Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 5:8
Blessed [are] the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
8. pure in heart ] Purity is a distinguishing virtue of Christianity. It finds no place even in the teaching of Socrates, or in the system of Aristotle. Pure in heart “non sufficit puritas ceremonialis.” Bengel.
shall see God ] The Christian education is a gradual unveiling of God, all have glimpses of Him, to the pure He appears quite plainly. Cp. 1Jn 3:2-3. In a further sense the unveiled sight of God is reserved for the Eternal life.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Blessed are the pure in heart – That is, whose minds, motives, and principles are pure; who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire to be holy in heart, and who are so. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
They shall see God – There is a sense in which all will see God, Rev 1:7. That is, they will behold him as a Judge, not as a Friend. In this place it is spoken of as a special favor. So also in Rev 22:4, And they shall see his face. To see the face of one, or to be in the presence of any one, were terms among the Jews expressive of great favor. It was regarded as a high honor to be in the presence of kings and princes, and to be permitted to see them, Pro 22:29, He shall stand before kings. See also 2Ki 25:19, Those that stood in the kings presence; in the Hebrew, those that saw the face of the king; that is, who were his favorites and friends. So here, to see God, means to be his friends and favorites, and to dwell with him in his kingdom.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mat 5:8
The pure in heart.
Purity of heart
I. Purity of heart demands our attention.
1. It implies a change of heart.
2. It implies that the faculties of the soul are purified.
3. It implies the purity of the affections. 4, It implies the purity of the thoughts and desires.
5. It leads to purity of worship.
6. It leads to purity of life.
II. The blessedness promised to the pure in heart.
1. What is denoted by seeing God.
2. This vision will constitute the blessedness of the pure in heart. (J. Jordan.)
The blessedness of the pure in heart
I. Inquire into The meaning of purity of heart.
1. The words carry us into the inner regions of mans being. At first sight they only suggest the absence of the impure. But, there is no purity apart from the absolute authority of God in the affections. Man is not made by negatives.
II. Purity of heart gives the vision of God. The phrase see God does not refer to any manifestation of His glory visible to the eye of sense. It is to the far deeper sight of the soul that Christ refers. Your best friend is not seen by the eye of the body; you see him spiritually, his qualities of mind and heart.
1. None but the pure in heart can see Him. It is useless to tell the selfish about the beauty of unselfishness; you might as well tell the blind about the glory of colour.
2. That to the pure in heart the full glory of the Divine nature reveals itself. God is light and love. These are seen by the pure soul.
III. The vision is its own exceeding blessedness.
1. It is blessed because to see God satisfies the longings of the heart.
2. Because it clothes life in glory.
3. Because it is the dawning of immortal hope. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
I. Let us try to ascertain what this purity Is which is here so extolled. It was in Adam by nature-it is in us by grace, etc. In us it is as seed cast into the soil, etc. It is a living principle, ever powerful, ever resisted, yet never beaten, growing daily in aspirations and likeness, until it is made perfect by seeing Christ as He is, when we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. Constantly enjoined. Is true beauty. The qualification for heaven. The Holy Spirit its author. The heart its seat. Manifest in the outer life. Will ever be ready to disclose itself to God in prayer.
II. Such persons are blessed. In having this characteristic. Evidence of being amongst the people of God. To them all things are pure. Shall see God-in lifes trials, lifes prosperity, providential dealings, in all creation, in the sacred page, in ordinances, and, above all, in glory-transforming, satisfying, joyful. Create in me, etc. (Dr. J. Caroming.)
By the heart we are to understand the inward part of man, comprehending the mind and soul with all their faculties and affections, purposes and inclinations, the secret recesses into which mortal eye cannot penetrate.
I. The foliage and branches are of the same kind with the stock that bears them.
1. Before we can bring forth good fruit we must be renovated.
2. There may be the semblance of purity in the life when there is no real principle of holiness in the heart.
II. Purity is
(1) the mind renewed, the
(2) disordered spirit restored, and
(3) conformed to the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness.
III. From the definition of the principle there are three things which it includes.
1. Frank and genuine sincerity in opposition to dissimulation and deceit.
2. Spiritual worship in opposition to that which is formal.
3. A holy and heavenly mind, in opposition to one that is polluted and sensual. (J. E. Good.)
I. A great privilege proposed by our Saviour to His followers. They shall see God-in this life and in heaven.
II. The qualification required for this enjoyment-parity of heart. Nature and necessity of heart-purity.
1. Try your hopes of heaven by this rule.
2. Follow after purity-heart and life. (Henry Grove.)
See here what is the beauty that sets off a soul in Gods eye: purity of heart.
I. Thou who art never so beautiful, art but a spiritual leper, till thou art pure in heart,
1. Therein God sees His own picture drawn.
2. Holiness is a beam of God.
II. Thou who art pure in heart hast the angels glory in thee, and the embroidery and workmanship of the Holy Ghost upon thee.
III. The pure heart is Gods paradise, where He delights to walk; it is His lesser heaven. The dove delights in the purest air; the Holy Ghost, who descended in the likeness of a dove, delights in the purest soul. How may this raise the esteem of purity! This is a beauty that, never fades! (Thomas Watson.)
I. Purity of heart stands in direct opposition to that external affectation of purity which is the offspring of hypocrisy.
1. Actions are the outward symbols or expressions of virtue and vice, not virtue and vice themselves.
2. Actions when separated from their motives are indifferent, but it is the disposition of benevolence by which the mind is actuated in which the virtue lies.
3. Words, like actions, when separated from their motives, are indifferent; but it is the inward malignity of soul from which the words proceed, in which the vice consists.
4. The form of purity, like that o! godliness without its power, is only a delusive counterfeit.
5. All external services and sacrifices are of no value without this internal purity.
II. Purity implies the absence of moral grossness. Whatever is defiled is essentially repugnant to the spirit of purity.
(1) By the law of nature clouds darken the face of the sky, fogs and vapours stagnate and corrupt the air.
(2) By the law of conscience and religion, moral blots and corruptions stain the beauty of the soul, and cast a shade upon its brightness.
III. Purity is an active and vigorous disposition, which incessantly prompts the soul in which it resides, to
(1) admire what is amiable;
(2) To approve what is excellent;
(3) To relish what is delicate;
(4) To pursue what is refined. Purity is the only way to blessedness-purity is blessedness itself. (David Lament, D. D.)
The man of heart blessed
So came these peaceful words of Jesus: Blessed, not the man of force, but the man of heart. (E. J. Haynes.)
A pure heart uses Gods creatures without injury
We stood, the day we left home to begin life for ourselves, amid all the creatures of God, as stands the druggists clerk on the first morning of his apprenticing, not knowing which is sweet, or sour, or would kill, or would make alive; aye, and with a perverted impulse for the wrong use of all. Behold that tree which nods at the church window. Sometimes there is too much moisture in the air; sometimes too much heat; poisons are at its root, its leaf, its stock. Yet so pure is the tree, so does it follow just Gods law, that it chooses and uses, not abuses, but fructifies by all. So amid all nature will be the really pure in heart; not that pure heart is all-wise, but it is so in harmony with Gods law, so far as it is instructed, that it uses all things according to the Creators intention. How? For beauty, purity, peace, and joy. (E. J. Haynes.)
A pure heart is blessed in the feeling of security
He says, I am not conscious of any desire within which shall go half-way to meet the allurements of sin; no little rivulets of half-indulgence which have eaten the sand from under my walls. Oh, how weak is guilt, how strong is purity! I have seen the hawk flap out of the top of tall hemlocks at my coming in the pasture. Why, hawk, Ill not shoot you; it is but a walking-stick I carry in my hand. All! yes, but I think it may have a ball in it. And he sails high above the village steeple. Nay, hawk, says the steeple, Ill not hurt. Im but the finger pointing to your Maker. Ah! but I think you are a trap. He even parts company with the harmless sparrow, for the sparrow may be a snare. Not so the dove. It lives in the cornice of mens dwellings, and nods good morning to the children in the chamber crib; it touches the foot of the housemaid as she shakes her cloth of crumbs; it rests up in the steeples of old churches, and the Sabbath bell, far from being a fright, is but the signal for the cooing chorus to begin. The man of pure heart is blessed with peaceful self-respect. He is not happy who cannot respect himself. And no man can respect himself who is living in more or less constant communion with bad thoughts and evil pictures of imaginatian. Suppose we grunt that we are not altogether responsible for our thoughts, but, by the complications of daily life, before we know it we have planned a sin; or, by Satans foes beleaguered, we are thrust upon by pictures of iniquity. Still my proposition is true, that no such life could be a happy one. Could the master of a strong house be at peace, even if bolts and bars and granite strength kept all his foes at bay; if, ever and anon, the mob thrust the deaths head at his windows? Aye, more, could he respect-himself if, now and then, as impure hearts do, he showed a face for parley, or cautiously, yet surely, invited one of the red-shifted horde within, to see how ha looked near by? The sunflower might say of wasps, and hornets, and bees: Why do they pester me, and so hang about? and the wasps would reply: You enter-rain us, sir; you have what we love. And so the judge within man, true to his heaven-given instinct, makes reply to him pestered by bad thoughts: Theres something, sir, about you that these buzzards love! I saw by Lake Leman the old castle of Chillon. Up above, the royal, tapestry-hung apartments of the Duke of Savoy and his gay bride; down below, the dungeon where Bonnivard was chained; where creeping things crawl forth to ogle at the visitors, and instruments of torture are; and I wondered if never, in some scene of revelry above, the groans of martyrs rose to stir the arras on gorgeous walls. There are those we meet in social life, the rooms of whose souls which are open to friends are fair as a palace. But alas! who shall tell us of the secret kept unseen? Not so pure heart. I do not pretend to say that ever on this earth we are freed from all solicitations of evil; but there is many a soul so blessed that, when winged thoughts of sin come flying to the windows, Gods angel rises up, and draws the shutters to; when disturbing thoughts of hate, revenge, avarice, and pride draw near, Gods angel meets them at the outer gate, and bids them all begone. (E. J. Haynes.)
