Blessed Are the Pure in Heart
BLESSED are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8
MAKE EVERY EFFORT to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14
WHO IS PURE OF HEART? Only those who have surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus that he may reign in them alone. Only those whose hearts are undefiled by their own evil—and by their own virtues too.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship
NOW when [people] attempt to live a double life spiritually, that is, to appear pure on the outside but are not pure in the heart, they are anything but blessed. Their conflicting loyalties make them wretched, confused, tense. And having to keep their eyes on two masters at once makes them cross-eyed, and their vision is so blurred that neither image is clear.
Clarence Jordan, Sermon on the Mount
OPPOSING PURITY of heart is lust of any kind—for wealth, for recognition, for vengeance, for sexual access to others—whether indulged through action or imagination.
Jim Forest, The Ladder of the Beatitudes
A PURE WILL loves God with the whole heart and soul and mind. It is "fanatical"—the greatest insult the modern mind can conceive, and the greatest compliment God can give. It is also the greatest compliment a lover can give: "I love you with my whole heart and soul. My love is not divided. You have no rival."
Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue
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 ...
This article is currently available to CT subscribers only.
To continue reading:
or
Star Trek Into Darkness
(on articles open to the public, you must at least register for a free account).
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
Comments
Displaying 1–3 of 8 comments
See all comments
George T.
Excellent. Keep them coming more often !!
lttlered
God is not the one who causes our suffering...our choice is to choose God or not..and when Adam and Eve sinned.it caused all of us to be born in sin..our suffering is because of sin ,bad choices made without the guidance of the Lord.If we would trust and follow him..make him our first in life then things would be different...the bible tells us everything we need to know on everything choice in our life,from what to eat to how to act,dress and treat each other...but we choose sin and the devil...don't kid yourself that when you have not chose Christ that you are between sides,you are'nt..til you accept Jesus as savior and Lord ..you have chose satan..
Lon Gregg
I read with interest Christianity Today's citation of Geulich's view that "TO SEE GOD in terms of the Beatitude's promise [to the pure in heart] is to be able to stand before him, accepted into his presence at the Last Judgment." Whew! I'm sure glad that as a (sometimes impure) believer, I won't stand before him at the Last Judgment (John 5:24, 3:18, 5:28-29--cf. Rev. 20:4-6, 11-15)!