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The “Jesus Way” goal for our faith at work:  God desires for us a level of purity of heart at work that always brings glory to Him, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

  • Are we bringing Him glory with our focus on purity?
  • Are we standing for the truth of Jesus and what is not deceitful?

Søren Kierkegaard wrote a book called Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing. That is not a bad definition, provided that the one thing we will is the glory of God at work.

ACCORDING TO DAVID Let me try to show you where that definition comes from in Scripture. We start with the closest OT parallel to this beatitude, namely, Psalm 24:3–4:

Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
and does not swear deceitfully.

You can see what David means by a “pure heart” at work in the phrases that follow it.

  • A pure heart is a heart that has nothing to do with falsehood.
  • It is painstakingly truthful and free from deceitfulness.
  • Deceit is what you do when you will two things, not one thing.
  • You will to do one thing and you will that people think you are doing another. You will to feel one thing and you will that people think you are feeling another.
  • That is impurity of heart. Purity of heart is to will one thing, namely, to “seek the face of Yahweh” (verse 6).

ACCORDING TO JAMES You can see this idea of purity in our work in James 4:8:

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.

Notice that just like Psalm 24 there is reference to both clean hands and a pure heart as preparation for drawing near to God, or “ascending the hill of the Master.” But notice how the men are described who need to purify their hearts: “men of double mind.” That is they are men that will two things not just one thing. The impurity of doublemindedness is explained in James 4:4-10:

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. [1]

So, the double-minded man of verse 8 has his heart divided between the world and God, like a wife who has a husband and a boyfriend. Purity of heart at work, on the other hand, is to will one thing, namely, full and total allegiance to God.

FROM JESUS’S MOUTH: So if we ask, Where in the gospels did Jesus explain purity of heart in this way? The answer would be Matthew 22:37:

You shall love the Master your God with all your heart.

Not with part of your heart. Not with a double or divided heart. That would be impurity. Purity of heart is no deception, no doublemindedness, no divided allegiance.

“God is the one who purifies the heart, and the instrument with which he cleans it is faith.”

You can see the echo of this meaning of purity of heart in 1 Timothy 1:5,

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere [i.e., unhypocritical faith].

Purity of heart at work is to will one thing, namely, God’s truth and God’s value in everything we do. The aim of the pure heart is to align itself with the truth of God and magnify the worth of God. If you want to be pure in heart, pursue God with utter single-mindedness. Purity of heart is to will that one thing.

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[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 4:4–10.