Scripture Study

Matthew 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

STOTT The words “in heart” indicate the kind of purity to which Jesus is alluding – as the words “in spirit” indicated the kind of poverty He meant. The “poor in spirit” are the spiritually poor as distinct from those whose poverty is only material.

The popular interpretation is to regard purity of heart as an expression for inward purity, for the quality of those who have been cleansed from moral defilement. The precedent for this can be found in the Psalms. A man could not ascend the Lord’s hill or stand in His holy place unless he had “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:1-4). Jesus took up this theme in His controversy with the Pharisees and complained about their obsession with external, ceremonial purity. “You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness” (Matthew 23:25-26; Luke 11:39). “You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

Luther gave this distinction between inward and outward purity. He contrasted purity of heart not only with ceremonial defilement, but also with actual physical dirt. “Christ…wants to have the heart pure, though outwardly the person may be a drudge in the kitchen, black, sooty, and grimy, doing all sorts of dirty work.” Also, “Though a common laborer, a shoemaker or a blacksmith may be dirty and sooty or may smell because he is covered with dirt and pitch,…and though he stinks outwardly, inwardly he is pure incense before God” because he ponders the word of God in his heart and obeys it.”

This emphasis on the inward and moral – whether contrasted with the outward and ceremonial or the outward and physical – is consistent with the entire Sermon on the Mount, which requires heart-righteousness rather than mere rule-righteousness. Nevertheless, in the context of the other beatitudes, “purity of heart” seems to refer in some sense to our relationships.

The primary reference is to sincerity. In Psalm 24: 4, the person with “clean hands and a pure heart” is one “who does not lift up his soul to what is false (an idol),

and does not swear deceitfully.” In his relations with both God and man he is free from falsehood. So the “pure in heart” are the utterly sincere. Their whole life – public and private – is transparent before God and men. Their very heart – including their thoughts and motives – is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior or base. Hypocrisy and deceit are abhorrent to them; they are without guile.

We are tempted to wear a different mask and play a different role according to each occasion. [“We are who we think other people think we are.”] This is the essence of hypocrisy. Alone among men Jesus was absolutely pure in heart, being entirely guileless.

Only the pure in heart will see God, see Him now with the eye of faith and see His glory in the hereafter – for only the utterly sincere can bear the dazzling vision in whose light the darkness of deceit must vanish and by whose fire all shams are burned up.

LLOYD-JONES This Beatitude should be studied in relation to the others. The first three are concerned with our need – poor in spirit, mourning because of our sinfulness, meek as the result of a true understanding of the nature of self. These three emphasize the vital importance of a deep awareness of need. Then comes the great statement of the satisfaction of the need, God’s provision for it: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Having realized the need, we hunger and thirst – and then comes His answer that we shall be filled. We then look at the result of that satisfaction, the result of being filled. We become merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers – finally coming to “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” That is the way we should approach this passage. In the first three we are going up one side of the mountain; we reach the summit in the fourth; and then we come down on the other side.

Hunger and Thirst

Meek Merciful

Mourn Pure in Heart

Poor in Spirit Peacemakers

The three Beatitudes which follow the central statement in verse six correspond to the first three that lead up to it. The merciful are those who realize their poverty of spirit; they realize that they have nothing in themselves at all. The man who realizes he is poor in spirit and who is utterly dependent upon God, is the man who is merciful to others. This second statement – “Blessed are the pure in heart” – corresponds to the second Beatitude in the first group – “Blessed are they that mourn.” They were mourning about the state of their hearts, their sinfulness. Likewise, the “pure in heart” are mourning about the impurity of their hearts. The only way to have a pure heart is to realize you have an impure heart -- and to mourn about it to such an extent that you do that which can lead to cleansing and purity. In the same way, when we come to discuss the “peacemakers” are those who are meek. If a person is not meek, he is unlikely to be a peacemaker.

The emphasis of the statement -- “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God” – is upon the purity of heart and not upon the promise. “Blessed are the pure in heart” is the very essence of the Christian position. In the gospel of Jesus, the emphasis is upon the heart – as it was also in the OT. Jesus probably put the emphasis here because of the Pharisees. It was His great charge that outwardly they were without a spot; but inwardly they were full of wickedness. They were most concerned about the external commands of religion; but they forgot the more important matters of the law – love to God and the love of one’s neighbor. The heart is the whole center of His teaching.