Pure heart is blest in his relations with his fellow-man. Pure Heart is blest because he knows no envy of anothers success jealousy at anothers praise. Dear, simple old heart, it never occurs to him that there is any less of summers sun for him because a million others bask in its beams. O King Great Heart! thyself no mans enemy, thou thinkest no man thine, but dost beam upon the world like the October sunset upon the harvest fields. He shall see God. How? Thus. Mozart and his friend, the royal huntsman, went forth arm-in-arm to the fields. The wind came up heavily through the copse of trees. Look! says the hunter, it will startle a hare! Listen! says Mozart, what a diapason from Gods great organ! A ]ark rose on soaring wing, with its own sweet song. Look! says the gamester. what a shot! Ah! says Mozart, what would I give could I catch that thrill! There be dull souls who cannot see nor hear. Are they sick? Oh! what misfortune! Are they bereaved? Some enemy hath done this! Are they well and prosperous? Good luck! Not so Pure Heart. He can see Gods hand in every sorrow chastening for good; Gods face in every blessing; Gods smile in the morning light, the blossoming harvest, and the evening shade; His heart is attuned. (E. J. Haynes.)
Vision of God in heaven
I. God is a pure Spirit, and invisible. It cannot be with our bodily eyes that we shall see Him.
II. They shall see Him. This word expresses immediate intuition of what is plainly offered review. Now we see through a glass, darkly. Wilt thou see Gods wisdom, power, love, holiness, glory?
1. This is an appropriating vision.
2. It is an assimilating vision.
3. It is a satisfying vision.
III. How excellent the soul of man which is capable of such felicity!
IV. If such be the nature of the future blessedness, then a change of heart is requisite to enable us to enjoy it.
V. What gratitude do we owe to that God who has provided such a felicity for His children.
VI. What a source of consolation under the afflictions of life.
VII. This subject calls us to mourn for the folly of the children of men, who for toys barter away glory and immortality. (H. Kollock, D. D.)
They shall see God
1. In the work of creation.
2. In the ordinances of the gospel.
3. In the dispensation of Providence.
4. In the day of judgment.
5. In heaven for ever. (J. C. Edwards, M. A.)
Purity an unmixed motive
A thing is pure when there is nothing in it out of harmony with its nature. Water is pure, air is pure, when they contain only their constituent elements, and in the right proportion. Gold is pure when it has been separated by fire from all foreign matter. The diamond is pure, the crystal is pure, when there is nothing in them which binders the refraction and reflection of light. It is thus with the heart, which is the emotional part of the soul. It is pure, when it loves only that which it ought to love. (The Abbe Beutain.)
Spiritual sigh conditioned by purity
1. It may be easily understood that impurity of heart hinders the soul from seeing God. Under the power of perverse affections the mind sees nothing aright-nothing in its just relations and proportions. Least of all can the mind thus blinded in its highest faculties see God aright; it gets no inspiring and attractive perception of His glory. As earthly vapours, condensed into clouds and darkening the world with storms, hide from the outward sense the beauty and glory of the visible heaven, so sensual passions, grovelling affections, and the dominion of sin in the soul, all the habits of an impure and unbelieving mind, intervene as with impenetrable clouds, to shut off from the view and reach of the spiritual faculties the grand realities of that upper sphere, where the eternal relations of duty are and where God is.
2. This is further illustrated by remembering distinctly that the normal or right state of the mind-the state in which its faculties and susceptibilities are properly adjusted in relation to each other and in relation to their objects-is just what our Saviour means by purity in heart. As the normal condition of the eye is not when the optic nerve is paralysed or otherwise diseased, nor when the surface is covered by a film, nor when inflammation or a mote under the eyelids makes the light painful, but only when all obstruction or disease is absent, so the normal condition of the mind, as made for the knowledge of things invisible and eternal, is not when its sensibilities are perverted by selfishness, not when sin reigns within, but only when the heart is pure.
We may now inquire, What is the blessedness of thus seeing God?
1. To see God is to see the central light which reveals the order and beauty of the universe. The unity of all created things is found only in their relation to Gods power, to His love and wisdom, to His plan and government.
2. To see God is to see the fountain of all blessedness. Such intuition of Gods glory is identical with the peace of God that passeth all understanding
3. Such an intuition of God as this promise assures to the pure in heart is that for which the soul was created. It is the souls chief end, and therefore it is the highest blessedness of which the soul is capable. (L. Bacon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Pure in heart] In opposition to the Pharisees, who affected outward purity, while their hearts were full of corruption and defilement. A principal part of the Jewish religion consisted in outward washings and cleansings: on this ground they expected to see God, to enjoy eternal glory: but Christ here shows that a purification of the heart, from all vile affections and desires, is essentially requisite in order to enter into the kingdom of God. He whose soul is not delivered from all sin, through the blood of the covenant, can have no Scriptural hope of ever being with God. There is a remarkable illustration of this passage, quoted by Mr. Wakefield from Origen, Contra Cels. lib. vi. “God has no body, and therefore is invisible: but men of contemplation can discern him with the heart and understanding. But A DEFILED HEART CANNOT SEE GOD: but HE MUST BE PURE WHO WISHES TO ENJOY A PROPER VIEW OF A PURE BEING.”
Shall see God.] This is a Hebraism, which signifies, possess God, enjoy his felicity: as seeing a thing, was used among the Hebrews for possessing it. See Ps 16:10. Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption, i.e. he shall not be corrupted. So Joh 3:3: Except a man be born again, he cannot SEE the kingdom of God, i.e. he cannot enjoy it. So Joh 3:16. He that believeth not the Son, shall not SEE life, i. e shall not be put in possession of eternal glory. The Hindoo idolaters vainly boast of what the genuine followers of Christ actually enjoy – having the Divine favour witnessed to their souls by the Holy Spirit. The Hindoos pretend that some of their sages have been favoured with a sight of their guardian deity. – See WARD’S Customs.
Probably our Lord alludes to the advantages those had, who were legally pure, of entering into the sanctuary, into the presence of God, while those who had contracted any legal defilement were excluded from it. This also was obviously typical.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The men of the world bless those who appear pure and holy to men, and put on a vizard and mask of purity, though they be but painted sepulchres, and their hearts be as cages of all unclean birds: but those alone are blessed, who, being washed from their filthiness by my blood, are of a sincere and upright heart; though they be not legally pure and free from all sin, yet are so pure as that God will accept them, the bent of their hearts being after holiness; who have not a heart and a heart, no doubleness of mind, who are persons in whom is no guile. For though no mortal eye can see and comprehend the essence of God, yet these men shall by an eye of faith see and enjoy God in this life, though in a glass more darkly, and in the life to come face to face, and as he is, 1Co 13:12; Heb 12:14; 1Jo 3:2.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. Blessed are the pure in heart:for they shall see GodHere, too, we are on Old Testamentground. There the difference between outward and inward purity, andthe acceptableness of the latter only in the sight of God, areeverywhere taught. Nor is the “vision of God” strange tothe Old Testament; and though it was an understood thing that thiswas not possible in the present life (Ex33:20; and compare Job 19:26;Job 19:27; Isa 6:5),yet spiritually it was known and felt to be the privilege of thesaints even here (Gen 5:24;Gen 6:9; Gen 17:1;Gen 48:15; Psa 27:4;Psa 36:9; Psa 63:2;Isa 38:3; Isa 38:11,c.). But oh, with what grand simplicity, brevity, and power is thisgreat fundamental truth here expressed! And in what striking contrastwould such teaching appear to that which was then current, in whichexclusive attention was paid to ceremonial purification and externalmorality! This heart purity begins in a “heart sprinkled from anevil conscience,” or a “conscience purged from dead works”(Heb 10:22 Heb 9:14;and see Ac 15:9); and this alsois taught in the Old Testament (Psa 32:1;Psa 32:2; compare Rom 4:5-8;Isa 6:5-8). The consciencethus purgedthe heart thus sprinkledthere is light withinwherewith to see God. “If we say that we have fellowship withHim, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if wewalk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one withthe other”He with us and we with Him”and the blood ofJesus Christ His Son cleanseth us”us who have thisfellowship, and who, without such continual cleansing, would soonlose it again”from all sin” (1Jn 1:6;1Jn 1:7). “Whosoever sinnethhath not seen Him, neither known Him” (1Jo3:6); “He that doeth evil hath not seen God” (3Jo11). The inward vision thus clarified, and the whole inner man insympathy with God, each looks upon the other with complacency andjoy, and we are “changed into the same image from glory toglory.” But the full and beatific vision of God is reserved forthat time to which the Psalmist stretches his views”As forme, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied,when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Ps17:15). Then shall His servants serve Him: and they shall see Hisface; and His name shall be in their foreheads (Rev 22:3;Rev 22:4). They shall see Him asHe is (1Jo 3:2). But, says theapostle, expressing the converse of this beatitude”Followholiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb12:14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Blessed are the pure in heart,…. Not in the head; for men may have pure notions and impure hearts; not in the hand, or action, or in outward conversation only; so the Pharisees were outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly full of impurity; but “in heart”. The heart of man is naturally unclean; nor is it in the power of man to make it clean, or to be pure from his sin; nor is any man in this life, in such sense, so pure in heart, as to be entirely free from sin. This is only true of Christ, angels, and glorified saints: but such may be said to be so, who, though they have sin dwelling in them, are justified from all sin, by the righteousness of Christ, and are “clean through the word”, or sentence of justification pronounced upon them, on the account of that righteousness; whose iniquities are all of them forgiven, and whose hearts are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, which cleanses from all sin; and who have the grace of God wrought in their hearts, which, though as yet imperfect, it is entirely pure; there is not the least spot or stain of sin in it: and such souls as they are in love with, so they most earnestly desire after more purity of heart, lip, life, and conversation. And happy they are,
for they shall see God; in this life, enjoying communion with him, both in private and public, in the several duties of religion, in the house and ordinances of God; where they often behold his beauty, see his power and his glory, and taste, and know, that he is good and gracious: and in the other world, where they shall see God in Christ, with the eyes of their understanding; and God incarnate, with the eyes of their bodies, after the resurrection; which sight of Christ, and God in Christ, will be unspeakably glorious, desirable, delightful, and satisfying; it will be free from all darkness and error, and from all interruption; it will be an appropriating and transforming one, and will last for ever.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Shall see God ( ). Without holiness no man will see the Lord in heaven (Heb 12:14). The Beatific Vision is only possible here on earth to those with pure hearts. No other can see the King now. Sin befogs and beclouds the heart so that one cannot see God. Purity has here its widest sense and includes everything.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Blessed are the pure in heart:” (makarioi hoi katharoi te kardis) “Spiritually blessed or prosperous are those who are clean in heart;” those who have been saved, whose hearts have been purified, not by morality, not by ethics, not by good works, not by religious deeds, or baptism, or church membership, but by or through faith in Christ Jesus, through faith in His blood, Act 15:9; Rom 3:24-25; Rev 5:9-10.
