«　WEEK 5　DAY 3　»

　　1 Thes. 3:13 So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

　　Eph. 5:27 That He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that she would be holy and without blemish.

　　Although we have given a number of messages on the heart, we have not emphasized the matter of the heart as much as we have emphasized the spirit. Now we would ask why in 1 Thessalonians 3:13 Paul does not say that the Lord would establish our spirit or our soul, but our heart.

　　Our heart is a composition of all the parts of our soul—the mind, the emotion, and the will—plus one part of our spirit, the conscience….Our soul is our personality, our person, our self.

　　As human beings, we have an outward organ, the body, to contact the physical, visible world. We also have an inward organ, the spirit, to contact God and the spiritual realm. The soul, located between these two organs, is our person, our self. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 180-181)

　　The soul is the person himself, but the heart is the person in action. This means that whenever you act, you act by your heart. Therefore, we may say that our heart is our representative in action….When a brother says to his wife, “Dear, I love you,” this means that his heart loves her. Likewise, whenever we hate something, it is our heart that does the hating. Whenever we enjoy something or dislike something, it is our heart that enjoys or dislikes. Thus, our heart is our representative, the acting commissioner or ambassador, of our inner being. The activities and movements of our physical body depend on our physical heart. In like manner, our daily living depends on our psychological heart. The way we act and behave depends on the kind of heart we have.

　　Because we are fallen and sinful, our psychological heart is corrupt and deceitful. According to Jeremiah 17:9, our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. A better translation of the Hebrew would say “incurable” instead of desperately wicked. Our heart is corrupt, rotten, to such an extent that it is incurable. This is the condition of the psychological heart of all descendants of Adam. But God in His salvation promises to give us a new heart. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will also give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.” The new heart in this verse does not refer to another heart; it refers to a renewed heart.

　　In God’s salvation the renewing of the heart is once for all. However, in our experience our heart is renewed continually because it is changeable. Perhaps when you were saved, your heart turned to God in a very strong way. But after a period of time, your heart may turn away from Him somewhat. To a certain extent at least, your heart may turn away. Then by God’s mercy your heart may turn fully to Him once again.

　　[In 1 Thessalonians 3:13] for our heart to be established blameless in holiness includes much more than simply for our heart to turn to the Lord and to be pure toward the Lord. This is to have our turned and pure heart separated unto the Lord, occupied by the Lord, and saturated with the Lord. Such a heart not only has turned to the Lord but it also has a pure motive. It is separated unto Him, fully occupied by Him, and thoroughly saturated with Him. It is here in such a state that our heart will be established. Once our heart has been established, it will be set, and it will be no longer movable or changeable. Furthermore, when our heart is in such a condition, it will become blameless. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 182-184, 186-187)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msg. 21