He puts His emphasis upon the heart and not upon the head. He does not commend those who are intellectual; His interest is in the heart. Christian faith is not only a matter of doctrine or understanding or of intellect; it is a condition of the heart. We must not give only an intellectual assent to the faith, a mechanical interest in the Word of God. We must involve ourselves, our hearts. We must not be like the Pharisees who reduced the way of life and righteousness to a matter of conduct, ethics, and behavior. Christianity is not primarily a matter of conduct and external behavior; it is the state of the heart.

According to the general scriptural usage of the term “the heart,” means the center of man’s being and personality. It is not just the seat of the affections and the emotions. Heart in the Christian faith is emotional, intellectual and pertaining

to the will. The heart in scripture includes the three. It is the fountain from which everything else comes. It is the total person – and that is what Jesus emphasizes. “Blessed are the pure in heart” – blessed are those who are pure, not merely on the surface but in the center of their being and at the source of every activity.

However, we must also be aware that the heart is always the seat of all our troubles. In Matthew 15:19 Christ says: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” It is a common belief by many that man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you need only change his environment. Such a theory overlooks the fact that sin entered the world in Paradise, the perfect environment. Scripture tells us that our troubles arise out of the heart of man. Jeremiah writes:

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind. Even to give to each man according to his ways” (Jeremiah 17:9-10a). Education, intellect, or the state of the environment are not the source nor the remedy for man’s troubles. The trouble is in the heart.

The second word we will look at is “pure.” The expression “pure in heart” can mean one of two things. One meaning is that it is without hypocrisy; it means “singleness,” open, nothing hidden, sincerity, single-minded. Psalm 86:11 provides a definition for purity: “Unite my heart to fear thy name.” He seems to say: “make it single, take out the pleats and the folds, let it be whole, let it be one, let it be sincere, let it be entirely free from any hypocrisy.” Our problem is our divided heart. One part may want to know and see God, but another part wants something else. Paul describes this dilemma in Romans 7:22-23: “For I delight in 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.” [Read all of Romans 7 for a more complete description.]

Purity also carries the meaning of “cleansed,” “without defilement.” In Revelation 21:27 John tells about those who will be admitted into the heavenly Jerusalem: “…nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever

come into it….” Nothing unclean or impure, or has any defiling touch about it, shall enter into the New Jerusalem.

To be “pure in heart” simply means to be like Jesus Christ Himself – who “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). He was perfect and spotless and pure. It means to have an undivided love which regards God as our highest good, and which is concerned only about loving God. It means to keep the first and great commandment – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

We should live to the glory of God in every respect. To be “pure in heart” means that we desire God; that we desire to know Him; that we desire to love Him and serve Him. Jesus says in this Beatitude that only those who are like this shall see God. A parallel to this Beatitude is found in Hebrews 12:14 – “…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

Holiness, a pure heart, an unmixed condition of being – this is what is necessary before one can see God. Nothing less than the whole person is involved. Only those who are like Him can see God and be in His presence. That is why we must be pure in heart before we can see God.

It is impossible to describe the promise of this Beatitude in the afterlife. No one knows if we shall see God with the naked eye or if it is purely spiritual. As in the other Beatitudes, the promise – “they shall see God” – is partly fulfilled here in this world. The Christian can see God in a sense that nobody else can. The Christian can see God in nature. The Christian sees God in the events of history. There is a vision possible to the eye of faith that no one else has – but there is a seeing also in the sense of knowing Him, a sense of feeling He is near, and enjoying His presence. Imperfect as we are, even now we can see God. We can see Him in our own experiences, in His gracious dealings with us. That is part of “seeing God.”

However, nothing compares with what is yet to be. We are told in 1 John 3:2: “…now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.” It is futile to spend time trying to figure out what a face-to-face meeting with God will be like. The very Being of God is so spiritual and eternal that all our efforts to arrive at an understanding are doomed to failure. Scripture does not

attempt to give us an adequate conception of the Being of God, because our terms are so inadequate and our minds are so small and finite that it is impossible to attempt a description of God and His glory. All we know is that there is this promise that in some way the pure in heart shall see God.

How do we become “pure of heart”? It is something you and I can never do. The only way we can have a clean heart is for the Holy Spirit to enter into us and to cleanse it for us. Only His indwelling and working within can purify the heart. In writing to the Philippians Paul said: “…being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

It does not mean that we may remain passive in the work of becoming pure. The work is God’s, but we must do our part as James admonished. “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.” We must do everything we can, not walking in the gutters of life waiting for God to cleanse us. God is working in us, preparing us for the time when we will see Him – but let us also work and purify ourselves.

