The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). What an indictment!

“Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The word “intent” has to do with desire, impulse, tendency, inclination, and disposition. Think about it. Every desire, every impulse, every tendency, every inclination is evil. When someone at your office hurls invectives at you, you think, “Wow, she has an ugly disposition.” When a man slaps around his wife, you think, “I would not have believed he is so inclined.”

God stuns us with the breadth of his statement. He declares that all the desires, tendencies, and impulses of the thought life are evil all day long. And He takes it even further. He says that the inner thoughts coming from the heart always bear evil intent. The heart inclined to oppose God is evil; it is set hard against God.

In this regard, listen to how the apostle Paul warns those who are born again: “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (Eph. 4:17-18).

Note the sequence. Unbelievers are darkened in their understanding. They need the light of God to shine upon them and in them. At the same time, they are excluded from the blessing of life from God. They suffer from a profound ignorance. They do not know God through Jesus Christ. Why? “Because of the hardness of their heart.” Hearts bent against God, dispositions opposed to God, and inclinations that reject God all retreat into the hellish darkness of sin like snakes that desire the cover of darkness and coil under rocks.

You can think of this hardness of heart as a mindset. Here is my translation of Romans 8:6-7: “The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mindset of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” The heart of stone is ill-disposed to God and inclined to oppose God. Mindset goes to attitude.

The high school bully, who always wants to pick a fight, has a bad attitude. He acts in accord with his attitude, pushing and shoving and intimidating others. He does not change because he will not change. He cannot because he will not. In a similar way, the mindset of the flesh does not subject itself to the law of God. It cannot because it will not. As Benjamin Franklin said, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

There is only one answer to hard hearts and bad attitudes: God must replace our hearts of stone and change our attitudes. Thankfully, this is His promise. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). So, when you pray for such change in the lives of those whom you love, you pray according to God’s will (1 John 5:14-15).

—Dennis J. Prutow

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