Beatitudes - Blessed are the pure in heart...

Matt. 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Pure in heart? We have to be “pure in heart” to sit under the full blessing of God? Most of us wouldn’t feel like this describes us all the time. Fortunately, being “pure in heart” is not a state of being without sin.

So how would be define “pure in heart?” I’ve seen it defined a couple of different ways. First is a desire for purity and a hatred for impurity. Another framed it as - to think what is right, desire what is best, and to love and feel only what is good.

These are helpful ways to think about purity of heart but there are two particular characteristics that bring full clarity to what Jesus is speaking of:

A Heart that is Undivided: Our God is a jealous god. There is a long list of incidences in the Bible where people worshipped other gods. This never ended well for those that took that path. Worshipping other gods mean that one has a ‘divided heart.’ James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

God doesn’t want us to be “double-minded” in our loyalty to Him. We will never be without sin but our allegiances can’t be split amongst other ‘gods.’ Keep in mind that we create these same ‘gods’ by making idols out of things that are often blessings given by God himself. Money is a good example of this. We can’t love both God and money. We can’t be a slave to two masters. Our loyalties must lie with only one. An idol can be anything that competes for our affections for God.

A Heart that has been made Clean: Not only do we have forgiveness for our sins but we also have the blessing of being cleansed from them. Like the old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

We don’t have to “Murph” (wear a weighted vest) our way through the monkey bars of spiritual growth. The cleansing of our sin washes away all of the stain. We don’t have to carry the baggage around with us. The joy of the Christian life is that, even though we are not perfect, we can live every moment with the confidence that our sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus and we have been pronounced “clean” by the final Judge.

A cleansed and undivided heart is what it means to be pure of heart. The pure of heart will see God. What a great reward for loyalty. Purely perfect in every way.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6