The Attitude of the Heart

7/6/2016

Hebrews 3.12-13 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

I think most people, when they think of sin, would describe it as some kind of action or behavior. I think they’d give it a name like: addiction, adultery, gluttony, formication, or something like that. I think when pressed to explain what they mean, they’d still explain sin as an action or behavior. I don’t think they’d call it a lifestyle, or an attitude of the heart.

When the writer of Hebrews addressed sin and its deceitfulness, he explained it as an unbelieving heart. He said sin was unbelief. Now into unbelief we might throw actions and attitudes but unbelief is more all-encompassing than just an act here or a behavior there, it really is the bent of someone’s life.

To be sure, all sin is sin, but not all sin leads to death (1 John 5). But some sin is more insidious than that. And that is why the writer of Hebrews describes sin as deceitful. You see, the more we do something wrong (sinful) the easier it becomes to do; the second divorce is much easier than the first. Acts of sin, whether large or small, wear down our defenses against them when repeated. But it isn’t the act that is the problem, it’s our attitude toward the act. What do we really believe about what it is we do?

A sinful, unbelieving heart, says Hebrews, is a heart that turns away from God. Little acts along the way if left unchecked will add up to directional change at some point. A sinful, unbelieving heart is one that is resolved or convinced that God is somehow unnecessary, unimportant, or irrelevant. This is underscored by the fact that many who were led out of Egypt in the Exodus, were not really all that into the “God” that led them out. They liked Egypt. They wanted to go back.

I think the issue in the Church is, “What do we do with sin?” We all sin at some degree or another, but we aren’t sure what to do with it. I think the bigger issue is, “What do we do with God?” What does God think about the things we do and why we do them? And do we care what God thinks about the things we do? (Sometimes, I think if we even have to ask about what God thinks, we’re already admitting things are much worse than they appear to be!)

Do we want to go with God wherever He leads us? Or is our attitude such that we’d rather stay right where we are because we like where we are; and don’t think God is all that important, necessary, and relevant? The reality of the presence of the deceitfulness of sin will be fully displayed by our daily cooperation with God, and our attitude toward Him.

If, indeed, God is important, necessary, and relevant to our every thought, word, and deed, then we might be fighting hard against that deceit which would try to convince us otherwise. But, if God is secondary (or worse) to us in all we do, we just might be deceived already… If we don’t ever even bother to look, there might be a problem.

Father, what is most important is my daily attitude toward You. May I keep watch faithfully over that, and encourage others to do so as well. It isn’t my actions, but what is behind my actions that shows who I really am – keep me real! Amen.