“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
We have been dealing with the heart and the pure heart for several weeks. Last week we examined the pseudo-pure heart. That type of heart lives by appearances and takes great pride in what it thinks it is and what it thinks others see in it and say about it. The pride of the pseudo-pure heart blinds it to what true humility is so the pseudo-pure heart is proud of its humility. It lives in a perpetual disguise and deceives itself and others. This week we will look at the description of a pure heart.
We have previously looked at the heart as being the very core of the person. It is from the heart that our thoughts, affections, choices, intents, motives, and loves pour out of. In other words, all that we think, desire, and do flows from the heart. If that is true, and surely it is clear from Scripture that it is, then the heart is the most important part of the person. If the heart is impure, then all that flows from that heart is impure. However, as in the case of the Lord Jesus, whatever flows from a pure heart is pure. In the case of saved human beings where we still fight with sin, we have pure hearts by degrees. So the pure heart that is spoken of in the text is not a perfectly pure heart, but a heart that is striving for greater and greater degrees of purity. It is from that heart that is growing in purity that the thoughts, desires, loves, and actions of human beings become increasingly pure.
Since an impure and pseudo-pure heart is full of self and pride, the pure heart will be described by humility. Pride and self is (the same sin in reality) the sin from which all other sin really flows from and so it takes a humble heart to seek and obtain purity of heart. It is impossible to have a pure heart without humility. The Lord fights the proud and gives grace to the humble. The humble heart is also a soft or tender heart as King Josiah was given (II Kings 22:19). The text there tells us that he had a tender heart and humbled himself before the LORD. A tender heart is opposite of a hard heart and a humble heart is the opposite of a proud one. It is the tender and humble heart that bows to the LORD when it hears what He says in His Word while it is the proud and hard heart (like Pharaoh) that will not listen to the LORD.
A pure heart is one that is whole-hearted or focused and single. Those are words that we use to describe a person that is focused with all of his or her might on one thing. There is, after all, only one thing necessary (Luke 10:40-42). The heart that is not whole-hearted is a divided heart and not a single heart. As Matthew 6:24 sets out, no one can serve two masters. The human heart is such that it can only have one primary master at a time which is to say that it only has one master. In light of the Greatest Commandment, where all humanity is commanded to love God with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength, what man must do is to be focused and whole-hearted on one thing and that is God and His glory. A heart is only pure to the degree that it seeks the glory of God out of love.
A divided heart is perhaps not thought of as such a great sin in the modern day but that is perhaps only because divided hearts reflect on it. A divided heart is a heart that has many masters and is certainly not directed and devoted to the One. “Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name” (Psa 86:11). If the heart us not united, it is not in a position to fear God. “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (II Cor 11:3). In this text we see that simplicity and purity are what a mind can be led astray from. The word for “simplicity” is a`plo,thj (haplotes) which is really the concept of singleness. Something that is single is also seen as simplicity or undivided. It is the simple or single heart that has purity of devotion. So a pure heart is a heart that is undivided or single in its devotion to Christ.
A pure heart is a heart that is undiluted (to a greater or lesser degree) with non-love. I Corinthians 13 sets out that we can do nothing good that is without true love. Verse 1 of I Corinthians 13 tells us that whatever we speak it must be out of love. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Even if we have the most eloquent of speech, and perhaps the most religiously correct of speech, if we do not have love our speech is as a loud, clanging, and irritating noise. Surely this points to the heart from which flow all of our thoughts and words. It is also the heart that will flow with love or non-love. So clearly a heart cannot be pure and be the fountain of pure words without love.
We can then move on to see from I Corinthians 13:2 that even if we know all mysteries and have all knowledge, and even if a person could have all faith, yet without love those things are nothing. It is only when those things are applied and used with love are they used to the glory of God. Even if we would give all that we had to the poor and if we gave our body to be burned in the name of Christ, yet if we do not love while doing those things they are morally reprehensible in the sight of God. The reason is that they would then flow from an impure heart of self-love and would be works of idolatry for the idol of self. Knowledge and acts done in the name of Christ must come from a love for Christ for the heart to be pure and for those actions to be for God and His glory.
For the heart to be pure the heart must be moved by grace. Now this may sound a bit different, but we must remember that what is not of grace is of the flesh and in our own strength. We must also remember that all love that flows to a human being is by definition of grace. The only access a human being has to true love is to receive it from the only source of love and that is God. No one loves except those that know God (I John 4:7-8). God does not impart His love in the heart except by the Holy Spirit who pours forth love in the heart of true believers (Rom 5:5). God is not under obligation to do this and so it must be by grace. So a pure heart is a heart that is moved, actuated, and strengthened by grace rather than by the flesh and outward works.
A pure heart is seen in that it is the temple of the living God. God dwells in His temple through the Spirit and our bodies are said to be temples “of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” (I Cor 6:19). The context of this text is that of purity in that we are to flee from immorality. A person without a pure heart to some degree is not the temple of the living God. The Spirit is not called the “Holy Spirit” for nothing. He is holy in that He works holiness in hearts and He is holy in the sense that He will not dwell in a heart that has not been cleansed by the blood of Christ. So a pure heart is the home and working place of the Holy Spirit. It is the place where the Holy Spirit sets up shop and manifests the glory of God through.
Closely tied in with the preceding paragraph is the biblical teaching of the fruits of the Spirit. They are called the “fruits of the Spirit” because they are what the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of His people and their thoughts, desires, and actions flow out from those. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal 5:22-23). These things are not the results of the flesh and human effort; they are the results of the life of the Holy Spirit in His people. This shows how the fruit of the Spirit is tied in with many things that have preceded this. If the Spirit is in the heart, it is by grace alone. The work of the Spirit in the heart is not because of human works, but is because of His grace. We also see that the fruit of the Spirit includes love. There can be no pure heart or works apart from the indwelling Holy Spirit and apart from the heart that He works His fruit in.
We can see, then, that a pure heart is a heart that is empty of self and pride (though not perfectly) so that the Spirit of God dwells there. It is a heart that is under the influence and power of the Spirit so that it is a heart that is moved by grace and works by love. It is a heart that is guided by the two Greatest Commandments which means that it loves God with all of its being and loves its neighbor as itself. A pure heart loves self only out of love for God. The point on which all revolves including love for self is love for God. Rather than the revolving point being love for self, which would be idolatry, selfishness, and the height of pride, it does all out of love for God. The pure heart, because it is indwelt by the Spirit, flows out in love because that is what the Spirit works in that heart.
In another sense the pure heart is that which flows out the life of Christ. Christ dwells in His people and it is His life that is to be lived through us. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20). The old self has been crucified with Christ and is dead. That is the impure part of the heart. But now self no longer lives and it is Christ who lives in us and He lives in His people by faith. That is the pure heart. A pure heart is one that no longer lives for self or flows forth in the pride of self, but the life that flows out is the life of Christ. It is Christ who is exerting His life in and through His people. This is the difference between a form of the Pharisee and true Christianity. The Pharisee can be orthodox and committed to attending church and to good works. But it is the life of the flesh and of self. The true believer has a pure heart which means that self has died and what s/he does is the life of Christ coming through it. The pure heart is utterly necessary because Christ does not dwell in a heart that He has not cleansed and He only lives in a heart that His life will be lived through.
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