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The sixth of the Beatitudes is, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8). Purity of heart, then, is another indispensable characteristic of kingdom citizens and consequently, of Christian leaders.
Purity is a concept deeply embedded in the Old Testament. There is relates to freedom from defilement. It is used in moral, physical and ceremonial senses. Sacrificial animals had to be pure or "clean" in the sense of being free from defect; priests had to wash their bodies so as to be free from dirt and defilement; and people had to be morally pure in the sense of keeping the Lord's commands. The converse of such purity was uncleanness.
Significantly, purity was essential to fellowship with God. As the Holy One, his very nature is the opposite of all that is corrupt, defiled or soiled. Uncleanness of any kind made a person unfit for fellowship with God - they could not enter his presence or "see him."
Israel's leaders made much of this and developed a complex pattern of washings to ensure they preserved a state of cleanness or purity. It was probably this tradition that Jesus was thinking of when he said, "Blessed are the pure in heart..." It was typical of the religion of his day to focus on the external. Jesus, however, was concerned about the inner life. Consequently, he declared that it was those who were "pure in heart" who would see God - who would enjoy spiritual fellowship with him now and face-to-face intimacy in the future.
What is that inner "heart" purity of which he spoke? It is certainly not to be confused with outward conformity to a set of rules. It refers firstly to freedom from moral filth in the inner centre of our personality. It is to have one's desires, motives, and thoughts purged from malice, deceit, falsehood, lust, greed and the like. The result will be a person with a genuine inner desire for the things that are good and true.
But more than that, it will result in a person who is absolutely sincere. John Stott thinks that Jesus is here referring to purity in the sense of integrity in relationships. "More precisely," he writes, "the reference is to sincerity. That is, in his relations with both God and man he is free from falsehood. So the pure in heart are the 'utterly sincere'. Their whole life, public and private, is transparent before God and men. Their very heart - including their thoughts and motives - is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior or base. Hypocrisy and deceit are abhorrent to them; they are without guile." (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 49).
He goes on to comment on how little of this there is in human relationships. "How few of us live one life and live it in the open!" he says. "We are tempted to wear a different mask and play a different role according to each occasion. This is not reality, but play-acting, which is the essence of hypocrisy. Some people weave around themselves such a tissue of lies that they can no longer tell which part of them is real and which is make-believe" (p. 49).
How different Christian leaders must be. Their desires must be pure; their motives must be pure; their thoughts and words must be pure. There must be nothing deceptive about their dealings, nothing hidden in their relationships. Jesus stands alone as the One man who was "pure in heart". But, through his grace and strength, we must seek to be like him.