The Beatitude Life: 6, Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

The purity spoken of in this beatitude is referred to many times throughout the Bible in those verses wherein God is a refiner removing the dross from silver or gold; and in those verses in the New Testament wherein it is said that Christ and His Spirit will baptize with fire [like a refiner removing dross] through affliction, suffering, or testing.

Consider the following scriptures: Mal 3:2 “But who will be able to endure it when He comes? Who will be able to stand and face Him when He appears? For He will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. Mal 3:3 He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the LORD

[The Free Bible software, E-sword, gives the following references in the commentary, Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, for Malachi 3:3:  Psa_66:10; Pro_17:3, Pro_25:4; Isa_1:25, Isa_48:10; Jer_6:28-30; Eze_22:18-22; Dan_12:10; Zec_13:9; Luk_3:16; Eph_5:26-27; Tit_2:14; Heb_12:10; 1Pe_1:7, 1Pe_4:12-13; Rev_3:18, I pasted in a few of these verses below.]

Isa 1:25 I will raise My fist against you. I will melt you down and skim off your slag. I will remove all your impurities.

Luk 3:16 John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be His slave and untie the straps of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

1Pe 1:7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

So, in other words, God is the great Refiner; He sends trials to afflict us which is like putting gold in a fire to remove its impurities, to make it free of impurities, pure. That is what He is doing to our hearts via the afflictions, the suffering.

Where is our heart located?  See if you can establish that while you read a few verses on the heart from scripture:

Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Mat 12:35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

Act 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Act 5:4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

“Heart [N] [E]“Heart” (Hebrew lebab/leb [b’bel], Gk. kardia [kardiva]) occurs over one thousand times in the Bible, making it the most common anthropological term in the Scripture. It denotes a person’s center for both physical and emotional-intellectual-moral activities; sometimes it is used figuratively for any inaccessible thing….”

I have defined it in my own mind as to be single-mindedly devoted to God.  Baker’s dictionary basically stated that it is our command center of the mind, will and affections.  The scripture states that we are double-minded in our natural state and apparently when we begin our walk with the Lord as the following scripture indicates:  Jas 1:6 But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Jas 1:7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Jas 1:8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.So, as the Holy Spirit works into us the beatitude life, He will be making us more like Christ, who was single-minded in His devotion to the Father in His earthly life. That is, our priorities will undergo a 180 degree change (away from being single-mindedly devoted to self), as in: Mat 6:25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? …Mat 6:32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Mat 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.

It seems that, before we can arrive at the beatitude attitude experience of purity of heart, that the Holy Spirit must remove the following dross from our lives: selfishness: lust of the flesh and eyes, pride; an independent spirit, rebelliousness, love of the world…; and conform us to the image of Christ by instilling dependence upon God; humility, mourning for sin, meekness, love of righteousness, and mercy; all via the furnace of affliction.   During that process, we will learn to love God, not the world; to have God’s perspective about who we are….

But in the meantime, it is essential to be real about who we are right now, to observe it, own it and seek God’s enabling grace that we might concur with His Spirit as this work takes place, while we abide in His means of grace.