Fifty years ago, student activists on American college campuses opposed the Vietnam War with counter-cultural songs, nonconformist slogans, and a radically utopian commitment to free love, groovy tunes, and experimental drug use. The slogan Make Love Not War urged both sexual promiscuity and military pacifism. Despite their youthful enthusiasm, hippies displayed a feeble comprehension of marital, pharmaceutical, and geopolitical realities.
Christians sometimes confuse the cause and effect logic of this verse, which is identical to Matthew 6:21. The Bible does not say that your heart will determine your treasure but that your treasure will determine your heart. The word translated “treasure” here is thesaurus and may refer to any storehouse of valuable items. Many people are familiar with Roget’s Thesaurus, a reference book by Peter Mark Roget, who stored up fifteen thousand words.
In Paul’s day, meat offered to idols in pagan rituals generated leftovers sold in the market, tempting some Christians to renew their former pagan customs. Although some Christians strictly abstained from such meat as a matter of principle, others considered the meat to be nothing more than food and the idols to be nothing at all. A controversy swirled concerning whether or not a Christian ought to eat such meat.
Hosea was a prophet in Israel 750 years before Jesus walked the earth. The Israelites in the Northern Kingdom were fixated upon ritualistic animal sacrifice. Their spiritual lives were not rooted in heart matters like mercy, lovingkindness, and the intimate acknowledgement of God in their daily endeavors. All that mattered was outwardly generous religious activity.
On date night my wife and I reclined in fancy theater seats to watch a movie about fancy people eating a fancy dinner. Fancy that! King George V, grandfather to Queen Elizabeth, was coming to Downton Abbey for dinner and an overnight stay. The excitement upstairs was only surpassed by the hustling and bustling downstairs, where the butlers, footmen, cooks, waiters, and lady’s maids were overjoyed with the prospect of serving their King.
In the inner life of every person, there is a struggle between worldly temptations and godly desires. After asking God to show him how to live righteously, David prays for an undivided nature. The word translated “heart” in this verse is sometimes rendered “mind” or “soul” or “understanding.” David does not want to be a hypocrite or a double-minded man.
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