2) “For they shall see God.” (hoti auto! ton theon opsontai) “Because they shall see God.” See Him in all His attributes, comprehend Him as Lord of their Lives, Luk 9:23. That one with a pure heart can see God’s will for his life, for his church, and comprehend spiritual things, 1Co 2:12-13; Psa 24:3-4. One day each child of God is to awake in His likeness, Psa 17:5. Until we awake in His likeness, we should walk in His likeness, as He walked, 1Jn 3:2; Heb 12:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. Happy are they who are of a pure heart We might be apt to think, that what is here stated by Christ is in accordance with the judgment of all. Purity of heart is universally acknowledged to be the mother of all virtues. And yet there is hardly one person in a hundred, who does not put craftiness in the place of the greatest virtue. Hence those persons are commonly accounted happy, whose ingenuity is exercised in the successful practice of deceit, who gain dexterous advantages, by indirect means, over those with whom they have intercourse. Christ does not at all agree with carnal reason, when he pronounces those to be happy, who take no delight in cunning, but converse sincerely with men, and express nothing, by word or look, which they do not feel in their heart. Simple people are ridiculed for want of caution, and for not looking sharply enough to themselves. But Christ directs them to higher views, and bids them consider that, if they have not sagacity to deceive in this world, they will enjoy the sight of God in heaven.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Pure in heart.Here, as with the poor in spirit, the noun determines the region in which the purity is to be foundthe heart as representing desires and affections, as the spirit represents the will and higher personality. The purity so described is not that which was the ideal of the Pharisee, outward and ceremonial, nor, again, was it limited, as the common language of Christians too often limits it, to the absence of one special form of sensual sin; but it excluded every element of basenessthe impurity of hate or greed of gain, no less than that of lust. Not without cause, however, has the evil of the latter sin so overshadowed the others that it has almost monopolised the name. No single form of evil spreads its taint more deeply than that which lets in contagion to the inward parts.
Shall see God.Does the promise find its fulfilment only in the beatific vision of the saints in glory, seeing God as He is (1Jn. 3:2), knowing even as also we are known (1Co. 13:12)? Doubtless there, and there only, will be the full fruition which now we wait for; but purity of heart, so far as it exists, brings with it the power of seeing more than others see in all through which God reveals Himselfthe beauty of nature, the inward light, the moral order of the world, the written word, the life and teaching of Christ. Though we see as yet through a glass, as in a mirror that reflects imperfectly, yet in that glass we behold the glory of the Lord (1Co. 13:12; 2Co. 3:18).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Blessed are the pure in heart Here is a trait of character which God’s Spirit can alone produce. This is sanctification. It may exist in different degrees. It may be partial; it may be complete. Even when complete, it may, in this world, coexist with many an error of judgment, and many a defect of temperament. Yet it enables us to live without offending God, so as to maintain for us the permanent undiminished fulness of the divine approbation. And when the heart is clean, the eye is clear. When purity makes us like God, then can we realize and see his countenance. The eye of the pure spirit beholds the pure Spirit. Through the beams he shed down upon us, we can look up and see the face that shines. In the light of his smile we behold his smile. So the pure in heart shall see God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Blessed ones, the pure in heart, for they will see God.’
Those whom God has blessed will also be pure in heart. Central to the thought here is Psalms 24. The ones who would ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place must have ‘clean hands and a pure heart’ (Psa 24:4). Then they will not ascend in vain. And this involves among other things not having one’s thoughts fixed on vain and useless things, nor on dishonesty and deceit (Psa 24:5). The pure of heart have their hearts fixed on God and are open and honest. None can therefore say that they have been truly blessed by God if there has not come into them a yearning for such purity of heart, for without it they cannot approach God. It is the upright and righteous who can behold His face (Psa 11:7; Psa 17:15). If men and women have no desire for purity of heart it is thus clear that God has withheld His blessing.
And this purity of heart results in a singleness of mind and purpose, and a rejection of all that is impure and false. The ones whom God has so blessed may still be sorely troubled by impurity of thought, but their greater desire will now be to be freed from it. They will hate impurity. For the pure in heart are those whose eyes are fixed on God and on what is good. Their eye is single (see Mat 6:22; Jas 4:8) and their heart is pure, and this purity of heart will result in equanimity of spirit. They set their hearts on whatever is true, honourable, right, pure, lovely or gracious (Php 4:8). They do not lift up their souls to what is false, or engage in lies (Psa 24:4). They are not envious of others (Psa 73:1). They do not allow their eyes to stray (Mat 5:28). They rather turn their eyes and their hearts away from anything that displeases God. And thus their vision will be clear and they will see God in their hearts, ‘seeing Him Who is invisible’ (Heb 11:27), and one day will see Him as He really is (1Jn 3:2; Rev 22:4; Psa 17:15).
Moses speaks of it as resulting from ‘the circumcision of the heart’ which removes men’s stubbornness and enables them to love the Lord with their whole being (Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6). The hardness is cut away from their hearts leaving ‘a heart of flesh’ (Eze 36:26, compare Isa 44:1-5; Jer 31:33-34). They have thus become new creations (2Co 5:17). And that is what has been the experience of those disciples who have responded to God in repentance (Mat 4:17) and are here with the genuine intention of listening to Jesus. They have been blessed by God with purity of heart, and thus with a singleness of mind that is also pure. And it provides them with a spiritual check up before the final application in the remainder of the Sermon. If they fail here they need go no further.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
But hypocritical behavior will not stand the test of His scrutiny:
v. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. A mere outward purity in keeping the ceremonial injunctions of the Law is not sufficient in the economy of God. He desires such hearts as keep themselves pure, unsullied with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Isa 1:16; Jas 4:8; 2Co 6:17 But this purity finds its expression also in single-mindedness of purpose which throws off every restraining, distracting thought and seeks the Lord and His kingdom with undivided heart, Php_2:12 . Happy, blessed are they that are found practicing such purity, for their reward again outstrips their fondest hopes. Even in this life they shall see God with the eyes of the spirit, lifting them up, in joyful confidence, to the God of their salvation, Isa 17:7; Mic 7:7; Psa 25:15. But the very essence of heavenly bliss will be the seeing of God face to face in the life to come, Psa 17:15; Psa 42:3; Job 19:27.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 5:8. Blessed are the pure in heart Dr. Blair supposes that this may refer to the expectation which the Jews had of possessing themselves of beautiful captives in the wars by which they fancied the Messiah’s kingdom would be established. The large seraglios of eastern princes and great men, which, by a very mistaken taste, were regarded as matters of state and grandeur, might possibly give countenance to such an extravagant notion. Dr. Doddridge, therefore, in the following paraphrase, just touches upon it: “Indulge not a thought of those licentiousgratifications which are often mingled with victory, and are accounted as the pleasures of the great; happy are the men who not only abstain from these gross enormities, but are concerned that they may bepure in heart too; avoiding every irregular desire, and mortifying every unruly passion. This resolute self-denial shall be the source of nobler and more lasting pleasures; for they shall see God: thus purified and refined, they shall enjoy him in his ordinances, and in all the communications of his grace here, and dwell with him for ever in heaven.” Dr. Heylin in his usual manner observes, that the purification here pronounced blessed, is an arduous work; beginning in repentance, and attended with that mourning for sin, to which a former beatitude invites. Then must we receive a knowledge of the forgiveness of sins through the blood of the covenant. But this purification is carried on by that hunger and thirst after justice mentioned in the 6th verse; and it advances still more and more in the following benediction upon the merciful; who, by the violence they do themselves, in dependence on and by the power of almighty grace, to mortify their own pride and ill-nature, so as patiently to bear with and compassionate the infirmities of their brethren, draw down upon themselves, through the alone and infinite merit of Christ, the superabundant mercy of God,whichatlengthsoconsummatestheirmortification,byasuperabundantincrease of divine grace, that they become pure in heart, and thereby are qualified for that sublime and efficaciousknowledge of the Deity, which is here called seeing God; the mental eye being irradiated from above; for God, who makethhis sun to rise upon the evil and on the good, does also from himself illumine the minds of all men, in proportion to their desire of, and earnest search after, his light; the path of the just is as a shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. See more in Heylin. See also the Reflections.
Dr. Campbell reads, the clean in heart. I admit, says he, that our translation, pure in heart, is a just expression of the sense, and more in the English idiom than mine. My only reason for preferring a more literal version of the Greek word here is, because I would, in all such instances, preserve the allusion to be found in the moral maxims of the New Testament to the ancient ritual, from which the metaphors of the sacred writers, and their other tropes, are frequently borrowed, and to which they owe much of their lustre and energy. The laws in regard to the cleanness of the body, and even of the garments, if neglected by any person, excluded him from the temple. He was incapacitated for being so much as a spectator of the solemn service at the altar. The Jews considered the empyreal heaven as the archetype of the temple of Jerusalem. In the latter, they enjoyed the symbols of God’s presence, who spoke to them by his ministers; whereas, in the former, the blessed inhabitants have an immediate sense of the divine presence, and God speaks to them face to face. Our Lord, preserving the analogy between the two dispensations, intimates that cleanness will be as necessary in order to procure admission into the celestial temple, as into the terrestrial. But as the privilege is inconceivably higher, the qualification is more important. The cleanness is not ceremonial, but moral; not of the outward man, but of the inward. The same idea is suggested, Psalms 24. When such allusions appear in the original, they ought, if possible, to have a place in the version.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 5:8 . ] denotes the moral blamelessness of the inner life , the centre of which is the heart, in conformity with the view that , Origen, Hom, in Joh . lxxiii. 2. Comp. Psa 73:1 ; Psa 24:4 ; 1Ti 1:5 ; 1Ti 3:9 ; Plat. Crat . p. 403 E, , p. 405 B, al . How this purity is actually attained (by justification and the sanctification of believers) remains even now left over to the future.
