Blessed Are TheySample

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Under Jewish law, purity was all about following certain laws to keep oneself “clean,” including avoiding contact with “unclean” people and “unclean” food and following purifying rituals on a regular basis. But Jesus does not say that those who keep the purity laws are blessed, but rather those who are “pure in heart.”

Purity of heart means going beyond external cleanliness. Jesus later tells his listeners that to look lustfully at someone is to commit adultery, and to be angry is to be guilty of murder (Matthew 5:22, 28). Later in Matthew, Jesus teaches his disciples that what comes out of a person’s mouth comes from the heart, and it is when evil comes from the heart that a person is unclean (Matthew 15:16-20). No amount of rituals and laws can make a person clean when their heart is not pure.

So how can we have pure hearts? By living according to the word of God, says the Psalmist (Psalm 119:9). To do this, we must know the word of God; we must read it, study it, meditate upon it—alone and with others. We must also put aside everything that does not lead us closer to God and pursue him with single-minded devotion (James 4:8). We need to make space for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, transforming our hearts so that the fruit of the Spirit is evident in us as we “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-25). And we can ask God, as David did, to “create in me a pure heart” (Psalm 51:10).

But in our spiritual poverty, we know that we will never achieve complete purity of heart through our own efforts— that we can never be pure enough to come into God’s presence unless we come through faith in Christ Jesus, by the grace of God. Christ gave himself on the cross to “purify for himself a people that are his very own” (Titus 2:14). It is as Christ’s purified people that we will see God.

Reflect and pray

Do your outward words and behavior reflect what is truly in your heart?

Does what comes out of your heart make you clean, or does it leave you with a sour taste in your mouth?

Give thanks for God’s purifying gift of grace and ask God to create within you a pure heart that gives glory to him.