Do You Long for Purity?

Pastor Gary Oser

Recently we have been looking at the Beatitudes—brief statements made by Jesus beginning with the word “blessed” and ending with a promise found in Matthew 5:1-12. This month we come to the sixth beatitude found in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This beatitude has been described by one commentator as “one of the most magnificent, and yet one of the most solemnizing and searching statements found anywhere in Scripture.”

The idea of the word “pure” is to be free from any kind of defilement, and it is to be characterized by sincerity and integrity. To be pure in heart means to have an undivided love for God which leads to loving Him with all your heart, soul and mind. Ultimately, it means to be like Jesus.

How can we be pure in heart? It is not by our efforts, rather, it is by admitting our sin and asking Jesus to come into our lives and forgive and cleanse our sins.

Jesus is the Source of all purity; when He comes into our lives, He gives us His purity and helps us live in purity, keeping short accounts with sin. I think of the words of an old hymn, “Whiter than Snow,” where the song writer wrote, “Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole (pure); I want Thee forever to live in my soul. Break down every idol; cast out every foe. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” Is that your desire?

Notice the promise for those who are pure in heart—”for they shall see God.” It is the most comprehensive of all the promises in the beatitudes. It has both a present and future application. We will see God when we are at last in Heaven with Him. First John 3:2b says, “…but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” What a day that will be!

But, we also see Jesus in the present in the sense that we can daily enjoy His presence in our lives now. We see Him in the present with our spiritual eyes. Purity of heart enables us to see God in a way that otherwise we could not see Him.

This great beatitude could be summarized simply as, “happy are the holy.”

Do you long for purity, to be more like Jesus?