Pure In Heart

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

Jesus says that if you want to see God, you must have a pure heart. The interesting thing about Jesus’s statement is that according to the Bible no one has a pure heart. At the risk of trashing your self-esteem, let me show you some of the statements the Bible makes about humanity from Romans 3. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none who seeks after God.  They have all turned aside.” “There is none who does good, no, not one.” “With their tongues they have practiced deceit.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” And to top it off, the Lord says in Jeremiah “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. (17:9)” We must understand Jesus’s statement about a pure heart in light of the whole counsel of the Bible.  The pure in heart will see God, yet no one has a pure heart.

The Need for Something Drastic

So, on the one hand, Jesus said that it’s the pure in heart that will see God. However, on the other hand, we see from the rest of the Bible that no one has a pure heart. Where does this leave us? That leaves us in need of something drastic. That leaves us in need of a new birth. Jesus told a very religious man named Nicodemus that if he wanted to go to Heaven Nicodemus would need to be born again. You have heard of the term “Born Again,” but you probably thought of it as just another term for “Saved,” “Evangelical,” or even “Christian.” But “Born Again” is not a figure of speech, Jesus was speaking literally. Does that sound strange to you?  It did to Nicodemus (see John 3).

What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

The Bible teaches us that when you sincerely trust Christ as your Savior something supernatural happens to you. You become a new creation in Christ. You may have seen a bumper sticker that says something to the effect of “Christians are Just Like Everyone Else, Just Forgiven.” These bumper stickers are well meaning but not biblically correct. Christians are not like everyone else. They have been made new in Christ. Ezekiel 36 gives us the essence of what it means to be born again. “²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” So you see that when a person receives Christ that person is given a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him. You might say that person becomes “pure in heart.”

How to Purify Your Heart

The answer to our search for a pure heart lies not in our goodness but in the work of God. When you realize that you fall short of Jesus’s standard to be pure in heart, it leads you to the cross. When we trust in Jesus’s work on the cross and turn to Him, we are not only forgiven our sins, but we are born again. The Holy Spirit comes inside us and gives us a new heart that loves God and wants to obey Him.

One final note. I have noticed that there is a pattern for many people. They sense the need to be right with God. They try their best. They go to church. They try hard to stop some of their sins. This process lasts for a few weeks, and then they crash and fall back to their old life. Sometimes people repeat this pattern over and over. The reason for this may be that they are trying to be religious, but they are not born again.  Religion can’t save you.  Only Jesus saves. The way to live for God in a way that lasts and is meaningful is to trust solely in Him and let Him purify your heart.

You Must Forgive!

Jesus said something shocking in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said something that should make us do a double take when reading the Bible. He said something that, if we take seriously, it should make us examine our entire lives. What did He say? “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:15) In other words, if we don’t forgive others, God is not going to forgive us. Jesus makes this clear in His statement, and it should shock us. It should make us evaluate our hearts. 

We Have Cried Out to God to Forgive Us.

Before we discuss why we must forgive others, let's talk about our relationship with God. A Christian is someone who has realized their sin has eternally separated them from God and that they have no way to save themselves. The Bible teaches that there is no amount of good works we can do to work off our sins. The Good News is that God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins. On the cross, He stood in our place and received what we should have gotten, the wrath of God. So if we are in Christ, our conversion must have started with us crying out to God for mercy and asking Him to forgive us based on what His Son did on the cross. The Good News is that God is merciful, and He will grant forgiveness to anyone who comes in faith to Christ.

Forgive as We Have Been Forgiven 

As Christians, we base our entire standing with God on His forgiveness towards us. In turn, we should be the most merciful people on the planet toward others. We have realized what great lengths to which God has gone to forgive us. It only makes sense that those who have been forgiven should themselves forgive others.

When It’s Our Turn to Forgive, and We Don’t

However, the truth is that there are many people who, though they have come to God for forgiveness, absolutely refuse to forgive others. How does God feel about that? Jesus told a story to tell us how he feels about it.  In Matthew 18 Jesus told a parable of a man who owed a king a great debt.  The man could not pay and begged the king to show him mercy.  The king agreed that he should be merciful, so he forgave the man’s debt.   However, the same man went out and found someone who owed him money and demanded payment. The other man begged for mercy asking for more time to pay his debt, but the man who was just forgiven by the king would not. The news traveled back to the king that the man he had forgiven would not forgive another man’s debt. The king was furious!  He rebuked him saying “should not you have had mercy on your fellow-servant, as I had mercy on you?’” (Matthew 18:33) The king then threw him into prison until he could pay all his debt.  The point of the parable is that once God has shown you mercy by forgiving you, you had better show others that same mercy by forgiving them.

The Real Issue: What Refusing to Forgive Others Says About Us

Why would a man who received forgiveness of a great debt refuse to forgive another man his debt? The answer is that the man was not truly repentant in his heart. He just wanted to get out of a jam. When he got out of the jam, he went back to being his old miserable self. In the same way, people who call themselves Christians expose their hearts when they have a chance to show others mercy by forgiving them but refuse to do so. If you realize just how much God did for you by showing you mercy, you should jump at the chance to show mercy to others. How can we who cried “Mercy, Lord!” and received it, not do anything but lavish mercy on others? If you refuse to show mercy and forgive others, it may show that you never really repented and turned to Jesus.  Maybe you weren’t genuine, but you just wanted out of a jam?   Don’t be like the man in the parable. Instead be exceedingly generous in showing mercy to others because God was to you!

“Blessed are the Meek”… Does Jesus Command us to be Wimps?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5

Jesus declares “blessed are the meek,” but America does not appear to agree.  Most people see being meek as a weakness instead of an asset. Several years ago, I was watching a baseball game where the camera panned in on someone wearing a t-shirt that read “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing.” It seems that our culture has not only rejected what God values but, in the case of meekness, it flat out mocks it. 

A major factor in our negative perception of meekness is that we don’t understand what it means to be meek. Before we discuss what meekness is, it is first necessary to discuss what it is not.  “Meek” is not a synonym for weak or pushover.  Slumped shoulders and spinelessness does not personify meekness. The wimpy kid is just wimpy, not meek.   Jesus described Himself as meek, and Jesus was not a wimp. Just ask the money changers in the temple.

So what does meek mean? In actuality meekness is strength.  Meekness is strength under control.  In any study of the word meek, you are likely to see the example of a horse.  When a horse gets “meeked,” its power becomes harnessed, and it is under control. We see meekness illustrated in Jesus Himself. The Greek word used for meek in Matthew 5:5 is praus. Praus is the same word for “gentle” used in Matthew 11:29. There Jesus says of himself, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus is our all-powerful Lord and Master, but He is not harsh or heavy-handed. Instead, He chooses to lead us gently.  Jesus is not a cowboy who drives His cattle by force, but the Good Shepherd who gently leads His Sheep. 

Meekness is lived out in at least two ways in our culture. Our first opportunity to be meek is when we have authority over others.  We are to use the strength, power, and authority we have, not to get our way with others, but for their good. Jesus told His disciples that He wanted them to serve those they were in authority over. Any authority we have as Christian leaders, parents, spouses, bosses, etc., is for the good of others, not to use as leverage for ourselves.  Secondly, we can choose to be meek by accepting when we do not get our way.  Some people cannot accept it when things do not go their way. They scream, kick and fight until they get what they want, which is the antithesis of being meek.  In contrast the meek trust God for His provision instead of throwing a temper tantrum.   

You still may not think of being meek as something to be desired, but God does.  God is going to reward the meek by allowing them to reign with Him in His Kingdom. Those who lord their authority over others for their good or fight to get every last thing they want, have their kingdom now.