The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
In its natural, unrenewed state without divine grace the human heart is profoundly corrupt, deceitful above all else and inclined to evil. No person can reliably know or judge the true motives, strength, or condition of his own heart or another's. God alone searches the heart and tests the inner life, seeing what is hidden in every mind and repaying each person according to ways and the fruit of doings. To trust in man and make flesh one's strength with a heart turned from the Lord brings curse and barrenness like a shrub in parched desert places, while to trust in the Lord and make Him one's hope brings blessing and unfailing fruitfulness like a tree planted by water. Therefore the heart cannot be trusted or followed but must be distrusted, humbly examined in the light of Scripture and Christ's character, and subdued and renewed by grace through vital connection with Christ alone.
Wording and Immediate Context
The heart in its unrenewed, natural, unsanctified and carnal state without divine grace is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, profoundly corrupt and inclined to evil. Without divine grace it cannot be relied on, and its supposed goodness is not a safe guide for judgment or conduct. Its corruption is supreme and incurable by any human power, loving sin while attempting to serve two masters at once.
Who can know it means no human can reliably know or judge the true condition, motives, strength, or final salvation of his own heart or another's heart. A man cannot assess himself truly by his own judgment, nor can he know his own weakness until testing reveals it, as Peter's confidence that he would never deny Christ revealed ignorance of himself. Sin hardens the heart against warnings and evidence and leaves it set on its own way rather than seeking truth.
The verse stands between the curse on the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the Lord, and the blessing on the man who trusts in the Lord and makes the Lord his hope. The cursed one becomes like a desert shrub or heath that does not see when good comes, dwelling in parched, salty and uninhabited places. To forsake the Lord, the hope of Israel and fountain of living waters, brings shame, and those who turn away will be written in the earth. The blessed one becomes like a tree planted by the waters spreading its roots by the river, staying green when heat comes, untroubled in drought, and never ceasing to bear fruit. A flourishing and fruitful life thus shows vital connection with God, receiving what sustains the soul's life as a plant receives soil, air, dew, showers and sunshine, while no one remains righteous longer than he has faith in God and keeps that connection.
The next verse adds that the Lord searches the heart and tries the reins, knows what is hidden in every mind, and gives every person according to his ways and the fruit of his doings. He alone examines inner motives and tests the inner person, judging each one according to conduct. Sinful man can therefore find hope and righteousness only in God.
No One Knows Heart
The heart cannot give a just, true, or safe estimate of itself, for self-love naturally prompts a far better opinion of self than is warranted and a foolish inclination to trust in its supposed goodness. That self-flattery is often mistaken for Christian feeling and zeal, leaving people sure they are right when they do not meet the requirements of God's word. Many are fooled about their own condition because they cover themselves with their own righteousness and feel satisfied when they reach a human standard of character measured by comparing themselves with others. Such self-satisfaction is fatal, for of themselves they cannot meet God's requirements or reach the divine standard of loving God fully and neighbor as self.
The unrenewed heart is soil too friendly to the growth of falsehood and deceit, where the rank weeds of lying choke the precious plants of candor and truth. Cherished little habits of concealment, excuse, and self-justification against conviction in the springtime of youth become habitual secretiveness, instability, and insincerity in riper years, and every act of deception helps form the character hereafter. The natural heart loves sin and can mistake sin for righteousness, even clothing it in the appearance of sanctification and purity while failing to see its evil because deception has dulled spiritual discernment. A lie believed and practiced becomes as truth, and the inwardly corrupt heart can cherish sin and try to serve God and the world at once, which calls for more than admitting sin, even cleansing and a changed life.
The heart deceives its owner into believing he is right when God frowns upon his wrongs, comforting himself with his good deeds and claiming to be about right like the Pharisee boasting of his works, while God sees not as man sees. Good deeds and religious practices can thus become grounds for self-confidence that hides wrongdoing and excuses refusal to admit faults. Sin hardens the heart against warnings and evidence, leaving people intent on their own way rather than seeking truth, with set will and strong determination used on the wrong side. Instead of humbling themselves to see and confess faults when the Spirit reveals the true condition, they take blind, foolish positions that trample exposure of what is within, demanding more evidence rather than the humble heart needed to recognize the need for correction and thorough preparation for eternity.
One who feels wronged may mistake his own judgment for the truth and use a small offense to justify anger, blame, and criticism of brethren, not knowing even his own motives and condition. Sympathy and confidence in one's own judgment become snares when people are unaware of the heart's deceptions, leading to evil thoughts. The deceived will can harden the heart and stiffen the neck, withholding sympathy, love, affection, and thoughtful consideration from the one who deserves it. That same energy and determination should instead be exercised in standing for the right by calling wrong wrong and dishonesty dishonesty.
God Searches and Repays
God understands the tendencies of depraved human nature and the deceitfulness of the heart that is evil and beyond human cure. People cannot reliably know their own hearts because the heart hides its true condition, deceives and conceals, leaving them blind to their proneness to evil and vulnerable to rebellion and transgression. Satan watches to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion and to open channels for the unrestrained flow of evil so that men may be ruined and condemned before God. Even a people privileged to behold the glory and power of Jehovah need warning by what befell the Canaanites in spirit-communion, idolatry, lack of natural affection, impurity, adultery, murder and every corrupt thought and revolting practice, and by the burning of Sodom for the same evil, lest through ignorance of themselves they fall into the same errors and die under the same judgments. A double-minded heart that turns its affections from God cannot be hidden from Him, for He sees through it. Unlike education that encourages students to give pleasing reports, which is pretense, God understands that deceitfulness and never misleads.
