How To Gain the Blessings of God. (Part 6)

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
(Matthew 5: 70

According to Jesus Christ God wants to bless you. When I hear that Jesus said something like these two questions immediately pop into my mind. Number one is what do I have to do to get the blessing? And number two, what is the blessing. The beauty of the Sermon of the mount is that it answers those questions right at the beginning. The Sermon on the Mount goes on for three whole chapters but begins it by Jesus repeatedly saying blessed is, blessed is, and we’ve looked at five of those blessings so far.  

We started out looking at the fact that Jesus has said, blessed is the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the merciful. Then he talked about the blessing for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and the last one we looked at yesterday was the fact that God blesses those who are merciful.  Now those are the first five of the Beatitudes. So, what blessing do we gain if we develop these characteristics or do these things well that is where it got interesting because we not only gain something in the present every day we will see as we get to the end of this section it becomes clear that he's talking about being rewarded in the heaven. 

Now that answers those two basic questions, but there is more, much more. There are three more beatitudes that we’ve not looked at yet and again we need to seek answers to the questions they raise and think about the themes they raise. The same two questions, what do I have to do, which in this is what does it mean to be a pure in hearts or a peacemaker or persecuted for that matter, and what do I get, what is the blessing I will receive. Blessings number six to eight appears relatively simple. He talked about the pure in heart, then he talks about the peacemakers, and then he will talk about the  persecuted. It’s all in the text right there, pure in heart, peacemakers and those who are persecuted. So those are the three that close off the beatitudes . We’re going to look at and these three over the next 3 episodes and ask what we do to get the blessing and I will try and answer that as we go along, I would think one each day.

So, let’s look at the first Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse eight. Bless it or the pure in heart, and what does that mean? Well, the word pure here can mean pure, or it can mean clean. But it’s obviously talking about an internal kind of purity here because it says blessed are those who are pure in heart. This is another one of those words in the Bible that has multiple meanings. In some passages, this refers to the an outward state but this time we definitely know it referring to the inner spiritually state because it talks about the internal aspects of our spiritual and emotional state. Jesus in this and other passages, by the way, is talking about the emotions, and the will. When Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, he means all those internal facets or components that make up a person, a human being. Your mind, your emotions, and your will, or if someone once said, your imaginations, your inclinations, and your intentions, they all need to be pure. So a correct understanding of this is acknowledging that it refers to all that’s within us, what we think as well as all the decisions our emotions drive us to make. 

There are several different opinions, and some say these beatitudes all link back to a new covenant representation of the 10 commandments and Jesus here is making a specific reference to one specific sin, namely sexual sin and the 7th Commandment. I don’t doubt that what Jesus is doing he is linked back to the Old Testament commandments, and I shall address that in much greater detail later in our study of the beatitudes and  that may be included here. However,  there’s nothing in this passage that I think suggest it should be restricted it to that. A second option is that he’s talking about sin in general, not just some specific sin and that seems to be more reasonable and natural, especially when you consider that this very phrase is a quote from Psalm 24, which is definitely addressing our general sinful state. In Psalm 24, the Psalmist says, who may ascend to the hill of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart. Having said that, the psalmist then names a bunch of things that could be and are a description of this pure heart. 

Listen to what he says Psalm 24 quote, 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
 Or who may stand in His holy place?

Then next.

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

(Psalm 24: 3-5)

Interesting, blessings and righteousness are bestowed by the God of our salvation.

So according to the psalmist, the pure hearted are the ones who seeks the Lord and do not seek guidance from false religions.  A pure heart also includes being cleaned from such sins as adultery, immorality, falsehood, deceit and hypocrisy, or, as one commentator said, it is being cleaned in the heart so that has no desire to offend either God or men. 

I think this is interesting because as I’ve said, the summary text for this opening part of the Sermon on the Mount, tells us that

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven”.

