The first lesson to learn about morality and spirituality is that the location of it is in our heart, not in our body. A dominant religious error says: morality consists of doing right things and avoiding wrong behavior. That is only partially and secondarily true. The primary truth is largely neglected. God's greatest concern is not with right actions versus wrong actions. Whether an action is right or wrong, God is primarily concerned about why we do what we do. On the one hand many people appear to do much that is good and righteous, yet Jesus said inside they are unclean, rotten, corrupt and full of dead bones, and condemns them because they are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness, (Matthew 23:27,28). On the other hand, many live with debilitating self-condemnation because of wrong things they do, even though their hearts are right toward God and full of desire to please Him. Misplaced emphasis destroys their confidence before God.

From God's viewpoint, morality is not at all what we do with our hands. God looks at the fountainhead of morality, we look at the result. God looks at the source, we look at the symptom. God looks at the beginning and we always look at the end. And for this reason we are constantly misjudging people as to whether they are good or bad, spiritual or immature and we constantly make wrong decisions about people because we are always looking at the wrong end of the concept of morality. Relative to morality, our question is, Did you obey or disobey? or What did you do? Our emphasis is external. When we think of morality we think exclusively of actions. But God's question is, Why did you obey or disobey? His emphasis is internal. He wants to know what motivates the action. Depending on what He finds in the heart, God may either forgive or condemn the actor.

Deeds certainly matter with God. But not primarily. God may look at what we classify as a very good deed, yet pronounce the person who did it unrighteous, and reject the good deed because his heart is wrong, (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). And we may condemn as "evil," someone who commits a very bad deed, while God looks at the same person and the same deed, but primarily at the heart of that person and proclaims him righteous. Until we grasp and practice this, we will never understand morality/ethics/holiness from God's perspective. And we will continue to bring false standards of judgment upon ourselves and upon other people. Honoring God and loving other people obeying the two foundational commandments requires that we understand and practice the truth we pursue in this chapter.

All Our Response To God Must Be From The Heart.

Nothing we offer to God is acceptable to Him unless it comes from the heart. The very best of all human actions are rejected by God if those actions do not arise from proper motives. This is shown in a consideration of several basic areas. For example:

• We believe from the heart, (Romans 10:9,10). Our initial approach to God requires genuine, heart-felt faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our crucified and risen Savior. No amount of religious works will open to us the door of salvation. How many people confess with their lips what is not real in their heart? To mouth some words because one is under pressure from a manipulative evangelist is not to receive salvation. God saves those whose hearts are full of faith.
• We love from the heart, (Matthew 22:37). Loving words, songs, actions, etc. may make us feel good and may give an external appearance of great holiness, but it is prized by God only for as much of our heart as is in it.
• We sing from the heart, (Colossians 3:16). Finely polished, mechanically perfect choral presentations thrill our flesh. But they also offend God greatly if they are offered as nothing more than performances. God looks past the performance to see if there is real love for Him in the hearts of those who offer love songs to Him.
• We obey from the heart, (Ephesians 6:6; Romans 6:17). Grasping this simple truth is difficult for most Christians. We are told just obey God whether you like it or not; whether you agree or not that God's word is law, and you must obey Him or else. This is a monumental error. God rejects obedience that is devoid of love, (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, etc.). Loveless obedience is worthless. God does not consider it to be obedience at all.
• We give from the heart, (2 Corinthians 9:7). God loves a cheerful giver. Grudging giving does not impress God. He desires that our hearts rejoice in giving back to Him a small portion of what He has lavished upon us. Many church leaders try to squeeze a dollar from us by any means possible, not caring what motivates our giving. But God only accepts offerings that we give in love.

