As we address this teaching, we are faced with the question: “What is purity?” And what does it mean to be “pure in heart”? We have talked about our hearts, clarifying that it is the heart that God sees. So to have a pure heart is desirable and will bring us to a place of personal contact with the Lord. It is indeed an eternal value to pursue.
A person who is single-minded in his/her commitment to the Kingdom and its righteousness will also be inwardly pure. It is obvious that inward sham, deceit, and moral filth cannot co-exist with devotion to Christ. The sources of these deterrents are all around us in the world. We do not seek to escape the world, but to be in it and not “of it”. It points to what our mind is focused on, what forms our attitudes and requires our attention. In our longing to be pure in heart, we can truly know our Lord.
Many theologians have written about the difficulty of self-discipline and change. This entire study focuses on the incorporation of eternal values and in reality this is the journey of every committed follower of Christ. We desire to know Him more, to be more like Him, to walk in His ways, and to do His will. All these longings are placed deeply in our hearts because Jesus has placed them there. He rejoices when we take these desires seriously and promotes our efforts in every direction that leads us closer to Him.
Perhaps the best conclusion we can draw in attempting to define what it means to be pure in heart is to say:
One who is pure in heart lives a life – both public and private – that is transparent before God and men.
Excerpts from Learning to Live with Eternity’s Values in View Curriculum