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“BLESSED ARE
THE PURE IN HEART”…(Matt.
5:8)
These past few
months I have been dealing with a highly visible spiritual leader who, it turns
out, has been leading a double life for the past three decades.
Last week he divorced his wife of 25 years for another woman.
A few days ago, a spiritual leader of national prominence was exposed for
engaging in an on-going relationship with a male prostitute.
Purity of heart
is a rare quality indeed, here in
Sodom
and
Gomorrah
! The Greeks used the term purity for metals that had been refined to the point
of being unmixed, unalloyed and unadulterated. A person with a pure heart was
viewed as innocent and chaste. The
Books of Psalms and Isaiah both address the purity issue:
“Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than
snow…Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as
crimson, they shall be like wool.’”
(Psa. 51:17; Isa. 1:18) (See
Psa. 18:20; Eze. 18:21; 36:25; 2 Cor. 7:1; I Jn. 3:3)
The opposite of purity of heart is:
Double-mindedness:
Desiring to serve God and following the world at the same time:
"Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward
God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy
of God…No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love
the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other…" (Jms.
4:4; Mt. 6:24). (See Rom. 7:15-20)
Hypocrisy:
Pretending to be something you are not.
Play acting: "…Woe
to you…hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the
outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on
the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness…These people come near to
me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
me” (Matt. 23:27, 28; Isa. 29:13)
(See Matt. 6:2,5, 16; Act. 5:1-11; Gal. 2:12,13)
Judgmentalism:
Focusing on other’s
faults while ignoring your own: "Do
not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you
will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no
attention to the plank in your own eye? How
can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all
the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank
out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your
brother's eye.” (Matt. 7:1-5)
(See Rom. 2:1,2; 14:3,4, 10-12; 1 Cor. 4:3-5,11,12)
So, how
do I develop and maintain a pure heart?
By cleansing my heart and obeying God’s word: “Wash
your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded…You have
purified yourselves by obeying the truth...” (Jms.
4:8; I Pet. 1:22a)
QUESTION:
Have you determined that whatever
the cost, you will walk before God with a pure heart?
If so,
here are a few passages you may want to prayerfully ponder:
“Surely you desire truth in the
inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place…Create in me a pure
heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me…Search me, O God, and
know my heart; test me and know my
anxious thoughts. See if there is
any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting…May the words of
my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my
Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psa.
51:6, 10; 139:23, 24;
19:14
)
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