Pure Hearts

by MACDONALD, M.D. | Category: N/a | Dec 2007

Pure hearts may not be highly valued in today's modern world, but to the God of heaven people who possess such are of more value than silver or gold. ‘He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend’ (Prov.22:11).

Pure hearts

The NIV translation of the Bible includes seven different uses of 'pure' with respect to our hearts. Five of these uses describe what our hearts are like. Two of them describe the state or condition of our hearts.

The first of those regarding the condition of our hearts has to do with the answer to two questions.

‘Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?’ (Ps.24:3,4). To the God-fearing Israelite surely these two questions stood at the very centre of their national existence. In a similar way today these questions of divine service and its setting should occupy the minds of every God-fearing believer. The four-part answer follows the questions and shows the need for godliness in all our lives:

1. Clean hands - speaking of actions

2. A pure heart - speaking of loving obedience.

3. Freedom from idolatry - speaking of true worship

4. Honest lips - speaking of truthfulness

The second setting (Ps.51) has to do with an example of failure that occurred in the life of king David. It concerned the deliberate sin into which David fell, associated with his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. It brought home to David so strongly his fallen nature, in which we all share, and the impossibility of worshipping God with such a condition of heart. So David pleads with God to create in him a 'pure heart' and renew a steadfast spirit within him. The apostle Paul also emphasizes the need for similar concern regarding our present worship of God (1 Cor.11:28).

The next setting is given in our introductory text: ‘he who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend’ (Prov.22:11). Perhaps all that need be said about such a text is that no greater incentive to 'pure hearts' could be given than the promise of having the king as our friend. When Jesus was here among His disciples He said, ‘You are my friends if you do what I command’ (John 15:14).

Two last references to 'pure hearts' are both found in the letters to Timothy. Firstly, the apostle gives a command to counteract false doctrine - so often a cause of bitterness and hatred. He states the purpose of counteracting false teaching is to bring ‘love, which comes from a pure heart’ (1 Tim.1:5). It is apparent then, that sound teaching really leads to love flowing from pure hearts. Finally, the apostle - speaking to a younger man - exhorts him to flee the evil desires of youth but go after righteousness, faith, love and peace ‘along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart’ (2 Tim.2:22). Righteousness, faith, love and peace are the very opposites of evil desires. How important to have that right attitude of heart when calling on the Lord.

We then have to consider the two occurrences of ‘pure in heart’. One is in the Old Testament; the other is in the New. Both of them give us strong encouragement to know God in our daily lives. The first one deals with God's goodness and the second one deals with seeing God.

Asaph, the psalmist, stated (Ps.73:1) that God was good to Israel, to those who were pure in heart. He himself had been passing through a difficult time. He was almost ready to give up because of the evil surrounding him on every hand. But the change came when he went into the sanctuary of God. Then he appreciated God's goodness as he thought on the final end of wicked men. It's in the sanctuary that we realise in fuller measure the goodness of our God.

The New Testament occurrence is found in the Beatitudes from the sermon on the mount. How arresting is the word of the Lord Jesus: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God’ (Mat.5:8).

Seeing God is only twice referred to in our Bibles - one is future (Job 19:26) and the other concerns the words we're studying at present. To experience God in our everyday lives requires this purity in heart. If this is present then all the other things in our lives will fall into place. We will see, and rejoice in, the hand of God working in us and through us in all the circumstances we face.

(All Bible quotes from NIV)

MACDONALD, M.D. | Dec 2007
N/a