BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART
“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8
THE BLESSED MAN is a man whose heart has been cleansed and made pure. We would to God that our young people could understand and embrace this truth. The person to be envied, the person who will be the most blessed, is not the person who has polluted his heart with all of the world’s wickedness. Happiness is not found in frivolity and riotous living, excess and carelessness, or in worldly companions and unrestrained pleasure, but rather in holiness and chaste living. The heart that is defiled will not see God or His kingdom. It is “the pure in heart” that “shall see God.”
Our text reminds us that man’s basic problem is a heart problem. Cleaning up our outward presentation will not solve the dreadful disease that has held us in its grasp. The Pharisees were obsessed with outward purity, while their hearts were full of corruption and hatred. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. Their religion did nothing to improve their spiritual state or their communion with God. God is interested in cleansing our hearts. The heart is the source of our wicked attitudes and actions; and thus, it is at the heart that the cure must be realized. If the mouth of the stream is pure, then the water that flows from it will carry that purity to every tributary. The same is true in our spiritual lives. To see and know God, the heart must be pure. If the heart is not pure, all that proceeds from it will be defiled.
Thank God for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses our hearts and makes us pure. The new birth means the Holy Spirit indwells us, influencing us toward holy living. The holy person, washed in the blood of the Lamb, controlled by the Holy Spirit, and seeking to live a holy life, is a blessed person. The pure in heart “shall see God.” This phrase not only speaks of seeing God in Heaven one day, but also of knowing Him in communion in our daily walk. The psalmist asked, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD?” Here is his answer, “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:3, 4).
We will not experience the blessing of close fellowship with God unless our hearts are kept pure. God wants to be real to us in our daily experience, but He will not bless a prideful, disobedient, or rebellious heart.