This appeals to me, because I love the idea of being able to see God. It also bothers me, because it's difficult for me to read this scripture without slipping into legalism and beating myself up. I've never been anywhere close to pure of heart if purity is a synonym for perfection, which when reading this, my mind usually equates the two. In the past, I have always read or heard this and immediately reminded myself of all the times and all the ways I have fallen short of perfection and holiness. If I am not careful, I have been known to start looking at religious rules and regulations and say I need to start doing this right and that right and stop the other so that I can be closer to pure and perhaps close enough to see God.
But the truth is that as natural as that thought process is, it is ridiculous. The first reason it is ridiculous is that it is a trap, and I am setting myself up for failure. To slip into that mindset is to look to and within myself to be perfect and holy as God is perfect and holy. That's impossible. I can never do anything right enough to earn closeness with God. That truth is the very reason Christ came, to make a way through grace for me to have relationship with God based on His merit, because mine will always be insufficient. The second reason the idea is ridiculous is that Jesus did not mean pure as in perfectly following the rules and unflawed.
We all have character defects. We all have flaws. We all have areas where our own will and natural instincts run contrary to the will of God for us. And we all have things about ourselves that fall in those categories that we can not control or change on our own, no matter how hard we try, at least not for long. I think we addicts and alcoholics are much aware of this. If this were not true, then all those statements of I'll do better, this will never happen again, I won't use or drink as much next time, I'm never getting drunk or high again would have been true. We would have seen destruction in our lives and corrected it the first time there was a negative consequence. But I couldn't stop or control those things because I lacked the power over them and over myself. I needed God.
Jesus knows that, so He is not going to tell me to be something I am not and can not be. But if that is the case, then what did He mean by pure? Quite simply, purity of motive, purity of purpose and purity of worship. Not pure as in perfect but rather as in unadulterated by anything else.
The Beatitudes are in the book of Matthew. In another place in Matthew Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for the ritualistic purity, pointing out the futility of washing and cleaning the outside of a cup while the inside is untouched and nasty. He knocks the fear motivated following of rules the religious followed about what they could do and not do, eat and not eat, by pointing out that it's not what a man eats or puts in his mouth that defiles him or makes him impure. It is what comes out of the mouth that defiles, because what comes out of the mouth comes from within us, from the heart, and if the heart is not pure, what comes is impure.
A pure heart is an honest heart. A heart that has no deceit to present to God, to self or to others is pure. This is the basic truth behind practicing rigorous honesty. If I am honest with myself and others, especially God, then I will be teachable, leadable and humble. I will do the next right thing for the right reasons. My motives for surrendering to God and for service to others will be about love not self promotion or they will be changed.
A pure heart has but one purpose, to have relationship with God and to do His will. To truly follow the principles of Step Three, including motivations for service and where the glory and praise gets directed, leads to purity of heart and spirit.
And a pure heart is one that worships and surrenders to God and no other. When I am pursuing a relationship with God in honesty, living in service and submission to His will above all else and for His glory, and when that relationship and His will come first before any other then I am pure of heart and I will be blessed to see God.
But what exactly does that mean, to see God. Well, it is true that the heavens and the earth declare the glory of God. We can and do see glimpses of the Creator in the creation. When I walk in rigorous honesty, surrender to God and practice what He's taught me in all the affairs of my life I do have a tendency to notice the Creator in the creation around me more often. I see and am grateful for the blessings He gives me more. But that's still not it. To see God is to be granted audience, to be allowed into His presence for discourse and fellowship. It is to see in the sense of I need to see the King, I need to see my father. When I say I need to see my father, I don't mean I need to see a glimpse of him from my window as he walks by. I need for everything else to be put on hold, for me to be allowed to sit down with him and talk. To see God is to be taken into and aware of the presence of God.
So today, I will try to remember and walk in this truth. I will fall short in some, maybe many areas, but I will rely on God's grace for those. I will do my best to be honest enough with myself and God to see my motives for what I do. I will be teachable and be willing that God have all of me, the good and the bad, and take from me every defect of character that stands in the way of my usefulness to Him and others [Step Seven], and I will surrender my will and my life to His, and not my fear, responsibilities or pride, nothing else will come first before my relationship with Him. The extent that I am able to practice this purity of heart is the extent to which I will be able to experience and practice the presence of God in my life, to see God, today.
