What You Say You Believe vs. What You Really Believe

In Mark 7:6, Jesus “answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

These words of Jesus shed light on the possibility of a difference between what you say you believe versus what you really believe. If you are taught in church, you know what to say you believe. But do you believe it? Ultimately, we all act out what we really believe. Sobering.

The heart is what you down deep believe. It’s the collective response of your soul reflecting your way of thinking, which reveals what you down deep believe. Do we say one thing and down deep in the heart believe another?

Proverbs 23:6-7 illustrates the point: “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye [a miser], neither desire thou his dainty meats: For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”

Here we see a man who says one thing but down deep believes another. In verse seven, the first word heart is actually the word normally translated soul and the second occurrence of heart is the normal word for heart. “For as he thinketh in his heart” is the idea of “For as he calculates in his soul.” This is what the second word heart refers back to. The heart is the way of thinking which reveals what one really believes. This miser said “Eat and drink,” but he doesn’t really mean it. He is watching closely resenting what others eat. He says one thing, but he believes another. 

Are we guilty of the same two-faced sham? Do we say pious-sounding words about living the Christian life and being filled with the Spirit, and then act out carnal mistreatment of others? Do we say words of victory and then live defeated? The contradictory living reveals what we believe down deep.