Matthew 5:3-13
This week we again continue with looking at the Beatitudes in relation to whether our 'salt' has the savour of these blessed or happy states and characteristics.
We have now reached verse 8:
'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God'.
This word 'heart' seems to stand out to me this morning.
When we speak of the heart (other than in a medical and physical sense) we think of the affections or feelings. When we say somebody is 'heartless' we think of them being very unfeeling or cruel.
Strong's concordance tells us that like the heart is the chief organ of physical life, so in a figurative way it represents the hidden origins of our lives, principles, desires, character, thoughts and feelings. It is the centre of who we are and what is driving us.
When I heard the Lord say to me on 7th September 2009, 'Give me thine heart', it was as if he was saying, 'Give me your all, your everything, you yourself, your very being, your entirety'.
When I immediately responded with, 'Lord, I give thee my heart', my brokenness and heartache seemed to flow away and was filled with the most amazing peace. I found myself praising him with words from the Psalms and believed he loved me and had died for me.
What was happening?
As I gave the Lord my heart with all its sadness, sin and brokenness, he gave me the new heart that we read of in Ezekiel 36: 25-29 - that heart which is soft and feeling, which loves the Lord and wants to live in a godly way and keep his commands.
This I believe is the 'pure heart' which Jesus is here speaking of, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God'.
It reminds me of the pure heart with which man was blessed at the beginning of time when he had free conversation and intimacy with God.
Gosden* tells us that the first created man and woman 'lived as they were made, 'upright'... they lived to enjoy, serve and glorify God'.
No - mankind could originally 'obey his Creator with the fullest exercise of his intelligence, in the freest enjoyment of his moral and physical powers and in unrestricted use of subordinate creation'.
This was because their hearts were still pure.
Once they had disobeyed God and eaten of the forbidden fruit they were filled with guilt and shame and knew they had sinned. Their purity was gone, and they were shut out of Eden, that happy place where they had so frequently talked with and known God's presence.
Those of us who are Christians know that we still have this heart which contains a propensity for all those sins listed by Gosden. Although we have our new heart we still have our old nature which is not pure - or as Strong's concordance puts it - not free from corrupt desires and guilt.
But this new heart, this gift from God is pure and the effect of it working within us will be, 'walking uprightly', 'working righteousness', 'speaking the truth', having 'clean hands', not lifting up our soul 'unto vanity' (or idols) and not swearing 'deceitfully' (verses my Study Bible links to this beatitude - Psalm 15:2 and Psalm 24:4).
It reminds me of Job who we have seen in recent months was described by God as one who was 'perfect' (or blameless), 'upright, feareth God, and escheweth (or shuns) evil' (Job 1:8)
But do we feel pure in heart?
In my experience as a believer although I know I have been given a new heart which loves Jesus and wants to follow him, I still often feel anything but pure.
This is not a perfect illustration, but I was thinking about this beatitude yesterday and I thought about my engagement ring.
Five years ago in May my husband put my beautiful sparkling engagement ring on my ring finger.
On Saturday we did some gardening and despite wearing gloves there was dirt inside the underneath of the central jewel making it seem dull. I had to carefully use a wet cotton bud to clean it, after which its green emerald again shone clear and bright.
I thought how the purity of heart is a little like this.
The Lord gives believers a new heart, and once given is always there, but how we tarnish its purity with what we do and where we go. How we have to return to the Lord to be washed clean again from fresh sins.
Dear fellow Christian, we are in a battle aren't we?
We constantly get exposed to and tempted by those things which aren't pure, which aren't clean, and then when we grieve the Holy Spirit living within us we lose the sense of his presence, our heart doesn't feel so tender before him, we perhaps feel less loving towards God, and might have less appetite to follow him.
Is this part of what Jesus is saying when he tells us that those who are pure in heart will see God?
Is he telling us that ultimately those who are saved will see God in heaven, but also in this life, when we are living near to him, in that purity of heart we will 'see' him as we get to know him through our times in prayer, in reading his word and through getting to understand him more through life's journey?
What happiness having this new pure heart can bring us as we delight in him and what he is!
Perhaps you haven't declared that you are a believer or follower of Jesus. Perhaps you are still confused as to whether you have a work of grace going on in your heart.
Well, do you want to be pure in heart?
Does your heart go after God and his commands?
Is there something within you which wants to shun evil? - not just so that everyone will think you are perfect and look at you and admire and praise you - but because it causes you distress to be impure, it causes you distress to know that you are sinning against God?
If you have such thoughts and desires they can only come from a new pure heart which God is giving you - by nature we just want to serve ourselves. Maybe God hasn't brought you to a full realisation of this yet, but ask him to confirm to you that he is working in you and making you willing to follow him.
In conclusion then, as we think about this pure heart which has the blessing of seeing God, how do we go forward on our journey today?
How does this relate to that savour of salt which we originally had in mind?
In the same way that my engagement ring got dirty, so we can liken it to salt which becomes contaminated and loses its savour; salt which is only good to be thrown away - it can no longer season or cleanse.
To keep my ring clean I need to avoid wearing it in the garden, or I need to protect it better. To keep the savour of our salt clean and pure we need to avoid taking it into dirty situations or put it in a protective atmosphere.
Can we think about this in relation to Psalm 1, 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night' ?
Perhaps we could ask ourselves some questions:
Who are our friends?
Who do we regularly talk to?
What do we listen to?
What do we look at?
What do we spend our time thinking about?
Do we have secret things hidden in our homes which we wouldn't want to show other people because we feel a guilty twinge of conscience for having them - but can't quite get rid of them?
How do we spend our free time?
Who are we in partnership with?
Dear reader, a pure heart is the gift of God, but may we like Job, shun evil.
Let us ask God to help us shun exposing our pure heart to those things that tarnish it - to show us what we are doing, what we need to change or give up, where we are going etc that drives the feeling of his presence from us so that we might have the enjoyment of seeing God in this life and eternally.
*page 17, 18. What Gospel Standard Baptists believe. JH Gosden. 1993 reprint.
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Really enjoyed this, thanks Ellie x
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