Fortunate [Blessed] are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

• The Greek word for “pure” in Matthew 5:8 is katharos.
• It means to be “clean, blameless, unstained from guilt.” Interestingly, the word can refer specifically to that which is purified by fire or by pruning. John the Baptist told people that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11).
• Malachi speaks of the Messiah as being like a “refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2). Jesus refers to believers as being the branches and to Himself as being the vine (John 15:1-17).
• For a vine to produce fruit, it must be pruned.
• Those who are truly “pure,” then, are those who have been declared innocent because of the work of Jesus and who are being sanctified by His refining fire and His pruning.

The Greek word for “heart” in Matthew 5:8 is kardeeah.

• This can be applied to the physical heart. But it also refers to the spiritual center of life.
• It is where thoughts, desires, sense of purpose, will, understanding, and character reside.
• So, to be pure in heart means to be blameless in who we actually are.
• Being pure in heart involves having a singleness of heart toward God.
• A pure heart has no hypocrisy, no guile, no hidden motives.
• The pure heart is marked by transparency and an uncompromising desire to please God in all things.
• It is more than an external purity of behavior; it is an internal purity of soul.

The only way we can be truly pure in heart is to give our lives to Jesus and ask Him to do the cleansing work.

• Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
• God is the one who makes our hearts pure – by the sacrifice of His Son
• He also accomplishes this through His sanctifying work in our lives (see also 1 John 3:1-3).

Does our faith at work show a pure heart? Jesus challenges us. “Fortunate are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

• Clearly, we are to be pure. It is a matter of the heart.
• Purity means to be “clean, blameless, unstained from guilt.” Interestingly, the word can refer specifically to that which is purified by fire or by pruning.
• John the Baptist told people that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

We are pure through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

• I cannot ignore continuing to miss God’s goal for my life (aka sin).
• I must change my way of thinking (repent) and act differently.
• Jesus requires me to be pure in heart!
• Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery “Go and sin no more.” God didn’t condemn her but we are to be pure.

The heart is what I am at work, in the secrecy of my thought and feeling, when nobody knows but God.

• And what I am at the invisible root matters as much to God as what I am at the visible branch.
• “Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Master looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
• From the heart are all the issues of life.

What comes out of the mouth at work proceeds from the heart . . . For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man” (Matthew 15:18–19).

Because we have died with the Messiah, we have the spiritual power to slay the earthly, fleshly desires that want to control us.

• Paul called this “reckoning” ourselves to be dead to sin but alive in.
• Our Master used the same idea when He said, “And if your right eye offend you, pluck it out” (Matt. 5:29–30).

Because we have died with the Messiah, we have the spiritual power to slay the earthly, fleshly desires that want to control us.

• Paul called this “reckoning” ourselves to be dead to sin but alive in.
• Our Master used the same idea when He said, “And if your right eye offends you, pluck it out” (Matt. 5:29–30).

Obviously, neither Paul nor Jesus was talking about literal surgery.

• Sin does not come from the eye, hand, or foot; it comes from the heart, the evil desires within.
• Centuries ago in England, if a pickpocket was convicted, his right hand was cut off. If he was convicted a second time, his left hand was amputated.
• One pickpocket lost both hands and continued his “trade” by using his teeth! Physical surgery can never change the heart.

Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality (fornication), impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them.

But now, put away all the following at work: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self.

You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.  In the Messiah, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but the Messiah is all and in all. Colossians 3:5-11

In Colossians 3, Paul named sins; and some people do not like that.

• These sins belong to the old life and have no place in our new life in the Messiah.
• Furthermore, God’s judgment falls on those who practice these sins; and God is no respecter of persons.
• God’s wrath fell on the Gentile world because of these sins, and His wrath will fall again.
• “Because of these, the wrath of God is coming,” Paul warned (Col. 3:6, NIV).

Fornication refers to sexual immorality in general.

• Uncleanness means “lustful impurity that is connected with luxury and loose living.” Inordinate affection describes a state of mind that excites sexual impurity.
• The person who cultivates this kind of appetite can always find opportunity to satisfy it. Evil concupiscence means “base, evil desires.”
• Desires lead to deeds, appetites lead to actions. If we would purify our actions, then we must first purify our minds and hearts.

God is pure and holy. There is nothing about God that is false at all.

There is no evil in God. Purity refers to flawless. God is flawless. There is no sin in God because of His purity.

The purity of God and His Son Jesus is to show us the way.

We are new creations in Jesus.

The first thing we learn from this teaching is that Jesus is concerned with our heart. It is not enough to clean up our act on the outside.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

(Matthew 23:25–26)

The aim of Jesus is not to reform the manners of society, but to change the hearts of sinners like you and me. So, for example, Jesus would not be satisfied with a society in which there were no acts of adultery.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”

(Matthew 5:27–28)

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