PCCNT(Clarke) This statement is in opposition to the Pharisees, who affected outward purity, while their hearts were full of corruption and defilement. A principal part of the Jewish religion consisted in outward washings and cleansings. On this basis they expected to see God, to enjoy eternal glory. However, in this passage Jesus shows that a purification of the heart from all vile affections and desires is an essential requisite to enter into the kingdom of God. He whose soul is not delivered from all sin through the blood of the covenant can have no Scriptural hope of ever being with God.

PCNT(Wesley) The “pure in heart” are the sanctified – they who love God with all their hearts. They shall see God – in all things here, and hereafter in glory.

“Shall see God” is a Hebraism, which signifies “to possess God, to enjoy his good will.” “Seeing” a thing was an expression used among the Hebrews for possessing it. Jesus was probably alluding to the advantages had, by those who were legally pure, of entering into the sanctuary into the presence of God. Those who had contracted any legal defilement were excluded from it.

PCNT(Henry) The pure in heart are happy, for they shall see God. Here holiness and happiness are fully described and put together. The heart must be purified by faith and kept for God. None but the pure are capable of seeing God – nor would heaven be happiness to the impure. As God cannot endure to look upon their iniquity, so they cannot look upon His purity.

BBNT The “pure in heart” (Psalm 73:1) were those in Israel whose hearts were “clean,” or undefiled, those who recognized that God alone was their help and reward (Psalm 73:2-28). The righteous would see God on the Day of Judgment (Isaiah 30:20), as in the first exodus (Exodus 24:10-11).

WYCLIFFE The “pure in heart” are those whose moral being is free from contamination with sin, without divided interests of loyalties. To them, as possessors of God’s pure nature, belongs the unclouded vision of God, which will reach consummation when Christ returns.

DOB(C) In the Bible the heart is used to signify the seat of spiritual being – the center of the moral personality. In it are contained the pulses of human affection and the roots of understanding. It contains a person’s motive and will. Touch a man’s heart, and you control his guidance system. His personality continues to be shaped by circumstance, the interpretations of outward existence, and the interior of the soul. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Within the heart lies the real outline and texture of a man -- his essential character.

Christianity, as the divine agent of life and salvation for man, did not come as a system of forms and ceremonies. It did not repudiate the outward trappings and rules of religion as false and worthless. These rituals fulfilled their purpose in Christianity. It cast away the outer shell of the ancient practices, but took up the intrinsic significance to make a moral application of it. It did not insist on the washing of hands and purification of garments; but, as in accordance with the ancient ritual, cleanness of body and clothing was a condition for entering the temple and the symbolic presence of Jehovah. Therefore, Jesus transferred the requirements from the outward to the inward – and pronounced spiritual rather than ritual cleanness to be a qualification for approaching God and communing with Him in the present and in the future. Because the gospel was the system man really needed, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart….” This was a radical change from the natural world of the Jews.

“For they shall see God.” Whatever may be indicated by the fulfillment of this blessing, whatever interpretation it shall assume among the glories of heaven, its essential results consist of a clearer understanding, a more intimate communion with God, now and forever. Seeing God is an innate quality of purity of heart. Only the pure in heart can see God. The privilege is not accorded to those who are absorbed in a formal and ceremonial system; the sensual and outward eye cannot behold Him. The blessing in the text is the blessing inherent in a moral faith – in inner, spiritual, regenerating religion.

Seeing God is not a physical act. No man has seen or can see His embodied likeness or material shape. He, who controls everything, has not revealed His essence. Yet, if He should reveal Himself, the mere physical eye would not recognize Him. The moral image of God has been projected into our world. Over two thousand years ago His image walked among men – but many did not recognize Him.

True seeing is not merely a superficial beholding, the perception of outward forms, the image cast upon the eye. It requires a degree of knowledge, of interior apprehension. The physical eye, therefore, sees nothing – it only takes hold of objects. There must be intelligence back of it; there must be sympathy, love, and faith. One person looks out upon the world and sees nothing but a mass of land and water, a meaningless reflection in his eyes. Another sees the landscape, and his enlightened perception and his feeling heart give him vision – and he discovers the beauty and magnificence of the earth. When you see your friend, you do not regard merely his outward appearance; you see all that makes up the quality of a friend. You see, not merely with the naked eye, but with the aid of sympathy, and trust, and remembrances. Breaking through the external features, you perceive the inner man – the warm, true heart which is his essence. Whatever may be the field or object of perception, “the eye finds only what it brings.” The more we understand anything, the more we really see it. The physical eye reflects only the physical form -- and cannot, of itself, interpret it or penetrate its essence. Thus, if matter discerns matter, it requires spirit to discern spirit. Since our vision is sensual and natural, recognizing only forms, we cannot see God.

