The word "heart", in Western culture, in its symbolic or metaphorical sense, is used to mean the seat of emotions, or as a graphic substitute for love. Think of all the chintzy T-shirts, bumper stickers, baseball caps and various other miscellany of pop society that replaces the word "love" in the declaration of the object of affection (New York city, a baseball team, basset hounds, ad infinitum) with a simple greeting card picture of a red heart. But is this sense--the heart as the seat of the emotions, the one implied by the above verse? What does the Bible mean when it so often uses the word "heart"--or at least what is translated in English as such? The seat of the intellect? A combination of intellect and emotion? Something different, such as inner conviction?
The answer is no...and yes. No as to any one as being the answer, yes as to all of them--and more. Here is a partial list of the different meanings to the word heart implied by various scriptural texts:
The center of human rational-spiritual nature (I Cor. 7: 37, Rom. 6: 17)
The seat of love (I Tim. 1: 5)
The seat of hate (Lev. 19: 17)
The center of thought: it knows (Duet. 29:4), it understands (Acts 16: 14), it reflects (Luke 2: 19), it estimates (Prov. 12:25)
The center of feelings and affections: of joy (Isa. 65: 14), of pain (John 16: 6), of despair (Eccl. 2: 20), of fear (Psa. 143: 4)
The center of morality and conscience (Rom. 2: 15, I John 3: 19-21)
The seat of human fallen nature (Jer. 17: 9)
The dwelling place of Christ in us (Eph. 3: 17), and of the Holy Spirit (II Cor. 1:22)
The above list only begins to touch the depth of meaning in Scripture with regard to its use of the word heart. Here and here are a couple of links to online Bible dictionary resources for further study.
Familiar words can sometimes present a trap in that our eye passes over them without really engaging our thought. Whatever meaning lies closest to our consciousness--usually that which is culturally prevalent--is the one we "plug in" to the context. Let me, then, humbly suggest an alternate word to at least ponder; that one may temporarily substitute for heart to strip away the contemporary Western meaning and its limited implications, one that might help us grasp the more complete significance of its intent: essence. It denotes the inner, spiritual aspect of human nature, but also the all-encompassing mix of intellect, emotion, conviction, personality and identity. In such a thought experiment, the framing text above would read:
But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your essence." (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your essence that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the essence one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Give it some thought, and perhaps temporarily substitute a word of your own. My point is not a call for an alternate translation; just a clearer understanding of the meaning of the text.
