Exploring What it Means to be Pure in Heart and the Key to Seeing God

Have you ever had someone highly recommend a movie, restaurant, musical group or vacation spot with such enthusiasm that you spent the money to experience what was so highly praised, and yet when you got there, you were not impressed? You knew your excited friend would be waiting for a review, and you would have to tell the truth. It just didn’t do for you what it did for him.

In Matthew 5:8 Jesus directs our attention toward something that everyone really should see. It is so wonderful, that to not see it should rightly be described as death. We should invest ourselves fully in Jesus’ recommendation.

He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” It’s hard for us to imagine such an experience, especially when we are distracted with seeing football games, Times Square, grandchildren, funny pet videos, captivating movies, the beauty of a snow covered Cove, the Grand Canyon, etc.

Jesus turns our attention higher. In the Gospel of John He prayed that all of His people would be brought eventually to see Him in His glory. John 1:18 says, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Apparently seeing God is pretty special and is what satisfies us who were made to live in communion with Him.

Of course, in order for this to happen Jesus must remove our sins and make us righteous like Himself in order for us to even be admitted there. And if we were not changed to become righteous like Jesus, the beauty and splendor of heaven would just not do much for us except scare us and make us want to hide and retreat to a world filled with beauty according to our tastes which are formed by a love of idols which cannot satisfy the soul.

So we should listen to Jesus because He is divine and knows the beauty involved in seeing God, and because anything less would turn out to be hell since it cannot be satisfied for eternity. After the final judgment, there will be no true beauty accessible for those who rejected Christ as the Savior who can rescue us from loving counterfeit beauties.

What does it mean to be pure in heart? Hebrews 12:14 says that without holiness no one will see God. Holiness refers to resembling God, being set apart from the world, conforming to His law, partaking of the very life of Jesus. Being pure in heart is not about merely keeping up appearances or honoring a checklist of rules. Many people were converted under the ministry of an international speaker named Ravi Zacharias, but after he died, information was released that showed his heart was not pure and that he had a secret life.

Being pure in heart requires a ruthless abandonment of double-mindedness. Is seeing God the chief motivation in your heart, and are you growing in exclusive loyalty to Jesus?