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The Context
Every one of the Beatitudes is critical. You cannot remove any of them. A kingdom person is one who fulfills all of these descriptions. You cannot pick and choose. The last three Beatitudes flow out of the fourth, after the first three lead up to it?
Do you see something even more intricate? The first and fifth, the second and the sixth, and the third and the seventh seem to fit together. Those who mourn over their sin (second) are going to know the purity of heart (sixth).
The Hebrew language is picturesque. Each letter is a picture and when the pictures are combined, they tell a story. The Hebrew letters that make up the root word for “pure” picture a basket or container and a man. The root means “to contain a man.” God’s laws and instructions were to “contain” man’s natural impulses and keep him from destroying himself.
Jesus’ audience was familiar with the Old Testament’s use of the word tahor to describe the heart that God desired since David said, “Create in me a pure [clean] heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). In Hebrew, the heart is the inner man—intellect, emotions, and volition. It is the seat of his decision making. Tahor—the word for pure—is often used to describe the gold, silver, or other metals used in the tabernacle. In that sense, it meant “unalloyed” or “unmixed.”
Jesus said that if the inside is clean, the outside will be clean also. When the law transforms the heart, the heart transforms the behavior.
The religious leaders of the day had lost sight of the clear teaching of the Scriptures they so revered. Many of the more prominent leaders seemed to be more concerned about how they were viewed by others than whether or not their hearts were pure. They used the outward expressions of piety and holiness to protect their social position and authority. Jesus rebuked them publicly, drawing their anger.
The Sixth Beatitude
This is one of the greatest utterances in all the Bible. It stretches over everything else revealed in Scripture.
For the word pure, the Greek word katharos is used, which means unmixed or unalloyed or unadulterated or sifted or cleansed of chaff. Our Lord was saying, “I desire a heart that is unmixed in its devotion and motivation. Pure motives from a pure heart.”
So, who will see God? It is not those who observe the external washings. It is not those who go through the ceremonies. It is not those who have the religion of human achievement. We can never be in God’s kingdom, never enter God’s presence, never have His forgiveness, never know the Redeemer, never know salvation, and die frustrated in our sins, unless our hearts are pure.
Psalm 24:3-4 says, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” This is a person whose relations with both God and other people are free from falsehood.
Proverbs 4:23 puts it this way, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” The issues of thinking and feeling and acting all spawn out of this heart.
The Five Kinds of Purity
- Primitive Purity: The kind of purity that exists only in God. It is as essential in God as light is to the sun, as wet is to water.
- Created Purity: This is the creation of a pure being, before the Fall. God created both angels and man in purity, but they both fell.
- Ultimate Purity: Ultimately, all the saints of God will be glorified—or made completely pure. We are going to have all of our sins washed away!
- Positional Purity: This is the purity we have now, imputed by the righteousness of Christ. When you believe in Jesus Christ, God imputes you to positional purity.
- Practical Purity: This is the hard part. The apostle Paul cried out in 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Paul is talking about practical purity, living purity. God wants us to be as practically pure as we can before Him.
The Promise
What happens if you’re pure? Jesus said at the end of the Beatitude, “They shall see God.” He uses a future continuous tense of the verb form in the Greek, essentially saying, “They shall be continually seeing God for themselves.”
Do you know what happens when your heart is purified at salvation? You live in the presence of God.
Do you want to see God? Do you want to have God alive in your world, now and forever? Purify your heart.
Credits:
- John MacArthur’s The Beatitudes: The Only Way to Happiness (1980);
- Jennifer Kennedy Dean’s Set Apart: A 6-Week Study of the Beatitudes (2015); and
- John Stott’s The Beatitudes: Developing Spiritual Character (1998)