By the same rule, seeing God is not an act of mere intellectual perception. We cannot understand God by logic. Our finite formulas cannot grasp the Infinite.

The intellect can note phenomena, discover laws, and detect sequences. It is competent in the field of science, which is a field of definitions enclosed by mathematical and physical limits. But the vague characteristics of a spiritual being are beyond knowledge. When dealing with these, one must adjust himself to moral conviction with a lens of faith. God is not a definable fact. He is incomprehensible – far beyond the sphere of science. The intellect discerns only the intellectual – and that is not how God reveals Himself. It is not in his intellect that man may resemble God the most. Spiritual qualities, which lie at the base of the brain – that lie deeper than the intellect, but which animate and inform it – are the discerning powers. Even the intellect is an external eye, reflecting forms and discerning quantities and methods – but not seeing qualities. The clouds of the heart color the mind, and it is determined by a moral realm.

In saying that we do not comprehend God by the intellect, but by our spiritual disposition, does not mean that the spiritual can operate without the intellect – or that the intellect is totally separate from faith and moral conviction. There are those, however, who repudiate the influence of the spirit on the intellect and on the natural world – unlike Sir Isaac Newton, who worshipped while he explored and saw the presence of God in the eternal order of natural law.

God is discerned by that portion of our being in which we most closely resemble Him. We cannot limit Him to any form. He is not to be apprehended by physical means. He is intelligence, but this is not His most essential nature – and there is no resemblance between the intellect of man and the mind of God. Yet, in all moral and spiritual qualities there is a oneness of kind, even between perfection and imperfection, even between God and man. God is spirit; and, therefore, can be discerned by our spiritual nature only. He is moral, and so can be known only by moral affinities. He is love, and is to be understood by deep and right affections. Therefore, the “pure in heart” – and they alone – see Him. This is not with any outward vision for by this He is apparent to none. Instead, the “pure in heart” see Him with that true seeing which consists of intimate knowledge and internal understanding.

They see Him inwardly – in the moral ideal. The more we become like Him, the more surely do we recognize Him – until, as the heart grows clear and calm, it reflects Him like a mirror. This divine perception – gleams of conscience and of

awe – exist in everyone, vindicating the existence and preserving the conception of a God. This same moral nature, refined by discipline and enlightened by the gospel, gives the steady vision and the exceptional blessing declared in this Beatitude.

Prepared by inward understanding and educated accord with God, the pure in heart recognize God in all outward aspects. They see Him in nature, in the events of daily life, in the march of history. They believe that He rules the universe. Such, then, is the characteristic of the pure in heart. Whatever may be the fullness of vision and nearness of communion in the future, here on earth they discern the true good and the real significance of things. Here, and hereafter, the pure in heart shall see God.

As we look into our hearts, do we see God there? What representation, what likeness to God, is there in our moral nature? In the order and change in the world, in nature and in the various issues of life, do we realize and truly acknowledge God’s presence? Maybe we are only looking at the world with our physical eyes. Maybe with our intellectual perceptions we believe in a theory of God rather than in God Himself. Senses alone, intellect alone, cannot see God. We must exercise those faculties of faith which will bring us closer to Him – cherishing His love which will make this life sacred and blessed. Then, we shall stand in His presence. Then, within the scope of earth and the heavens, we shall see God.

DOB God is infinitely pure; and, until the soul has some degree of purity, it is unable to behold Him. God loves not to look upon those in whom He cannot behold His own likeness and image – and that image cannot be seen when the mirror is foul which should represent it.

Blessed are they who are purely and singly devoted to God, having their hearts emptied of anything which would defile them or alienate them from Him. Having their hearts cleansed from vile passions, they shall be favored with manifestations of God in the present. In the hereafter, having been perfected in purity and holiness, they shall see God face-to-face.

Let us consider what it means to be “pure in heart.” The expression of purity of heart may be considered in opposition to pollution or to mixture. In the first sense (pollution) it is opposed to sensuality; in the second sense (mixture) it is

opposed to every degree of earthly-mindedness. This two-fold significance of the word “pure” is illustrated by water and wine. Water is said to be pure when it is not muddied or defiled. Wine is pure when it is not mixed.

According to the first example, those are pure in heart who have sanctified God in their hearts and in the depths of their souls regard God with awe and reverence. They are continually purifying their thoughts from the temptations of the world and their memories from vile recollections – distancing themselves as far as possible from sin or even the appearance of evil. The pure heart is a tender heart, a heart that shrinks from the least breath of a polluted atmosphere, the heart which dreads the remotest danger of evil.