] certainly refers, according to the analogy of all the other beatitudes, to the , but is not (in accordance with the Oriental idea of great good fortune in being an intimate friend of the king’s, 1Ki 10:8 ; Est 1:14 ) to be taken as a typical designation of the Messianic happiness in general (Kuinoel, Fritzsche, and others), nor as an inward seeing of God ( knowledge, becoming conscious of God, inmost fellowship with God), as de Wette also understood it to mean direct spiritual fellowship with God here on earth and there in heaven; but, as the words do not allow us to understand it differently: of the seeing of God who gloriously reveals Himself in the Messiah’s kingdom, a seeing which will be attained in the condition of the glorified body , Rev 7:15 ; Rev 22:4 ; 1Jn 3:2 ; Heb 12:14 . Passages like Exo 33:20 , Joh 1:18 ; Joh 6:46 , Col 1:15 , Rom 1:20 , 1Ti 6:16 , are not opposed to it, because they refer to seeing with the earthly eye. The seeing of God, who, although Spirit (Joh 4:24 ), has His essential form of manifestation (Phi 2:6 ), will one day be the consummation of the obtained through Christ (Rom 5:2 ). Comp. Clem. Hom . xvii. 7.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1292
PURITY OF HEART
Mat 5:8. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
THERE is nothing in which mankind more generally imagine happiness to consist than in the uncontrolled indulgence of their passions. It is probable that among those who looked for the establishment of the Messiahs kingdom, many pleased themselves with the idea, that his victories would open to them a way for multiplying captives to any extent, and consequently for the unlimited gratification of their corrupt appetites. To counteract such absurd notions, and to evince the spiritual nature of his kingdom, our blessed Lord declared, that happiness was to be found, not in assimilating ourselves to the brute creation, but in purity of heart and life: Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.
I.
The character here mentioned, is that which first claims our attention
Purity of heart may be considered as opposed to hypocrisy: in that sense it denotes a freedom from base and selfish ends in the whole of our transactions, both with God and man. Strange as it may seem, the duties of religion itself may be performed from very unworthy motives. Pride, ostentation, self-righteousness, self-complacency, may lie at the foundation of those very services whereby we pretend to honour God; and may render them, not only worthless, but hateful in his sight [Note: Zec 7:5-6.]. Our conduct also towards man may be very specious, and yet be full of dissimulation and craft. It is no uncommon thing, as all who are conversant with the world know, to see men, under the guise of friendship, aiming only at the advancement of their own interests. Such duplicity is hateful to a true Christian. He that is an Israelite indeed, is without guile. Purity of heart, in this sense, is beautifully exemplified in the Apostle Paul, whose ministrations had no other object than to advance the glory of God in the salvation of men [Note: 1Th 2:3-6 and 2Co 2:17.]. O that all of us possessed the same integrity; and could, like him, appeal both to God and man for the purity of our intentions, and the simplicity of our minds!
But purity may also be understood in opposition to uncleanness: and, if we suppose that our Lord designed to condemn the sensuality of those who expected the Messiah as a temporal Prince, we must of course annex that meaning to his words. Perhaps the more enlarged sense of the text, as comprehending both ideas, is the more just: but as the latter idea is of singular importance, we shall consider the character chiefly in reference to that.
We observe, then, that the person who is pure in heart,
1.
Abstains from all acts of uncleanness
[Others may make light of fornication and adultery: but he knows them to be ruinous and damning sins: and he abstains from them, not merely from the fear of detection and disgrace, but from a dread of displeasing Almighty God, and of plunging his soul into everlasting misery. He is well convinced, that the body was not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body [Note: 1Co 6:13.]. He considers his body as a member of Christ himself: and, if tempted to take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot, he exclaims with horror, God forbi [Note: 1Co 6:15.]!]
2.
Harbours no evil desires in his heart
[Being of like passions with others, he cannot but feel as others on some occasions: but he has learned through grace to counteract the propensities of nature, and to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts [Note: Gal 5:24.]. He knows that fleshly lusts war against the soul [Note: 1Pe 2:11.]; and that, if not vigorously opposed in the first instance, they will soon gain the ascendant, and lead him captive. He sees how others are enslaved, having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin [Note: 2Pe 2:14.]. He has heard of that confession in the book of Proverbs, I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and the assembly [Note: Pro 5:14.]: and he dreads lest he in like manner should become a prey to his evil passions. If evil thoughts or desires arise, he regards them as fire, which, if not extinguished speedily, will inflame and consume his soul. Hence lie prays day and night, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me [Note: Psa 51:10.]. He is not contented with being like a whited sepulchre, beautiful without, but full of all uncleanness within: he is as attentive to the inside of the cup and platter, as he is to its exterior appearance [Note: Mat 23:25-28.].]
3.
Avoids the occasions of evil
[Many who have a regard for their character, will yet make no scruple of reading books, or hearing songs, or attending scenes, which tend to vitiate the mind. They will even court occasions of evil, delighting in that company and conversation which they know by experience to produce bad impressions on their hearts.
Not so the person that is pure in heart: he stands at a distance from every polluting object [Note: Psa 73:1.]: like Joseph, he flies from those who would corrupt him [Note: Gen 39:9-10.]: like Job, he makes a covenant with his eyes, and with his heart, that he will neither look, nor think, upon an object that will ensnare him [Note: Job 31:1.]. He knows that the very thought of foolishness is sin [Note: Pro 24:9.]; and he is determined through grace, that vain thoughts shall not lodge with him. He hates them: he lothes himself for his propensity to indulge them; and he longs to be holy as God himself is holy [Note: 1Pe 1:14-16.].]
II.
The blessedness of those who have attained this character, is the next point to be considered:
1.
They shall enjoy a sight of God in this world
[It is true, that God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto, and that, in strictness of speech, no man hath seen him, or can see him. But there were manifestations of him vouchsafed to his people of old, sometimes through the medium of the human or angelic form, and sometimes by a bright effulgence of his glory. There are also other manifestations which God still makes of himself to the souls of men [Note: Joh 14:21-23.]; and which he will vouchsafe to the pure in heart. It must not, however, be expected that, in speaking of these things, we can bring them down to the apprehension of the ungodly: they have no eyes to see them, no ears to hear them, no understandings to understand them: and it is as vain to speak of these things to them, as it would be to speak of colours to the blind, or sounds to the deaf, or tastes to those who had no palate. Nevertheless we must affirm, on the authority of God himself, that the pure in heart shall see God. They shall see him in his ordinances, whilst others are altogether unconscious of his presence. They shall see him in their secret chamber, where he will draw nigh unto them, and say, Here I am [Note: Job 33:26. Isa 58:9.]. They shall see him in all the works of creation, and in all the dispensations of his providence. They shall see him in every comfort and in every cross. His wisdom, his goodness, his love, his mercy, his faithfulness, are ever before their eyes. They have such views of him and his perfections as words cannot describe; and such fellowship with him as a carnal man has no idea of [Note: 1Jn 1:3.]. The impure may mourn, and even howl upon their beds; but the pure, like Moses of old, have near access to God, and see him who is invisible [Note: Heb 11:27.]; and by this sight are strengthened, supported, comforted, and sanctified.]
2.
They shall behold the beatific vision in heaven
[Thither the unclean can never be admitted [Note: Eph 5:5. Heb 12:14.]. As well might light have communion with darkness, or Christ with Belial, as they participate the blessedness of heaven. If it be asked, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and stand in his holy place? the answer is, He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart [Note: Psa 24:4.]. To him a glorious inheritance is promised: for him a place in the heavenly mansions is prepared: a seat upon the very throne of God himself is reserved for him. There shall his organs of vision be strengthened to behold all the glory of the Godhead. At present he sees God only as through a glass, darkly; but then will he behold him face to face. Now he knows God only in part; but then he will know him, even as he himself is known [Note: 1Co 13:12.].]
Address
1.
The gay and dissipated
[Perhaps you refrain from gross iniquity; and therefore imagine yourselves pure, though you are not washed from your inward filthiness [Note: Pro 30:12.]. In this notion you are countenanced by the world at large: but let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of inward, as well as outward impurity, the wrath of God cometh upon all the children of disobedience [Note: Eph 5:6. 2Pe 2:9-10.]. Your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost; and if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy [Note: 1Co 3:16-17.]. Nevertheless, if you deeply repent of your past sins, you shall be forgiven [Note: Jam 4:8-9.]; and if you believe in Christ, you shall be both sanctified and saved [Note: 1Co 6:9-11.].]
2.
The professors of religion
[How many who have run well for a season have been hindered and turned aside through the prevalence of their own evil passions! We need not go back to David and Solomon: there is not a place where religion has made any progress, but affords some lamentable proof of the influence of unsubdued lusts. A religious person first conceives a thought; and that thought is suffered to dwell upon his mind. The mind inflamed, yields to the impulse of desire so far as to court familiarity with the alluring object: conscience reproves; but the deceitful heart suggests, that, as no positive act of sin is intended, no evil will arise. Corruption now begins to work more strongly; and every renewed familiarity with temptation increases its power over us; so that we scarcely know how to keep from the place or person whom we ought to shun. Conscience remonstrates, but in vain; till at last the devil takes us in his snare, and we bring disgrace on our holy profession, and cause the name of God to be blasphemed [Note: See. Jam 1:14-15.]. This is the history of many a religious character. Would we avoid this melancholy end? let us avoid the means. Let us keep our hearts with all diligence [Note: Pro 4:23.]: let us live nigh to God, and beg of him to keep us. Let us beware how we grieve his Spirit, by tampering with sin, or parleying with temptation. Let us walk in the Spirit; and then we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh [Note: Gal 5:16.]. Let us often ask ourselves, What we shall think of such things in a dying hour? Little dost thou think, whoever thou art that art yielding to the tempter, how thou art filling thy dying pillow with thorns; and wilt most probably bring on thyself a condemnation far heavier than that of Sodom and Gomorrha. O may God take you out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set your feet upon a rock, and establish your goings [Note: Psa 40:2.]! But concerning this evil we may say, as our Lord said concerning a deaf and dumb spirit whom his disciples could not cast out, This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting [Note: Mat 17:21.].]
