“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
(Matthew 5:8 ESV)
I was listening to Jon Foreman’s new album In Bloom, and his song, “Heaven Is Yours.” Jon paraphrases Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:8 (“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God”) like this, “Blessed are the pure in heart, with God in your eyes.” The way Jon rephrased Jesus’ words grabbed my attention. His paraphrase emphasized God in this verse, rather than the part of the verse I often pay closer attention to—our purity of heart.
The Blessing of a Pure Heart
I don’t think I had ever given thought to this verse before. From Jesus’ simple statement, I heard the need for a pure heart. I heard conviction over my impure heart. But I didn’t hear the joy behind these words, or the promise, or the point, which Jon’s song drew my attention to.
The blessed result of a pure heart is clear vision of God. The blessedness that a person receives from a pure heart is the ability to see God clearly.
Don’t we want a pure heart for so many other reasons? I thought of many different ways this verse could go.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will have a good reputation with others.”
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for their consciences won’t be troubled.”
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they keep evil far from them.”
A pure or “clean” heart is wonderful to experience and will certainly affect your relationships with others. But we would be living out a tragedy to pursue a clean heart only for the sake of our own conscience, and the good opinion of our neighbor. We would miss out on the true joy of a clean heart—seeing God.
How to Have a Pure Heart
Do you want a pure heart, friend? A clean heart? A clean heart is something God must create in us (Psalm 51:10). God takes great joy in washing any sinner clean who comes to him asking for cleansing. Jesus made it possible for us to have clean hearts when he shed his blood on the cross to pay the penalty for our wickedness and impurity and rose from the dead to give us new life (Hebrews 10:22; 1 Corinthians 6:11).
When we trust in Jesus, he cleanses us from the penalty due to all our sin, and makes us clean in God’s sight. But sin’s presence still remains in our lives until the day when Jesus makes all things new. So, we pursue purity in this life, through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit at work in us (Philippians 2:12-13) even though we have been washed clean in an ultimate sense (John 13:10; 1 Corinthians 6:11).
1 John 1:9 is a beautiful promise, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (ESV). The pure in heart are those who have had their hearts washed clean by the Holy Spirit, because of their faith in Jesus. But the pure in heart are also those who are regularly confessing the sins they are aware of to Jesus, and harboring no hidden impurities from him.
The reward of this is not self-righteousness, but a flourishing relationship.
Pursue a Pure Heart
Do you know what it’s like to have “God in your eyes?” Do you know what it’s like to see God’s goodness, to hear his Word and feel spoken to? To notice his presence in your daily life? To have his glory fill your mind’s eye? To know him better and be able to see him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27)?
Well, the pure in heart will see him. Pursue purity of heart. Run from all that’s impure. Embrace all that’s good and true. And when you notice impurity within, run to Jesus for cleansing.
Why? Because you want God in your eyes. God in all his glory. God in all his goodness.
Happy are those who are pure in heart, because they will see God.