Sermon on the Mount
Week 09 – Blessed are the Pure in Heart
Review
The Sermon on the Mount is the core of Jesus’ yoke and if we want to be true Jesus followers, then we
need to understand how to live out his yoke. The main purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to show
how to live a life that God finds pious, that is, how to live out the righteousness of God here on Earth.
To do this, Jesus begins his sermon with the “Principles of the Yoke,” the Beatitudes. We have learned
that the while the word “Blessed” literally means “happy,” it is much more than that. It more closely
resembles something akin to “Held in honor by God” or “In a righteous relationship with God.”
Introduction
Last week we looked at three ways to show mercy. This week we continue on our journey to discover
what Jesus’ listeners would have heard when He talked about being “pure in heart.”
When we think of purity of heart we might think of having completely pure, blameless, sinless lives, or
perhaps a heart that is pure from temptations and sins (primarily, we think of the sexual ones).
Sometimes our connotations of what the Bible means actually limit drastically the implications of its
teaching for our lives. Jesus isn’t saying if we don’t get involved in sexually active relationships we’re
pure in heart and will see God no matter what else we do with our lives, and he also isn’t saying we
better be 100% sinless or we can wave goodbye to the change of ever seeing God. What he is saying is
much better than that!
The Bible doesn’t leave us in the dark and guessing what purity of heart is; it talks about it in many
different places and sets out stark contrasts to what purity of heart defiantly isn’t.
Pure in Heart
Discussion Question
1. What does it mean to you when you hear the phase, “pure in heart”? What sort of images
or thoughts sprint to mind?
2. How do each of these help us understand “pure in heart.?” What do these passages tell us
what is NOT “pure in heart.”
The image of the “heart” as used in the Bible generally refers to the “true self.” This metaphoric
imagery of the heart being used to represent the inner person, the seat of motives and attitudes, the
center of personality, is found in many languages and cultures, including our own. If I say, “Let’s get to
the heart of the matter.” We all intuitively understand that I want to get down to the real truth, to chip
away all externalities and pretenses surrounding an issue to discover the underlying truth. The heart is
who one really is, apart from pretense. Thus, we see that to "understand with the heart" (Matthew
13:15) means to understand truly and to "forgive from the heart" (Matthew 18:35) means to forgive
truly and so on.
We can therefore imagine that the “pure in heart” are those who are truly pure, as opposed to the who
are only apparently so (Matthew 23:25-28). Just as there are some people who can worship God with
their lips, though their hearts are from God (Matthew 15:8), so can somebody appear to be pure, when
they are actually full of uncleanliness (Matthew 23:28). This would lead us to believe that Jesus is talking
about people’s whose internal motives and attitudes reflect their external behavior. That is, Jesus is
talking about personal integrity. Our external actions indicate our internal priorities (Matthew 6:21).
It should be noted (again) that this purity is not merely the avoidance of “impure thoughts,” but refers
to single-minded devotion to God (Deut. 6:5; Psalm 86:11). In other words, it is a single-hearted passion
for God. Many of our people have no passion for anything; or they have divided passions.
It is so easy for us to be controlled by the cares of this world (I John 2:15-17) and to allow those things to
distract us from staying focused on God and Him alone. The stuff of this world is all about “me.” Its
about making “me” look good and making “me” feel good. One of the whole tenets we have continually
seen through our study, though, shows that the righteousness and piety are about how we live in
relationship with God and in relationship with others. The core of Jesus’ yoke is, “stop looking after you
and yours and look out for the poor and weak. Stop being so selfish and take care of others.” Someone
who is “pure in heart” is unselfish.
The beautifully profound imagery of the original Aramaic is lost in English. In Aramaic, there is no actual
word for ‘unselfish’. Instead, the equivalent phrase literally means ‘to have a good eye’. The line literally
reads in Aramaic, “How fortunate are they who have a good eye, for they shall see God.”
A person who is pure in heart is a person whose motives are pure when they helping others. When they
see a need, they truly want to help without any thought of what that means for them. We can contrast
this with people who help others so that they can get something in return. Maybe they give because
they are seeking the honor of men (Matthew 6:1-4). Maybe they are giving because they “storing up for
themselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-21). Maybe they are trying to appease their own guilt
at what they have or things they have done. Maybe they are trying to make a political or social
statement. The fact is that all of these things are not pure motives.
When we empty ourselves of ourselves and seek to help those who need it…