“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 )