3.
The conscientious Christian
[Blessed art thou, who art enabled to maintain a conscience void of offence towards God and man. Thou art blessed, and shalt be blessed. If thou dost not see so much of God as thou wouldst, thou hast far different views of him from what they have who give way to sin. And the time is fast approaching, when thou shalt no more complain of darkness and distance from God, but shalt behold his face in righteousness, and be satisfied with it [Note: Psa 17:15.].
Yet even to thee must I say, Watch against the assaults of sin and Satan. It is not past experience that will keep thee: for Solomon fell after God had appeared to him twice [Note: 1Ki 11:9.]. Nor is it high attainments that will preserve thee: for the man after Gods own heart became a monument of human frailty and depravity. Nor is even marriage itself sufficient to extinguish the unhallowed flame. You may have, if I may so say, whole flocks at your command, and yet it will not keep you from coveting your neighbours ewe-lamb [Note: 2Sa 12:2; 2Sa 12:4; 2Sa 12:8-9.]. It is grace, and grace alone, that will enable you to hold on unto the end. In Christ you may trust with joyful confidence: He is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy [Note: Jude, ver. 24.]. Moreover, he has promised that you shall have no temptation without a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it [Note: 1Co 10:13.]. Apply this promise to your souls, and you shall be enabled to cleanse yourselves from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God [Note: 2Co 7:1.]. Depend not for one moment on yourselves, but be strong in the grace that is in Christ: and may the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly! and I pray God that your whole body, soul, and spirit, may be sanctified wholly unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Th 5:23.]!]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Ver. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart ] That wash their hearts from wickedness, that they may be saved, Jer 4:14 . Not their hands only, with Pilate, but their inwards, as there; “How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” These, however the world censure them (for every fool hath a bolt to shoot at that purity, which yet they profess and pray for), are the Lord’s darlings, that purify themselves (in some truth of resemblance) as God is pure.
” Pura Deus mens est, pura vult mente vocari:
Et puras iussit pondus habere preces.
He will take up in a poor, but it must be a pure heart; in a homely, but it must be a cleanly house; in a low, but not in a loathsome lodging. God’s Spirit loves to lie clean. Now the heart of man is the most unclean and loathsome thing in the world, a den of dragons, a dungeon of darkness, a sty and stable of all foul lusts, a cage of unclean and ravenous birds. The ambassadors of the Council of Constance, being sent to Pope Benedict XI ( In Hist. Concil. Constant. ), when he, laying his hand upon his heart, said Hic est Arca Noae, Here is Noah’s ark; they tartly and truly replied, In Noah’s ark were few men, but many beasts; intimating, that there were seven abominations in that heart, wherein, he would have them to believe, were lodged all the laws of right and religion. This is true of every mother’s child of us. The natural heart is Satan’s throne, he filleth it from corner to corner, Act 5:3 , he sits abrood upon it, and hatcheth all noisome and loathsome lusts, Eph 2:2 . There (as in the sea) is that Leviathan, and there are creeping things innumerable, crawling bugs and baggage vermin, Psa 104:25-26 . Now as many as shall see God to their comfort, must cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and perfect holiness in the fear of God, 2Co 7:1 . This is the mighty work of the Holy Spirit, which therefore we must pray and strive for; beseeching God to break the heavens and come down, Isa 64:1 , yea, to break open the prison doors of our hearts by his Spirit, and to cleanse this Augaean stable. He comes as a mighty rushing wind, and blows away those litters of lusts, as once the east wind of God did all the locusts of Egypt into the Red Sea. And this done, he blows upon God’s garden, the heart, and causeth the spices thereof so to flow forth that Christ saith, “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice,” Son 4:16 ; Son 5:1 .
For they shall see God ] Here in a measure, and as they are able; hereafter in all fulness and perfection: they shall see as they are seen. Here, as in a glass obscurely, or as an old man through spectacles, 1Co 13:12 , , but there face to face. Happier herein than Solomon’s servants, for a greater than Solomon is here. A good man is like a good angel, ever beholding the face of God. He looketh upon them with singular complacency, and they upon him to their infinite comfort: He seeth no iniquity in them, they no indignation in him. He looketh upon them in the face of Christ; and although no man hath seen God at any time, Joh 1:18 , yet God, “who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,” saith the apostle, “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” 2Co 4:6 . Pure glass or crystal hath light coming through: not so stone, iron, or other grosser bodies. In like sort, the pure in heart see God, he shines through them: and as the pearl by the beams of the sun becomes bright and radiant as the sun itself, so “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2Co 3:18 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. . ] See Psa 24:4 ; Psa 24:6 . It is no Levitical cleanness, nor mere moral purity, that is here meant: but that inner purity , which ( Act 15:9 ) is brought about , has its fruit ( 1Ti 1:5 ) in love; which is, as in , , &c., opposed to all ( Jam 1:8 ), and all hypocrisy and outward colouring; so that the . . are ( Heb 10:22 ). ‘Hoc est mundum cor, quod est simplex cor: et quemadmodum lumen hoc videri non potest nisi oculis mundis, ita nec Deus videtur nisi mundum sit illud quo videri potest.’ (Aug [38] in loc.) But there is also allusion to the nearer vision of God attained by progressive sanctification, of which St. Paul speaks, 2Co 3:18 , begun indeed in this life, but not perfected till the next, 1Co 13:12 . Read the magnificent conclusion of Augustine De Civit. Dei, xxii. 29 (vol. vii. Migne), in which he enters more deeply into the meaning of this verse.
[38] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 5:8 . : . . may be an explanatory addition to indicate the region in which purity shows itself. That purity is in the heart, the seat of thought, desire, motive, not in the outward act, goes without saying from Christ’s point of view. Blessed the pure . Here there is a wide range of suggestion. The pure may be the spotless or faultless in general; the continent with special reference to sexual indulgence those whose very thoughts are clean; or the pure in motive, the single-minded, the men who seek the kingdom as the summum bonum with undivided heart. The last is the most relevant to the general connection and the most deserving to be insisted on. In the words of Augustine, the mundum cor is above all the simplex cor . Moral simplicity is the cardinal demand in Christ’s ethics. The man who has attained to it is in His view perfect (Mat 19:21 ). Without it a large numerical list of virtues and good habits goes for nothing. With it character, however faulty in temper or otherwise, is ennobled and redeemed. : their reward is the beatific vision. Some think the reference is not to the faculty of clear vision but to the rare privilege of seeing the face of the Great King (so Fritzsche and Schanz). “The expression has its origin in the ways of eastern monarchs, who rarely show themselves in public, so that only the most intimate circle behold the royal countenance” (Schanz) = the pure have access to the all but inaccessible. This idea does not seem to harmonise with Christ’s general way of conceiving God. On the other hand, it was His habit to insist on the connection between clear vision and moral simplioity; to teach that it is the single eye that is full of light (Mat 6:22 ). It is true that the pure shall have access to God’s presence, but the truth to be insisted on in connection with this Beatitude is that through purity, singleness of mind, they are qualified for seeing, knowing, truly conceiving God and all that relates to the moral universe. It is the pure in heart who are able to see and say that “truly God is good” (Psa 73:1 ) and rightly to interpret the whole phenomena of life in relation to Providence. They shall see, says Jesus casting His thought into eschatological form, but He means the pure are the men who see; the double-minded, the two-souled ( , Jas 1:8 ) man is blind. Theophylact illustrates the connection between purity and vision thus: , , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 5:8
8″Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Mat 5:8 “pure in heart” Our attitudes are crucial (cf. Tit 1:15). Priorities are equally crucial (cf. Heb 12:14). From Psa 24:4; Psa 73:1, “pure” can mean (1) single-minded, (2) focused, or (3) cleansed (cf. Heb 12:14). This term was used in the OT for ritual washings. Notice the focus is on the heart, the center of the individual’s being, not the intellect or ritual actions. The central aspect of personhood in the OT was the “heart,” while in Greek thought it was the “mind.”
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE HEART
“shall see God” To the pure in heart, God can be seen in all creation and in every situation. Purity opens the spiritual eyes. In the OT to see God meant to die (cf. Gen 16:13; Gen 32:30; Exo 20:19; Exo 33:20; Jdg 6:22-23; Jdg 13:22; Isa 6:5). This statement, therefore, would probably refer to an eschatological setting.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
pure in heart. Compare Psa 24:4; Psa 73:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8. . ] See Psa 24:4; Psa 24:6. It is no Levitical cleanness, nor mere moral purity, that is here meant: but that inner purity, which (Act 15:9) is brought about , has its fruit (1Ti 1:5) in love; which is, as in , , &c., opposed to all (Jam 1:8), and all hypocrisy and outward colouring; so that the . . are (Heb 10:22). Hoc est mundum cor, quod est simplex cor: et quemadmodum lumen hoc videri non potest nisi oculis mundis, ita nec Deus videtur nisi mundum sit illud quo videri potest. (Aug[38] in loc.) But there is also allusion to the nearer vision of God attained by progressive sanctification, of which St. Paul speaks, 2Co 3:18,-begun indeed in this life, but not perfected till the next, 1Co 13:12. Read the magnificent conclusion of Augustine De Civit. Dei, xxii. 29 (vol. vii. Migne), in which he enters more deeply into the meaning of this verse.
[38] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 5:8. , the pure in heart) Ceremonial purity is not sufficient. Jesus requires, and teaches, the virtue of the heart. Purity of heart includes both chastity and freedom from the other defilements of sin.- , shall see God) A clear knowledge of God is promised even now, but in words which will be more literally fulfilled in life eternal: see 1Jn 3:2-3; 1Jn 3:6; cf. concerning the opposite to purity, 1Th 4:5.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
The Pure in Heart
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.Mat 5:8.
If there be in the bright constellation of the Beatitudes one particular star, it is this text. If in blessedness there be a crown of blessedness, it is here. If there be a character that in its very quintessence is spiritual, it is this. And if there be a delight above all conceivable delights, it is that which is promised in these well-known words. So lofty a verse is this, that it is one of the texts which the preacher trembles to take, and yet is continually impelled to take, that at least he may teach himself if he cannot teach other people, and that preacher and congregation together may do a little towards climbing up to summits which seem like the far-off Alpine heights.