Especially telling in this matter is the apostle Paul's love chapter, (1 Corinthians 13). The first three verses of this chapter prove one major truth: Absence of love makes external acts, regardless of how good they are, unacceptable to God. Note:

• Anointed use of spiritual gifts means nothing to God without love, (vs. 1,2a). People flock to see the great prophet or healer or miracle worker do their thing. Paul's statements here take it for granted that the theoretical person he discusses is actually anointed and supernaturally enabled to do signs and wonders. He envisions one who speaks in tongues in the highest degree and one whose prophetic gifting is unsurpassed. Yet in God's estimation the exercise of these gifts without love for Him and those who receive such ministry, is all aggravating noise, and the people themselves who use these gifts this way are nothing. So mark this down: God is not fundamentally interested in any of us being able to prophesy or speak in tongues. He is fundamentally interested in us using these gifts to minister His love to others. Though love is lacking, people may still be impressed so as to flock to our meetings or seek us out in the ministry line. But to God we are nothing. In a day when so many claim to perform signs, wonders and miracles, there is hardly a greater lesson for us to learn than this. We are in danger of committing spiritual suicide if we run after those who perform such signs without examining to the best of our ability the only thing that gives their ministry divine validity. We must judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment, (John 7:24). Before we become enamored with highly gifted people we need to ask God to reveal their heart to us, lest we follow those who lead us astray from Christ.
• Great knowledge of Scripture and the supernatural gifts of word of knowledge and word of wisdom are worthless without love, (vs. 2b). Those who use them in a loveless manner are nothing.
• Supernatural faith is meaningless without love, (vs. 2c). The greatest supernatural feats one may perform with such mountain moving faith are rejected as nothing. While humans will wait in long lines to virtually worship such wonder workers and will often give vast amounts of money to their ministry, God rejects them because of their empty hearts.
• Ultimate sacrifice profits nothing without love, (vs. 3). One may give away all one's possessions to the poor and even sacrifice one's life for his/her faith. But if love is not the motive, God gives no reward to the one who sacrifices. It is inconceivable to us that God would reject martyrdom. But our problem is that we look only at the external. God looks at the external act hardly at all. People often give - sometimes massive amounts because of pressure, guilt, shame or other unworthy motives. But God is not impressed by actions, regardless of their nature. Many people willingly die for unjust and heretical causes. Think of suicide bombers around the world. God counts it as worthless sacrifice. God is impressed with love that gives even a cup of cold water to a thirsty one, (Mark 9:41). It is not the size of the gift that counts with God. God prizes a loving heart regardless of what gift it inspires.

We struggle with these truths because we are saturated in and infatuated with the false notion that good works possess inherent spiritual value. We are so works oriented that we cannot even conceive that God would reject good works under any circumstances. But God's word is clear. And so we will say it again:

The very best that humans can offer to God is spiritually worthless if it is not offered in love.

If God personally visited us on this issue, He would doubtless say, "I see all you have done, I've heard all you've said and I am aware that everyone around you thinks you are some great one. But I want to know where's the love?" Some are so star-struck by people who make a great show in the flesh that they give up all their possessions to follow "The Right Reverend Jimmy Jack" because he looks and sounds so good! Yet following that person may be the absolutely worst mistake one could ever make.

We must learn to examine all religious activity and ask, where's the love?

The Lord Looks Upon The Heart, 1 Samuel 16:7.

God is more concerned about our inner man than about our outer man. What is so impressive to men is meaningless to God. We realize that humans are unable to delve deeply into motive because heart issues are mostly hidden from our view. But this fault of human frailty is no excuse for our wholesale abandonment of the fundamental measuring stick for all issues of spirituality.

The truth of 1 Samuel 16:6,7 applies in all situations involving spiritual discernment. Samuel, searching for God's chosen man, came to the house of Jesse where he examined all Jesse's sons and thought, when he saw Eliab, surely God's anointed is before Him. His judgment, based strictly on outward appearance, was faulty. God said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. That statement is all-encompassing. Whether God looks at someone to anoint for service, at someone's spiritual maturity, at someone's deeds, whether good or bad, God does not decide an issue on the basis of the outward man. The deeds or misdeeds of a person do not move God, because to God the heart is supremely important.

The strict, legalistic moralist will shake and tremble with rage over these statements. Such law-based moralists see everything in absolute black and white: You did this therefore you should go to Hell! Yet God may give little attention to an act that enrages people, because of what He finds in the heart of the doer. Jimmy Jack and Suzie Que may both do exactly the same thing. Yet God may forgive Suzie Que and condemn Jimmy Jack. What makes the difference? God asks them each Why did you do that? and the heart condition condemns the one while God reacts to the actions of the other with that most wonderfully sweet and gloriously forgiving quality we call grace. If not for that, not one of us would have the slightest chance of escaping Hell.