In viewing purity of heart completely we must consider it as opposed not only to pollution, but to every degree of earthly-mindedness – to everything which would tend to alienate us from God. The believer knows that everything he loves contrary to the will and command of God renders him impure. Knowing this he makes it his daily prayer that his understanding may be purified from darkness; his judgment from error; his will from rebellion; and his thoughts from sensuality, from the vain pomp and glory of the world, and even from the covetous desires of such. His one leading aim will be to glorify God, to obey His will, and to enjoy the light of his countenance. It is this entire purity of heart, the exemption of the heart from all earthly-mindedness, which allows a person’s focus to be fixed upon heaven. James showed the importance of this when he wrote: “Wash your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8). His words imply that the double-minded – those whose minds are divided between God and the world – have as much need to purify their hearts as those who are polluted by sensuality. By a pure heart we are to understand a single heart – a heart wholly devoted to God, a heart continually desiring to be more like God’s nature and conforming to His law.

A pure heart is a heart not only inclined to God, but inclined to Him alone – and to nothing else except in obedience or submission to Him. It denotes a heart which really loves God above all else; a heart which strives to please and honor God now and to enjoy Him all through eternity; a heart which is never afraid of any evil tidings for it is fixed in believing in the Lord; a heart which is continually rejoicing in God whether or not there is any other reason for rejoicing; a heart which is

never shaken either with hopes or fears but remains steadfast and immovable; a heart which is sound in the faith, submissive to the will, obedient to the law, constant in the service, and zealous for the glory of God.

It is appropriate that this beatitude is placed in this position in relation to the others. For the more that a man walks in “poverty” and “meekness” of spirit, the more he knows of the “comfort” and the “righteousness” of the gospel; and the more he is impelled by a holy love to God’s children – and by a deep consciousness of the “mercy” and love which he himself has experienced, the more earnestly will he endeavor, through divine grace, to subdue every kind and every degree of sin, and to purify himself even as Christ is pure.

When Jesus pronounces the “pure of heart” shall “see God,” He is referring to Psalm 24:3-4 where it is written: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart.” Looking at this passage in relation to this Beatitude we may conclude that the “pure in heart” will be admitted into the presence of God, both here and in the hereafter. In Isaiah we read: “While sinners in Zion are terrified, trembling grips the godless. Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning? He who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops his ears against plots against murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil. This is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. His bread will be supplied and water will not fail him. Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar” (Isaiah 33:14-17).

Since the believer’s heart is always fixed on God, it is always influenced and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, who takes the teachings of Jesus Christ and shows them to us. This is “to see God” by Himself – to see God by the assistance of His own Holy Spirit, who searches all the deep things of God and reveals them to those who love Him with a pure heart. This fulfills a promise of Christ: “He who loves me shall be loved by my Father; and I will love Him and show Myself to Him” (John14:21).

By His influences the Spirit of Jesus removes the shadows of passions and prejudice and the clouds of ignorance and sin which darken our hearts, thus

enabling the believer to see the God of righteousness. The psalmist writes: “In Your light we shall see light” (Psalm 36:9b). This implies that believers see God who is light by that light (the Holy Spirit) which proceeds from Himself – enlightening their minds, purifying their hearts, and thus giving them as full a sight of God as can be enjoyed in this life.

The pure in heart are permitted and enabled to see God in various ways. They see Him in the Scriptures where He reveals His will and unveils Himself and His perfections to them. They see His infinite wisdom, power and goodness in the creation and administration of the world. They see His infinite justice and mercy in the redemption of the fallen man. They see Him directing the course of the stars, the fruitfulness of the earth, and the governing of all things by the power of His word. Whatever they have, they acknowledge that it came from Him; whatever they do, they recognize His assistance. Above all they recognize Him in the purity of their own hearts. According to Gregory of Nyssa, a 4th century theologian: “Blessed is the pure in heart; because contemplating His [God’s] own purity, He beholds in that image the divine model. For as those who behold the sun in a mirror, notwithstanding that they do not steadfastly look up to the heavens, still see the sun in the brightness of the mirror, no less than those, who gaze aloft, do the orb itself. In like manner, although you cannot attain to the comprehension of the light in its source, still, by viewing the grace of the image which has been formed within your souls, you may possess, within yourselves, the object of your search. For purity, freedom from passion, and alienation from all evil, is DIVINITY. If these are in you, God is in you. (St Gregory of Nyssa “The Kingdom of God is Within” Meditation).

