Blessed are...

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8

Heart righteousness is more important than rule righteousness, for without it we will never see God. To be pure in heart, then, means to possess inner purity, to be cleansed from moral defilement. That’s why Psalm 24 asks, famously, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?”[1] The answer comes immediately, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol, or swear by what is false.”[2] It’s about a great deal more than ritual cleanliness. God wants more than to know that we have avoided defilement; He wants to know the state of our hearts. His is a radical examination. He wants us clean on the inside. It will not do for us to be unblemished on the outside and impure of heart, because then we will be no better than those who clean a cup on the outside, whilst allowing the inside to remain dirty. We will be like the whitened sepulchers condemned by Jesus: whitewashed and beautiful on the outside, but on the inside full of dead men’s bones.[3]

The clue to purity of heart seems to lie not just in moral purity but in right relationships. It’s hard to be moral alone. We need to be pure in heart within the community. We must be single-minded and sincere, free from falsehood, utterly transparent. To be pure in heart is to reject the masks so commonly worn, the play-acting that so readily makes hypocrites of us. One test of whether or not we come before God with clean hands and a pure heart is that we do not swear deceitfully.[4] We must say what we mean, and mean what we say. To be pure in heart is to be utterly without guile. Are we?


Lord God,
You see within me, there is nothing about me
that is hidden from Your sight.
I may fool others. Sometimes I may fool myself.
I cannot fool You.
So, with David I pray,
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
For Jesus’ sake.
Amen.


[1] Psalm 24:3
[2] Psalm 24:4
[3] Matthew 23:27
[4] Psalm 24:4