According to Webter's Dictionary, pure is defined like this: "having a homogenous composition: unmixed; to be free from impurities and contaminates: clean; to be free from faults: sinless." In conjunction with the next Beatitude, this has to be one of the best secular definitions to a Biblical concept I have come across.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8 (NKJV)
To be pure of heart is a tall order in today's world. How does one go from day to day, intending to be pure in all they do, not get tainted by the world around them. Turn the television of and get inundated with sex and smut, go to your local high school and receive the same thing. Travel anywhere in the Morongo Basin and you will find sin in a sinful world. How does one stay pure of heart? It is all about the eyes.
The human eye has a normal field of vision of 60 degrees. That is about 16.67% of your world around you. Add 40 degrees of peripheral vision and you add 11.11% of vision. That comes to a total of 27.78% of your world flooding through the eyes.
If one was to concentrate on one particular object, the field of vision actually narrows. The field of vision shrinks to a mere 6 degrees, that is only 1.67%. Wow!
Now apply this to your spiritual walk. Instead of taking in the entire one-quarter of the world, how about narrowing the field of vision. concentrate on Jesus. Make Jesus the focus. "Purity in heart is not measured by the practices of people but rather by the character of God Himself." (J. Dwight Pentecost)
If Jesus is the focus, then it is He and only He that we see on a daily basis. We tend to imitate what we see on a daily basis. As children, we mimic those things that we look up to because we wish to be like that. As adults, I feel that it is less apparent to the individual. Who imitates an adulterer because he appreciates what the adulterer is doing? None. However, if one surrounds himself with these sorts of things, he will inevitably stray toward that lifestyle. Keep Jesus the focus.
The eyes actually move about 100,000 times a day. In between movements, there should be a blur of vision that no one experiences. If you want to test this, look at yourself in the mirror and move your eye back and forth. You will not see your eyes move at all. This is a phenomenon know as "psychotic suppression". The brain automatically takes those blurs out. Through psychotic suppression, we loose 40 minutes of our day to blindness. Imagine loosing 2.78% of your day. In fact, do not imagine it, because it happens to everybody everyday. Do we really risk loosing focus of Jesus through spiritual suppression? Are we willing to allow Him to become a blur that is erased from our vision? Keep Jesus the focus.
If Jesus is the focus and remains the focus then the reward is sweet. Those of pure hearts will see God. If Jesus is the focus then we will see God in everything. How wonderful a feeling it is to know that God is there with us, and we can see His handiwork. This is the immediate reward, however, the future reward is to see God face to face. Keep Jesus the focus.
"He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend."
Proverbs 22:11
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