The Beatitudes (6)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8
Purity is something that is often scoffed at by people of the world – be it moral purity, spiritual purity, sexual purity, etc. But purity is the root by which we can see the power of God work through our lives and through our church fellowships. Purity doesn’t begin with our outward actions. Instead, it begins in our heart: our motives and our thoughts. When our heart is pure by the working of the Holy Spirit, our actions will become pure and a witness to others both inside and outside the church.
Consider what happened to Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1-11. They had seen how Barnabas had sold a field and laid the money he obtained at the feet of the apostles. So they did the same thing – only they kept back some of the money. Their sin was not keeping the money – it was theirs to do with as they wished. There was no commandment from God for believers to sell their possessions and give the money to the church. Rather, their sin was that of hypocrisy: making it seem to other people that they had given everything, to be seen to be spiritual. They were found out and an example was made to others. There was no place for hypocrites in the first century church.
We cannot expect to see God work in power in and through us, if we are compromising with sin in our lives. We don’t need to be perfect, but we do need to be genuine. We need to seek God wholeheartedly – and when we do, we will find Him (Deut. 4:29, Jer. 29:13, Matt. 7:7).