The natural heart is deeply wicked and untrustworthy, so people may be fooled about their own condition and cover themselves with their own righteousness while feeling satisfied with a righteousness measured by human standards and comparison with others. That self-satisfaction is fatal, because of themselves they cannot meet God's requirements. The divine standard is the measure, namely loving God fully and loving neighbor as self, and the judgment will test whether hearts are in harmony with God and meet the claims of high heaven. As the judgment approaches each person's true character and allegiance will become plain and God will purge the church, and all will be judged according to their deeds. Those deluded about their own worth and judgment who think themselves superior to brethren should test character and life by the Bible, which gives an unerring standard, for each person will answer to God according to real character and must bear the consequences of choice.
Scriptural Examples of Deceit
Peter's honest confidence that he would never deny Jesus showed he did not know his own weakness, for Jesus knew him better than he knew himself. Jesus foresaw how one denial would lead to others, and Peter should have humbled himself and asked God for special grace instead of trusting his own strength. The disciples' failure to grasp His coming suffering and their own coming failure showed how little they understood the deceptions of the human heart and what His sacrifice meant. The lesson is distrust of self and honest self-examination, humility before God, dependence on Christ for grace to withstand testing, and acceptance of God's searching knowledge of character, since rejecting warning prevents needed preparation.
Hazael's history shows the depth of evil in the unsubdued natural heart and how far people sink when satanic powers control them. Satan exploits circumstances and stirs natural evil tendencies until even a small provocation can unleash uncontrolled temper, and one who resists spiritual growth can become Satan's tool with, after long submission, no power to escape the snare. The people before the Flood, whose thoughts were continually evil until violence filled the earth, show the heart has not become more pure or holy since Noah's time. The same corruption appears now in intense worldliness, lavish spending on luxury and display while the poor lack food and clothing, failure to use entrusted means to relieve poverty and its suffering, and banishment of the fear of God with neglect of His law. Even a people privileged to behold Jehovah's glory and power must be warned by the Canaanites in spirit-communion, idolatry, impurity, adultery, murder and every corrupt thought and revolting practice, and by Sodom burned for the same evil, lest through ignorance of self they fall into the same errors and die under the same judgments. Satan watches to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion and is ever alert to open channels for the unrestrained flow of evil to ruin and condemn men before God, while God understands the tendencies of the depraved nature that men themselves do not know.
The unsanctified heart is profoundly deceptive and wicked, so people can sincerely believe they are spiritually sound and rich while deficient and in need of grace. Self-confidence in spiritual attainments hides the need for a thorough work of humility before God, and professors unwilling to examine closely whether they are in the faith lean on false hope, an old experience from years ago instead of daily experience, or mere profession of truth that will not save. What controls the heart is shown by actions and fruit as a tree is known by fruit: divine truth produces good works and a noble-hearted, generous character like the divine Lord, while evil control produces selfishness, covetousness, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, hatred and evil passions. When the sins God hates are subdued, Jesus comes in to sup, gives divine strength, causes growth in Him, and gives victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lukewarm profession that draws near with lips while the heart is far from God displeases the Lord more than never naming His name, and becomes a weight to faithful followers, a stumbling-block to unbelievers, a triumph for evil angels over God's angels, and a curse to the cause at home and abroad.
Deliberate deception and falsehood to blind parents, telling many falsehoods to hide one's own course and gain sympathy, and sending exaggerated reports of what happened at the Health Institute that stirred up bitterness of feeling, shows a deceitful and desperately wicked heart in a condition in which God cannot accept the person as His.
Grace and New Heart
Sinful man can find hope and righteousness only in God, and no one remains righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital connection with Him, receiving from Him what sustains the life of the soul as a plant receives soil, air, dew, showers, and sunshine by looking to Jesus and receiving Him as the only Saviour. Trusting in man and making flesh his strength turns the heart away from the Lord and brings a curse, leaving a man like a desert shrub that does not see when good comes and lives in parched, salty, uninhabited places, while trusting in the Lord and making the Lord his hope brings blessing, making a man like a tree planted by water spreading roots by the river, staying green when heat comes, untroubled in drought, and never ceasing to bear fruit. To forsake the Lord, the hope of Israel and fountain of living water, brings shame, and those who turn away will be written in the earth.
A sinner must see the heart's deception in himself in order to be saved, for the heart misleads its owner and is evil through and through and cannot be trusted. Seeing it makes him jealous over himself and conscientious, driving a thorough reformation and transformation of life in which every defect of character is remedied until refined as gold seven times purified. In that change Jesus is formed within as the hope of glory, giving a good character for heaven and making him an heir of immortality. The truly penitent accepts this truth about himself and is therefore humbled in his own eyes, confessing his need while still laying his desire and groaning before God and turning to love and obey God's law with his whole heart to the end.
