Intelligence Quotient- that is what IQ means. The test given to assess the intelligence of a person is supposed to measure not just what they know but also their ability to learn. It is essentially your mental age divided by your chronological age, and measures not just what you know, but cognitive abilities, such as memory, attention and speed. It is used to determine one’s potential for success.
Let me tell you, though- intellect and intelligence are not always the same thing: you could have the highest IQ ever yet act more irresponsibly and idiotically than someone with an average IQ. I am a living example of that.
What is interesting is that intelligence as a function of the brain is a modern thought. In ancient days, the center of intelligence, as well as emotions, was considered to be in the heart.
I have borrowed (and paraphrased) from jewishencyclopedia.com some of their definitions of the Judaic viewpoint of the heart:
It is the seat of the emotional and intellectual life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. iv. 23), refers to the moral and spiritual as well as the physical life. Animals have simply a sentient heart without personal consciousness or reason.
The three special functions, knowing, feeling, and willing, ascribed by modern psychologists to the mind, were attributed to the heart by the Biblical writers.
In the Book of Daniel intellectual functions are ascribed not to the head only (Dan. ii. 28; iv. 2, 7, 10 [A. V. 5, 10, 13]; vii. 1, 15), but also to the heart (ib. ii. 30).
The heart is the the seat of the physical organism, as the seat of all morality and of all moral and spiritual functions
As in the Bible (Gen. vi. 5, viii. 21), the seat of good and evil impulses alike is neither the body nor the soul, but rather the heart (not, of course, the physical organ, but the willing and thinking self)
The heart is also the seat of feeling, of courage, of hatred, of pride, and of deceit.
As the Seat of the Intellect and the Will: the Midrash renders “an understanding heart” by “wisdom”; and there it is said that God gives Solomon “wisdom and understanding.”
According to modern science the brain is the center and originator of our emotions, our intelligence and our feelings. Yet, in Judaism (and Islam, too, from what I read) the heart is really the center of the emotional and mental activity.
How many times have we heard…”do what is in your head, not what is in your heart”? And just as often we have been told to do the converse of that statement.
In the bible, this question never appears because the heart is both the center of emotion and intelligence, so we really only need to do what is in our heart, and what should be in our heart is the Lord (D’varim/ Deuteronomy 6:5):
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
This commandment is repeated throughout the Gospels, as well, when the young Pharisee asks Yeshua (Jesus) what is the most important commandment. The first thing we are to do is to love God with all our heart. I have also seen “with all your mind” added in some translations, which would then mean to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength. In other words, we should love God intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
As our love for God should grow with our understanding of Him, then since the heart is the center of understanding, it stands to reason that the more we love God, the “smarter” our heart will be, and the smarter our heart is the more we can love the Lord with all of it.
Loving God more lets you become wiser, and becoming wiser lets you love God more- now that’s what I call a synergistic relationship!
There are plenty of tests to determine our IQ from the modern version, but what test can we take to determine our H-IQ (heart IQ) ? Maybe we already know that answer: it would be in the way that we treat each other and how well we honor God through faithful obedience to His word (Torah) in our everyday lives.
Are you willing to take a H-IQ test? I can’t give it to you; this is a self-test. You need to honestly look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are measuring up, heart-wise, to what God expects of you. And don’t allow false modesty to interfere with an accurate rating- you could be in the top 10%. Is there a spiritual MENSA group out there? Yes, there is- I believe we call them “Saints.”
I am not talking about the Saints in Catholicism: I am talking about what the bible describes as a “saint”, which is one who is holy, one who is separated for God, and one who acts in accordance to God’s will and commandments (found in the Torah.) Shaul (Paul) wrote to “the saints” in many of his letters in the New Covenant, and in the Old Covenant the saints are referred to as the faithful people of the Lord over and over, in Psalms, Chronicles, Job, etc.
A saint is not someone who the Pope says is a saint; a saint is anyone and everyone who is faithful to the Lord.
Needless to say, saints have a really high H-IQ.
So what do you think your H-IQ is? Is it high enough for you? Is it high enough for God to be pleased with it?
The good thing about H-IQ is that you can constantly increase it, so why settle for having just another old, normal heart when you can be a Heart-Mensan?
