The calling card of God’s kingdom and the gospel’s measuring stick are essentially matters of the Father’s privy council.  We cannot see the contents of the human heart but we are able to perform certain actions that might be interpreted as the Spirit’s fruit.  No-one need pretend: the life itself has the microchips for the believer to do God’s will from the heart (Greek, ek psuches), that is, not mere outward expression, such as sabbath-keeping.  There is no necessary spiritual foundation for a person to be off work on the weekend, and not have to report to his workplace. That same person can harbour thoughts on the sabbath day or any holy day that go seriously offline from the sabbath-keeping integrity.

Both God and the pastor remain on duty on the sabbath day; the pastor in violation for which he does not get prosecuted, and God because he works non-stop and is not subject to the fourth commandment or any other law aimed at pointing out sin (and the need for atonement). God’s Son was not a sinner until he was in the cross.

The idea of behaviour “from the heart” aims at anchoring behaviour in the cleansed heart, because one can truly say “I followed my heart” when one has followed the deceitful and destructive passions of the heart.

The holiness of God, the day and the person

• that God is idle, not doing whatever work occupied his 6 days in any week
• that God is subject to do not work orders
• that a special holiness affects human beings from the rotation of our planet
• that the Holy Spirit’s presence for the six previous days can be outdone
• that a holy walk with God gets amplified from the day before the sabbath 
• that a holy walk with God gets dialed down  the day following the sabbath 

What was in Yeshua’s heart

When the disciples fed themselves fresh wheat on the sabbath day it was an offence to the Pharisees. When Yeshua healed a man on the sabbath day he was accused of being a doctor – not the bishop of all souls – working outside his hours. The extent to which the Incarnate Word was a genuine human does not veer off when the content of his heart is to be revealed. Were the residents of his heart not the same as his contemporaries evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. (Mark 7:21-22, NASB) he could not say that he is familiar, by experience with the common temptations of human life.

Whether or not you believe it, Christ was born into a unique situation. He was not born of human desire and was born of a woman only. This makes it possible for him to be Holy God and sinless lamb. God’s will for Yeshua was written in his heart, not the hundreds of commandments against this and that or for this and that, but the order to lay down his life to save humanity.

“From the heart” must take its shape and dimensions from the Saviour. The believer’s hearty conduct of life needs a North Star. It most certainly cannot be grounded in a hundred or ten commandments. It must be cognizant of both old man and new man passions and desires, respectively for mortification and nourishment.