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

What does it mean to be "pure in heart"? "Heart" is the impulse to give and receive love for the purpose of joy. Heart manifests itself in love. By love we mean not merely a sentimental feeling or romantic desire but what S. G. Post defined as "an affection of the heart, an attunement of the person's deepest center that issues in a faithful will to exist for God and others as well as for one's own true fulfillment." Thus love involves intellect, emotion, and will, but it is deeper than any of them.

Heart, as we use the term, is at once emotional, intellectual, and volitional. It is the basis of ardor and beauty. It is the center of thought and recognizes truth. It is the origin of consciousness of goodness and good actions. Our "heart" is the subject of our whole personality and represents the mind as well. The heart is God's temple. God would like us to enshrine and express His heart through ours: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jer. 31:33).

The source or origin of heart is God. The heart is the dwelling place of God: For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite." (Is. 57:15)

Paul prays that Christ and the fullness of God may dwell in our hearts through our faith and through love (Eph. 3:17-19 ). In other words, the human heart has the capacity to contain the expanse of God.

Our heart is gratified with joy when a beloved object responds and returns our love; so in order for our heart to be fulfilled, we need a partner in love. God, as the origin of heart, needed a love partner; therefore, He desired to create. Heart was the root of God's motive for creating.

The very heart of Adam and Eve was broken and degraded by the fall. Central to love, the heart became corrupted and impure. When percolated through an impure heart, love becomes impure, and it is this impure love that we transmit to our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends, and our neighbors-whether we want to or not. It is most unsatisfactory. As fallen human beings, we are full of satanic emotions, ideas, and self-willed desires. Our heart is dominated by these. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9). We have established fallen families, fallen societies, fallen nations, and a fallen world based on our corrupted hearts. When Jesus rebukes the scribes and Pharisees, he attacks them as being internally impure:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisees! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean. (Matt. 23:25-26)

In regards to the human heart, Jesus says: For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man. (Mark 7:21-23)

Not only does Jesus characterize the fallen human heart as the root of sinful actions, but he also relates the heart to human thought, or mind.

The words "heart" and "mind" can be used almost interchangeably. The purpose of the human mind is to have give and take with God. It is composed of both the spiritual and physical minds. When our spiritual mind and physical mind unite centered upon God, seeking God's divine character and goodness, they form the divine original mind-also called conscience. In contrast, when our spiritual and physical mind have give and take centered upon evil, they produce the "evil mind." The impure heart is dominated by the evil mind.

In our thought processes, this original mind and this evil mind are constantly at odds. We have a double mind; therefore, our work and our lives have a double character. Sometimes we do good; sometimes we do evil. Through the human fall, we came to dwell in between God and Satan, and we inherited two contradictory characters, one of God and one of Satan. Paul testifies to this:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom 8:5-6)

Even such a devout man as Paul finds himself in a quandary over the sin raging uncontrollably within him: on the one hand he affirms and delights in the law of God, and on the other hand, he is at war with the evil "law of sin" dwelling within him (Rom. 7:22-23).

The horrendous meaning of the human fall is that we have a mingled desire: on the one hand to follow the goodness of the original mind, and on the other hand to follow the evil mind. In such a state of equivocation, we have no peace. We experience constant internal conflict as the pure and the impure are interlocked in struggle. This is the plight of the human fall.

Yet it is possible for the human heart and mind to become pure. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promises:

I will sprinkle clean water upon you.... A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezek. 36:25-28)

Paul urges Christ's followers to:

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24)

To become pure means to be made clean, Godly, and holy. Purification is God's request (Lev. 11:44). Purification means to morally separate from sin (Ps. 51:7-10). Then we must be recreated with a pure heart and mind (Ezek. 36:25-27).

The New Testament is especially expressive about purification and holiness coming from the blood of Jesus Christ (1 John 1:7, Heb. 9:14). Purification means that through Christ, who is the visible God, we receive rebirth and become transformed. Those who could see Jesus for what he was had some purity, thus they could "see" God manifested in him (Heb. 12:14).

The person who walks in the ways of mercy and has cleansed his fallen nature is individually perfected and thus can go before God. The Psalmist asks:

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation. (Ps. 24:3-5)

A pure heart is full of sincere, genuine, unselfish and loving thoughts and emotions. There is no hidden motivation, no underhandedness, no scheming, no lying. The pure heart is simple; it is integrated harmoniously with the original mind or conscience. Purity comes through many things: repentance, meekness, mercy and forgiveness, enduring persecution, and humility. Purity in heart is the culmination of all these steps in the Beatitudes. Purity of heart refines our spiritual discernment and generates a deeper understanding of God's divine character.

Purity is an absolute state; once someone or something has reached purity, it means all trace or alloy of other substances has been eliminated. For instance, to find gold-highly valued throughout the world for its purity-one must pan through large quantities of sand and rocks to mechanically separate out the gold flakes or nuggets, or one can obtain it as a by-product of refining other minerals, such as copper. Purity of heart is unchanging in any setting and in any age. It is universal and eternal. Purity is like light, which in the words of Augustine, "even though it passes through our pollution is not polluted." Purity is true, so purity becomes the center of value for comparison of all things: the model of models. A pure person has unchangeable value, like gems and precious metals. A pure person is as enduring and sparkling as diamonds, as lustrous and perfectly rounded as pearls, and as unchanging as gold. Such people do not waver from day to day; they are always true, no matter what the circumstances. No matter what is done to them, their response will be love.

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