Oh, snow so pure, Oh, peak so high,
I shall not reach you till I die.
Yet lofty and remote as they seem, these words are in truth among the most hopeful and radiant that ever came even from Christs lips. For they offer the realization of an apparently impossible character. They promise the possession of an apparently impossible vision. They soothe fears, and tell us that the sight from which, were it possible, we should sometimes shrink, is the source of our purest gladness.
I
The Vision
They shall see God; what do these words mean? In their widest and fullest significance they must remain to us an eternal mystery. They express the object around which all the hopes and fears of the best men of the human race have always gathered, and around which they are gathering still. To see God has been the ultimate aim of all philosophy; it is the ultimate hope of all science, and it will ever remain the ultimate desire of all nations.
In all the nobler religions which the world has seen, we can trace an endeavour to rise to a vision of God. The Brahmin on the burning plains of the East gave up all the present charm of life, and, renouncing ease and love, passed his years in silent thought, hoping to be absorbed into the Eternal. The Greek philosopher spoke of passions that clogged the souls wings, and desires that darkened its piercing eye, and he strove to purge his spirit from them by philosophy, that he might free its pinions and quicken its sight for beholding the Infinite. And in this light we can understand how the monks in the Middle Ages became so marvellously earnest. These men felt a Presence around their path which at one time appeared to reveal itself like a dream of splendour, and at another swept like a vision of terror across the shuddering heart; and to behold Him they crushed their longings for fellowship, steeled their hearts to the calls of affection, and alone, in dens and deserts, hoped, by mortifying the body, to see God in the soul. In a word, the dream which has haunted the earnest of our world, has ever been thisto be blessed, man must know the Eternal. Christ proclaims that dream to be a factthey are blessed who see God.1 [Note: E. L. Hull, Sermons, i. 155.]
1. To see God is to stand on the highest point of created being. Not until we see Godno partial and passing embodiment of Him, but the abiding Presencedo we stand upon our own mountain-top, the height of the existence which God has given us, and up to which He is leading us. That there we should stand is the end of our creation. This truth is at the heart of everything, means all kinds of completions, may be uttered in many ways; but language will never compass it, for form will never contain it. Nor shall we ever see, that is, know, God perfectly. We shall indeed never absolutely know man or woman or child; but we may know God as we never can know human being, as we never can know ourselves. We not only may, but we must, so know Him, and it can never be until we are pure in heart.
Religion largely lies in the consciousness of our true relation to Him who made us; and the yearning for the realization of this consciousness found constant expression in Tennysons works and conversation. Perhaps its clearest expression is to be found in his instructions to his son: Remember, I want Crossing the Bar to be always at the end of all my works.
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the Bar.
When in answer to the question, What was his deepest desire of all? he said, A clearer vision of God, it exactly expressed the continued strivings of his spirit for more light upon every possible question, which so constantly appear in his poems.1 [Note: Tennyson and His Friends, 305.]
Is not the Vision He? tho He be not that which He seems?
Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?
Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb,
Are they not sign and symbol of thy division from Him?
Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why;
For is He not all but that which has power to feel I am I?
Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom,
Making Him broken gleams, and a stifled splendour and gloom.
And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see;
But if we could see and hear, this Visionwere it not ?Hebrews 2 [Note: Tennyson, The Higher Pantheism.]
2. To see God is to be admitted into His immediate presence and friendship. In the court language of ancient Oriental despotisms, where the Sovereign was revered as if he were the vicegerent of Heaven, to see the kings face stood for the highest felicity of the most favoured subjects. It was the petition of the disgraced prince Absalom, after he had for two full years resided in the capital without being received at his fathers palace: Now therefore let me see the kings face; and if there be iniquity in me, let him kill me! Happy are these thy servants, said the African queen to Solomon; happy in this, that they stand continually before thee. So the seven chief princes of the Medo-Persian Empire who sat first in the kingdom of Ahasuerus were they which saw the kings face. The same magnificent phraseology passed from the court to the temple. In the Hebrew State, Jehovah was the national Sovereign; and the reigning king was, in no flattering hyperbole, but in constitutional law, His elected vicegerent. The temple was His palace, the most holy place His chamber of presence and of audience; and the one thing desired by His devout and favoured servants was to behold His beauty; their prayer, that His face would shine on them; their hope, to see His face in righteousness, and one day to be satisfied with His likeness.
In prayer there would sometimes come upon me such a sense of the Presence of God that I seemed to be all engulfed in God. I think the learned call this mystical experience; at any rate, it so suspends the ordinary operations of the soul that she seems to be wholly taken out of herself. This tenderness, this sweetness, this regale is nothing else but the Presence of God in the praying soul. God places the soul in His immediate Presence, and in an instant bestows Himself upon the soul in a way she could never of herself attain to. He manifests something of His greatness to the soul at such times: something of His beauty, something of His special and particular grace. And the soul enjoys God without dialectically understanding just how she so enjoys Him. She burns with love without knowing what she has done to deserve or to prepare herself for such a rapture. It is the gift of God, and He gives His gifts to whomsoever and whensoever He will.1 [Note: Saint Teresa.]
3. The theophany, or visible discovery of the Divine Being, which was given to the best period of Hebrew history, was a prefigure of the Incarnationthe chief theophany of all timein which, through a human character and life, there has been discovered to us all the ethical beauty and splendour of the Godhead. To see God must now for ever mean nothing else than this: to see His truth and grace mirrored in the face of that Man, who alone of all men on earth is of God, and hath seen the Father.
We are in the world to see God. That is the final spiritual purpose of life. Across the cradle of the babe and the playtime of the girls and boys this purpose ever falls. It can be forgotten and frustrated, but as lifes highest possibility and truest destiny it is always with us. It follows the prodigal in his wandering, the fool in his folly, the strong man in his wilfulness. It is all-inclusive. It waits men in the quiet places of thought, and in the clangour of the worlds work. The student, the book-writer, the weaver at his loom, the buyer and seller, the woman mid her household caresthe vision is close to them all. It is before us in the sunlight and the green earth, it is about us in all the grace and trust and intimacy of home life. In youth and age, in gladness and in grieving, the vision waits. And most of all the vision draws near to us in the life of Him who said, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.1 [Note: P. C. Ainsworth, The Blessed Life, 132.]
Through all the complexities of Christs mind and mission, how essentially single His spirit and simple His methodrare as morning air, limpid as spring water, clear as a running brook, ever standing in the truth, utterly veracious and sublimely superior to worldly policy! Is not this, indeed, the meaning of that choice beatitudeamong those beatitudes with their sevenfold colours like a rainbow round the throne of ChristBlessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God? Not the immaculateit would be superfluous to say, Blessed are the holybut rather those of pure intent and single spirit, free from duplicities in their motives. Blessed in that trueness of spirit which gives vision, that honest and unadulterated child-heart which enables us to see our Father-God and the Good everywhere.2 [Note: R. E. Welsh, Man to Man, 90.]
If clearer vision Thou impart,
Grateful and glad my soul shall be;
But yet to have a purer heart
Is more to me.
Yea, only as the heart is clean
May larger vision yet be mine,
For mirrored in its depths are seen
The things divine.3 [Note: Walter C. Smith, Poetical Works, 478.]
II
The Condition of the Vision
There are three distinct kinds of sight. There is, first of all, physical sight, which depends chiefly on bodily organs, and which merely enables us to distinguish material objects from one another. Then, secondly, there is mental sightthe sight of the scientist and the poet. This faculty helps men to discover analogies and resemblances and connexions between dissimilar and distant things; and hence it gives rise to the metaphors and similes of poetry, and leads to the discovery of the laws of nature. It was the faculty of mental vision, for example, that led to the establishment of the widest scientific generalization, by suggesting to Newton that perhaps the earth might exercise the same influence of attraction upon the moon as it did upon a falling apple. Then, thirdly, there is spiritual sight, which belongs to the man of faith and pure heart. Spiritual vision enables men to see Him who is invisible.
I care not whether Gods self-revelation in the conscience be called an immediate vision of God in the experiences of conscience, or whether it be taken as an inference drawn from the data they supply. It is the truth contained in them; with one man it may be only implicitly felt in their solemn and mystic character; with another, explicitly and immediately seen emerging from them as they come, and making him the Seer of God rather than the reasoner about Him. In any case, the constitution of our moral nature is unintelligible, except as living in response to an objective Perfection pervading the universe with Holy Law.1 [Note: James Martineau, A Study of Religion, ii. 28.]
1. God cannot be seen by the eye of sense. Of course, we know that; we admit it at once; and yet men have an idea that God was nearer to the patriarchs, and the people in the early days who, in a vision or in some way or otherwe hardly know howdid see God; and though they do not know what heaven is, they think that somehow or other, by and by, in another state, they will see and consciously have a sensible vision. It cannot be. Eye hath not seen, and eye can never see. And God is not seen by reason. Doubtless if reason were freed from all clogs and hindrances and drawbacks, if it worked with perfect clearness and completeness, we might reason about God; but even so we should conclude and argue and infer; we should not see. Nor by imagination. Imagination may do a great deal, but the danger with regard to it is that we deceive ourselves, that we worship our own fancies, and that the image below us is one which we see in a mirror, and which we ourselves have, so to speak, created. And God cannot be seen by means of traditional knowledge, though that is very good. One hopes that religious knowledge will continually be handed on from parents to children, and that the children are being taught in all that is good, and that they learn that God is infinite and eternal and omniscient; and well indeed that so they should learn. But they do not see Him by that process. And faithfaith can do a great deal. It has a marvellous power of transporting us beyond ourselves, and beyond the world of the seen and tangible; but faith itself is opposed to sight, and though faith can trust and obey, it cannot see.
You know that your friend is never seen by the eye of the body; you can discern a form, a figure, a countenance, by which you know that he is near; but that is not the friend you love; you discern him spiritually; you understand his inner character; you know his truth, his nobleness, his affection, his charityall these the eye of sense cannot see. A stranger does not see him thus; he sees only the visible form and feature which imperfectly represent the qualities of mind and heart which you know; but you see in that friend things which were invisible to the other. It is in this sensein understanding the truth and goodness, in feeling the pity and charity, in holding communion with the loving spirit of the Fatherthat Christ speaks of seeing God.1 [Note: E. L. Hull, Sermons, i. 159.]
