Full Question
Is there an explanation why the "heart" is used throughout Scripture, when it should read "mind" or "brain." The heart does not think, it works.
Answer
The term Heart (physical) is certainly not synonymous with brain, but the MIND (abstract) and Heart (abstract) may be used synonymously, providing we keep both in the abstract and grasp the fundamental variation, or point of difference between the two.
The mind retains impressions received through the senses by which it is related to the world without. The mind thinks, imagines, remembers and the mental functioning is enlivened by the feelings or affections. If we introduce the feeling of sympathy acquired by contact with living creatures, or admiration by intelligent contact with beautiful things, we have a self-expression that is something more than intellectuality something more than mind. It is MIND + feeling. In other words HEART.
Man’s life is complex, and thought, FEELING, and will, all enter into it so that the reaction of HEART becomes one of personality.
The “Heart of man” (Jer 17:9) is the “mind ” that functions as inherently prompted, with the feelings un-carnalised by Eternal moral law.
It indicates the thinking of the flesh along channels contrary to the Divine ideal of perfection.
It is possible, however, to acquire a new heart, or experience a change of heart, and under the influence of the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy (Jas 3:15-16) the mind becomes the MIND OF CHRIST the AFFECTIONS are set on things above, and the HEART is thus expressive of the godly man who, as the Psalmist writes, “will praise God with his whole heart.” (Ps 9:1)
There is little doubt that there is a physiological concomitant of feeling which is subject to changes in the nervous system, and that the Heart (with its life-blood) reacts to these changes.
The blush has its basis in the feelings, which stimulate the mental processes and the accompanying ” rush of blood ” points to the part played by the heart in the process.
The godly man will find a sheer delight in using the foregoing explanation as a hypothesis to guide his examination of every passage of Scripture (there are some hundreds) in which mind may be substituted for heart. He will soon discover that the affections factor is vital to the elucidation of all of them.
Here is one as an example: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt 6:21) In other words there will be the affections as well as the thoughts, which together with the WILL, condition the activities of the individual in relation to the treasure-interest.
Possession of treasure may thus become our very “life”—the heart (physical) pulsating to the thrills it brings along.
The whole matter is thus more than mere reasoning, or thinking. It is the interaction of thinking and feeling. It is the heart of man.
Paul uses the expression “fleshy tables of the heart.” (2 Cor 3:3). As the mind and heart are both abstract neither may be termed ” fleshy tables,” but the brain, which is flesh may be of both, inasmuch as this organ is concerned with purely intellectual processes, as well as the feelings of an individual.
Finally, the application of our hearts to wisdom is a “life” matter. It requires the presenting of the body a living sacrifice to God.
“The Valley of the Shadow”