Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
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October 20, 2013 |
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 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).
Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
Most people judge others from their appearance but God sees our inner hearts. Remember that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes calling them 'hypocrites'. The thing we should make pure and clean is our hearts. If one's heart has sins, lawlessness, and unrighteousness, even though his outward actions are holy, trained by education and common sense, he can't be a truly beautiful man.
The meaning of having a pure heart is not subjecting our hearts to worthless things but to keep them pure and clean in the truth, not to even think of rudeness, not to rejoice with untruth, and to have no spot and blemish, which is the heart of the truth and goodness.
God takes delight in and blesses those who have purified their hearts with goodness and love. Now let's look into the blessing given to the pure in heart.
1. God who loves and blesses the pure in heart, like Ruth
Ruth was a person who received blessing due to her pure heart. She was a Gentile from Moab and became a widow at young age with no child. She did not leave her mother-in-law who was also left alone, and she served her with her heart. Ruth chose to leave her hometown and go to Bethlehem the mother-in-law's home. It was a strange place to her, and there was no place to live in and little food to eat. In fact, she did not know what to do for a living.
However, Ruth did not think about the negative things that could happen nor did she regret her choice to follow her mother-in-law. She served her heartily with an unchanging heart. Ruth had such a good and pure heart that she could overcome everything with joy. Thus, God blessed her to meet Boaz who was rich and good and she had a happy family with him. She is even included in the genealogy of Jesus as King David's great grandmother.
In the time of Jesus, Pharisees and the scribes kept the traditions of elders as well as the Law, but they still had evil in their hearts. They led ascetic lives so they considered themselves holy. They did not clean their hearts with love for God, but they just practiced the Law on the outside without consideration for others around them, that is, they were hypocrites.
So Jesus reprimanded them as whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). A tomb is a place that contains a corpse, so no matter how beautifully decorated it is, it is just a tomb full of the stench of putrefaction. The Pharisees and the scribes pretended to be holy on the outside, but the hearts were filled with all kinds of sin and evil. Thus, the Lord likened them to the whitewashed tombs. God wants us to have pure and beautiful inner hearts as well as the outward expression of holiness.
2. The way to becoming one who is pure in heart
God is holy and perfect, so He wants us to have pure hearts by getting rid of sins and evil from our hearts as well as stopping doing evil outwardly. 1 Peter 1:16 says, "Because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" 1 Thessalonians 4:3 reads, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification…"
Then, what should we do to have a pure heart that God wants and become sanctified? If a person is still hot-tempered and becomes angry, then they should become a kind and gentle person. People who tend to be arrogant should humble themselves and serve others. Those who hate must learn to love even their enemies. To become pure in heart a person should do away with every form of evil even by fighting against sins until the point of shedding blood.
We can achieve a pure heart to the extent that we cast away sin and evil, keep the Word of God and fill our hearts with the truth. Unless we practice the Words that we have learned we cannot be changed. It is likened to the situation where you have dirty clothes and are thinking of washing them, but you do not actually wash them. Therefore, if you listen to the Word of God and discover dirty things in your heart you have to try to cast them away.
Of course, achieving a pure heart is not done with your own strength and willpower. Apostle Paul's confession records it for us. Romans 7:22-24 says, "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"
Here, the 'inner man' refers to our original hearts given by God, and the heart of the truth in which we joyfully concur with the law of God. On the contrary, 'a different law in the members of my body' refers to the heart of the untruth. That is, it is the attribute of the untruth that wants to keep the sins in our hearts. This cannot be thrown away with human willpower. Then, what should we do?
1 Timothy 4:5 reads, "For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer." In order to cast off untruthful characteristics deep in our hearts and become holy, we should realize the truth through the Word of God and pray fervently. Only then can we accomplish a pure heart by the grace and strength of God and the help of the Spirit. That is, we need to long for holiness and show our willingness and efforts to practice the Word of God.
3. They shall see God
Some people ask how people can see God. Judges 13:22 reads, "So Manoah said to his wife, 'We will surely die, for we have seen God.'" John 1:18 also says, "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." However, Exodus 33:11 tells us, "Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent."
When God descended upon Mount Sinai, the Israelites could not come close to the place out of fear of death but Moses spoke with God face to face (Exodus 20:18-19). Why is that some saw God and walked with Him while others can't?
3 John 1:11 says, "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God." The pure in heart can see God but those whose hearts are dirty with sin and evil cannot see God.
Only when we have the pure heart can we enter New Jerusalem or the Third Kingdom of Heaven and see the Lord and God at close distance. However, people in Paradise, the First and Second Kingdoms of Heaven cannot see the Lord in close proximity. According to the extent that we become sanctified, our spiritual lights from us and our dwelling places will be all different.
The blessing given to the pure in heart does not simply mean seeing God's image, but also it is to receive answers to our prayer and to meet and experience God in all parts of our lives. It includes receiving various gifts of the Spirit including tongues recorded in 1 Corinthians 12:9-11 and experiencing the living God. All these can be said to be the blessing of seeing God though they are just some parts of it.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you to realize the love of God deeply, cast away filthiness from the heart, and achieve complete holiness. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will be prosperous in all things receiving answers and blessings and enjoy the glory of seeing the face of God in New Jerusalem.
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