Since the first sin the heart has lost the power to govern itself, so it cannot be trusted, followed, or consulted to guide decisions. Strong natural impulses, hereditary tendencies, and formed habits of life make it unsafe to act from feeling, for pride and separation from God as the source of strength leave a person to break conscience and the law of his moral nature, until perverted habits and practices gain control over reason and impulse rules instead of principle. The heart must therefore be trained, educated, disciplined, and subdued by grace alone to run in the right and heavenly channel and do what God approves regardless of inclination. With wakeful vigilance and firm reliance on God inclinations are brought under the dictation of the Spirit and the Saviour's claims, and every opposing inclination gives way before the Saviour's will. Openly receiving Christ as Saviour requires submitting will, wisdom, and ways to God through faith in His merits and power to save, receiving the wisdom from above and the heavenly benefit provided, being strengthened with all might in the inner man, watching every step, listening to no human promises but believing only the Word of God, seeing every snare and avoiding them, and clinging to Jesus with heart and soul and mind and strength as one purchased by His blood and not one's own to dispose of as one pleases, for to follow the unsanctified heart instead of obeying the Lord is to place oneself under the enemy's power in a life-or-death choice between being drawn to Christ and heaven or to earth and hell for which account must be given in judgment. Growing spiritual experience brings a deeper sense of this weakness and of the need to cling closely to the Lord as counselor, to fear self-confidence, to heed counsel and warning as personally applicable, and to be restored both to right self-control and to God, while every heart not subdued by grace is treacherous and will lead to ruin unless faithfully watched and guarded, for unless it is kept pride and rebellion will rule within and evils without will awaken evils within, and only when grace subdues the heart and the living Word dwells in it richly can the Lord be sanctified in the heart.
What controls the heart is shown by actions and fruit as a tree is known by fruit, for a person's words, character, conduct, and spirit reveal what is within. The power of divine truth produces good works and makes the receiver noble-hearted and generous like his divine Lord, while control by evil produces selfishness, covetousness, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, hatred, and evil passions. As is the health of the heart, so is the religious experience and the fruit seen in the life. The heart must therefore be cleansed from all defilement and brought into conformity to the will of God with His law written on it, kept under the Holy Spirit's control with the will brought into harmony with His will through Christ's transforming grace, or evil will appear in the life. No one can in truth fulfill the requirements of God's law unless that law is written on the heart, and only one who makes righteousness a part of life is prepared rightly to estimate the truth, whereas to one of mere profession, unsanctified by its power and without the pure image of truth stamped on the heart, the truth is no truth, kept in the outer court with love for Christ tame and superficial and exercising no controlling power over reason.
True self-knowledge comes by beholding Christ, for seeing His purity reveals human weakness, defects, sin, and dependence on God's grace rather than personal goodness for salvation, so that a person cannot reliably recognize his own errors while trusting in personal humility and righteousness even when speaking as if humble and spiritually poor. Growing closer to Christ makes a person more able to see defects in his own character, so no one should flatter himself or accept flattery.
Examining Self Humbly
Because the heart is deeply deceptive and corrupt, no one can reliably know his own motives, strength, or true condition, and Peter's honest confidence that he would never deny Jesus shows how little a person understands his own weakness, since Jesus knew him better than he knew himself and foresaw how one denial would lead to others. For this reason the verse calls for distrust of self and of supposed goodness, humility before God, honest self-examination, and dependence on Christ for the grace and help needed to withstand testing, with special prayer for grace rather than resistance to searching knowledge of character. Rejecting warning about character prevents that needed preparation, while when the Spirit reveals the true condition a humble heart recognizes the need for correction and thorough preparation for eternity instead of demanding more evidence or complaining of severity. Careful examination is needed to recognize defects and sincerely correct them, and seeing them in God's light should lead to personal effort, penitence, and repentance through faith in Christ's grace to overcome them, without which one cannot be His disciple.
Examination must be careful, thorough, and impartial, because self-love naturally prompts a far better opinion of self than is just, true, or safe and inclines to foolish trust in the heart's goodness. Thoughts, tempers, purposes, spirit, words, deeds, actions, and motives must be opened to let light shine upon darkness and compared with Scripture, God's moral law and standard of right, Christ's character, and the light from Christ's cross revealed in His Word, with sincere prayer for the Lord to discover defects so as not to be deceived by sin. Those who consider themselves superior and reject counsel are dangerously deluded about their own judgment and character and should test life by the Bible's unerring light, which reveals the right course, since each will answer to God according to real character and bear the consequences of choice. When a defect is seen it is to be remedied at once by seeking God's grace to destroy what is wrong and supply what is lacking, repressing what must be repressed and strengthening and watering what is pure, lovely, and of good report until experience becomes gospel holiness shining brightly before others, with robes washed white in the Lamb's blood through renewed perseverance. Without this a professed Christian can have only a form of religion, lack every heavenly grace, and cherish bitterness, hatred, selfishness, and heartlessness toward others while remaining blind to it, and the remedy is to come to Jesus humbly, let the hardened heart be broken, and let His grace soften and melt it and put away everything destructive of peace.