(Matthew 5: 20)

So, Jesus is describing the real form of righteousness as compared to the false type of righteousness and if you hang in there with me, you’re going to hear me repat this perspective over and over again as we work through this whole gospel of Matthew. The false righteousness is external but what Jesus wants is internal righteousness. So, he begins with the poor in spirit and now he says, blessed are the pure in heart, very clearly highlighting this. This is a showcase of internal righteousness versus this fake, just for show, external righteous. Let me just illustrate how critical this was. The religious hierarchy  of Jesus day, and some might say still today we’re really hung up on external righteous, to the extreme. Not carrying a burden, meant removing the clip for their robe, or employing other people to carry stiff for them. 

Now that’s the extreme to which they tried to put the emphasis on the external, and Jesus comes along into that context and says blessed is the pure in heart. So, in my estimation Jesus is talking about having purity from all sin, not one specific sin but all the sinful aspects of our minds, emotions and will. 

Let me mention another aspect that should be at least included. I think the main point is that you be pure This particular Greek word translated as pure, was used for corn that had been cleansed of all the chaff, so there was nothing left but corn. They then described it as pure corn, unmixed with other grains or even its own husks. It was also used with an army that had been purged of all the cowardly or discontented soldiers so that it was composed of an army of first-class fighting men. This pure word literally means unmixed. So, I’m going to suggest that part of being pure is being unmixed or unadulterated spiritually? Now, what does that mean? 

In James Chapter 3. James talks about a wisdom that comes from above and the wisdom that comes from beneath. He talks about a worldly wisdom and a godly wisdom. In describing the worldly wisdom, he says that it is corrupted with self-seeking self-serving motivations. Then when he starts describing godly wisdom, he says that it all about having pure motives. That instead of self-seeking, you have pure motives and seek to put other people first by having a servant attitude. So, I would like to propose that the pure heart is about having pure motives as well as having purity from specific sins. 

Alright. What do you get? What’s the reward for that? Look at verse eight, he says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

Wow, “See God”, what does that mean? 

Well, if you’ve heard me go through these other beatitudes, you know that I think the blessings will be  completely realised when we stand before the Lord. I think the final beatitude about the persecuted being blessed makes this aspect very clear. In my estimation the only way to interpret a number of these blessings being fully experienced will be when we stand before the Lord. In think in this case those who see the Lord in their everyday life catch glimpses of that blessings every day now  but the main blessing in this regard will come in the future.

For example, Hebrews Chapter 11 says concerning Moses, that Moses saw him who is invisible, face to face and because of that he did not fear Pharaoh. So, there’s a sense in which those who are pure in heart see the Lord in the everyday instead of the just the world, they focus on the Lord instead of the worldly circumstances around them. I’ve often seen it happen in given circumstances that some people see the Lord and others don’t. This message and Psalm 24 also tell us it’s the pure in heart will see the Lord, and that’s today in the everyday, they will see him or find Him in the circumstances or even trials of their everyday life but the will also see him in eternity. But, having said that, I still think that ultimately this is fulfilled when Jesus Christ comes back and sets up his Kingdom. I’m not alone in thinking that way, by the way. This is not a minority report. There are many Christians who would agree with that interpretation. 

One commentator described how this “seeing God” is progressively realized, now and in the future reward.  To possess the Kingdom will be to see God in His full glory.Another commentator wrote in the 19th century something I thought was particularly insightful. He says.

Thisverse and all the preceding the verses  express that this blessing is the divine favour in the reign of the Messiah, and is the most natural interpretation of this verse.

He then goes on to say later.

It is that sincere person who shall quote, stand in the divine presence as his honoured servants and objects of his special favour. 

(Both Quoted by B Lambo 2019 inhispresenceonline.org)

I thought that was particularly helpful, to know that those who are pure of heart. Will stand before the Lord as an honoured servant and the object of his special favour. I suppose it’s just common sense to understand that all the blessing of God will have their complete realization only when the Kingdom comes itself is in its completeness. The pure in heart are those who have pure motives, and are clean from all the specific sins that are mentioned in the Scripture because they are forgiven in Christ, and their reward is they see the Lord now, working in their lives, but they will really experience it completley when they stand before him as an honoured servant, one day in the future.

So, you want to be blessed and see God. Then you got to be pure in heart.