We want to think that everything is absolutely black or white. But it is not! The gray area we talk about at times is that area where God examines the heart and on that basis either bestows judgment or grace. There will be murderers in Hell, but there will also be murderers in Heaven. Why? Because of their heart.

There are people whom you know, who do things that you do not approve of and whom you must stop consigning to the margin of spirituality merely because they do things you disagree with. Trust this: God does not see them the same way you see them. And it is possible that God may see those people as more righteous than He sees you! We do not have the capacity to examine other people's hearts. Therefore we must simply stop judging people on the basis of deeds alone. Even when we know people are guilty of terrible deeds we must stop short of taking God's place of judgment. The condition of their heart may, after all, exonerate them before God. God may look at some people whom we have consigned to the fringes of Christianity, as being more worthy and more righteous than we are!

The final tale is not told by what we do or do not do. God is concerned more about our inner man than our outer man. Where our inner man is in proper order the outer man will be also. That does not mean that if our inner man is right then all our outward actions will also be right. The most righteous people in God's sight will do things that are unrighteous. John warns us that to pretend that we do not sin is to make God a liar, (1 John 8-10). Our hope before God is not in doing only righteous things. Our hope is that when we do sinful things, God will look at our heart and impute the righteousness of Jesus to us and keep us in His fellowship.

We have put the cart before the horse. Thus we see the phenomenon of humans whose outward actions are mostly right but whose hearts are full of bitterness, anger, fear, criticism, fault-finding, strife, jealousy, envy, etc. Such inconsistency would not exist if people were trained to get their hearts right with God. When the heart is right behavior will be mostly right. And when the heart is right aberrant behavior carries less severe consequences. If you are covered with the blood of Jesus and your heart's desire is to love God and please Him, then when you sin, God does not break fellowship with you. In such instances God's mercy triumph's over judgment, (James 2:13).

When aberrant behavior manifests in one whose heart is right, God imputes righteousness and continues to receive that one in fellowship. God does not condemn us if we struggle with outward obedience as Paul did, (Romans 7). Even though we are forgiven, saved and sanctified, we still sin. We will sin as long as we are in the flesh. God knows this and provides grace to handle that very situation. For all who are heart-inclined to honor God and love others, who hate sin and try to avoid it, Jesus' blood is always available to keep them clean, (1 John 1:7-10). For the sake of all lovers, God applies the blood of Jesus to remove sin's condemnation, (Romans 8:1), allowing us to live without guilt and without breaking our fellowship with God. He also provides the Holy Spirit so we can grow in ability to avoid sinful behavior, (Romans 8:13). God's grace is available in unending supply for all those whose hearts are set on Him, whose desire and effort is always to please God and serve human good. God looks past their sins to the blood of Jesus and continues to receive them into His arms.

Our spiritual and moral failures do not overly disturb God any more than our own children's failures overly disturb us if we know they love us and desire to please us. Sadly, we fear the consequences of our wrong deeds much more than we fear the void of love in our hearts. Yet we much prefer that our children love us than that they simply obey every jot and tittle of parental law. Let us learn how to more lovingly deal with our own children in the face of their failures as God deals with us in the face of ours. We must learn to see past our children's disobedience and wrong decisions, so as to discern their motive. If the perfectly holy God can look past our violation of His law because our heart is right then we certainly can and must do so with others and especially our own children. A rigidly applied rod that shows no grace to a loving child is no tool of loving discipline. Quite often the appropriate response to a child's failure or disobedience is to hug and love the child and reassure him/her that our parental love is not diminished and that we know the child loves us. Offering grace and forgiveness without punishment to a loving yet disobedient child, may go against our fleshly instincts. But it is godly.

