Mar 2:8

Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

Alternative: Why do you calculate these things in your hearts?


For Christ, feeling is the realm of relationships. The heart is Christ's metaphor for our feelings regarding our relationships both our personal relationships and our social position. (In an earlier post, we discuss the concept of desires of the heart as opposed to desires of the belly.)

In this specific situation, the scribes were attacking Jesus to defend their position as religious authorities, but if we take the narrative away and look at this line in the larger context of this chapter of Mark, a different message emerges.

First, Christ tells us to let go of our errors, leave our mistakes behind us.

Then he asks us to think about it: why do we try to justify ourselves and attack our opponents? What does all our mental gymnastics win us? When we use our thoughts to justify our emotions, we accomplish nothing. Christ is making the order clear. We use our thoughts and ideas to chose our actions. Our actions should determine our feelings and relationships. When we try to form our relationships without actions, it is meaningless.

The previous command about letting go of our mistakes, or as regularly translated, being forgiven of sin is about the same thing. We cannot let our mistakes drive our emotions and thoughts. We must let them go. Worthless actions and bad habits must be abandoned in action, thought, and feeling.

In the next verse, Christ will demonstrate this idea in a tangible way. Words lead to action leads to relationship.

"Reason" is from dialogizomai, which means "to calculate exactly," "to add up account," "to debate," and "to argue."

"Heart" is from kardia, which means "heart" and which we discuss in a larger Greek context here.