In Matthew 5:8, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

He was saying that if we desire to live a blessed or happy life and live daily in the presence of God’s glory, we should become pure in heart.

What does that mean?

Does this mean to be honest? Does it mean to be chaste? Does it mean having good ethics?

Perhaps, it means all of the above and even more.

I believe it means to be the real you without pretense – but to make the adjustments that will make your spiritual heart pleasing to God.

The physical heart is the seat of the physical life, energy and strength. Similarly, the spiritual heart is the seat of spiritual life, energy and strength.

In Proverbs 23:7, the Bible says, “For as one thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee.”

This is a deceptive attitude and not pure in heart. Our will and emotions are centered in our spiritual heart. From it comes our motives and intentions are genuine, authentic and sincere. We have a singleness of mind and purpose that is expressed in our actions and behaviors.

To be pure in heart means to be undefiled and without contamination. Once one is born again and knows Jesus as personal savior, he can continue in the pure in heart relationship by walking with Jesus and by confessing sins and receiving Jesus forgiveness.

To be pure in heart means that our motives are clean. They are free from any form of deceit, not just the absence of negative traits. Purity of heart is positive.

Positive purity produces action. It is often much easier to be against something than to be for something and to help build up to the high standard of Jesus.

Purity of heart produces sincere actions. We will say what we mean and mean what we say, and act without ulterior motives. Thus our words and actions compliment each other, and our world becomes our bond.

If we have pure heart we see beyond the immediate results, and base our actions on long-term results and eternal consequences.

One result of an impure heart is a tendency to use deceit to make one’s self look better in the eyes of others. This could be by a plain lie or by creating a false impression or by failing to correct a false impression.

They guilty individual would be the fist to know this, but others would learn as time passes. It would be much easier simply to have a pure heart and be honest.

Another result of an impure heart is the attempt to deceive to avoid embarrassment. This being done to save face (one’s own) often leads to put –down of someone else and is often hurtful to the other person.

It is not for us to judge the purity of another’s heart, but instead to keep our own heart pure. Only God knows the true purity of someone’s heart.

Many are afraid someone will find out their faults. For this reason, the real person does not come out because of the fear of rejection.

Someone said, “If our faults are never truly known, we ourselves are never truly known. If we are never truly known, we are never truly loved.”

A sincere and pure heart, tempered by humility and mercy, is willing to take the risk of being genuine with God and with others. Denial of sin separates us from the fellowship we should have with God.

Pretending a purity of heart we don not possess separates us from others.

With a pure heart we take the risk to be known without pretense and become vulnerable. The result is the happiness Jesus promised.

God reveals himself to the pure in heart.