The heart is also associated with our feelings of joy and of sorrow, or gloominess. We read at 1 Kings 8:66 that when Solomon’s temple was dedicated, ‘all Israel rejoiced and felt merry of heart over all the goodness that Jehovah God performed for his servant David and for Israel.’ At Nehemiah 2:2 we find King Artaxerxes asking Nehemiah why he looked so gloomy when he was not sick. “This is nothing but a gloominess of heart,” he concluded.

The heart is associated with our disposition, our attitude, whether lofty, proud, or lowly, humble. Proverbs 16:5 says that “everyone that is proud in heart is something detestable to Jehovah.” On the other hand, at Matthew 11:29, Jesus said: “I am mild-tempered and lowly [humble] in heart.”

Moral qualities​—goodness, virtue, badness and wickedness—​are said to reside in the heart. For example, at Jeremiah 7:24 we read of the Israelites’ “walking in the counsels in the stubbornness of their bad heart.” Jesus shows at Matthew 12:34, 35 that both good and bad things can be found in the heart.

Faith involves the heart, for Paul tells us at Romans 10:10: “With the heart one exercises faith for righteousness, but with the mouth one makes public declaration for salvation.”

The heart is the seat of motivation. Exodus 35:21 explains that those making contributions for the tabernacle “came, everyone whose heart impelled him.” According to Hebrews 4:12, 13, Jehovah’s word is like a sharp sword, able to “discern thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Yes, the heart of a person is the source of motivation, influencing the mind for good or for bad. An example of the heart’s motivating God’s people to act with wisdom is found at Exodus 31:6, which reads: “In the heart of everyone wise of heart I do put wisdom, that they may indeed make everything I have commanded you.”

Above all, however, the emotions of love and hate are associated with the heart. The Israelites were commanded: “You must not hate your brother in your heart.” (Leviticus 19:17) We also read of the heart of the Egyptians hating the Israelites. (Psalm 105:25) On the other hand, Paul tells us: “Really the objective of this mandate is love out of a clean heart.” (1 Timothy 1:5) And Peter counsels us: “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth . . . love one another intensely from the heart.”​—1 Peter 1:22.

The Scriptures also speak of precious experiences as being stored in the heart. Thus we read at Luke 2:51 that Mary, Jesus’ mother, “treasured all these things [concerning Jesus] in her heart.”​—Today’s English Version; New International Version; The New English Bible.

What an amazing number of different functions and capabilities are ascribed to the heart! Do all of these reside in the literal heart? That could hardly be so. This is indicated by those languages that make a clear distinction between a fleshly heart and a figurative heart. For example, both Chinese and Japanese use two characters, meaning “heart-organ,” for the literal heart. But in describing the qualities that emanate from the heart, only the first of these characters is used, in combination with other elements, to make up part of a more complicated character, in words such as love, hatred, intention and endurance. (See the accompanying box.) Thus a clear distinction is made between the physical organ and the person’s motivations and emotional qualities, though a relationship between the two is maintained.

This scripture seems also to parallel Isaiah 29:13, which Jesus quoted from, as recorded at Matthew 15:7, 8: “You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me.’” No doubt Jesus was here referring to what sort of persons these wicked ones were deep down inside.

However, in nearly a thousand other references to “heart” in the Bible, “heart” is obviously used in a figurative sense. This is not to say that there is no connection between the physical and the figurative heart. There is. For example, emotional stress can have a damaging effect on the literal heart, causing illness and even death. But, obviously, a distinction must be drawn between the heart organ and the figurative heart. As W. E. Vine states, “The heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life.”​—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Volume II, pages 206-7.

From all the foregoing it is plain that the Hebrew and Greek words for “heart” are used by Bible writers to refer to a number of emotional and moral qualities that go to make up the inner person. Clearly, by warning us of the importance of watching our longings, our yearnings and our motivations, God’s Word is helping us to “serve him with a complete heart.” It is equipping us for every good work. (1 Chronicles 28:9; 2 Timothy 3:17)