Pure In Heart

 In a corrupt world, can there possibly be people who are pure in heart?  Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked:  Who can know it?”  Only Jesus was perfectly pure in heart.   Only Jesus was able to see God. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.”  (John 1:18). 

 But Jesus was not speaking about himself when He gave us the beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8).  He was speaking to us.  We are all sinners. The one sin that upset him the most was hypocrisy.  He would not tolerate people who lived a pretentious life.  Instead, he exalted authenticity and integrity. If we cannot be sinless, we can have authentic integrity.

 This may be what Jesus had in mind when he met Nathaniel and said, “behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile.”  It was one of the greatest complements Jesus ever paid any of his followers.  Nathaniel was true and authentic.  What you saw was what you got.  His secret conduct was the same as his conduct in public.   Speaking to Nathaniel, Jesus promised, “You shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

 A pure heart must be a heart filled with love.  Love’s definition in 1 Corinthians 13 gives us insight into what a pure heart looks like. “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

 Ultimately, a pure heart only comes from God. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,” (Ezekiel 36:26).  Overcome with his sin and guilt, David cried out, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me,” (Psalm 51:10).

 God has made provision for us that we can have a pure heart through faith in His Son, Jesus. John wrote, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure,” (1 John 3:2-3).

 If you want to see God, be authentic in your faith.  Confess your sins. Let Him purify your heart.