The “pure in heart” – with their hearts entirely devoted to God and their spirits renewed after His image in righteousness and true holiness – may be said to see God. They see Him not only in His wonderful works, but also in his gracious dealings with themselves and others in various circumstances of life. As they always see God, they always trust in Him and always rejoice in Him; and as long as they can do that with tempests and storms all around, they will possess tranquility and peace within. To see God and to trust in Him is a privilege which the pure in heart shall always enjoy to a degree sufficient to support them regardless of the discouragements and difficulties they face in life. When they

come to heaven with perfectly pure hearts, they shall see God perfectly and shall be perfectly blessed forever.

We should endeavor, with God’s help, to attain that purity of heart to which such blessedness is attached. The spirit of the “man within” is represented by the expression “the heart.” In Proverbs 20:9, the wise man asks: “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’?” No one can do this by his own strength, but God has revealed a way we can do this through the assistance of Jesus Christ who delivered us from the guilt and condemnation of sin. He has given us the promise of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and control our judgments, to rectify our wills, to regulate our actions, to direct our consciences, and to bring all the powers of our souls into conformity with the divine image. Our hearts cannot be washed and purified by our sorrows and tears. The Spirit of Christ must form the new spirit within -- or the heart will continue in its natural filth, chaos and corruption forever.

Since it is the office of the Holy Spirit to renew us in knowledge after the image of God, we must pray daily and hourly – regardless of how busy we are with work or other activities -- that this Divine Comforter should visit and refresh our souls. We should live in a spirit of prayer, and we will find – that while prayer is a sovereign force to obtain sanctifying grace from God – a certain cleansing, purifying power is in the very exercise itself. When a believer has lifted up his heart in devout communion with God, he finds that things are changed. His inclinations to sin are subdued. His love to holiness is inflamed. He is strengthened to face all the snares and temptations of this life.

Through devotion we draw up our souls to God to procure large supplies of His enlightening and sanctifying grace. We shall be able to speak from the depths of our hearts, the language of the apostle John, who said: “Now we are children of God…” (1 John 3:2), enjoying a continual relationship with our Father who is in heaven. Although we do not know yet what we will be, but “we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (included in 1 John 3:1-3). In these words we read the privileges of God’s people, both here and in the hereafter.

The first privilege they enjoy is being the adopted children of God. They are admitted, even here on earth, into the nearest and dearest relationship with the

Creator and Lord of heaven and earth. The other privilege is to be enjoyed in the life to come. We will be in the likeness of Christ Himself and a full participant in all those prerogatives which He has waiting for those who love Him.

Yet, the believer must not simply accept the assurance that God’s children are to be happy and glorious in the world to come. Invigorated by this promise, he must continually be aiming at a greater degree of holiness and obedience. He must daily be purifying himself even as Christ is pure. This is the Christian’s hope; this is his one great desire – he expects to be like Christ in His glory. Therefore, the believer exerts his utmost diligence to resemble Christ in the purity of his own life. The Christian makes it his urgent prayer that he be renewed daily in the spirit of his mind. The Christian mourns over the remainder of corruption which he finds within himself. However, as he shows his godly sorrow, he feels he must never rest until all sinful passions are destroyed; and all of his thoughts, words, and actions are in compliance with God’s will.

Knowing that such perfection cannot be attained in this life, he never speaks or acts as though he had already purified himself – or as if he is already perfect. There is one thing which he does: forgetting the things which are past and reaching forward to the things in the future – and focusing on the hope of that undefiled and incorruptible inheritance reserved for him in heaven – he gives all diligence to purifying himself “even as Christ is pure.”

VINE’S The Greek word katharos means “pure, as being cleansed.” It also means “free from impure admixture, without blemish, spotless.” Ethically, it has the added significance of “being free from corrupt desire, free from guilt.”

The “heart,” kardia, occupies the most important place in the human system. By an easy transition the word came to stand for man’s entire mental and moral activity, both the rational and the emotional elements. The Heart is used figuratively for the hidden springs of the personal life. The Bible describes human depravity as in the “heart,” because sin is a principle which has its seat in the center of man’s inward life, and then defiles the whole circuit of his action. Scripture also regards the heart as the sphere of Divine influence. The heart, as lying deep within, contains “the hidden man.” It represents the true character but conceals it. The heart, in its moral significance in the OT includes the emotions, the reason and the will.

