Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)
I’m thankful that this Scripture does not say, “Blessed are the pure in behavior...” because then I’d be lost. I’d like to be pure in behavior. I’ve had times when I felt I was getting close. Then as soon as I was ready to claim victory in some area, I’d crash and burn.
But that’s not what it says. It says His blessing falls on those with a “clean” heart. It suggests translucence. Translucence means the light shines through. I like the way this idea dovetails with the Paul’s words:
For now we see through a glass, darkly (or “mirror, dimly”); but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV)
What is this dark glass, this obscured mirror? It is our heart. To see God we must look out from our spirit through the mirror/lens of our heart. And what obscures our vision? What darkens the glass? What dims the mirror? The self. The more my heart is obscured by self-obsession, the less it reflects a clear image of God. But the closer I place myself to God in my relationship with Him, the less self I contain. So my reflection of Him becomes clearer with my purposeful proximity to Him.
This also works from the outside looking in. The less self-obsession others see in me (because of the “clarity” of my heart) the more they see of God’s character. What is important to understand immediately is that I have nothing to do with this cleaning, or purifying. It is His presence working through my desire for Him that cleanses me. God responds to my desire. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
There is another important dimension to this idea. It comes from
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. (Psalms 24:4 ESV)
The Hebrew word used here is a rare one, and in addition to this meaning it is used in Proverbs 14:4 to describe a stall or manger that is clean and empty. It is the root of the Hebrew verb “barar” which means to “cleanse,” or “purge out.” Looked at this way there is a beautiful harmony with Christ’s admonition:
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24 ESV)
This phrase, “deny himself,” is found also in the Old Testament in Leviticus:
Anyone who does not deny himself on that day is to be cut off from his people; (Leviticus 23:29 CJB)
The idea of this “self” here in the Hebrew mind is the entire being (Hebrew=”nephesh”), not just some parts or behaviors, but EVERYTHING. The whole idea is to be completely cleansed of self – to have nothing more to do with it; to indulge it no longer, to cease to have any relationship with it, like breaking off with an old lover who has betrayed you.
So What Do I Do?
Now we look here:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 ESV)
This cleansing of self is directly related to confession. When I am completely open and transparent to God, when I hold NOTHING back from Him, He faithfully cleanses me from self and at the same time sees me as pure.
Purity of heart is the absence of self, and comes from drawing near to God, opening my whole being to His cleansing, and confessing everything openly and purposely to Him. Purity of heart is a DESIRE for purity of behavior, but it is not necessarily the complete accomplishment of it in an immediate sense. First, God counts my desire for Him as righteousness on my part. Then He moves in me to accomplish His purpose through me in the lives of others. As He does this my behavior will change, but that is a process of fits and starts and stumblings. Throughout this process it is my desire He looks for and to which He responds. I must not get all caught up in discouragement because of my failings, because He never considers my failings. He considers me clean during the process. He considers me based on my active desire for Him.
They Shall See God
So what is the result of all this? What will purity of heart give me? The promise is that I will “see God.” What does this look like? It is a matter of recognition. I will actually start to recognize God’s hand in events around me that before seemed random, or at best, fortuitous. I will lighten up, nod my head, and say, “Wow. God did that. I see it now.” And as I recognize the work of His hand my faith will be strengthened even more, drawing me yet closer to Him, and in turn giving me an even clearer vision of His activity on earth.
We see His back, like Moses. We see the trail He leaves behind. But we recognize it as God’s hand and not accident or happenstance or luck. It becomes another marker for us in trusting Him with our future as we “press on.” Believing is seeing.
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