Pastoral Ministry and the Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Jesus’s instructions on kingdom virtues in the Sermon on the Mount penetrate to the very heart of our being. One cannot help but think of the words of the writer of Hebrews: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12–13).

The virtues Jesus extols are soul-piercing, heart-discerning, and render us “exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Yet Jesus does not mean to condemn. He only means to confront us with the holiness, purity, and moral perfection of the God in whose presence believers will one day be privileged to live. So, after blessing the humble, those who mourn over their sin, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and the merciful, Jesus pronounces another blessing.

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

Who can say he is pure in heart? Looking ourselves in the mirror, we find that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and cleansing. As Paul writes after lengthy demonstration, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We were created in God’s image and likeness and called to reflect his glory. Yet, instead, all of us “like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.” Yet, thank God, “the LORD has laid on him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Purity of Heart Is a Work of God’s Spirit

In Old Testament times, David, after committing adultery with a beautiful woman named Bathsheba, cried out to the Lord, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10–12). David, the “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), keenly sensed the corruption of his heart. He confessed his sin to God and pleaded with God to create in him a clean heart.

Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus warns, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:25–26). Jesus’s words apply to all of us. We cannot clean ourselves spiritually or conform to an external moral standard by our own efforts and think we are right with God.

Later, when washing his disciples’ feet in the Upper Room, Jesus explained that spiritual cleansing is the work of the Spirit in regeneration (John 13:10–11; 15:3). Correspondingly, Paul spoke of “the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5), and Peter urged his readers, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again” (1 Peter 1:22–23).

Paul told Timothy that the aim of his ministry was “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). He urged his foremost disciple to flee worldly vices and pursue Christian virtues “along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). Here, we see that sanctification by the Holy Spirit is not a solitary enterprise but rather that purity of heart is best pursued along with others who have a desire to “call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

The writer of Hebrews challenged his readers to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean” by virtue of the high-priestly sacrifice of Christ (Hebrews 10:22). James stated that “pure and undefiled religion” is “to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27). At the end-time marriage supper of the Lamb, the bride of Christ is clothed in “fine linen, bright and pure,” symbolizing the moral purity of God’s people due to the Spirit’s finished work of sanctification (Revelation 19:8).

God Prizes Purity of Heart

Purity of heart is not self-produced. It is a work of the Holy Spirit from beginning to end. Then why did Jesus not talk about the Spirit here? Presumably because he judged his listeners would not have been able to grasp such teaching at that point in time. The first step was to articulate God’s standards. The second step would be for sinful men to recognize their inadequacy and to put their trust in the crucified and risen Christ. At this, they would receive the indwelling Holy Spirit who would do his sanctifying work in them.

God prizes purity of heart. We should aspire to be less like Jacob (later renamed Israel), who by nature was a trickster and deceiver, and more like King David. As the Lord said to Samuel,“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). When it is time to promote leaders in your church, or to hire new staff, is your first look at a man’s resume and credentials? Or do you first look at his heart?

Conclusion: Cultivating Purity of Heart

How, then, do we cultivate purity of heart in our own lives, and how do we encourage it in others? Despair of yourself and put your trust completely in God. Look to God and away from yourself. Ask him in prayer to purify your thought life and your motives.

David concludes one of his greatest psalms with a prayer all of us can and should pray: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24). Don’t trust your own motives, and don’t trust the motives of others. God does not look at our pious posturing and virtue signaling; he looks at the heart. So should you, both in your own life and in the way you relate to others.

Also, be a man of the Word. In the words of the psalmist, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. … I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:9–11).

As Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” May you and I pursue purity of heart—by the grace of God, on the basis of the finished work of Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit—so that we can enjoy increasing fellowship with our holy God.

Read previous article here.

© 2025, Andreas Köstenberger. Used by permission.