“It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.”

Philippians 1:7

Is the Bible literally true? This is one of the great religious battleground issues of the past 200 years. Christians have gone toe to toe with skeptics regarding the essential truth and authority of Scripture. More significantly, followers of Jesus have found themselves stuck in a kind of never-ending family feud over the meaning of the word “literal.”

Paul’s warm expression of partnership with the disciples at Philippi provides an interesting test case. “Since I have you in my heart…” Does Paul mean that literally?

Of course he does – as long we understand that “literal” means “according to the author’s intention” regarding the “literature” that has been provided. Some examples may help.

“That new pastor has turned his church upside-down.” He must have some personal trainer – if we understand those words to be a physical description of the world’s most astonishing feat of ecclesiastical weight-lifting. But that’s not how we hear and understand such words. From context and experience we immediately recognize this to be a metaphor. Does that mean we aren’t taking those words literally? Actually, we are – since we are understanding and accepting the author’s original intent.

Celine Dion sang My Heart Will Go On even as the Titanic sank into the cold Atlantic. Was she implying that the complex set of cardiac muscles in Kate Winslett’s character would continue pumping blood even after the rest of her body decayed? Only in a really creepy horror movie. We all know a metaphor when we see one.

When Paul tells the Philippians that “he has them in his heart” most readers immediately grasp that the apostle is making a statement about his affections. Cardia (“heart”) in first century Greek referred not just to the life-sustaining organ beating in our chests but, as Dallas Willard puts it, “the executive center of the human life. The heart is where decisions and choices are made for the whole person.” Paul is declaring that at the very core of his being (and here we must note that “core” comes from the Latin word cor, which also means heart) he loves and appreciates his readers.

“I have you in my heart.” In what sense that does Paul mean that? He means it truthfully. In other words, he is saying what he means. And he means it literally, too. Somewhere in the mystery of the human mind / heart / spirit – whatever realities those important Bible words are meant to imply – Paul’s inner world “contains” joyful and redemptive thoughts concerning the Philippians.

You can have others in your own heart as well, even if an MRI fails to locate a gathering of Christ-followers in your left ventricle.