Each person must search in meekness and with a humble heart for his own wrongs that separate from God, laying aside self-justification and possessing a yielding spirit rather than defending self or triumphing over others when reproved. The promptings, inclinations, impulses, and opinions of the unsanctified heart must not be followed or consulted as guide instead of God's Word, for following them is unsafe, dishonors God, and places the soul under the enemy's power and control. Walking in one's own ways and will separates the soul from God, buries it in business and worldly cares having no connection with His work, withdraws it from spiritual, holy, ennobling influences, and leaves it open to Satan's schemes, until the senses are confused, eternal things are not discerned, and Satan's disguised voice is accepted as God's voice. Safety is only in treasuring the Bible alone as God's voice speaking and the Wonderful Counsellor who alone keeps the soul pure and makes people right and keeps them right, in seeing every snare and avoiding it, in close connection with God and the whole armor of righteousness with an eye single to His glory, and in clinging to Jesus with heart and soul and mind and strength as one purchased by His blood. The heart must be trained, educated, disciplined, and subdued by grace alone to run in the heavenly channel and do what God approves regardless of inclination, with wakeful vigilance and firm reliance bringing every opposing inclination under the Spirit's dictation and the Saviour's claims, and recognizing its deceitfulness and resisting impulse and self-judgment is necessary for transformation and receiving a new heart.
Because hearts are deceptive and no one can know them, no human being is to be looked to or trusted for counsel and guidance whatever the years, position, work, or calling, but implicit confidence is to be put in Jesus Christ alone, with life tested by the Bible's unerring light. Its deceitfulness makes watchfulness and prayer necessary, because human weakness and spiritual blindness leave people open to Satan's efforts to destroy them, and every heart not subdued by grace is treacherous and will lead to ruin unless honestly faced and decisively corrected. The heart must be faithfully watched and guarded as the first concern, for unless kept, pride and rebellion will rule within and evils without will awaken evils within, drawing worldly influences and temptation toward sin, exposing long-formed habits, and making a person an agent of evil. Weakening faith in God by sowing skepticism, especially in young minds, removes the soul's real safeguard against sin and its power to resist temptation, leaving youth especially vulnerable.
Practical Warnings for Life
Teachers who deal severely with students must turn examination inward and judge themselves instead of assuming their harshness is right. They too have left safe paths and stand under divine rebuke, even while surrounded by great light and evidence of God's working. Light and religious privilege only increase responsibility to improve that light, and failure to do so brings exposure and rebuke.
Claims of great wisdom and skill do not by themselves prove a physician's character or practice trustworthy. Without divine grace and the fear of God, self-seeking and corruption can lie beneath professional standing, seeking self-advancement, supporting delusions, and teaching contrary to health principles. The deceptive heart misleads its owner and then leads him to mislead others, but holding to principles given by the Holy Spirit would guard against that trouble. Persisting in refusal despite warnings leaves the person to suffer the consequences of his own course.
The deceitful heart invents ways to rule and oppress fellow men, binding minds and talents under human judgment, harnessing and driving people by its own mind, and forcing the will by rules and resolutions. In doing so it overrides sympathy, tender compassion, mercy, justice, and divine love. Such invention looks fair to blinded eyes because it belongs to fallen nature, beginning from false premises, exalting men as of superior judgment, setting them up as false gods while taking on Satan's attributes in the track of Romanism, with a believed lie practiced as truth.
Those whose hearts depart from the Lord in self-will, especially leaders not walking in the light, must amend ways and doings because God sees the heart and repays each according to ways and the fruit of doings. Trusting in man and in flesh brings a curse like a desert shrub in parched salt land, while trusting in the Lord brings blessing like a tree planted by waters that stays green in heat and unfailing in fruit in drought. When men practice wrong principles, refuse messages sent them, and brace themselves to resist every appeal, imagination becomes perverted and they are given up to it, so that the church cannot prosper while such principles rule. Rank, wisdom, and sacred office give no protection against deception that sacrifices principle.
Excuses for withholding tithes and offerings cannot hide motives, for God searches inward parts and sees ways and deeds. In temptation over uniting with an unbeliever, no human promises are to be heard and only God's Word believed, for following unsanctified inclination puts one under the enemy's power in a life-or-death choice between Christ and heaven or earth and hell, requiring watchfulness at every step, discernment of every snare, and clinging to Jesus as one purchased by His blood. Trusting the heart's counsel and one's own resources buries the soul in business and cares unconnected with God's work, withdraws it from heavenly contemplation and earnest prayer, enshrouds it in a worldly spirit like a cloud of darkness, keeps truth apart from life, and leaves it open to Satan's schemes until the deceived go blindfolded to disappointment, shame, confusion, and ruin, with triumph only by close connection with God and the whole armor of righteousness lived to His glory. Even when children leave worldly pleasures to become disciples, they have only begun earnest warfare against indwelling sin, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, and hatred, and must not be left always to choose for themselves but be watched, counseled, and decided for, since without cheerful willing obedience to parents they cannot obey God or be Christians.
Indulgence of sin, especially licentiousness, darkens spiritual vision and blunts and stupefies the soul's perceptions. It defiles the whole man, mars God's image, corrupts the entire nature, and degrades every power, bringing guilt, shame, and dishonor on truth with unhappiness and degradation akin to death and hell. The world is thereby defiled and nearly fills iniquity's measure, and the heaviest retribution falls on iniquity practiced under a cloak of godliness. When deception is finally stripped away, it will be seen that satanic agents have worked miracles and used every deception to appear as Christ.
