By Alex Florez
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:8, Psalm 24:3-6, Acts 6:8-15, Acts 7:54-60, 2 Timothy 2:19-22, 1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” These terms and conditions seem pretty straightforward. Step 1: Get a pure heart. Step 2: See God. And since I’m a pretty good guy, becoming someone who is pure in heart sounds doable. The phrase pure in heart might commonly be understood to describe someone as honest, genuine, sincere. Sprinkle those synonymous traits with a modest dose of good behavior, and voila—seeing God is actually within reach!
However, a truthful assessment of the purity of my heart calls for a serious look inward.
From a very young age, my thought life was shaped largely by the music I listened to, the movies and TV shows I watched, the books I read, and the famous people I idolized. I didn’t come to faith in Jesus until my junior year of high school, which means my brain was already being shaped by culture—my heart was not prepared for the presence of a holy God. Without being consciously aware of what was happening, I grew to love the sights that blinded me to the face of Jesus as well as the sounds that deafened me to the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Loving what I saw on screens and heard through speakers, my heart developed an appetite for the ungodliness I had as of yet only witnessed as an audience member. What began as passive consumption led to the active contamination of my inner self. My heart was inarguably impure.
So allow me to share what I tell my fifth grade Bible students when we study the Beatitudes: The music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, and the sites we click on dramatically affect our worldview, our sense of self, the way we look at others, and even the way we understand God. We are very suggestible creatures, after all. From the garden onward, we have demonstrated a willingness to listen to all the wrong voices, which lead us further and further away from the heart of God.
But our path to purity cannot be paved by avoidance or abnegation of the world around us. We can be vigilant about what we see, read, and listen to without wishing ourselves blind and deaf. Similarly, even a well-intended morality campaign that maligns art and makes ashes of culture would not provide positive progress on the purity scale.
Since we enter the world marked by the “crimson stain” of sin, we need the active intervention of our gracious Lord to make us “white as snow.” The kind of purity that continually prepares our hearts to see God demands the presence of Jesus Himself along with a steady diet of His living Word. Purity of heart requires active participation in the program for kingdom living Jesus offers in the Beatitudes. He alone can revive our moribund hearts, move us toward purity, and, ultimately, allow us to see God.
Written by Alex Florez
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