EBW The Pharisees complained that Jesus’ followers failed to practice Jewish rituals. Jesus responded by confronting the Pharisees and the scribes who had substituted mere human interpretations for God’s commands and missed the fact that all worship is empty if one’s heart is far from God. Jesus also affirmed the message that God taught symbolically in the OT’s regulations concerning the clean and the unclean – the pure and the impure. Ritual uncleanness was a symbol, designed to make Israel sensitive to God’s holiness and to teach important lessons about a person’s relationship with Him. The reality with which God is truly concerned is the responsiveness of the human heart to Him.

In the OT the Hebrew word used for “heart” is usually leb. This word is a broad, inclusive term. In our culture we tend to divide a human into isolated functions – such as the spiritual, the intellectual, the emotional, the rational, and the volitional. However, Hebrew thought maintains the unity of the person. It looks at a human being as a whole and expresses all of these and other inner human functions by use of the word leb. In the OT the heart is thus the conscious self – the inner person with every function that make a person human.

In the NT the Greek word kardia is used in the OT sense, with all the meanings found there. The heart of man is his very person – his psychological core. The conscious awareness each of us has that make us persons and the spiritual dimension of responsiveness or unresponsiveness to God are both expressed by the word “heart.” This significant term occurs in 158 NT passages.

The OT and the NT use “see” in the same literal and figurative ways. As in English, words for “see” can encompass perceiving, realizing, and apprehending – mental acts as well as vision.

NBC God requires purity in the essential being, and this can be obtained only by the new birth. To “see God” is done by faith now and face-to-face in the hereafter.

ICB Only those whose heart is pure can come into God’s presence. The “heart” is understood to be far more than the seat of the emotions; it is the center of the inner life, the source of thought and understanding, of will and decision. A full transformation of the deepest level of man’s life is what is demanded

MSB The pure in heart will see God not only with the perception of faith, but in the glory of heaven.

M-MT(1) No honest man can say that his heart is pure. How can the heart of man, which is desperately wicked, be made clean? Jesus said, “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3). It is by the washing of regeneration that we are made clean. Only the blood of Christ can cleanse us from all sin.

CHB The “heart, both in the OT and the NT stands for a man’s inmost soul; so the purity required in this Beatitude is not the ceremonial cleanness of the Levitical law – nor even the blamelessness of outwardly correct conduct – but complete purity of inward thought and desire. A thing is pure when it contains no contaminants of other substances. Benevolence is pure when there is no hint of self-seeking; justice is pure when it contains no hint of partiality; love is pure when it contains no suggestion of lust. A man’s heart is pure when it loves only the good, when all its motives are right, and when its aspirations are after the noble and true. Purity here is not synonymous with chastity, but includes it.

Just as the liar does not understand truthfulness and does not recognize it when he encounters it, so the unholy person does not understand sanctity, and cannot understand the all-holy God. But those who cleanse their hearts understand God in proportion to their purity -- and one day, when they are cleansed from all sin, they will see Him face to face (Hebrews 12:14; 1 John 3:2-3; Revelation 22:4).

ABC Out of 851 occurrences of the word “heart” in the OT, one-third denote personality as a whole – the inner life, character. A proportion of the remaining two-thirds denote the emotional aspects of personality – but in a very large number the intellectual and willful functions of conscious life are stressed. The word “heart” in this beatitude is the equivalent of personality. The idea of purity in Psalm 51 is coupled with a right spirit. The purity of the NT always includes the ideas of integrity, singleness of purpose, the absence of low aims. To such, “the pure in heart,” is given Heaven’s richest reward – the capacity to see God wherever He reveals Himself.

B-MT(1) This is the Beatitude which demands us to stop and think, and examine ourselves.

The Greek word for “pure” is katharos, which has a variety of usages – all of which have something to add to the meaning of this beatitude for the Christian life.

1. Originally it simply meant “clean” and could be used of soiled clothes which have been washed clean.

2. It is regularly used for grain which has been winnowed or sifted and cleansed of all chaff. It is also used of an army which has been purged of all discontented, cowardly, unwilling and inefficient soldiers.

3. It commonly appears in company with another Greek adjective – akeratos. Akeratos can be used of milk or wine which is unadulterated with water, or of metal which has in it no tinge of alloy.

So, the basic meaning of katharos is “unmixed,” “unadulterated,” “unalloyed.” This Beatitude could be translated:

“Blessed are those whose motives are always entirely unmixed, for they shall see God.”

