Category: 2018 – Beatitudes

Happy are the Holy

In the context of the other beatitudes, “purity of heart” points to our relationships.  The pure in heart live their whole lives—public and private—transparent before others.  How many of us really do that?  Or do we wear a different mask, according our role in the situation:  husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, manager, employee, friend, neighbor, volunteer, church member…?

Philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard famously said, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”  Purity of heart does not have any mixture of affection or loyalty.  It belongs wholly to the Lord.  This kind of purity is all or nothing.  While 99.44% pure might work for Ivory soap, it doesn’t work for the heart.

How can one live that way?  Continue reading for perspectives on the sixth beatitude from John MacArthur, Jennifer Kennedy Dean, and John Stott.

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Happy are the Merciful

The first four Beatitudes are entirely inner principles, dealing with how you see yourself before God.  This fifth Beatitude, while also being an inner attitude, begins to reach out and touch others.  This is the fruit of the other four.  When we have poverty of spirit and when we realize that we are nothing but beggars, we will be willing to give to another beggar, so we will be merciful.

Many merciful people are treated indifferently or even cruelly in return—Jesus Christ himself serves as the chief example.  However, check out the cause and effect presented in this Beatitude.  “Mercy” is showing compassion for people in need.

Jesus likely used the Hebrew word rachmani, which implies a deep love (as in a parent to a child) and is sometimes translated “compassion” or “pity.”  It has the sense of active empathy—to feel what another is feeling.  The merciful feel the pain of others as their own.

Are you merciful?

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