Blessed are the pure in heart 

Spiritual purity may seem ethereal. It may be difficult to understand and practice, but it is a concept that God holds in the highest regard. Jesus extolled being "clean in heart" in his sixth Bliss. 

Today our society delights in vulgar jokes, "adult" movies, and foul language. Things that were once universally considered disgusting and vile now seem acceptable. People "say evil to good" (Isaiah 5:20) and feel no shame for impure thoughts and actions. "Have you been ashamed of having done an abomination? They certainly were not ashamed in the least, nor did they know how to be ashamed; therefore they will fall among those who fall; when he punishes them they will fall, says the Eternal "(Jeremiah 8:12).

Even those who claim to be right carry the impurity of sin still unless they have repented and been forgiven. “Although all of us are like filth, and all our justices like filthy rags; and we all fell like the leaf, and our wickedness carried us like a wind, "wrote Isaiah (Isaiah 64: 6). We have all sinned (Romans 3:23), and so we have all been defiled.

The sixth Beatitude says: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5: 8). One of the characteristics that God values ​​the most is that of purity.  

Consider this in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. The previous beatitude was: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy" (Matthew 5: 7). The Father is able to show us that mercy due to the sacrifice of Jesus that also makes it possible for us to be clean and pure of heart.  

Blessed are the pure in heart

The emphasis of this sixth Bliss is on the heart. While humanity can only see the outward appearance, God is able to see the heart and depths of an individual. That's where He emphasizes.

Just as God said to Samuel when he was about to anoint a new king over Israel: “Do not look at his opinion, nor at the greatness of his stature, because I reject him; because the Eternal does not look at what man looks at; for man looks at what is before his eyes, but the Eternal looks at the heart ”(1 Samuel 16: 7). God knows us even in the depths of our being (Acts 15: 8).

God cares very much about our actions - what we do. But he also examines what we do in our hearts where only He can see. For example, Jesus magnified the commandment against adultery by saying, "Anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already sweetened her in his heart," He not only looks at what we do in our hearts, but also how close we are to Him. in our hearts (Matthew 15: 8-9).

It is definitely not within our natural ability to have a pure heart. To have such a heart, we must have a repentant spirit. It is definitely not within our natural ability to have a pure heart. To have such a heart, we must have a repentant spirit. We have to turn to God as King David did, pleading: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:10 ) .

This is something that God can and will gladly do through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as long as we repent every time we sin. We must commit ourselves to living our life according to his way and trusting completely in the sacrifice of Jesus. "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1: 7).

Because they will see God

Let us reflect deeply on who it is that we are going to see: the Creator God! The most powerful and loving being in the universe!

This is the God who made the universe out of nothing, with just one word. He brought Israel out of ancient Egypt by separating the Red Sea. He made a plan of salvation that included the sacrifice of a member of the divinity so that all humanity could be part of the family of God. He is the God whose shining glory would have taken Moses' life if he had not covered him (Exodus 33: 18-23).

In order to hear the Ten Commandments of God, ancient Israel had to be physically purified (Exodus 19: 10-11). The priests were to cleanse themselves before entering the meeting tabernacle, which represented coming before God (Exodus 30: 17-21). These physical rules highlight how awesome it is to come before the presence of God and perhaps helped you focus. Seeing God is beyond our physical understanding, and requires spiritual purity.

The privilege of seeing God is only given to one group in the Bible: those who are holy and pure in the eyes of God. As King David wrote: “Who will ascend the mount of the Eternal? And who will be in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; He who has not lifted up his soul to vain things, Nor sworn deceitfully ”(Psalms 24: 3-4).

We will not see God face to face during this physical life. We will see it after our resurrection.

As the apostle John wrote: “See what love the Father has given us, so that we may be called children of God; This is why the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we are to be has not yet been manifested; but we know that when he manifests himself, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure ”(1 John 3: 1-3).

The way of man

However, purity is not something that comes naturally with humans. The concept of spiritual purity has no priority in the thoughts of the average human being. Rather, man defiles himself by disobeying God, leading to many different forms of evil, such as the ones Paul mentions in Romans 1: 24-32. Sadly, man by nature goes against the law of God that would keep him pure and safe (Romans 8: 7).

Our impurity is not only superficial, it is something that has developed in our thoughts and is rooted in the depths of our being. As Jeremiah wrote: “The heart is deceitful more than all things, and wicked; Who will know him? ” (Jeremiah 17: 9). Often we try to cover it up and pretend that we are as pure as snow, hiding our inner contamination in an outrageous act of hypocrisy that Christ strongly condemns.

What is clean in heart

Although it cannot be denied that we need God's help to have a pure heart, we also have a role to play in cleansing our hearts. God asks us: “Wash and cleanse yourselves; remove the iniquity of your works from before my eyes; stop doing evil ”(Isaiah 1:16).

Jesus Christ said that we must work to "cleanse the inside first" of evil (Matthew 23:26) so that we can be pure before God. A key element in purifying and overcoming is striving to obey the pure "commandment of the Lord" (Psalm 19: 8). Not only must we obey God's law, but we must also constantly turn away from what is impure - "and keep ourselves unspotted from the world" (James 1:27).

As we overcome and grow in the purity of our hearts, we will choose to have clean thoughts. This will also come with effort when we set our minds on pure things and according to God (Philippians 4: 8). The cleansing of the heart also extends and affects our words and actions. As Jesus said: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45).

Cleansing of the heart is important because it will allow us to enter the family of God and have an eternal relationship with our Creator God.

Cleansing of heart also contributes to our being peacemakers, the next Bliss.