Science is teaching us now that at each end of the spectrum, beyond the red rays and the violet rays, there are rays of light which our eyes cannot perceive. We know perfectly well that there are notes of music too acute or too grave for our ears to apprehend them. Do they not exist, then, though the ear cannot hear them? And so in religious matters, even though we are regular worshippers in the Lords house, and profess to know a great deal about Christianity, we may be as blind men walking in a gallery of pictures orI will not say as deaf men, butas a large number of those who go to a Beethoven concert.2 [Note: W. T. Davison.]
2. The vision of God is possible only to the pure in heart. The word pure as ordinarily used, in Hebrew, in Greek, and in English, means without alloy, clean, clear, simple, single. It is applied, in the Bible, to virgin gold, to a clean table or candlestick, to flawless glass, to unmixed oil, and to water that is only water. It does not necessarily involve a moral element. It never stands for absolute sinlessness of being. Hence it is to be taken, in the Sermon on the Mount as well as elsewhere, when connected with heart, or mind, as meaning single, simple, unmixed. The pure in heart are those whose minds, or very selves, are single, simple, undivided and unalloyed in one aim and purpose.
Single-mindedness, or simple-mindedness, is a characteristic of childhood. A child is all attent to one thing at a time, looking at that one thing with single eye and simpleness of mind; while double-mindedness, or divided thinking, is the peril of the full-grown person. How many things a keen-eyed child will see in an everyday walk that are unnoticed by the father whom he accompanies! The father has too many things in his mind, or on his mind, to observe that which, for the moment, is the all in all to the single-eyed and simple-mindedor, as the Bible would call it, the pure-heartedchild. Therefore it is that our Lord said to His maturer disciples: Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein (Luk 18:17). The pure in heart are the child-minded. They shall see God, because when they are looking for Him they are not looking for anything else. Their eyes are single, their minds are undivided, and their whole being goes out towards the object of their search. They seek for God, and they find Him when they search for Him with all their mind.
He returned to the Abbey, and preached his sermon on the words, Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. The short, simple discourse contained the last words that he spoke in Westminster Abbey. By one of those strange coincidences that seem more than chance, the subject of his sermon was the blessedness of purity of heart and life, which those who knew him best considered to be the distinguishing quality of his character and career. The words, he said, may bear a twofold meaningpure, disinterested love of truth, and pure and clean aversion to everything that defiles. He goes on to give three examples of the blessedness of purity in men whose hearts and writings were pure, and who not only abstained from anything which could defile the soul, but fixed their eyes intently on those simple affections and those great natural objects of beauty which most surely guard the mind from corrupting influences. And what, he asks in the words which conclude his last sermon, is the reason that our Saviour gives for this blessedness of the pure in heart? It is that they shall see God. What is the meaning of this connexion? It is because, of all the obstacles which can intervene between us and an insight into the invisible and the Divine, nothing presents so coarse and thick a veil as the indulgence of the impure passions which lower our nature, and because nothing can so clear up our better thoughts, and nothing leaves our minds so open to receive the impression of what is good and high, as the single eye and pure conscience, which we may not, perhaps, be able to reach, but which is an indispensable condition of having the doors of our mind kept open and the channel of communication kept free between us and the Supreme and Eternal Fountain of all purity and of all goodness.1 [Note: R. E. Prothero, Life of Dean Stanley, ii. 567.]
I hardly know whether Dean Stanleys last words will make an adequate impression upon the public. The Dean had begun on Saturday afternoons a course of sermons on the Beatitudes. In great weakness he finished the fourth sermon a little more than a week before his death, and for his text on that occasion he took two of the benedictions together, Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. He illustrated his discourse from conspicuous monuments in the Abbey, taking sometimes one instance, and sometimes another, but I think that the Dean himself was the best instance of these two benedictions, for he was a merciful man, and as pure in heart as a little child. In some aspects of his character he was more like a little child than a full-grown man who had lived sixty-five years in the midst of this wicked world. In many aspects of its wickedness the world had never tainted his pure soul.2 [Note: Bishop Frasers Lancashire Life, 257.]
3. It is not enongh to be clean outside. In our Lords days much attention was paid by religious people to external purity. They had many ceremonies of washing. They washed nearly everything they usednot to make it clean, but to make it holy. They were quick to condemn any one who failed to observe all the rules for outward cleansing. Yet Jesus reproved them for their insincerity, for while they made clean the outside of the cup and the platter, within they were full of extortion and excess. He said they were like whited sepulchres, which appeared beautiful without, but within were full of dead mens bones and all uncleanness. It is not enough to have a fair exterior; the heart must be pure. It is in the heart that God would live. The heart, too, is the centre of the life. If the heart be not holy, the life cannot be holy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. There is no fault in our Authorized Version in this passage, but the words pure in heart should be rendered in modern English, clear in their affections. These are the truly simple, who read Dantes Ben del Intellettothe vision of the Godhead. To be truly pure in heart is to search for ones main duty and to set oneself to do it, subordinating to this life-task all other desires and all distractions of a more or less material kind.1 [Note: H. B. Garrod, Dante, Goethes Faust, and Other Lectures, 376.]
Bernard made signal to me with a smile
To look above; but of myself had I
Anticipated his desire the while;
For now my vision, clearer than before,
Within that Beam of perfect Purity
And perfect Truth was entering more and more.
From this time forward that which filled my sight
Became too lofty for our mortal strains;
And memory fails to take so vast a flight.2 [Note: Dante, Paradiso, xxxiii. 4957 (trans. by Wright).]
In the Middle Ages, and sometimes since, men who desired earnestly to see the vision of God strove to attain it by asceticismthat is, by a sort of forced, mechanical purity. The mechanism, we believe, failed, for it was not appointed of God, but was a clumsy contrivance of men. Yet the attempt showed a recognition, however perverse, of the truth which Christ puts here so beautifully and simply. The same truth inspired the chivalrous legend of the Holy Grail. Many brave and worthy knights addressed themselves to the quest of the Sangreal, yearning to see the vision of the chalice that brimmed red with the very blood of God Incarnate, and to win the mysterious blessings which that vision brought. But to none was it given to accomplish the quest save to the pure in heart. The knight who could sing,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure
he it was who was sanctified and consoled by the mystic vision
A gentle sound, an awful light!
Three angels bear the Holy Grail:
With folded feet, in stoles of white,
On sleeping wings they sail.
Ah, blessed vision! blood of God!
My spirit beats her mortal bars,
As down dark tides the glory slides,
And star-like mingles with the stars.
Sir Galahad no longer rides in harness on quests of knight-errantry; he labours without fame in the byways of life. But he is still consoled by the reward of purity, and endures as seeing Him who is invisible.1 [Note: C. A. Vince.]
4. There is no true purity apart from the absolute enthronement of God in the affections. It is not the absence of unholy affections, it is the presence of a holy and surpassing earnest love, that makes us really pure. Man is not made by negatives. It is not what the heart loves not, but what it loves, that makes the man: As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The soul is so supremely an altar that it must worship something in its inmost shrine; and unless it worship God there, it cannot be pure.
Jesus saw God reflected in His own soul. His own pure soul was a mirror in which spiritual imageship to the Heavenly Father was perfectly revealed. For us His thoughts were Gods thoughts. His love was Gods love. His will was Gods will. So perfectly at one with the holy Father was His pure heart that, when He looked into the depths of His own being, He had His profoundest revelations of the moral nature of His Father. There was no blur upon His soul. The cloudless likeness of the Heavenly Father was there. Alas, that upon our hearts the breath of sin has condensed itself so that we see in ourselves only a foggy image of God!
The truth in Gods breast
Lies trace upon trace on ours imprest:
Tho He is so bright, and we are so dim,
We were made in His image to witness Him.
The heart where Christ dwells is, so far as His residence there is unhindered and entire, the purified heart. Let Him be welcomed not into its vestibule only but into its interior chambers, and the Presence will itself be purity. Before Him so coming, so abiding, the strife of passion cannot but subside. Flowing out from His intimate converse there, the very love of God will mix itself with the motives and the movements of the will. The heart thus made the chamber of His life will by a sure law reflect His character; nay, it will find itself shaped and dilated by His heart, not from its exterior or circumference, but from its centre.1 [Note: H. C. G. Moule, Faith, 156.]
Mark Rutherford says, The love of the beautiful is itself moral. What we love in it is virtue. A perfect form or a delicate colour is the expression of something which is destroyed in us by subjugation to the baser desires or meanness; and he who has been unjust to man or woman misses the true interpretation of a cloud or a falling wave. In the light of this beatitude I think he is right. Sin does not cheat a man out of the fragrance of a rose, but it cheats him out of that sweeter soul-fragrance of Divine love that is folded in every petal. Sin does not veil from our eyes the fashion of things seen, but it obscures their eternal and spirit-satisfying meaning. The impure shall see allexcept God. That is to say, they shall see nothing as it is. For the pure-hearted all the mystery of the waking earth tells something of the souls immortal story. Through the avenues of sight the pure heart goes on and finds insight. Through all that the ear can hear and the hand can touch, it passes into that real world that is so near to us all, if we but knew it, where failing voices utter unfailing messages and where beneath the ephemeral the soul finds the eternal.2 [Note: P. C. Ainsworth, The Blessed Life, 137.]
5. The vision of the pure in heart is its own exceeding blessedness. Holiness has in itself the elements of happiness. It frees us from a thousand sources of pain, the inward strife of the heart with itself, the condemning voice of conscience, the fret and worry of anxious worldly care, the bitterness of passion, anger, envy, jealousy, discontent, and a thousand thorns that spring in the soil of the natural heartthese roots are all removed and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps the heart and mind, and makes life a heaven below.
