Who Is Really Pure?

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

THERE IS an interaction between seeing and being. The kind of person you are affects the kind of world that you see. … And conversely, what you see affects what you are.
Simon Tugwell, The Beatitudes

INDEED, what would one search for when one has God before one's eyes? Or what would satisfy one who would not be satisfied with God? Yes, we wish to see God. Who does not have this desire? We strive to see God. We are on fire with the desire of seeing God.
Augustine, Sermon

As we unpack this beatitude, we know that in fact no one is pure in heart. If we were pure in heart we wouldn't need Jesus to purify and cleanse us from our sin by dying on the cross. Even the man after God's own heart David said in Psalm 53, "Create in me a pure heart, and renew a right Spirit within me." David knew his heart was impure and that only God could make it pure.

The word for pure is the Greek word "Kathari" which means to prune, cut or clean. The classic use of the word is in John 15 where John says to his disciples, "If you abide in me and I abide in me, you will bear much fruit. Every branch that abides in me I will "prune", "cut", "purify" so it will bear even more fruit. So you see the process of being made pure, or being pruned does not happen overnight. In fact when Jesus says, "they will see God", the word "see" is in the future, continuous tense. Meaning it is something that will be finished at some future time and it will remain forever.

This squares up with Revelation 22:3-4 which says about the future state of believers,

3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."

So the question for us today is what are we looking for? Are we keeping our eyes on Jesus, abiding in Him and He in us. Like a good gardener, as we do this, God is pruning and shaping us to be the people that will see him face to face one day and enjoy Him forever!

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