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Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

 

A STORY

Two men were running hard, they were the front runners of the tail end of an Olympic race - going for the gold medal and they were running right next to each other as they got close to the finish line, with no one else close behind. The first man accidentally bumped into the second as he took a long stride and crossed the finish line, barely winning by an inch.  It was unclear if him bumping the other man helped him win.  Picture the losing man's face now.  What do you see? I would probably imagine a frustrated, sad, disheartened face.

But there is one case I can think of where the losing man isn't upset at all.  He is actually smiling - and he is very genuinely happy for the winner.  Is that hard to imagine?  How is that possible?

 

It’s easy to imagine the loser's happiness if we learn that the two men were brothers!  And as brothers, they loved each other.  One brother's win was also the other brother's happiness.  Love completely changes our attitude.  Love changes everything.  Love made it easy for one to overlook that little bump at the end of the race, and it enabled the loser to rejoice with his brother when he lost and his brother won.

 

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  When we love others as God loves them, our heart will be pure. The Lord has stuck a picture on my mind that's helping me desire a pure heart: I imagine that a pure heart means one that has 'no specs' on it toward anyone, like a brand new white piece of paper, without even a dot of ink on it.  That means, it's a heart that is 'spot-free' from 'specs' of sin, bitterness, unforgiveness, negativity, judgment toward others.  It will be free from jealousies, from offense, from all of these things - and it will be easy to overlook mistakes, disagreements, differences, and even sins, because a pure heart sees God in everything, and sees everything through God's eyes, which are eyes of love.

 

In the Olympic race, the only person in the world that could be more happy when someone else wins, is when they love that person very dearly.

 

My goal is to have a heart like that - free of impurities (spot-free) toward others.  I want to grow in that totally loving and pure heart toward each person in my life, because that's God's immense heart of love and mercy toward me, and it’s His love and merciful heart toward all of them too.

 

The Lord's mercy is so vast, that the world is full of sin and hate toward Him, but He still "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Tim 2:4).  Jesus' desire is to see every person in Heaven with Him one day.  And that should be ours too - there shouldn't even be ONE person on earth who we wouldn't want to embrace in Heaven one day.

 

IMPURITY OF HEART

I see that the main thing about Heaven is not streets of gold, or mansions, or no pain - the main thing is:  Relationships!  When John saw the Holy City (New Jerusalem) coming down from Heaven, he didn't call it the 'golden city', or the 'shining city', he emphasized that it was made ready like a bride (Rev 21:1-3). Bride is the emphasis (relationship, not location). God's emphasis for us in eternal life is not a change of location (Heaven), or some material thing, but being WITH us (v3) - eternal unity and fellowship, and relationships.  Not just relationships but GOOD relationships.  Relationships which are not stained by inward impurities, but are in genuine fellowship.   That’s why Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God first with everything we have, and then to love others as we love ourself (Matt 22:39).  And the thing that ruins relationships is lack of love/impurity of heart - every time there’s a relationship that’s ruined, there was impurity of heart somewhere that was unrepented of from either or both sides.

 

CLARIFICATION - HOW WE FEEL VS WHAT WE CHOOSE

REASONS AND ROOTS OF IMPURITY

How does impurity of heart come in?  I've seen it come into my heart in many ways, wherever there is selfishness.

- Perhaps someone sinned against us, and instead of forgiving and being eager to address it and pursue reconciliation (Matt 18:15), we held onto it.  It’s not a sin to confront a person about their sin against us so we can be reconciled, but it is a sin to hold a grudge, which is essentially - unforgiveness.

- It could be jealousy - the Lord allowed them to have something we really wanted, and we can’t get over that. Why did they deserve this good thing and we didn't?  Doesn't the Lord love us too?

- It could be they hold some view I don’t agree with and feel very strongly about. I'm not God that everyone needs to have my views, but for some reason it can cause a lasting bitterness if I hold so tightly to my opinions and judgments against another, and let it fester. It's dangerous.  As disciples, we should be able to disagree with people but still have a tender eagerness to embrace them and see their good!

- It could be caused by unmet expectations - pride in me placing expectations on someone they are not meeting, and so I’m disappointed and holding it against them.

- It could be offense - getting offended by something they did or said which rubbed us in the wrong way, or a correction they gave us - whether we agree with it or not.

- It could be, someone was consistently rude to us and we just can't get ourself to forgive them - and every time I see this person I may have a negative groan in my heart - that, whether I say it or not, is screaming, "I don't want to see this person."

- It could be that their personality just rubs us the wrong way.  They're too loud.  They don't open up with me.  They don't laugh at my jokes. They don't say "hi" when I see them.  We've learned this phrase when we were children, "Don't judge a book by it's cover" (meaning, don't assume things about people based on outward appearance), but we can still be so quick to judgment.  (For this specific issue, please see this blog:  "Don't judge according to personality" https://nccf.church/Blog.aspx?BlogID=170)

 

Impurity of heart can come from many things.  These things above happen to all of us, of course, but it’s a choice of our will whether to address it and die to it and seek to cleanse ourselves, or to ignore it and let it fester - or worse, to consciously cling to it because “I have my rights.”

