If I were to ask you today, “How many of you see yourself as being pure in heart?” I wonder how many of us would raise our hands. And if we were to do that, I’m sure most of us might be like, “Mmmm… I don’t know, maybe, I don’t know…I hope so…but I’m not perfectly pure! So, I’m really not sure about it”. I think most of us would be very reluctant to say that we are pure in heart.
But if I were to ask about the other side of this Beatitude, “How many of you want to see God?” Yes! We’re ready. We want to see God! We want to see God here. We certainly want to see the Lord in glory.
Well, there’s a disparity in how we see ourselves in this Beatitude. I think the disparity is related to our reluctance to claim to be pure in heart which stems from a misunderstanding or misconception about being, “pure in heart”. So first, let’s cover the question:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE PURE IN HEART?
As you might guess, there are different biblical scholars and commentators who offer a wide range of suggestions on the meaning of being pure in heart. On the surface when we think of anything “pure” we envision something spotless or faultless. We can talk about “pure gold or another precious metal. Here pure would mean that all the alloys have been removed. Sometimes we purchase fruit flavored drinks. But if you look at the label there is only 10 per cent of real fruit juice. It is not pure juice, like squeezing an orange and drinking pure orange juice! It is pure because no additives or preservatives are included, making it a pure substance.
More personally, purity is often associated with our moral behavior regarding those whose very thoughts and actions are clean or righteous…this is where we often struggle because we may have bad thoughts and sometimes bad actions. We may struggle with being pure all the time!
But another understanding of purity relates to being pure in motive, being single-minded, the men who seek the kingdom as the summum bonum with undivided heart. The last is the most relevant to the general connection and the most deserving to be insisted on. (Expositor’s Greek Testament).
Soren Kierkegaard, philosopher and theologian, wrote a book entitled “Purity of Heart Is To Will One Thing”. It’s not a bad definition. But what is the one thing we are desiring? Of course, that one thing is to glorify God. This would parallel Calvin’s statement in the Shorter Westminster Confession, Man’s chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
So, to give us perhaps a greater understanding of what purity of heart means let’s look at some important scriptures.
SCRIPTURES RELATED TO PURITY OF HEART
Let’s turn back to Psalm 24. Many see this Psalm as a parallel to this beatitude.
Psalm 24:3-4, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.”
You can see in this Psalm attributed to David that a pure heart is associated with certain things and one of those has to do with falsehood. It is a pure heart that is a truthful heart, free from deceit. And what is deceit. Deceit is what you do when you will two things, when you put up a front for one thing, but the motivation is impure because ulterior motives are behind your actions. It’s like the “trojan horse” infecting your computer. The bad actor sends you a message that looks real and appealing. So, you click on the message and your computer is infected with a virus. Another example are the scams that are promoted by people asking for help and sending you an email or text to purchase credit cards from your pastor. Sorry to say, unfortunately, many have fallen prey to these scams. It is like the proverbial, “wolf in sheep’s clothing”! Or on of the most infamous scenes in all the scripture is personified by Judas who came to betray Jesus with a kiss. On the surface, it was a kiss of friendship, a kiss of affection. But no! It was a kiss of betrayal, an ultimate act of deceit. Show picture here. This is the very opposite of a pure heart. So, who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? The person who has clean hands and a pure heart, a soul that does not swear to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.
Then going to the New Testament let’s look at James 4:8, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you people of a double mind.” And just like Psalm 24, it’s very close in its association of being free of deceit. Cleansing our hands, our actions and our thoughts and our words. But more than anything else we see this aspect of a double mind. And what is double mind or to be double-minded?
A double mind again is one that is divided, one that may will one thing or put up a false front of one thing but really desires something else. And this impurity of the double mind is further mentioned in James 4:4, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is an enemy with God. Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” So, to be pure of heart is not necessarily that we are sinless, not necessarily that we are engaging in things that are morally wrong, although those things are involved. But rather a pure heart is a heart that is undivided. One that is clearly focused singularly on God. One that is not double-minded where there is no internal conflict or division going on. It is a heart that wills one thing… And that one thing is full and total allegiance to God.
So, Jesus also referenced this in the greatest commandment, which is? Most of us know this… “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart”. Notice it does not say, part of your heart…not with a divided heart… not with an impure heart. But with purity of heart in that there is no deception, there’s no doublemindedness, there’s no divided allegiance.
