Week 6
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Preamble and context
This is one of the more obscure and ambiguous of the Beatitudes when we first read it. However, careful study opens up the depth and richness of what Jesus is saying to us through this one. What does it mean by ‘pure in heart?’ And how can we ‘see God?’
Who is pure in heart? We can confer with Psalm 24:3-4 and Psalm 51:10 to begin to guide us in this. The heart here is the word kardia in Greek. It is important to state the significance of the use of the word heart here. In the ancient culture of Jesus the place of our deep emotions was not our heart but in fact the bowels. Thus, the use of the word heart here distinguishes it from our seat of deepest emotions. So what is being referred to? It is not their emotions, per se, but their inner self, their place of desires and longings. If we take a moment to pause we can see there is a clear distinction between both.
We will see that the pure in heart has three parts: the pure in heart continually surrender their inner world to God (especially their thoughts about sex); the pure in heart single-mindedly seek God; and the pure in heart walk with integrity before those around them.
Thus, we can begin by realizing that the pure in heart are those whose longings and desires align with God. In other words, they are those who have surrendered, have died to, their disordered loves and disordered desires. Often we are thinking about the idols in our life. What are our idols? They are the things we think about a lot! They are what we give our thought, our emotions, our time towards. They can often be good things but the problem is they go from being a good thing to being the ultimate thing. We can consider our academics as a good example. We all would agree that they are a good thing and we work hard at them. However, when we begin to live a life of comparing how we did against others and have a sense of jealousy or envy then it is becoming an idol. Or when we devote a disproportionate amount of our time to a paper or an exam at the expense of reading scripture, or praying, and being in community then it is becoming an idol. Or if we are devastated when we do badly in an exam, instead of feeling a sense of disappointment, then these are the signs that a good thing has now become the ultimate thing. In other words, our loves are now disordered and our desires are misaligned. The pure in heart are those who can see this and re-order their love, their life and their desires to first center on God and then everything else comes behind this.
We can further unpack the notion of ‘pure in heart’ outlined by Jesus in this Beatitude. We have already seen that the pure in heart are constantly surrendering their lives to Jesus, to listen to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit, to recenter their lives around Jesus. However, this notion of pure in heart has an additional focus on our thoughts towards sex and sexual purity. The connotation of this beatitude is that, for each of us, in the midst of putting Jesus first, we will have a special focus on surrendering our sexual thoughts and desires to God.
At the heart of this first component of being pure in heart is the idea that through reordering our desires and longings around Jesus (and all that this encompasses) we will continuously be sanctified and made right before God. The notion of sanctification is one we have already raised, however we need to revisit it here: it is the idea that when we began following Jesus a puncti-linear event took place. We were immediately made right by God and in a mystical and heavenly sense we are clean and pure, that is, we are sanctified, yet because we continue to walk through a broken and sin-full world we must be progressively sanctified. That is, as we continue to pursue God and allow Him to re-order our longings and desires we continue to become more like Jesus in our thoughts and words and deeds, in other words, we are progressively sanctified. This process will never be fully completed until Jesus returns.
There is a second component to the pure in heart: they single mindedly seek God. This idea has already been touched on however it is the desire of each follower of Jesus to choose to pursue God and to allow him to change their inner life by his word and his Spirit. The desire to come to God regularly, daily, and allow him to speak to our lives through scripture and through the power of the Holy Spirit should become our single minded pursuit. This doesn’t mean it’s easy or that we are somehow not a Christian if we don’t but the pure in heart are those who desire this.
Within this desire to seek God is the desire to seek the things of God in this world: compassion, justice and kindness. Once more we see that Jesus is unpacking for us what it means to ‘love God, love our neighbor.’ When we seek God and we find Him he changes our desires to align with His thus we begin to pursue compassion, justice and kindness as they are the heart of God.
The final component of the pure of heart is that they are people of integrity. In other words, their inner and outer worlds align. By this point we should be noticing a thread in this Beatitude - Jesus is looking for our inner world of desires and longings to reflect his desires and longings and that through this we will live completely, wholly, in other words with integrity, before those who meet every day. That is, our neighbors whether they are local or global.
What would this look like? It is when our yes is yes and our no is no. It is when we are compassionate, kind, honest and loving. When there is no duplicity or hypocrisy in who we are. When there are no ‘masks worn’ before people depend upon who they are. This is, the pure in heart.
And what is the reward or reversal of this Beatitude? This time there is a clear reward, it is difficult to manipulate this into a reversal of what is happening in the world. The reward, Jesus says, is that we will see God. But how can this be? Scripture teaches us that no one has ever seen God’s face. Yet this is confusing because other places imply that God has been seen. The consensus is that God has never been fully seen so what are we to make of the promise given by Jesus in this Beatitude?
Scholars suggest there are two clear ways we ‘see God’ as the result of this Beatitude. Firstly, when we single mindedly seek God our times of intimacy and communion with Him reveal him to us. That is, we are more certain of his voice, of his leading. We have a clearer revelation of who he is in scripture. Or, we can say that we see him more clearly - we see God. Secondly, the more we are transformed by God as we are progressively sanctified and we walk with integrity then we will actually see God in those around us. We have a fuller comprehension of the fact that everyone is made in the image of God and when attributes are manifest in those around us that reflect or mirror who God is then we see God.
This Beatitude isn’t for the faint of heart, it requires a whole life pursuit of God yet the reward is that we will see God more clearly than we could ever imagine.
Questions to discuss and consider
Before this study, what would you have understood by the idea ‘pure in heart?’
Do you think we live in a culture that believes people could be ‘pure in heart?’ Take some time to unpack this and think of movies, books, and media that would speak to this (either for or against).
The first component of being pure in heart is to have our loves, our longings and our desires reordered around God.
In all honesty, what consumes your thoughts the most? What do you devote your time and attention to? Why are you doing this and what are you hoping for?
What do you think may be the idols in your life and why? What evidence is there that they may be an idol?
Do you think Yale’s culture reinforces idols in your life? How can you counter this?
How do you think you would go about realigning your desires around God? What would this cost you? Would you be willing to pay this cost?
What do you think it means to ‘single-mindedly seek God?’ Do you think that’s attainable or achievable? Does it sound fantastical? What are two small steps you could take to begin to see this come to pass in your own life?
Would you say you’re a person of integrity? Do you sometimes wear a mask in public? What makes you do this? Who is it for?
How could you become a person of integrity?
Spiritual Practice for the week
Which of the three components of the pure in heart do you think you struggle with the most (disordered longings and desires/single-mindedly pursuing God/lacking integrity between your inner (private) and outer (public) world)?
Choose one of these and pray for God to begin to change this. Share your prayer need with someone in your core group so that they can pray with you and walk with you.