BEATITUDES FOCUS UPON THE PURE IN HEART.
By Rob Fields
The Pure in Heart (Matt. 5:8) are those who are inwardly clean from sin through faith in God’s provision and a continual acknowledging of their sinful condition.
The word pure in the Greek is katharos that means clear of dirt, clean, spotless, and unsoiled. In a moral sense, clear from shame or pollution, pure, and especially clear of guilt or defilement. The clean and innocence is not limited to just the inward or outward aspects of a person. The heart involves the mind, emotion, and will. This purity reaches deep into the seat of the soul of man. The Pharisees would clean the outside but Jesus rebuked them by saying, “You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean (Mt. 23:25-26).
We can have the appearance or illusion of being pure from the outside, but does the heart deep with man reveal another person? We fool ourselves or even avoid facing the beast that lurks deep within our soul. What would it be to have pure motives behind our actions? No doubt this is an impossible order to fulfill ourselves. Only the pure in heart will see God. I am by no means unpolluted no matter how much I try or think I am. We cry out that only He can make me pure for He alone is pure. For as we ponder this notion of a pure heart, we see our lacking and our call for only His purity resting in Jesus alone. Say of a man or women you have a pure heart is nothing from the truth because that man knows himself being nowhere close to this moral code.
“The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” – Paul to the Galatians, Gal. 5:19-21
What does the pure in heart look like? How do we have a pure heart?