The Heart in Scripture – Bible Study

THE HEART IN SCRIPTURE

An overview of how the Bible speaks about the heart

The Bible speaks about the heart often, it’s central to who we are and how we relate to God. Rather than using the word in a purely emotional sense, Scripture consistently points to the heart as the inner place where thoughts, intentions, and responses are formed. This study offers a broad look at how the Bible speaks about the heart.

THE HEART DEFINED

Hebrew Word for Heart:  לֵב / לֵבָב (lēb / lēbāb)

Occurrences: Over 850 times

Core Meaning: The inner person. The centre of thought, will, understanding, desire, and moral decision-making.

What lēb / lēbāb Includes

• Mind, intellect, understanding
• Will and determination
• Desires and affections
• Moral character and conscience
• Inner motives and intentions

In Hebrew thought, the heart thinks, chooses, plans, and commits. Emotion is included, but it is not the focus.

Greek Word for Heart: καρδία (kardía)

Occurrences: About 160 times

Core Meaning: The centre and source of inner life. Where understanding, intention, belief, and spiritual responsiveness reside.

What kardía Includes

• Thoughts and reasoning
• Belief and faith
• Intentions and motives
• Moral and spiritual orientation
• Inner responsiveness to God

In Greek usage, especially in Scripture, the heart is the seat of belief and allegiance, not just feeling.

PRIMARY THEMES IN SCRIPTURE’S USE OF THE HEART

The following themes represent the most common ways Scripture speaks about the heart. The percentages indicate how frequently each theme appears throughout the Bible.

1. The Heart as the Centre of the Person – Thought, will, and intention

(Approx. 25-30%)

Proverbs 23:6-8
Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the morsels that you have eaten, and waste your pleasant words.

Proverbs 16:9
The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

2. God Examines, Knows, and Tests the Heart

(Approx. 15-18%)

Jeremiah 17:10
“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

2 Chronicles 32:31
And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.

3. The Heart as the Source of Behaviour and Speech

(Approx. 12-15%)

Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Luke 6:45
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Mark 7:21–23
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

4. The Heart Can Be Deceived

(Approx. 10-12%)

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Proverbs 28:26
Whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Obadiah 1:3
The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”

5. A Hardened or Resistant Heart

(Approx. 8-10%)

Exodus 8:15
But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.

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

Hebrews 3:12-15
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’

6. A Whole or Undivided Heart

(Approx. 6-8%)

Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

1 Kings 8:61
Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the LORD our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.

Matthew 22:37
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

7. Guarding and Directing the Heart

(Approx. 5-7%)

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Psalm 119:36
Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!

Psalm 141:4
Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! 

8. The Heart in Repentance and Humility

(Approx. 4-6%)

Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Joel 2:12–13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Acts 2:37
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

9. A New or Changed Heart from God

(Approx. 3-5%)

Ezekiel 36:26-27
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Deuteronomy 30:6
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

2 Corinthians 3:3
And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

10. The Heart as the Place of Faith and Response to God

(Approx. 2-4%)

Romans 10:9-10
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Hebrews 10:22-23
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Acts 15:8-9
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

After walking through the Scriptures, how did the different aspects of “the heart” impact your understanding? What surprised you?

Which verse stood out to you the most, and why did it catch your attention?

As you examine your heart, what do you sense God may be inviting you to pray for?

A PRAYER TO CLOSE

Psalm 51:10–12
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.