In its natural, unrenewed state without divine grace the human heart is profoundly corrupt, deceitful above all else and inclined to evil. No person can reliably know or judge the true motives, strength, or condition of his own heart or another's. God alone searches the heart and tests the inner life, seeing what is hidden in every mind and repaying each person according to ways and the fruit of doings. To trust in man and make flesh one's strength with a heart turned from the Lord brings curse and barrenness like a shrub in parched desert places, while to trust in the Lord and make Him one's hope brings blessing and unfailing fruitfulness like a tree planted by water. Therefore the heart cannot be trusted or followed but must be distrusted, humbly examined in the light of Scripture and Christ's character, and subdued and renewed by grace through vital connection with Christ alone.
Wording and Immediate Context
The heart in its unrenewed, natural, unsanctified and carnal state without divine grace is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, profoundly corrupt and inclined to evil. Without divine grace it cannot be relied on, and its supposed goodness is not a safe guide for judgment or conduct. Its corruption is supreme and incurable by any human power, loving sin while attempting to serve two masters at once.
Who can know it means no human can reliably know or judge the true condition, motives, strength, or final salvation of his own heart or another's heart. A man cannot assess himself truly by his own judgment, nor can he know his own weakness until testing reveals it, as Peter's confidence that he would never deny Christ revealed ignorance of himself. Sin hardens the heart against warnings and evidence and leaves it set on its own way rather than seeking truth.
The verse stands between the curse on the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength with a heart departing from the Lord, and the blessing on the man who trusts in the Lord and makes the Lord his hope. The cursed one becomes like a desert shrub or heath that does not see when good comes, dwelling in parched, salty and uninhabited places. To forsake the Lord, the hope of Israel and fountain of living waters, brings shame, and those who turn away will be written in the earth. The blessed one becomes like a tree planted by the waters spreading its roots by the river, staying green when heat comes, untroubled in drought, and never ceasing to bear fruit. A flourishing and fruitful life thus shows vital connection with God, receiving what sustains the soul's life as a plant receives soil, air, dew, showers and sunshine, while no one remains righteous longer than he has faith in God and keeps that connection.
The next verse adds that the Lord searches the heart and tries the reins, knows what is hidden in every mind, and gives every person according to his ways and the fruit of his doings. He alone examines inner motives and tests the inner person, judging each one according to conduct. Sinful man can therefore find hope and righteousness only in God.
No One Knows Heart
The heart cannot give a just, true, or safe estimate of itself, for self-love naturally prompts a far better opinion of self than is warranted and a foolish inclination to trust in its supposed goodness. That self-flattery is often mistaken for Christian feeling and zeal, leaving people sure they are right when they do not meet the requirements of God's word. Many are fooled about their own condition because they cover themselves with their own righteousness and feel satisfied when they reach a human standard of character measured by comparing themselves with others. Such self-satisfaction is fatal, for of themselves they cannot meet God's requirements or reach the divine standard of loving God fully and neighbor as self.
The unrenewed heart is soil too friendly to the growth of falsehood and deceit, where the rank weeds of lying choke the precious plants of candor and truth. Cherished little habits of concealment, excuse, and self-justification against conviction in the springtime of youth become habitual secretiveness, instability, and insincerity in riper years, and every act of deception helps form the character hereafter. The natural heart loves sin and can mistake sin for righteousness, even clothing it in the appearance of sanctification and purity while failing to see its evil because deception has dulled spiritual discernment. A lie believed and practiced becomes as truth, and the inwardly corrupt heart can cherish sin and try to serve God and the world at once, which calls for more than admitting sin, even cleansing and a changed life.
The heart deceives its owner into believing he is right when God frowns upon his wrongs, comforting himself with his good deeds and claiming to be about right like the Pharisee boasting of his works, while God sees not as man sees. Good deeds and religious practices can thus become grounds for self-confidence that hides wrongdoing and excuses refusal to admit faults. Sin hardens the heart against warnings and evidence, leaving people intent on their own way rather than seeking truth, with set will and strong determination used on the wrong side. Instead of humbling themselves to see and confess faults when the Spirit reveals the true condition, they take blind, foolish positions that trample exposure of what is within, demanding more evidence rather than the humble heart needed to recognize the need for correction and thorough preparation for eternity.
One who feels wronged may mistake his own judgment for the truth and use a small offense to justify anger, blame, and criticism of brethren, not knowing even his own motives and condition. Sympathy and confidence in one's own judgment become snares when people are unaware of the heart's deceptions, leading to evil thoughts. The deceived will can harden the heart and stiffen the neck, withholding sympathy, love, affection, and thoughtful consideration from the one who deserves it. That same energy and determination should instead be exercised in standing for the right by calling wrong wrong and dishonesty dishonesty.
God Searches and Repays
God understands the tendencies of depraved human nature and the deceitfulness of the heart that is evil and beyond human cure. People cannot reliably know their own hearts because the heart hides its true condition, deceives and conceals, leaving them blind to their proneness to evil and vulnerable to rebellion and transgression. Satan watches to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion and to open channels for the unrestrained flow of evil so that men may be ruined and condemned before God. Even a people privileged to behold the glory and power of Jehovah need warning by what befell the Canaanites in spirit-communion, idolatry, lack of natural affection, impurity, adultery, murder and every corrupt thought and revolting practice, and by the burning of Sodom for the same evil, lest through ignorance of themselves they fall into the same errors and die under the same judgments. A double-minded heart that turns its affections from God cannot be hidden from Him, for He sees through it. Unlike education that encourages students to give pleasing reports, which is pretense, God understands that deceitfulness and never misleads.