Horace Bushnell gives his own experience in these words: Clear of all the vices, having a naturally active-minded, inquiring habit, never meaning to get away from the truth, one has yet relapsed into such doubt as to find that he has nearly lost the conviction of God, and cannot, if he would, say with emphasis that God exists. Such a one pacing in his chamber, comes some day suddenly upon the questionIs there then no truth that I do believe? Yes, there is one; there is a distinction of right and wrong, that I never doubted, and can see not how I can. Nay, I am even quite sure of this. Then forthwith starts up the questionHave I ever taken the principle of right for my law? Have I ever thrown my life out on it, to become all that it requires of me? No matter what becomes of my difficulties, if I cannot take a first principle so inevitably true and live in it. Here, then, will I begin, If there is a God, as I rather hope than dimly believe there is, then He is a right God. If I have lost Him in wrong, perhaps I shall find Him in right. Will He not help me, or, perchance, even be discovered to me? Then he prays to the dim God so dimly felt. It is an awfully dark prayer in the first look of it; but it is the truest and best that he can; the better and more true that he puts no orthodox colours on it; and the prayer and the vow are so profoundly meant that his soul is borne up with Gods help, as it were by some unseen chariot, and permitted to see the opening of heaven. He rises, and it is as if he had gotten wings. The whole sky is luminous about him. It is the morning of a new eternity. After this all troublesome doubt of Gods reality is gone. A being so profoundly felt must inevitably be.1 [Note: C. H. Parkhurst, The Blind Mans Creed, 215.]
The Pure in Heart
Literature
Ainsworth (P. C.), The Blessed Life, 131.
Barrett (G. S.), Musings for Quiet Hours, 110.
Dykes (J. O.), The Manifesto of the King, 119.
Gore (C.), The Sermon on the Mount, 40.
Houchin (J. W.), The Vision of God, 1.
Hull (E. L.), Sermons, i. 154.
Huntington (F. D.), Christ in the Christian Year: Advent to Trinity, 219.
Jones (J. S.), The Invisible Things, 34.
Kennett (R. H.), In Our Tongues, 51.
Lightfoot (J. B.), Cambridge Sermons, 34.
Lockyer (T. F.), The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 144.
Maclaren (A.), The Beatitudes, 53.
Meyer (H. H.), in Drew Sermons on the Golden Texts for 1910, 19.
Miller (J. R.), The Masters Blesseds, 125.
Momerie (A. W.), The Origin of Evil, 283.
Neale (J. M.), Sermons for Children, 105.
Parkhurst (C. H.), The Blind Mans Creed, 205.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, i. 69.
Smith (W. C.), Sermons, 50.
Thompson (J. R.), Burden Bearing, 187.
Vaughan (C. J.), University Sermons, 425.
Wardell (R. J.), Studies in Homiletics, 106.
Wilberforce (B.), Spiritual Consciousness, 88.
Wray (J. J.), Honey in the Comb, 59.
British Congregationalist, February 2, 1911 (J. H. Jowett).
Cambridge Review, v. Supplement No. 126 (G. Salmon).
Christian World Pulpit, xxix. 238 (J. Lloyd); xxxix. 12 (C. A. Vince); Ixvi. 337 (W. T. Davison); lxxxiii. 33 (J. S. Holden).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
are: Mat 23:25-28, 1Ch 29:17-19, Psa 15:2, Psa 18:26, Psa 24:4, Psa 51:6, Psa 51:10, Psa 73:1, Pro 22:11, Eze 36:25-27, Act 15:9, 2Co 7:1, Tit 1:15, Heb 9:14, Heb 10:22, Jam 3:17, Jam 4:8, 1Pe 1:22
for: Gen 32:30, Job 19:26, Job 19:27, 1Co 13:12, Heb 12:14, 1Jo 3:2, 1Jo 3:3
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:27 – the pure Psa 16:11 – in thy Psa 73:25 – Whom Pro 21:8 – but Joh 14:8 – show 1Ti 1:5 – a pure Jam 1:27 – Pure 2Pe 3:1 – pure Rev 22:4 – they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
PURITY OF HEART
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Mat 5:8
The Beatitudes portray the ideal of the Christian life. They lay down the conditions of something more than happiness, something higher, more enduringblessedness.
I. Purity of heart.This is the simplest and most inward of all the Beatitudes, the very foundation of Christian sanctity. Definition of this purity includes three main lines of thought
(a) The strict control and due regulation of the passions and desires. The heart in Holy Scripture includes the whole realm of moral and spiritual natureour intellect, affections, wills, impulses, desires. Purity of heart implies a strict discipline of the passions.
(b) Purity of heart includes purity of intention. The value of any act, in Gods sight, depends not upon activity, energy, or talent, but is in exact proportion to the motive which prompts it.
(c) Advance in personal holiness, and gradual sanctification of the soul, by communication of Divine purity.
II. How shall this purity be attained?
(a) We must set before ourselves a lofty ideal. We must have but one ideal of purity, the highest; adopt but one attitude towards every form of impurity, uncompromising and stern.
(b) We must be wise concerning good and simple concerning evil. It is a hideous maxim, that the knowledge of evil does little harm! it wrecks households, degrades noble lives, crushes the peace of woman, ruins the honour of men, strews the path of thousands with withered leaves, mars the spiritual beauty of the soul, and brings many grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.
(c) We must be watchful ovr our thoughts.The heart is the fountain-head of evil; the thoughts defile (read St. Mark 7), not passing thoughts, but thoughts cherished and fondly hugged. Try me, O God, and search my heart! Guard thy heart from empty, vain, unclean, envious, proud thoughts.
III. They shall see God.The pure in heart see more than others now; they have a present reward; they see God in the beauties of nature more clearly; they hear His voice in His Word more plainly; they see the Divine purity reflected in their own hearts, and in the lives of His people. But they shall behold more loveliness; they shall see the King in His beauty.
Prebendary J. Storrs.
Illustration
There is no true purity apart from the absolute enthronement of God in the affections. It is not the absence of unholy affections, it is the presence of a holy and unsurpassingly earnest love, that makes us really pure. The soul is so supremely an altar that it must worship something in its inmost shrine, and unless it worship God there it cannot be pure. His presence there, and it alone, can rob temptation of its charm, dispel all carnal longings, throw back the fierce onset of ancient and besetting sins, and make the heart utterly holy.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
5:8
When disconnected from all qualifying terms the word pure simply means “unmixed”; something that is not combined with any other substance, and hence it could mean either good or bad. An object that has no good in it would be pure evil. When the connection shows it is used in a good sense (as in our verse) it means a heart not mixed up with the evils of a sinful world. The definition of the Biblical heart will be given in another place.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
[Blessed are the pure in heart.] Hearken, O Pharisee, all whose praise lies in outward cleanness. How foolish is this boasting of a Jew! “Come and see, saith R. Simeon Ben Eleazar, how far the purity of Israel extends itself: when it is not only appointed, that a clean man eat not with an unclean woman; but [that an unclean man eat not with an unclean man] that a Pharisee that hath the gonorrhea eat not with a common person that hath the gonorrhea.”
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Mat 5:8. The pore in heart. Either a single virtue, or total freedom from sin. The former is here meant, i.e., a simplicity of heart, or that steady direction of the soul toward the Divine life which excludes every other object from the homage of the heart More than sincerity, or chastity of feeling, or outward purity, such as the Levitical law demanded and the hearers might have deemed sufficient, or the moral purity which philosophers enjoin; it is inward purity derived from God (comp, 1Jn 3:9). Hence the promise: they shall see God. Fulfilled even here. This vision of God begins when spiritual vision begins in the regenerate heart (Eph 1:18); it is perfected when in eternity we shall see Him face to face (1Co 13:12; 1Jn 3:2), perfect knowledge being combined with perfect love.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Note here, 1. The duty required and called for, Purity of heart and life: the first expressed, the other included: for a clean heart will be accompanied with a clean life. Where there is a principle of grace within, there will be the acting of grace without.
Note, 2. The incentive to this duty; the pure in heart, and holy in life shall see and enjoy God; the infinitely pure and perfectly holy God. They shall see him and spiritually mediately in this life, gloriously and immediately in the life to come.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 5:8. The pure in heart Those whose hearts are purified by faith; who are not only sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Jesus, but cleansed by the Spirit of God from vain thoughts, unprofitable reasonings, earthly and sensual desires, and corrupt passions; who are purified from pride, self-will, discontent, impatience, anger, malice, envy, covetousness, ambition; whose hearts are circumcised to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, and their neighbours as themselves, and who, therefore, are not only upright before him, but possess and maintain purity of intention and of affection in all their designs, works, and enjoyments; serving him continually with a single eye and an undivided heart. They shall see God Namely, in the glass of his works, whether of creation, providence, or grace, here, and face to face hereafter: they shall have fellowship with him in his ordinances, and shall endure as seeing him that is invisible, while they walk by faith on earth, and shall be admitted to the most perfect vision and complete enjoyment of him in heaven.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 8
Pure in heart; those who are not merely externally moral, but whose motives and thoughts are pure.–Shall see God; shall dwell with him in heaven.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
5:8 Blessed [are] the {c} pure in heart: for they shall see God.
(c) Fitly is this word “pure” joined with the heart, for as a bright and shining resemblance or image may be seen plainly in a clear and pure looking glass, even so does the face (as it were) of the everlasting God, shine forth, and clearly appear in a pure heart.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The "pure in heart" are those who are single-minded in their devotion to God and therefore morally pure inwardly. Inner moral purity is an important theme in Matthew and in the Old Testament (cf. Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6; 1Sa 15:22; Psa 24:3-4; Psa 51:6; Psa 51:10; Isa 1:10-17; Jer 4:4; Jer 7:3-7; Jer 9:25-26). Likewise freedom from hypocrisy is also prominent (cf. Psa 24:4; Psa 51:4-17; Pro 22:11; Mat 6:22; Mat 6:33). Jesus probably implied both ideas here.
The pure in heart can look forward to seeing God in the person of Messiah when He reigns on the earth (Psa 24:3-4; Isa 33:17; Isa 35:2; Isa 40:5). Messiah would be single-minded in His devotion to God and morally pure. Thus there will be a correspondence and fellowship between the King and those of His subjects who share His character. No one has seen God in His pure essence without some type of filter. The body of Jesus was such a filter. Seeing God is a synonym for having intimate knowledge of and acquaintance with Him (John 14; 1Jn 1:1-4).