Matthew 5:8

‘Blessed ones, the pure in heart, for they will see God.'

Those whom God has blessed will also be pure in heart. Central to the thought here is Psalms 24. The ones who would ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His holy place must have ‘clean hands and a pure heart' (Psalms 24:4). Then they will not ascend in vain. And this involves among other things not having one's thoughts fixed on vain and useless things, nor on dishonesty and deceit (Psalms 24:5). The pure of heart have their hearts fixed on God and are open and honest. None can therefore say that they have been truly blessed by God if there has not come into them a yearning for such purity of heart, for without it they cannot approach God. It is the upright and righteous who can behold His face (Psalms 11:7; Psalms 17:15). If men and women have no desire for purity of heart it is thus clear that God has withheld His blessing.

And this purity of heart results in a singleness of mind and purpose, and a rejection of all that is impure and false. The ones whom God has so blessed may still be sorely troubled by impurity of thought, but their greater desire will now be to be freed from it. They will hate impurity. For the pure in heart are those whose eyes are fixed on God and on what is good. Their eye is single (see Matthew 6:22; James 4:8) and their heart is pure, and this purity of heart will result in equanimity of spirit. They set their hearts on whatever is true, honourable, right, pure, lovely or gracious (Philippians 4:8). They do not lift up their souls to what is false, or engage in lies (Psalms 24:4). They are not envious of others (Psalms 73:1). They do not allow their eyes to stray (Matthew 5:28). They rather turn their eyes and their hearts away from anything that displeases God. And thus their vision will be clear and they will see God in their hearts, ‘seeing Him Who is invisible' (Hebrews 11:27), and one day will see Him as He really is (1 John 3:2; Revelation 22:4; Psalms 17:15).

Moses speaks of it as resulting from ‘the circumcision of the heart' which removes men's stubbornness and enables them to love the Lord with their whole being (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6). The hardness is cut away from their hearts leaving ‘a heart of flesh' (Ezekiel 36:26, compare Isaiah 44:1; Jeremiah 31:33). They have thus become new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). And that is what has been the experience of those disciples who have responded to God in repentance (Matthew 4:17) and are here with the genuine intention of listening to Jesus. They have been blessed by God with purity of heart, and thus with a singleness of mind that is also pure. And it provides them with a spiritual check up before the final application in the remainder of the Sermon. If they fail here they need go no further.