The natural heart is deeply wicked and untrustworthy, so people may be fooled about their own condition and cover themselves with their own righteousness while feeling satisfied with a righteousness measured by human standards and comparison with others. That self-satisfaction is fatal, because of themselves they cannot meet God's requirements. The divine standard is the measure, namely loving God fully and loving neighbor as self, and the judgment will test whether hearts are in harmony with God and meet the claims of high heaven. As the judgment approaches each person's true character and allegiance will become plain and God will purge the church, and all will be judged according to their deeds. Those deluded about their own worth and judgment who think themselves superior to brethren should test character and life by the Bible, which gives an unerring standard, for each person will answer to God according to real character and must bear the consequences of choice.
Scriptural Examples of Deceit
Peter's honest confidence that he would never deny Jesus showed he did not know his own weakness, for Jesus knew him better than he knew himself. Jesus foresaw how one denial would lead to others, and Peter should have humbled himself and asked God for special grace instead of trusting his own strength. The disciples' failure to grasp His coming suffering and their own coming failure showed how little they understood the deceptions of the human heart and what His sacrifice meant. The lesson is distrust of self and honest self-examination, humility before God, dependence on Christ for grace to withstand testing, and acceptance of God's searching knowledge of character, since rejecting warning prevents needed preparation.
Hazael's history shows the depth of evil in the unsubdued natural heart and how far people sink when satanic powers control them. Satan exploits circumstances and stirs natural evil tendencies until even a small provocation can unleash uncontrolled temper, and one who resists spiritual growth can become Satan's tool with, after long submission, no power to escape the snare. The people before the Flood, whose thoughts were continually evil until violence filled the earth, show the heart has not become more pure or holy since Noah's time. The same corruption appears now in intense worldliness, lavish spending on luxury and display while the poor lack food and clothing, failure to use entrusted means to relieve poverty and its suffering, and banishment of the fear of God with neglect of His law. Even a people privileged to behold Jehovah's glory and power must be warned by the Canaanites in spirit-communion, idolatry, impurity, adultery, murder and every corrupt thought and revolting practice, and by Sodom burned for the same evil, lest through ignorance of self they fall into the same errors and die under the same judgments. Satan watches to bring about conditions favorable to rebellion and is ever alert to open channels for the unrestrained flow of evil to ruin and condemn men before God, while God understands the tendencies of the depraved nature that men themselves do not know.
The unsanctified heart is profoundly deceptive and wicked, so people can sincerely believe they are spiritually sound and rich while deficient and in need of grace. Self-confidence in spiritual attainments hides the need for a thorough work of humility before God, and professors unwilling to examine closely whether they are in the faith lean on false hope, an old experience from years ago instead of daily experience, or mere profession of truth that will not save. What controls the heart is shown by actions and fruit as a tree is known by fruit: divine truth produces good works and a noble-hearted, generous character like the divine Lord, while evil control produces selfishness, covetousness, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, hatred and evil passions. When the sins God hates are subdued, Jesus comes in to sup, gives divine strength, causes growth in Him, and gives victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Lukewarm profession that draws near with lips while the heart is far from God displeases the Lord more than never naming His name, and becomes a weight to faithful followers, a stumbling-block to unbelievers, a triumph for evil angels over God's angels, and a curse to the cause at home and abroad.
Deliberate deception and falsehood to blind parents, telling many falsehoods to hide one's own course and gain sympathy, and sending exaggerated reports of what happened at the Health Institute that stirred up bitterness of feeling, shows a deceitful and desperately wicked heart in a condition in which God cannot accept the person as His.
Grace and New Heart
Sinful man can find hope and righteousness only in God, and no one remains righteous any longer than he has faith in God and keeps a vital connection with Him, receiving from Him what sustains the life of the soul as a plant receives soil, air, dew, showers, and sunshine by looking to Jesus and receiving Him as the only Saviour. Trusting in man and making flesh his strength turns the heart away from the Lord and brings a curse, leaving a man like a desert shrub that does not see when good comes and lives in parched, salty, uninhabited places, while trusting in the Lord and making the Lord his hope brings blessing, making a man like a tree planted by water spreading roots by the river, staying green when heat comes, untroubled in drought, and never ceasing to bear fruit. To forsake the Lord, the hope of Israel and fountain of living water, brings shame, and those who turn away will be written in the earth.
A sinner must see the heart's deception in himself in order to be saved, for the heart misleads its owner and is evil through and through and cannot be trusted. Seeing it makes him jealous over himself and conscientious, driving a thorough reformation and transformation of life in which every defect of character is remedied until refined as gold seven times purified. In that change Jesus is formed within as the hope of glory, giving a good character for heaven and making him an heir of immortality. The truly penitent accepts this truth about himself and is therefore humbled in his own eyes, confessing his need while still laying his desire and groaning before God and turning to love and obey God's law with his whole heart to the end.
