A Matter of the Heart

I remember once many years ago listening to a presentation about a particular piece of functionality for a complex software product. The presenter was training customers on how this part of the software worked. An outsider would have given him very high ratings in terms of speaking clearly and well, engaging the audience, and presenting himself and the subject matter in a pleasant, concise way. And yet, as I listened to it trying to actually learn about how this functionality really worked, I said to myself, “He didn’t really tell me anything.” Despite the great presentation on the surface, there was no depth to the ideas or content to actually instruct about what the software did. It was as if someone was describing how to work a new phone and said, “This is a beautiful new phone. You will see that it is a nice gray color and is a rectangular shape with rounded edges that enhances usability. You will see that it is in fact really easy to use and has multiple buttons on the side and front. Those buttons do just the things that you want buttons to do and allow you to perform lots of different actions on the phone. The display is even illuminated when it is on and displays really great information. It is touch-enabled so you will be able to navigate with your fingers to do all those things you need to do. Thanks for letting me show you all the details of how to work this phone.” In that description, no real information about how to use the phone is given—though the right buzzwords are present there is no depth or meaningful detail to it.

I thought of this today as I read again this condemnation of Isaiah that is repeated several times in the standard works: “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isaiah 29:13). The Lord used this same verse to teach young Joseph in the Sacred Grove about why he had rejected the religiosity in various groups of that day. What matters most to the Lord in spiritual things is not what is on the surface but what is deep in our hearts. The good things that we say with our lips about our religion are meaningless if our hearts and actions do not reflect the actual substance of our faith. All too often we can say just the right things when talking about spiritual matters without having a deep understanding and conviction in our hearts of how that really affects us. Joseph Smith in fact observed this when he described his day: “It was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words” (JSH 1:6).

              This issue of living a religion only on the surface was what caused the Savior to condemn some of the Jewish rulers of His day: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matt. 23:27-28). These scribes and Pharisees looked like they were doing all the right things per the Law of Moses, and yet they in fact didn’t even really believe in God, for when pushed they finally declared, “We have no king but Cæsar” (John 19:15). This condemnation of the Savior should cause each of us to consider carefully whether what we profess to believe is really found in our hearts and motivating our actions each day. The Savior also warned in the Sermon on the Mount of how professions of faith and even actions that look religious will not be enough: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21-23). The Lord knows our hearts and what we really desire—we must never let outward appearances become more important that our inward convictions and devotion.