 

SIGNS OF IMPURITY OF HEART

The pure in heart will "see God" all the time, regardless of who or what is going on around them.  But if we’re not pure in heart toward someone, it will start to affect how we 'see' things, and handle things: 

- If our heart is wrong toward someone with an impurity: we will be irritated by little things. The first characteristic of love is: "love is patient" (1 Cor 13:4). That means overlooking things. David’s wife Michal saw him dancing for the Lord and despised him because it was embarrassing to her.  She had an impure heart, and was barren, not able to have a child with him until the day she died (2 Sam 6:23).  The spiritual fruit in us will not be able to grow if we have an impure heart, despising others.

- A pure heart is eager for reconciliation as soon as possible, and willing to be the person initiating it (Matt 5:24).  An impure heart is very hesitant and resistant for reconciliation.  But, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

- A sign of an impure heart is if we can't appreciate the good things about another person, since we will be focusing more on their faults.  If someone holds up a piece of paper with a black dot on it and asks, "what do you see?", most people will respond "a black dot."  Very few will say "a white piece of paper."  Human/Adamic sinful nature is to focus on the "spots" - the negatives.  If someone sins against me - I have to ask, when I look at them do I see 'they sinned against me?' Or do I see - "this is a person my Father in Heaven created and loves"?

- Likewise we will too easily forget all the good things they’ve done toward us in the past, and sacrifices they’ve made

- We won’t be able to be blessed by words or encouragements that they share, but others will be blessed by them, and we may not see why.

- We’ll be disturbed if others talk positively of them. Or we'll be disturbed if something good happens to them.

- If we are impure in heart toward someone, we may feel they hate us, when in reality it may be the other way around.  What we may be seeing is our bitterness toward them in ourselves. (Prov 27:19 “As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects the heart”)

- Another sign of impurity of heart is asking the question, "WHY did they...?"  Often when we ask, "why?" about somebody else - it can be coming from a Pharisaical attitude, like when the Pharisees said, "Why do your disciples not wash their hands?" (Matt 15:2). There can be an impurity there in their heart. "Why" doesn’t ALWAYS mean that every time, but in my own life I've seen that often times it can.  Asking "why did they do that" can sometimes mean there's an inward judgment there in ourselves which we don't see, and we have to examine our motive and see.

 

- One other very dangerous sign of impurity of heart, which can come is: Our tendency will be to 'leak' the impurity to others (gossip).  I remember one time talking to a relative on the phone, and I mentioned something in passing about another relative.  It may not have even been technically incorrect - but it was negative. The Lord spoke to me afterward, saying "The reason why you spoke that is because your heart is not right toward this person."  I was so convicted, and I had to repent immediately of that, and apologize to the person I had spoken to about it, and correct what I said.  Impurity in our heart toward someone is like having a toxin or cancer inside of us - it has a tendency to spread.  In this case, impurity in one person can spread to others.

 

Hebrews 12:15 "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled"

 

The Lord is so merciful and loving.  Imagine how long Jesus knew about Judas stealing from the money, but none of the other disciples knew.  No others knew that Judas was the betrayer until the end.  Those who are pure in heart and full of love and mercy will have a carefulness to them when talking about others.  They are eager to 'cover' the sins of others, as Shem and Japheth were with their father Noah.

 

Genesis 9:23 "But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father's nakedness."

 

They didn't allow others to see Noah's sin, and they didn't even allow themselves to look!!   See how pure their hearts were.  If you see someone in sin, or some negative thing about them - try your best not to think about it, not to focus on it.  And definitely don't tell others.  We should be like Shem and Japheth - try to cover it up from not only others but cover it up from our own eyes too!  That's the heart of the Lord's great love and mercy.

 

Proverbs. 17:9a - “He who covers a transgression seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates intimate friends.”

Proverbs 20:19 – “He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, therefore do not associate with a gossip.”

 

Prov 4:23 "Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life."

 

The Bible says we have to be so careful with our heart, what's in it  - to not have impurities.  And then we have to be careful with our tongue, because whatever is in our heart will come out eventually and affect others.  We may very well feel too comfortable having a 'loose tongue', and may not see the need to be careful with our speech at all times, freely speaking anything that comes to mind and disregarding the consequences.  "I should be able to share how I feel", "I'm just trying to be real", "I need to let it out".  But we have to look at God's Word.  Is a "loose tongue" a freedom we should have?  Is that what the Bible says?  For those who are walking in a love and fear of God, there should be a carefulness, and a stop-sign like attitude toward our speech, to consider what the Lord's will is. For those who love God and fear Him, there is an inward-bowing reverence toward the Father and toward others, in our speech and especially when we speak of others. This is what God's Word says:

 

Matthew 12:35   "The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 12:36   "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment."

 

If our heart is pure, it will pour out good things.  If it is not, then it will CARELESSLY pour out impure things very easily - with a "loose tongue", without even a thought of repentance.

 

Prov 15:28 "The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, But the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things."

 

Loose tongues will spread impurity, and cause others to stumble.  So we have to be so careful to live in a fear of God in this area.

 

Matt 18:6 "...whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

 

May the Lord help us walk in a genuine reverence for Him, with pure hearts and pure speech - only speech which builds up others in the Lord (Eph 4:29).

 

In the next part, we'll talk about fighting and overcoming impurity of heart.

 

Part 2