Since the first sin the heart has lost the power to govern itself, so it cannot be trusted, followed, or consulted to guide decisions. Strong natural impulses, hereditary tendencies, and formed habits of life make it unsafe to act from feeling, for pride and separation from God as the source of strength leave a person to break conscience and the law of his moral nature, until perverted habits and practices gain control over reason and impulse rules instead of principle. The heart must therefore be trained, educated, disciplined, and subdued by grace alone to run in the right and heavenly channel and do what God approves regardless of inclination. With wakeful vigilance and firm reliance on God inclinations are brought under the dictation of the Spirit and the Saviour's claims, and every opposing inclination gives way before the Saviour's will. Openly receiving Christ as Saviour requires submitting will, wisdom, and ways to God through faith in His merits and power to save, receiving the wisdom from above and the heavenly benefit provided, being strengthened with all might in the inner man, watching every step, listening to no human promises but believing only the Word of God, seeing every snare and avoiding them, and clinging to Jesus with heart and soul and mind and strength as one purchased by His blood and not one's own to dispose of as one pleases, for to follow the unsanctified heart instead of obeying the Lord is to place oneself under the enemy's power in a life-or-death choice between being drawn to Christ and heaven or to earth and hell for which account must be given in judgment. Growing spiritual experience brings a deeper sense of this weakness and of the need to cling closely to the Lord as counselor, to fear self-confidence, to heed counsel and warning as personally applicable, and to be restored both to right self-control and to God, while every heart not subdued by grace is treacherous and will lead to ruin unless faithfully watched and guarded, for unless it is kept pride and rebellion will rule within and evils without will awaken evils within, and only when grace subdues the heart and the living Word dwells in it richly can the Lord be sanctified in the heart.
What controls the heart is shown by actions and fruit as a tree is known by fruit, for a person's words, character, conduct, and spirit reveal what is within. The power of divine truth produces good works and makes the receiver noble-hearted and generous like his divine Lord, while control by evil produces selfishness, covetousness, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, hatred, and evil passions. As is the health of the heart, so is the religious experience and the fruit seen in the life. The heart must therefore be cleansed from all defilement and brought into conformity to the will of God with His law written on it, kept under the Holy Spirit's control with the will brought into harmony with His will through Christ's transforming grace, or evil will appear in the life. No one can in truth fulfill the requirements of God's law unless that law is written on the heart, and only one who makes righteousness a part of life is prepared rightly to estimate the truth, whereas to one of mere profession, unsanctified by its power and without the pure image of truth stamped on the heart, the truth is no truth, kept in the outer court with love for Christ tame and superficial and exercising no controlling power over reason.
True self-knowledge comes by beholding Christ, for seeing His purity reveals human weakness, defects, sin, and dependence on God's grace rather than personal goodness for salvation, so that a person cannot reliably recognize his own errors while trusting in personal humility and righteousness even when speaking as if humble and spiritually poor. Growing closer to Christ makes a person more able to see defects in his own character, so no one should flatter himself or accept flattery.
Examining Self Humbly
Because the heart is deeply deceptive and corrupt, no one can reliably know his own motives, strength, or true condition, and Peter's honest confidence that he would never deny Jesus shows how little a person understands his own weakness, since Jesus knew him better than he knew himself and foresaw how one denial would lead to others. For this reason the verse calls for distrust of self and of supposed goodness, humility before God, honest self-examination, and dependence on Christ for the grace and help needed to withstand testing, with special prayer for grace rather than resistance to searching knowledge of character. Rejecting warning about character prevents that needed preparation, while when the Spirit reveals the true condition a humble heart recognizes the need for correction and thorough preparation for eternity instead of demanding more evidence or complaining of severity. Careful examination is needed to recognize defects and sincerely correct them, and seeing them in God's light should lead to personal effort, penitence, and repentance through faith in Christ's grace to overcome them, without which one cannot be His disciple.
Examination must be careful, thorough, and impartial, because self-love naturally prompts a far better opinion of self than is just, true, or safe and inclines to foolish trust in the heart's goodness. Thoughts, tempers, purposes, spirit, words, deeds, actions, and motives must be opened to let light shine upon darkness and compared with Scripture, God's moral law and standard of right, Christ's character, and the light from Christ's cross revealed in His Word, with sincere prayer for the Lord to discover defects so as not to be deceived by sin. Those who consider themselves superior and reject counsel are dangerously deluded about their own judgment and character and should test life by the Bible's unerring light, which reveals the right course, since each will answer to God according to real character and bear the consequences of choice. When a defect is seen it is to be remedied at once by seeking God's grace to destroy what is wrong and supply what is lacking, repressing what must be repressed and strengthening and watering what is pure, lovely, and of good report until experience becomes gospel holiness shining brightly before others, with robes washed white in the Lamb's blood through renewed perseverance. Without this a professed Christian can have only a form of religion, lack every heavenly grace, and cherish bitterness, hatred, selfishness, and heartlessness toward others while remaining blind to it, and the remedy is to come to Jesus humbly, let the hardened heart be broken, and let His grace soften and melt it and put away everything destructive of peace.
