A Pure Heart Before God

Matthew 5:8 contains one of the most beautiful of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Purity of heart is not outward moral perfection, but an inner orientation turned toward God: a heart that is not divided between God and idols, and that seeks above all to please the LORD. Psalm 24:3-4 describes the one who may ascend the mountain of God: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart." This purity is the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer who yields to His action. Scripture is clear: the natural heart of man is deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9), and no one can purify himself by his own efforts. This is why David, after his fall, pleads with God in Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." The verb "create" indicates that this is a divine work, a new creation that God alone can accomplish. The pure heart, then, is not the one that has never sinned, but the one that has been washed by the blood of Christ and now desires what God desires. Hebrews 10:22 invites the believer to draw near "with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience." Regular confession and communion with God keep this heart in purity, and the promise stands: the pure in heart shall see God.