A word like wholehearted (2 Chronicles 25:2; Joshua 14:8 NIV) needs careful study and understanding. One is rightfully arrested by it. Scripture uses it in a context of righteousness. The person is, by biblical standards, free of distractions from the important matters, of meaning leading to success – success as God counts life success. General culture tends to broaden word meaning. We could suggest many concepts of Scripture that require additional explanation because of common word dislocations related to all contexts in our lives. Long ago, it was a surprise for me to discover how many contexts are used for the word church. I see that the Muslims have their churches. No, they have their mosques, and prefer that word. The Jews have their synagogues. Various religions, unrelated to any personal God have been identified as churches. For the Christian there is only one Church, made up of all who are true Christians. There are different definitions given for Christian. It has been applied to those who do nice things. There are many who do nice things who do not want to be called Christians. Some do bad things who would like to be included in the Christian community. The church on the corner includes more factors than the spiritual Church.
John Brown is seen as a wholehearted abolitionist. He would do anything to stop the slave trade, to free the slaves, to gain his objective. He was captured at Harper’s Ferry and later executed for leading a revolt against the arsenal there to inspire a slave revolt and gain support for his cause. Only in his final hour, with his wife, before the execution, could he break into tears, showing his humanity, love of life and family. In the few years before this he had murdered in cruel fashion in Kansas, in his preoccupation. Anger made him a danger. His wholeheartedness was not in the pattern of the meaning of the word in Scripture. The scriptural meaning is in commitment to principles and the full effort to carry it through in righteousness. Hatred is for evil, not for mankind. God works with all persons, but his involvement does not mean that he is approving the context and beliefs of even some of his own followers.
Readers of a passage like 2 Chronicles 25:2 will do well to examine several translations to gain the meaning of the reference to what the King James Version translates as the perfect heart. The Hebrews used the root word to mean the will, feelings, and mind of a person. The word also was used to refer to the internal organ, the heart, just as the broader word, used for other than the organ could also be used both ways. Heart becomes an important word for the biblical writers. The Psalmist used whole heart to express his devotion (Psalm 9:1). In a Messianic Psalm (22:6), the statement is striking: your heart shall live forever. (This likely refers to the soul, the principal reality of life from God, specified here for human beings.)
Catholic Christians have used the concepts of the sacred heart as part of worship and understanding of Christ. Churches are sometimes so named in the context. The use of the ideas related to the heart is part of the order in which the spiritual is tied to the natural, a gesture toward the understanding that humans are more than animal. We are made to relate to Christ, and the relationship is entirely in righteousness. It is not made up of anger, or retribution, or violence, but in the concept of love, of redemption, of that beyond nature, or anything that nature might verify. Not separate from nature, it is beyond nature but overlays it.
Christian faith is related to the heart of God which is to say that it is more than natural, more than intellectual, more than feelings or imagination. It is from the heart, as described in Scripture, that a person can achieve a faith of the whole heart – the whole being of the unified person. Some persons are Christians in the lowest common denominator. However, there is an all in all for the most effective Christian faith incorporating the total natural/spiritual Christian. Persons who understand language know that terms may be used for different referents (things, circumstances, or whatever). Scripture is not referring to the organ of the heart, but to something which in its context is as meaningful to the context as the heart is to the physical body in all. Importance, necessity, representation, function, and other factors relate to the heart of anything. To that we give some serious attention if we are spiritually minded. The lesson is that there is an ideal healthy Christian life we may choose – to honor God and ourselves. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020