Is your heart right with God? (cf. Acts 8:21). The fatal flaw in Simon the Sorcerer's case was not in the mere request to buy God's gift with money. Simon did not love either God or man. He wanted the real supernatural power that he had previously only faked. His motive was selfish. The question is not is your behavior right with God: is your obedience right with God? Seeking, getting and using God's blessings must be motivated by love. Those who seek great anointing, powerful gifting, faith for supernatural signs and wonders, etc. for the sake of my ministry, will meet the same fate as Simon the Sorcerer. But if we get our hearts right everything else will be fundamentally pleasing to God. And God may be pleased to heap supernatural gifts and anointing upon such a lover.

Judge not according to appearance but judge righteous judgment, (John 7:24). Righteous judgment begins with the heart rather than the actions. Even though the human heart is so deceitful and sick that we cannot truly understand our own hearts, yet God understands our hearts and He searches our hearts and tests our minds, to give to each man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds, (Jeremiah 17:9,10). God clearly rewards man with either good or bad fruit of his deeds, according to what God sees in the heart. When God tests the righteous He does so by seeing the mind and the heart, (Jeremiah 20:12). In light of this we must learn to think, There is more to this than meets the eye. With God's help we can learn to stop reacting automatically to the nature of an outward deed and to delay judgment until we have examined the motive of the doer. And if we cannot examine the heart of that person, then in order to avoid unrighteous judgment our only option is to simply refuse to judge. Even an unquestionable sin may be committed under circumstances that will bring God's grace into play. If God gives grace to a sinner, how is it even possible that we sinners in common would refuse to give grace to a fellow sinner?

How do we treat others when their deeds offend us? Do we reject them? Condemn them as unspiritual, uncommitted or worse? Regard them with contempt? We must learn to not assume one is a wicked person on the mere basis of something they do. The deed by itself does not tell the whole story. Is it possible there is something we are not seeing? Because we see only from our limited human perspective, is it possible that we do not know all the facts involved? And even if the sin is unquestioned and perhaps flagrant, can we find a place to apply grace and mercy? Can we give love and bring relief rather than condemnation and shame? If you were the sinner involved what would you want God to do? When you answer that question, then you know how God expects you to treat another sinner.

We will forever make great mistakes in treatment of others if we do not learn this. We will reject some people because they appear to be weak, sinful, ignorant, etc., when in reality such people may be spiritually strong, devoted followers of Jesus who were caught unawares by Satan. They may be trying to deal with a personal weakness but not having as much success as they desire. In light of our own sins, how do we judge ourselves? How much grace and mercy do we seek from God? How much do we desire from other people? This is the measure of how much grace and mercy we must show to others regardless of the magnitude of their sin.
We will also make the sad mistake of advancing others beyond their calling, gifting or devotion, because we too easily mistake outward signs of maturity and spirituality as fitness for trust or position in ministry. Churches suffer at the hand of leaders who possess position, influence and power, but whose hearts are unfit for such promotions. On the basis of mere outward deeds, many have followed heretics and even demonized leaders.

The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart, (Matthew 12:34). Are you a good man or an evil man, (Matthew 12:35)? True spiritual character is identified by the fruit it produces. What do you produce? Examine a healthy, productive fruit tree and you will find a few malformed, diseased fruits. But in spite of that one would say, this tree is good. It produces good fruit. What we look at is the overall picture, the general trend, the primary characteristic.

Is the general trend of how you live and what you do, productive of good things? Are you at peace? Are other people benefited by your actions? Do you gladly do what is helpful to others and honoring to God? Are your words generally helpful and kind? If such things generally characterize your life, then you are a good person as God measures people, even though there are some aberrations in thought, words and deeds. Your fruit is good because your heart is good. Because God judges you according to your heart there is grace and mercy for your failures.

Is the general trend of how you live and what you do productive of evil things? Do you constantly hurt others? Is your heart filled with anger, malice, guilt and shame? Is your speech mostly negative, critical and hurtful? Your fruit is bad because your heart is bad. What you need is a change of heart. Because God is full of love and the desire to forgive, He grants mercy through the blood of Jesus to all who seek forgiveness and a changed heart. This cannot be gained by changing your behavior. It comes only by grace through faith. Confess your sins to God and ask Him to change you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to fill you with His love. He will do so. Then your behavior will change and the general trend of your life will produce good rather than bad. It all begins in the heart. In all things spiritual, moral or ethical, God's emphasis is on the condition of one's heart.

This must be our emphasis.