I’m no expert in Greek, not even an amateur. But I know enough to take a run at translating this word: kardiognostes.

Kardio . . . aka cardio . . . aka having to do with the heart. Gnostes . . . aka gnostic . . . aka having to do with knowledge. Thus, to have kardiognostes is to have heart-knowledge. I’m reminded this morning as I read in Acts (and as is evident in my other readings in Genesis, Psalms, and Matthew) that our God has heart-knowledge. That He is the Heart-Knower.

Context? Finding a successor for Judas.

Jesus has ascended and His small band of believers are back in Jerusalem praying (Acts 1:12-14). But the twelve chosen to be part of Jesus’ inner-circle before the cross and commissioned to be His first cohort of messengers of the good news concerning His resurrection, number but eleven. Judas, the betrayer, has taken his own life (Matt. 27:3-5, Acts 1:18) and has left a hole in their ranks. Peter divinely connects Judas’s vacated position with one of David’s psalms: “Let another take his office” (Ps. 109:8). So, from those qualified — those who had followed Jesus from His baptism by John until His resurrection from the dead — two are short-listed, “Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias” (Acts 1:21-23).

And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two You have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

(Acts 1:24-26 ESV)

They could short-list but the Lord needed to select. They could assess against the qualifications but only the Lord could effectuate the calling (after all Judas was qualified as well). And so they prayed and they cast lots, confident that the Lord knew the heart.

You, Lord, who know the hearts of all . . . That’s what I’m chewing on this morning. My God is the Heart-Knower.

He knew the heart of Cain, and so “had no regard” for Cain’s offering (Gen. 4:3-5). He knew the heart of Joseph, thus intervened via an angel-gram, preventing Joseph from quietly divorcing Mary before she started showing (Mt. 1:19-24). He knows the heart of nations that rage and of people who plot in vain, of kings and rulers who set themselves against the LORD, wanting to cast off the cords of common grace for their own selfish, sinful agendas — and knowing their hearts, the One who sits enthroned in heaven laughs, “amused at their presumption” (MSG), even as He’s grieved by their rebellion (Ps. 2:1-4). Our God is the Heart-Knower.

And, says the inspired text this morning, He knows the hearts of all. All . . . as in everybody. As in the whole — every individual and every collective. Every self and every tribe. Without exception, without exemption, You, Lord, know the hearts of all.

That includes the guy in this chair this morning noodling on this verse. The Lord who knows the hearts of all knows my heart.

There’s an “ugh” that can follow in response to such a reminder, for what I know of my heart is not all that I would want my heart to be. The remnant heart of the old man still fights for control. You know, that old heart which is “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). The Lord knows the heart . . . even that one. Yet knowing that heart, He knows too the price He paid to redeem that heart, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus which continues to satisfy the debt incurred when my old nature’s heart goes rogue, the blood shed on Calvary which continues to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

But then He knows, as well, the new heart. The heart He promised, the heart He gave. The one He said He would transplant within me as part and parcel of being made a new creation (Eze. 36:25-27, 2Cor. 5:17). He knows that heart, enlivened by the Spirit as it is being conformed wondrously and graciously and increasingly to the heart of the Son. The heart of Jesus beating within me, for “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

He is the Heart-Knower.

Search me of God and know my heart . . . and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:22-23).

By Your grace. For Your glory.