Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
This is a difficult verse for me because I know who I am, and I know that I don't always have a pure heart. I'm a sinner. The definition of pure is to be free from anything of a different, inferior, or contaminating kind / untainted with evil; innocent.. so in order to have a pure heart, we have to be untainted by evil, not contaminated by things of this world.
In essence, I would have to say that Jesus is telling us that the only way to see God is to not sin.. to have never sinned, and to not want to sin.
Romans 3:23 says that All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Without understanding the Christian faith, this looks extremely bleak. Like there's no hope for any of us. We won't see God because we don't have pure hearts, no matter how hard we try. Some parts of the non-christian, and even in some areas of the church world, see Jesus as being a perfect individual, God made flesh, came to the earth to do all sorts of great and wonderful things, miracles, and teaching.. only to not give us any hope for getting to heaven because we're “not good enough.”
in Dr. David Jeremiah's book How To Be Happy According to Jesus, he says there are two types of Purity. The first is Perfect Purity. This is the purity that Christians will experience in the afterlife. When we're in heaven and are given new and perfect bodies. Our flesh will be done away with and we will be pure new creations serving God in His Kingdom. (that kinda gives me goosebumps)
The second is Positional Purity. This is where Christians are right now. Those of us that are striving and desiring to be pure, have accepted Jesus Christ's sacrifice as payment for our sins, yet.. still have our problems of stumbling. The fact is that if we were able to attain Perfect Purity, this side of heaven, than there would have been no reason for Jesus Christ to walk this earth... in perfect purity, and have His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins.
This positional purity should be a driving force behind us making changes in our lives to fill our hearts with the things of God and not the things of man. It's almost like practicing or preparing ourselves for the day when all sin is finally taken away.
An example I thought of while reading this was that of David. Prior to becoming king, he was a shepherd. The only battle he ever really did was when he would have to kill animals that were looking to steal and kill his sheep. After Saul had lost favor in God's eyes, David was anointed the successor, once Saul was removed from power. Even tho it would be some years before this happened, David began to fight. First was his battle with Goliath that we all should be familiar with. Then as he joined Saul's army, returning from battle the crowds would cheer things like “saul has killed thousands, but David tens of thousands”. Even tho he wasn't a king yet, he was in position to be a king. He acted in more ways that a king would act as opposed to a shepherd.
In our position as sons and daughters of God, we are in position to be perfect and pure. However we aren't there yet, we're a work in progress. It is our duty as God's people to act in more ways that a pure heart would act, as opposed to a sinful heart.
It's not enough to say “i'm saved” and then go about a regular day of lying, cheating, cursing, lusting. You can't claim to be ok because of positional purity. It is our lifestyle that needs to be changed to remove all these things from us.
The best check list to follow would be the very thing we're studying in this sermon series. How can we strive to have a pure heart? We can have a humble spirit. This was the first beatitude. Having a humble spirit will help us to recognize that we ARE sinners and need to walk in the ways of Christ.
As a recap, to mourn is to be broken and focused on God for comfort, and comforting others in their time of need. Understanding the hurts others feel. Two obvious ones are being gentle, and merciful... and of course hungering and thirsting after righteousness. When we do these things, the joy and the peace the surpasses all understanding comes from The Holy Spirit.
We are vessels of the Holy Spirit, and when we sin, it taints part of us. Right? But when we pray and fill our hearts with the things of God, and have the Holy Spirit poured into us, the sin gets washed away. It's like if you took a glass of coca cola, and began pouring water into it. The coke represents a heart filled with sin. The water is the Holy Spirit. Eventually, all the coke is removed and the only thing left is pure, clean water.
In 1 john 1:8-9 it says If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
You see, the confession of our sins, to God, will cleanse us. So if and when something happens and you stumble.. sin gets back into your heart, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us.
If you find yourself in a situation where sin keeps creeping in, stealing your joy, and making you frustrated that you can't retain the happiness that comes from God, pray and look at the situation. There was a man who had no problems throughout his day, he was able to focus on God and his job, but as he got home, he would have impure thoughts, and they stole his joy away. Looking at his actions, he would walk home from work, and the part of town he had to pass through was more or less a redlight district. It was the quickest way home, yet.. just taking a few extra blocks would be able to keep his mind and his heart from sinning.
Sometimes our lives can change so much for the better, and have such a greater relationship with God if we just make a small directional change. For others it might not be so small a direction, but in all temptation, God gives us ways for escaping.
It is my prayer for all of us that we can find our hearts purified by God and His Holy Spirit. This doesn't just happen, it is a way of life. Fixing our heart on Him and His ways, praising Him instead of cursing our situation, seeing how He works in all things rather than seeing everything as just another obstacle, these are traits of growing and maturing Christians. Practicing in the position of purity that we will achieve when we pass from this life into the next.
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