Perhaps another good illustration of this is the story of Martha and Mary. You remember that great occasion where Jesus came to their home. Martha was busy scurrying around trying to make sure everything was in order and being the perfect hostess! And Mary was sitting at the feet of Christ. And Martha told Jesus to make Mary help her. We use the expression, I was “voluntold” to do something. Martha is asking Jesus to “tell Mary” to help her! And what did Jesus say? We might have anticipated that Jesus would tell Mary to get up and go help her sister. But that is not what Jesus says… Rather, we hear Jesus say, “Martha, Martha, you are distracted about many things. (When Jesus calls you name twice you know there is a problem!) Mary has chosen the one thing. (Luke 10:41) And of course, that one thing was her singular devotion to Christ.
Certainly, we are tempted and perhaps fall prey to being distracted by many things, where our lives are given toward too many allegiances and we can’t seem to get a focus on much of anything, much less our Lord. I recall a humorous story about what is termed, Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. Here is how the story goes from an older gentleman:
I decided to wash the car; I started toward the garage and noticed the mail on the table. OK, I’m going to wash the car, but first, now I’m going to go through the mail. I lay the car keys down on the desk, discard the junk mail and I notice the trash can is full. OK, I’ll just put the bills on my desk and take the trash can out, but since I’m going to be near the mailbox anyway, I’ll pay these few bills first. Now, where is my check book? OOPS, there’s only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk. Oh, there’s the coke I was drinking. I’m going to look for those checks. But first I need to put my coke further away from the computer, or maybe I’ll pop it into the fridge to keep it cold for a while. I head towards the kitchen and my flowers catch my eye; they need some water. I set the coke on the counter and ooh, oh! There are my glasses. I was looking for them all morning! I’d better put them away first. I fill the container with water and head for the flowerpots —aaaaagh! Someone left the TV remote in the kitchen. We will never think of looking in the kitchen tonight when we want to watch television, so I’d better put it back in the family room where it belongs. I splash some water into the pots and onto the floor. I throw the remote onto a soft cushion on the sofa and I head back down the hall trying to figure out what it was I was going to do. END OF DAY: The car isn’t washed, the bills are unpaid, the coke is sitting on the kitchen counter, the flowers are half watered, the check book still only has one check in it, and I can’t seem to find my car keys! When I try to figure out how come nothing got done today, I’m baffled because I KNOW I WAS BUSY ALL DAY LONG!!! Does this sound familiar? While this is humorous and somewhat trivial, very often we find our devotion to God diluted and divided by many things just like Martha, and we miss the most important part.
Again, purity of heart means that we have a singular focus and allegiance to Christ. John Piper put it like this, “Purity of heart is to will one thing, namely God’s truth and God’s value in everything we do. The aim of the pure heart is to align itself with the truth of God and magnify the word of God.” If you want to be pure in heart, pursue God with utter single-mindedness. Purity of heart is to will one thing and that is to glorify God in all that we do.
Similarly, Pastor Brian Wilkerson put it like this, “We as human beings think and feel and choose. We have reason, emotion, and will.” He says the place where our emotion and our will intersect is the heart. So, the heart is like the command-and-control center of our lives. What we do, what will be determined by the condition of our heart. So, the Proverb says, “As a person thinks in their heart, so are they.” (Proverbs 23:7) That’s the intersection. That’s the control center.
Very often I find, as we mentioned a moment ago, that our hearts are compartmentalized. We therefore have mixed thoughts and mixed emotions that lead to a lot of inner conflict in our lives. We compartmentalize our faith and our earthly life. We have a compartment for God, another compartment for our career, another compartment for our family, another compartment for our friends. We may act in different ways in those different areas of our lives. And there may be total inconsistency in how we act or behave in those different compartments and different relationships. So, we have mixed or inconsistent behavior. But in an undivided and unmixed heart, there is only one compartment, and God is there controlling it through the Holy Spirit in how we operate in all the different roles and experiences we encounter. That’s what Christ is talking about here. So, then:
HOW DO WE GET A PURE HEART?
The prophet Jeremiah gives a very sobering view of the heart in our fallen world. Listen to his words in Jeremiah 17:9-10
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.” (Message Translation)
Commentator Ellicot put it like this, The heart is naturally unclean; nor is it in the power of man to make it clean, or to be pure from his sin; nor is any man in this life, in such sense, so pure in heart, as to be entirely free from sin. This is only true of Christ, angels, and glorified saints: but such may be said to be so, who, though they have sin dwelling in them, are justified from all sin, by the righteousness of Christ, and are “clean through the word”, or sentence of justification pronounced upon them, on the account of that righteousness; whose iniquities are all of them forgiven, and whose hearts are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, which cleanses from all sin; and who have the grace of God wrought in their hearts, which, though as yet imperfect, it is entirely pure; there is not the least spot or stain of sin in it: and such souls as they are in love with, so they most earnestly desire after more purity of heart, lip, life, and conversation. And happy they are…(Ellicot) Bottom line of this…. We cannot make our hearts pure. Only Christ can do this.
