired character, he cannot he escape total ruin or eternal damnation.

Command of God versus tradition

Matthew 15:3-6 Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, Honor your father and mother' and Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”

Jesus made a fundamental distinction between the authority of the command of God (as found in Scripture) and Jewish tradition, and he insisted that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were guilty of breaking the former for the sake of the latter.

Jesus' teaching opens up a fresh approach to the question of the law. It discounts the Pharisees' oral tradition while defending the law; yet it insists that real "cleanness" is of the heart, so it discounts some of the law's formal requirements. The true direction in which the Old Testament law points, is precisely what Jesus teaches, what he is, and what he inaugurates. He has fulfilled the law; therefore whatever prescriptive force it continues to have is determined by its relationship to him. Romans 14:17 & 18 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” With pastoral insight, Paul tells his readers that all of them are the loyal subjects of Christ in the kingdom of God. In that sphere, the real concerns are not externals such as diet but the spiritual realities motivating life and shaping conduct. Joy and peace are the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in the believer's life. The manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit is acceptable not only to God who provides it, but also to those who see it in operation and experience its blessings.

Strive for heavenly things

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

To set the heart on things above is to desire and to strive for heavenly things. It is to see to it that one's interests are constantly centered in Christ, that one's attitudes, ambitions, and whole outlook on life are molded by Christ's relationship to the believer, and that one's allegiance to him takes precedence over all earthly allegiances.

We are buried with Christ in his death and we will rise with him through his resurrection. Therefore we joyfully receive the doctrine of Christ; and profess to be partakers of a spiritual religion. Christ promises spiritual and eternal things. These are the very things we must seek and look forward to partake in them.

The only remedy for sinful passions is found in the believer's experience of union with Christ-- a union under which the Christian dies to sin and to the world's way of thinking and doing. The death with Christ also involves participation in his resurrection life. This releases into the believer's life a power that is more than adequate to resist the appetites and attitudes of the lower nature.

Guard your heart and your thoughts

In 2001, a Japanese man turned himself in to the police and confessed to thinking of doing a robbery. According to police, the man said he had planned a robbery but didn't dare to commit it. He had recently lost his job and was in debt, so he planned to rob a post office with a can of oil and threaten to light it. The man was put under arrest and charged with planning the robbery as well as stealing the oil container.

A man's life is governed by his thoughts; he will ultimately become that which he dwells most upon in his mind. Paul wrote an instruction to the Philippians, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things" (Philippians 4:8). Believers should keep on thinking and doing what is morally and spiritually excellent. This involves centering their minds on exalted things and then putting into practice what they have learned. In Proverbs 4:23, we find a similar message: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” The heart (i.e., the mind) must be guarded diligently for it is the wellspring of life. If the heart be pure and holy, all its purposes will be just and good. If it be impure and defiled, nothing will proceed from it but abomination.

Conform to the pattern of Christ

The heart is the starting point of the activities of life; it determines the course of life. This is the reason for Paul's instruction to the Romans, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

We must be continually vigilant lest our original decision to serve God is weakened. The threat comes from "this world", whose ways and thoughts can so easily encroach on the child of God. "The renewing of your mind" means believers must keep going back in their thoughts to their original commitment to God and reaffirm its necessity in the light of God's grace extended to them. The inward change produces the outward. Where the spirit, the temper, and disposition of the mind are not renewed, an outward change is of but little worth, and but of short standing. The renewed mind is finished and complete. When the mind is renewed, and the whole life is changed, then the will of God is perfectly fulfilled. This is God’s grand design for every human being.

Our heavenly calling includes residence in a dreary fallen world, among sinful people. But God has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light and we are in the world for witness, not for conformity to the fallen ways of the world. Our pattern is Christ alone.

Selie Visa