We seldom do even our finest actions from absolutely unmixed motives. If we give generously and liberally to a good cause – it may be that there lingers in our hearts some contentment in basking in our own self-approval, some pleasure in the praise and thanks and credit we will receive. If we do some fine thing that requires some sacrifice from us, we may not be totally free from the feeling that others may see us as heroes and we regard ourselves as martyrs. Even preachers may be in the danger of self-satisfaction in a well-preached sermon. It is said that John Bunyan (author of “Pilgrim’s Progress”) was once told by someone that he had preached well that day. He answered sadly: “The devil already told me that as I was coming down the pulpit steps.”

This Beatitude demands the most exacting self-examination. Even our prayers and Bible-reading are suspect if it gives us a feeling of superiority and thoughts of our own piety rather than a sincere desire to keep company with God. To examine our own motives is a daunting and a

shaming thing, for there are few things that we do with completely unmixed motives.

Jesus went on to say that only the pure in heart will see God. It is a simple fact that we see only what we are able to see – which is true not only in the physical sense, but also in every other sense. A casual star-gazer sees something entirely different than a trained astronomer when looking at the night sky. On a casual stroll through the woods, a hiker sees something different than a botanist. Likewise, people with unclean minds can see material for sniggering innuendoes and dirty jokes in any situation. In every sphere of life, we see what we are able to see.

Jesus says it is only the pure in heart who shall see God. It is a warning to remember that, as by God’s grace we keep our hearts clean – or by human lust we soil them – we are either fitting ourselves or destroying our opportunity to someday see God.

This sixth Beatitude might read:

“O the bliss of those whose motives are absolutely pure, for they will someday be able to see God!”

St. Gregory of NyssaThe Kingdom of God is Within

Bodily health is a good thing, but what is truly blessed is not only to know how to

keep one’s health but actually to be healthy. If someone praises health but then goes and eats food that makes him ill, what is the use to him, in his illness, of all his praise of health?

We need to look at the text we are considering in just the same way. It does not say that it is blessed to know something about the Lord God, but that it is blessed to have God within oneself. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I do not think that this is simply intended to promise a direct vision of God if one purifies one’s soul. On the other hand, perhaps the magnificence of this saying is hinting at the same thing that is said more clearly to another audience: The kingdom of God is within you. That is, we are to understand that when we have purged our souls of every illusion and every disordered affection, we will see our own beauty as an image of the divine nature.

And it seems to me that the Word of God, in these few words, was saying something like this: In you there is a certain desire to contemplate what is truly good. But when you hear that God’s majesty is exalted high above the heavens, that his glory beyond comprehension, that his beauty is beyond description, that his very nature can neither be perceived nor be understood, do not fall into despair or think you can never have the sight that you desire.

So if, by love and right living, you wash off the filth that has become stuck to your heart, the divine beauty will shine forth in you. Think of iron, which at one moment is dark and tarnished and the next, once the rust has been scraped off, shines and glistens brightly in

the sun. It is the same with the inner core of man, which the Lord calls the heart. It has been in damp and foul places and is covered in patches of rust; but once the rust has been scraped off, it will recover itself and once more resemble its archetype. And so it will be good, since what resembles the good must be good itself.

Therefore, whoever looks at himself sees in himself what he desires. And whoever is pure in heart is blessed because, seeing his own purity, he sees the archetype reflected in the image. If you see the sun in a mirror then you are not looking directly at the sky, but still you are seeing the sun just as much as someone who looks directly at it. In the same way, the Lord is saying, although you do not have the strength to withstand the direct sight of the great and inaccessible light of God, if you look within yourselves once you have returned to the grace of the image that was placed in you from the beginning, you will find in yourselves all that you seek.

For to be God is to be pure, to be free from weakness and passion, to be separated from all evil. If these things are all true of you then God is within you. If your thought is kept pure from evil habits, free from passion and weakness, separated from all stain, you are blessed because your vision is sharp and clear. You are able to see what is invisible to those who have not been purified. The eyes of your soul have been cleansed of material filth and through the purity of your heart you have a clear sight of the vision of blessedness. What is that vision? It is purity, sanctity, simplicity, and other reflections of the brightness of the Divine nature. It is the sight of God.

Here St. Gregory of Nyssa connects the Beatitude “Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they Shall See God” with Jesus statement elsewhere that “the Kingdom of God is within.” This beautiful meditation on the purified soul as a mirror which reflects the beauty and glory of God (Orat. 6 De beatitudinibus: PG 44, 1270-1271), is used in the Roman Catholic Office of readings for Saturday of the twelfth (12th) week in ordinary time with the accompanying biblical reading taken from I Samuel 26:5-25.