Blessed Are The Pure In Heart
(Words From the Mountain)
In our series, "Words
from the Mountain," we have been exploring Jesus' teachings to become
better followers of Christ. So far, we have learned that the poor in spirit
will enter God's Kingdom. As citizens of God's Kingdom, we mourn our own sins
and the sins of others, and God comforts us with the gift of salvation. We
recognize that only through gentleness can we win people over. When we hunger
and thirst for God's righteousness, God satisfies us, and we become merciful to
others just as God has been merciful to us.
We arrive at one of the most
important teachings of Christ: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will
see God." Matthew 5:8. This beatitude is not about God's actions in
response to our deeds, but about seeing God Himself. How exciting is the idea of
seeing God in His Glory! We start our journey by understanding what is meant by
the term "The Heart."
I. The Human Heart:
The Bible uses the term
heart in different ways. In Hebrew, two words were used for the heart: Leb and
Lebab. Depending on the context, these words emphasized mind, emotions, and
will. More often, they referred to the entire inner person, the inner man, or
the personality. The Greek word translated as "heart" is"
Kardia," which is still used today in modern medicine, such as in
Cardiology and Cardiac disease, etc.[1]
According to Lloyd Jones,
the human heart in scripture includes intellect, emotions, and will. It is the
center of man's being and personality; it is the fount out of which everything
else comes. It is the total man, and that is the thing our Lord has been after,
the human heart."[2]
The heart is not only the seat of our whole personality but also has been the
seat of all our troubles.
This is how the scriptures
describe the condition of the human heart since the Fall. Genesis 6:5-6, "The
Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all
the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and
his heart was deeply troubled." Even now, God grieves by seeing how far
humans have strayed in their wicked ways.
II. The Deceitful Heart
For the past few months, I
have been acutely aware of my heart due to a specific heart condition. Several
tests and scans were performed to evaluate my heart's health. I even joked with
the technician performing the MRI: "Wow! You get to see my heart. What did
you see?" I was amazed by the knowledge and skills of the radiologists and
cardiologists who diagnosed a particular disease of my heart and found a
suitable treatment option.
I wondered whether they have
any idea how broken, sick, evil, and deceived my own heart, my inner
personality, has been. Not to mention fixing my broken heart. Jeremiah, the
weeping prophet, accurately assessed the human heart. "The heart is more
deceitful than all else, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9 NASB.
King Solomon further
revealed what truly occurs in the hearts of humankind. "The hearts of all
people, moreover, are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts while
they live, afterword they join the dead. Ecc 9: 3 If no one can understand and
heal our broken hearts, then who can? Only God! "I, the LORD, search the
heart, I test the mind, even to give each man according to his ways, according
to the results of his deeds." Jeremiah 17:10.
So we cry out to the Lord,
saying, "Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed, Save me, and I will be
saved." Jeremiah 17:14. How is your heart today? Does it need some fixing?
We have recognized how sick we are and who can heal us. Let's explore what
purity of heart looks like.
III. Blessed Are The Pure In
Heart.
Our
main verse comes from Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they will see God." We will explore what it means to be pure in heart and
how this enables us to see God. Have you ever wondered what motivates someone
to commit a terrible crime like murder, adultery, or lash out in anger at loved
ones? It is the evil that resides in their hearts. Jesus, while addressing the
Pharisees' hypocrisy, reveals the impurity of the unregenerate human heart.
Matthew 15:18-20, "But the things that come out of a
person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart
come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony,
slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does
not defile them." This is the true nature of the fallen human beings.
While making a point that the
mouth speaks what the heart is full of, Jesus said, "A good man brings
good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil
things out of the evil stored up in his heart." Luke 6:45. What have we
stored up in our hearts today?
What is necessary before we
can see God? Holiness! Psalm 24:3-4, "Who may ascend the mountain of the
LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure
heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false God." Hebrews 12:14,
"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without
holiness no one will see the Lord."
What did our Lord mean by, "pure in heart'?
A pure heart means a heart free of hypocrisy, which means single-mindedness.[3]
Jesus taught his disciples about the single, and evil eye in Matt 6:22, "The
light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body
shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness! KJV. Then made a profound statement: Matt. 6:24, "You cannot
serve both God and money."
The purity of heart,
therefore, relates to singleness or complete devotion to God alone. One of the
best definitions of purity is found in Psalm 86:11, "Unite my heart to
fear thy name." NASB. The real issue with followers of Christ is a divided
heart. We are distracted by many things that divert our focus from following
God to the ways of the world. The need of the hour is to pray to God so that He
might unite our hearts to fear His name.
To be pure in heart means to
avoid evil and to live a life that glorifies God by obeying His commandments.
Jesus said all the law and the prophetsthe prophets hang these two vital
commandments. Matthew 2:37-40, Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first
and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as
yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
When we live in obedience to these commandments, we shall see God.
What did Jesus mean by
saying, "We shall see God"? Does it mean we shall see God in this
world? Or when we get to heaven? Partially, this has been fulfilled here and
now and in its totality in the Kingdom of God. In a way, Christians, God's
children, have a unique sense of God's presence in and all around them. When we
look at creation, we see God's fingerprints everywhere. When we see God's
saving power in the way He saved us. We observe God's healing power as He heals
our sicknesses and restores broken hearts.
All these partial manifestations
of God are his mirror reflections in this world. I Cor 13:12. John the Beloved Disciple
further amplified our future vision of Jesus. I John 3: 2-3, "Dear
friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made
known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is." You and I, who are going through troubles and
challenges in life, will one day see God face to face and live with Him
forever? If we can grasp this glorious vision, it will revolutionize our lives!
Scriptures for further
reading.
Job 19:25-27
Job 26:7-14
I Peter 1:8-9