In that passage, Jeremiah reminds us that God searches our heart…This is the first movement toward having a pure heart…
First, ALLOW GOD TO SEARCH YOUR HEART
Psalm 139 says, “Search me O God and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way and lead me in the way everlasting.”
It’s one thing for us to get forgiveness. It’s another thing for us to be cleansed and purified.
I think the first thing we need to do is just be open for God to search our hearts. Allow God to do a holy EKG, if you will, a holy scan of our hearts. We’ve done this before, but I think it’s something we need to do with great regularity. The psalmist, I’m sure, was not just doing this one time. But doing this with great regularity. It’s just like going to the doctor regularly to get check-ups and to make sure everything is functioning properly in our body. Or like doing an audit or inventory in our business. Now very often that can help detect things what may cause greater problems in our lives. So, it is that we are opening our heart before the Lord to search us and know us, to test us, to make sure that our heart is pure…That our hearts are undivided, and we are not even deceiving ourselves. Once you have allowed God to search your heart, this leads to the second part:
Second, SURRENDER YOUR HEART TO GOD
David prayed this incredible prayer of confession, Psalm 51 says, “For I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”. Many believe this might have been after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. I find it quite sobering, that David, as a man after God’s own heart, had to deal with the deceit of his own heart and actions. So, this implies that David is not only allowing God to search his heart, but he is also surrendering my heart.
The application of this is that as God shows me things in my life and in your life where we may have compartmentalized our faith or where our loyalties may be divided, or our allegiances may be split. Or where we do not have a clear conscience or there is something sinful in our hearts. In that moment, if we could confess that before God and surrender our heart so there is true repentance here, turning away from our sin, and turning to God as we make that confession. Our struggle is that we often fail or refuse to surrender our hearts. Even one of the dying thieves surrendered his heart. But sadly, the other thief did not. As William Cowper put it in the great hymn, There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood…The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day… and there may I though vile as he…wash all my sins away… This leads to the third and last part. This happens as a simple act of surrendering our hearts to Christ.
Third, ALLOW GOD TO SANCTIFY YOUR HEART
1 John 1:9, reads, “If we confess our sin God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to CLEANSE US from ALL unrighteousness.” We can get forgiveness and go back and commit the same sins and bad behavior over again and again. We can get forgiveness and go back and do the same rotten things we did before. What this scripture is talking about is a purification of our heart so that our hearts are cleansed and changed. This refining process is like gold refined in the fire so it can be pure. It this refining and cleansing process, our loyalty can be singular upon the Lord and our allegiance to God is as one. We no longer have a mixed, impure heart. In this light, David said later in the same Psalm, “Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) In our great Methodist tradition, Wesley called this process sanctification, which is the refining fire of God to cleanse our hearts from impurities, from distractions, and from divided loyalties.
One of the great Wesleyan hymns, Jesus Thine All Victorious Love, puts it so well…refining fire run through my heart, illuminate my soul, scatter Thy life through every part and sanctify the whole.
I could not help but think of the rich young ruler who came to Christ and asked him what he had to do to gain eternal life. Jesus responded…you know the commandments. Keep them. The young man had to have a big smile on his face as he told Jesus he had kept the commandments from his childhood. Jesus then looked at him with love and said, One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But he was deeply dismayed by these words, and he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. (Mark 10)
We have stated that to be pure in heart is to be focused on one thing…to bring glory to God…And the greatest way we do that is to be focused on His Son. But here there was “one thing” that caused this very good man to stumble. It was the “one thing” that kept him from being pure in heart and focused on the most important ONE PERSON… His riches divided his loyalty to God and made his heart impure.
I wonder if there might be that “one thing” that might keep you from having a pure heart and being totally surrendered to Jesus. So, as we conclude today… Those who might have been reluctant about being pure in heart…maybe we can allow God to search our hearts today. And then surrender our hearts and then allow God to do His further work to sanctify our hearts… for this in the only way we will see God.
May we pray. Lord, we simply want to allow your Holy Spirit to search our hearts. And then Lord, in the further work of your spirit that you would help us surrender our hearts. And then God that you would do and even further work, cleansing and sanctifying our hearts. Make them pure, unmixed and undivided with a singular focus. Lord, may we be like that merchant who would be willing to sell everything he had for that One Pearl of great price. Lord, we pray you will create in us clean and pure hearts today. In the name of Christ, I pray. Amen.