Each person must search in meekness and with a humble heart for his own wrongs that separate from God, laying aside self-justification and possessing a yielding spirit rather than defending self or triumphing over others when reproved. The promptings, inclinations, impulses, and opinions of the unsanctified heart must not be followed or consulted as guide instead of God's Word, for following them is unsafe, dishonors God, and places the soul under the enemy's power and control. Walking in one's own ways and will separates the soul from God, buries it in business and worldly cares having no connection with His work, withdraws it from spiritual, holy, ennobling influences, and leaves it open to Satan's schemes, until the senses are confused, eternal things are not discerned, and Satan's disguised voice is accepted as God's voice. Safety is only in treasuring the Bible alone as God's voice speaking and the Wonderful Counsellor who alone keeps the soul pure and makes people right and keeps them right, in seeing every snare and avoiding it, in close connection with God and the whole armor of righteousness with an eye single to His glory, and in clinging to Jesus with heart and soul and mind and strength as one purchased by His blood. The heart must be trained, educated, disciplined, and subdued by grace alone to run in the heavenly channel and do what God approves regardless of inclination, with wakeful vigilance and firm reliance bringing every opposing inclination under the Spirit's dictation and the Saviour's claims, and recognizing its deceitfulness and resisting impulse and self-judgment is necessary for transformation and receiving a new heart.
Because hearts are deceptive and no one can know them, no human being is to be looked to or trusted for counsel and guidance whatever the years, position, work, or calling, but implicit confidence is to be put in Jesus Christ alone, with life tested by the Bible's unerring light. Its deceitfulness makes watchfulness and prayer necessary, because human weakness and spiritual blindness leave people open to Satan's efforts to destroy them, and every heart not subdued by grace is treacherous and will lead to ruin unless honestly faced and decisively corrected. The heart must be faithfully watched and guarded as the first concern, for unless kept, pride and rebellion will rule within and evils without will awaken evils within, drawing worldly influences and temptation toward sin, exposing long-formed habits, and making a person an agent of evil. Weakening faith in God by sowing skepticism, especially in young minds, removes the soul's real safeguard against sin and its power to resist temptation, leaving youth especially vulnerable.
Practical Warnings for Life
Teachers who deal severely with students must turn examination inward and judge themselves instead of assuming their harshness is right. They too have left safe paths and stand under divine rebuke, even while surrounded by great light and evidence of God's working. Light and religious privilege only increase responsibility to improve that light, and failure to do so brings exposure and rebuke.
Claims of great wisdom and skill do not by themselves prove a physician's character or practice trustworthy. Without divine grace and the fear of God, self-seeking and corruption can lie beneath professional standing, seeking self-advancement, supporting delusions, and teaching contrary to health principles. The deceptive heart misleads its owner and then leads him to mislead others, but holding to principles given by the Holy Spirit would guard against that trouble. Persisting in refusal despite warnings leaves the person to suffer the consequences of his own course.
The deceitful heart invents ways to rule and oppress fellow men, binding minds and talents under human judgment, harnessing and driving people by its own mind, and forcing the will by rules and resolutions. In doing so it overrides sympathy, tender compassion, mercy, justice, and divine love. Such invention looks fair to blinded eyes because it belongs to fallen nature, beginning from false premises, exalting men as of superior judgment, setting them up as false gods while taking on Satan's attributes in the track of Romanism, with a believed lie practiced as truth.
Those whose hearts depart from the Lord in self-will, especially leaders not walking in the light, must amend ways and doings because God sees the heart and repays each according to ways and the fruit of doings. Trusting in man and in flesh brings a curse like a desert shrub in parched salt land, while trusting in the Lord brings blessing like a tree planted by waters that stays green in heat and unfailing in fruit in drought. When men practice wrong principles, refuse messages sent them, and brace themselves to resist every appeal, imagination becomes perverted and they are given up to it, so that the church cannot prosper while such principles rule. Rank, wisdom, and sacred office give no protection against deception that sacrifices principle.
Excuses for withholding tithes and offerings cannot hide motives, for God searches inward parts and sees ways and deeds. In temptation over uniting with an unbeliever, no human promises are to be heard and only God's Word believed, for following unsanctified inclination puts one under the enemy's power in a life-or-death choice between Christ and heaven or earth and hell, requiring watchfulness at every step, discernment of every snare, and clinging to Jesus as one purchased by His blood. Trusting the heart's counsel and one's own resources buries the soul in business and cares unconnected with God's work, withdraws it from heavenly contemplation and earnest prayer, enshrouds it in a worldly spirit like a cloud of darkness, keeps truth apart from life, and leaves it open to Satan's schemes until the deceived go blindfolded to disappointment, shame, confusion, and ruin, with triumph only by close connection with God and the whole armor of righteousness lived to His glory. Even when children leave worldly pleasures to become disciples, they have only begun earnest warfare against indwelling sin, pride, passion, envy, jealousy, and hatred, and must not be left always to choose for themselves but be watched, counseled, and decided for, since without cheerful willing obedience to parents they cannot obey God or be Christians.
Indulgence of sin, especially licentiousness, darkens spiritual vision and blunts and stupefies the soul's perceptions. It defiles the whole man, mars God's image, corrupts the entire nature, and degrades every power, bringing guilt, shame, and dishonor on truth with unhappiness and degradation akin to death and hell. The world is thereby defiled and nearly fills iniquity's measure, and the heaviest retribution falls on iniquity practiced under a cloak of godliness. When deception is finally stripped away, it will be seen that satanic agents have worked miracles and used every deception to appear as Christ.