GOD knows your Heart. Do You? JOHN 2:24-25

24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
JOHN 2:24-25 ESV

24 αὐτὸς δὲ Ἰησοῦς οὐκ ἐπίστευεν αὑτὸν αὐτοῖς διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν γινώσκειν πάντας 25 καὶ ὅτι οὐ χρείαν εἶχεν ἵνα τις μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐγίνωσκεν τί ἦν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ.
JOHN 2:24-25 SBLGNT

Most relationships are built on mutual admiration. However, this is not true when it comes to humanity and Jesus. Though people praised Jesus because of his miracles, he was unwilling to commit himself to them. The reason, John says, centres on what Jesus knew about man.

God’s knowledge about us is different from our knowledge of each other and even ourselves. The Bible notes in 1 Sam 16:7, “7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”. Hence, this makes it hard for us to know other people. It is not easy to make a wise decision when hiring because someone might look good, have a great résumé, and answer questions well, and still be completely different from what he or she appears to be. Alternatively, think about an executive who suddenly flees from the country with a large amount of company funds. People always comment on how much they trusted him and how well he was by everyone. All along, he had been a thief and none of the people who knew him best suspected it.

However, God “knows the heart”, Acts 15:8 -8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; he “searches hearts”, Rom. 8:27 – 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God and knows what lies within. “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” and Heb. 4:13 –13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. That Jesus can do the same is yet another proof of his deity. John says that he “needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25).

If the Bible is the Word of God, then the way to learn what Christ knows about man is to examine what the Bible says about man. What, for instance, does the Bible say about the heart of man? People will defend a criminal by saying, “But he has a good heart.” Nevertheless, the Bible teaches in Jer 17:9 – “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “

We are frequently advised, “Trust your heart.” However, the Bible says that doing such is dangerous because your heart is not a good moral guide. The great tragedy of our race is that our hearts are wicked and deceitful because of the infection of sin. Therefore, this is seen in man’s attitude toward his Creator. We live in a glorious world made by God and filled with good things. So how does man respond to God? Paul gives the definitive answer in Romans 1:21 – “Although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him”. Walk around your neighbourhood or at work and listen to the conversations. Do people praise God for the good things they enjoy? Are they thankful to the Lord for their many blessings? The answer is No. People do not honour or thank God but mainly try to avoid him. Donald Grey
Barnhouse, in his book Genesis comments, “Men will read trash rather than the Word of God, and adhere to a system of priorities that leaves God out of their lives. Multitudes of men spend more time shaving than on their souls, and multitudes of women give more minutes to their makeup than to the life of the eternal Spirit.”

Malcolm Muggeridge’s conversion to Christianity was hastened by a glimpse he received of his wicked heart. He worked as a journalist in India and went to a river for a swim. As he entered the water, he saw an Indian woman bathing. He felt an impulse to go and seduce her, just as King David felt when he saw Bathsheba. Temptation storming his mind, he began swimming toward her. As he recalled his wedding vows, he just went faster. The voice of allurement called out, “Stolen water is sweet” (Prov. 9:17), and he swam more furiously still. However, when he pulled up toward the woman, and she turned, Muggeridge saw that “she was a leper.… This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.” His first response was to accuse her: “What a dirty lecherous woman!” he thought. However, then it crashed in upon him that it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart. This is precisely the teaching of Christ’s message. When we look into the human heart, we see the lust, the greed, the hate, the pride, the anger, and the jealousies that are so destructive. Jesus knew this about man. He knew that man would, in the end, reject him and mock him and crucify him. Therefore, here at the beginning, he did not commit himself even to those who acclaimed him, for he knew the heart of man.

Man does not merely have heart disease, however. We are also inflicted with the hand, foot, and mouth disease of sin. Consider Paul’s spiritual diagnosis in Romans 3:10–18:

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks God.
All have turned aside; together, they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

These are all quotations from the Old Testament, and with them, Paul is summing up the Bible’s doctrine of total depravity. Therefore, this means that as a result of the fall of our race into sin, described in Genesis 3, every part of man’s nature—our physical drives, emotions, wills, consciences, and thoughts—is contaminated by sinful motives and desires. Total depravity does not mean that we could not be worse—for we could always be worse—or that there is nothing good to say about men and women. Nor does total depravity deny humanity’s dignity and worth as created by God. Instead, total depravity chronicles the tragedy of our corruption in sin, a comprehensive corruption concerning all our faculties: heart, mind, and body. Isaiah summarizes, “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness” (Isa. 1:6). Jonathan Edwards, in his book on the “Glory and Excellency of Christ”, observes:

Not only is everyone corrupt, but they are all over corrupt—in every power, faculty, and principle; every part is depraved.… And not only is every part corrupt, but exceedingly corrupt—being possessed with dreadful principles of corruption, horribly evil dispositions and principles of sin that may be represented by the poison of asps, which makes men like vipers and devils.

Therefore, this is what the Bible says about humanity, and it is because he knew this that Jesus did not entrust himself to men.

As Christians today, we are compelled to act without seeking spirituall guidance or assuming we are righteous enough to act without guidance. We place our actions based on statistical views that provide credence to our actions. We act against the fundamental command of God, that living human being is unique and created by God Himself to have intrinsic value but we blindly discard these values and place our actions based on statistics. This is not the Christian way, and as the world expands and seeks to minimize the values of our intrinsic value, many Christians fall into this trap.

The media, leaders and corporations are bound within materialistic desires that set themselves towards a goal that satisfies their reality. If we are to fall into this trap, our Christian values will be washed away, and as generations pass, the few left will be those who suffer, in poverty and sufferings, which their only hope lies in the promise of Jesus Christ. Why did Jesus seek the poor and misfortunate, the suffering and lost, because He knew that they were worth the salvation in Him, while those above them, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, were like those today with power and money?

Take heed, my brothers and sisters and beware of your choices and actions. You act within your own views and set aside the Word of God. God already knows what is in your hearts, and salvation has never been a part of your destiny unless you turn back to His Word and seek the Holy Spirit in your life. Creation stands witness to your actions, and God already knows what is in your hearts.

Pray and seek forgiveness, for even as Jesus Christ knew what lies in your hearts, he willingly died for your salvation. Do not waste your salvation for the worth of this world but look forward to Kingdom to come.

GOD BLESS

Portions of this essay were taken from – R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel

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