“Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”

Without the address, chapter and verse, do you know in your heart what comes next?

Before you answer, ask yourselves if you are searching your memory or your heart.

“for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.” is the verse that follows.

Faith is not an exercise of the mind but rather a condition of the heart. 

The great commandment is to love God with all your heart first. The soul and the mind follow. God, being a God of order, places great emphasis on the condition of the heart.

John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Hebrews 3:15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Rebellion is such a harsh accusation and should be taken seriously. In order to see why that word is used we need to look and see what happened back then.

Psalm 95:8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

In Numbers 20 the people complained, “And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink.” So God told Moses to take his staff and speak to the rock to bring them water. Moses disobeyed God and struck the rock for a second time, a symbol of crucifying Christ afresh. For this rebellion against God Moses was denied entry into the Promise Land and died in the wilderness.

Before we judge Moses’ rebellion as justification for rejection of the resurrection, remember that Moses met Jesus in eternity on the Mount of Transfiguration.

A hardened heart blocks promises. It has not yielded itself to God by faith.