You've stepped on one of the theological problems that have plagued mankind for Milena. That is, if God is perfect, how did imperfection arise?
ReplyDeleteIf God intended to make perfect creations, and humans acted in some unforseen ways to be imperfect, God is not omniscient.
If God tried to make perfect creations, and instead made imperfect ones, God is not omnipotent.
If God wanted to have perfect creations, and expected us to attain perfection without Him, and failed all of us, and will punish us for having imperfections, that vision of God is both not benevolent and self-contradictory.
If we assume omnipotence and omniscience, the only possible way to also have benevolence is either through God offering us help to gain perfection if that's what He wants, or for God to accept imperfect creations as they/we are.
This is not rationally solvable. It must be solvable in another way.
One of the Pharisees' major criticisms of Jesus - and one major reason they could not accept Him as the messiah, a prophet, or even anyone touched by God was His utter refusal to obey the Laws in the Old Testament. He refused to wash his hands before eating. He healed on the Sabbath. He even hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes! Jesus drank wine, He saw the good in the Good Samaritan (a foreigner - Samaritans were not well liked in Palestine at the time - if the story were to happen in the US in modern times, the story might be "The Good Mexican illegal-alien gang-banger". Really. That's about how far down the Samaritans were looked upon.
The story of Martha and Mary is also telling in what you HAVE TO do to get God's attention. Whereas one sister beat her brains out trying to do all sorts of things well, right, and getting everything perfect before she could think about spending time with Jesus, the other just sat at Jesus' feat - as badly as things might have needed doing, if she was to spend time with Him, she just had to be there with him. This drew criticism from her more fastidious sister, and Jesus rebuked her for her criticism.
Or, as a French monk who I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with left me with a gem. Translated to English, it came out to "Live all of your life surrounded by God."
This monk lived his life in a monastery, so spent plenty of times on the rituals and following religious rules and regulations. Some of the unstructured time, or time spent doing things to bring money into the monastery were spent adoring the quiet company of God - in everything - whether it went good or bad, according to plan or went awry. He said "always", not just when things are going perfectly, or when you think you've been doing things perfectly.
In fact, a feeling of your own perfection leads to complacency. Then pride, arrogance, and everyone but you can see the lack of perfection. Hence Matthew 7:3-5:
7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
7:4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
This is the problem with seeing your own perfection, and being self-righteous with it. Jesus does not think well of such people. Note too that Jesus walked with and talked to Samaritans, which was generally viewed as a social faux pas in His day. No Pharisee would ever do that - it would make him ritually impure! Jesus didn't think that such ritual purity was important. He said "WHOEVER" believes in Me... not "whoever is ritually clean, and pure of heart, and obeys all of the commandments, and never does any misdeeds". Jesus put on no such caveats. Why should we?
They cannot be helped by God, by events in their lives, by other people, or anything else. As the idiom goes, "None so blind as those who will not see"
I am deeply thankful for both the blog post and the reply.
ReplyDeleteDalyn, your post reminds me of a definition "my" Pastor gave us of grace,"Grace is God doing for us what we cannot possibly do for ourselves" I love you and phred, whom I do not know.
Hi Andy,
ReplyDelete"Grace", by its definition, is unwarranted, unmerited love, favors, help, or gifts. Here's the theological definition of "grace" from Yourdictionary.com:
a. the unmerited love and favor of God toward mankind
b. divine influence acting in a person to make the person pure, morally strong, etc.
c. the condition of a person brought to God's favor through this influence
d. a special virtue, gift, or help given to a person by God
Again, God is not asking you to earn these things: They are gifts.
The Old Testament portrays God as a good judge, who gives people what they deserve.
The New Testament portrays Jesus calling God "Abba", which is most rightly translated from Aramaic as "Daddy" - not the more formal "Father". This portrays God not only as a divine parent, but a loving, approachable one. Good parents give their children what would make them happy, and what they need to grow up, be happy in the longer run, Good parents help their children to stay away from, then to get away from various bad influences - they don't severely punish, kill, abuse, or turn away their children for getting into these things.
Phred