15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. — 1 Peter 3:15, 16 NIV
In the Old and New Testament, the word “heart” refers not to the physical organ, but to the center of all of our life processes. The “heart” is the seat of our minds, emotions, and wills. Therefore, it refers to our thought patterns, our attitudes and our desires. Our thoughts become actions which beome habits which become our lifestyle. The things and/or people that we spend the most time thinking about, in reality, are the things that control our lives. This is characterized by the following verse:
45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. — Luke 6:45 NIV
Revere can be defined as “honor, look up to, or put on a pedestal”. A throne is a pedestal and our “hearts” are the center of our lives. So, if we revere God, we honor Him by putting Him on the throne of our hearts and make Him the center of our lives. Our decisions and thus, our lifestyles, will be examples of the Person we love and admire the most. We will want others to follow our Leader. In light of all this, we need to spend the majority of our time thinking about our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. If we do this, we will “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” We need to do this with love, gentleness and respect. Just as our checkbooks show the patterns of our physical lifestyles, so our conversations show the patterns of our thought life and our spiritual lives. It is a law unto itself:
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. — Romans 8:5 NIV
So, let us, along with the Psalmist, ask God to create a clean heart in each of us. We need clean hearts if we are going to fulfill the sole purpose for which we were created and that is to glorify God.
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. — 1 Cor. 10:31 NKJV
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