Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

Paul said that some teachers are unqualified to teach. Many teach anyway and they teach error. They want others to believe that they are qualified teachers, even though their training is incomplete and sometimes almost non-existent. Paul’s point is simple. They were not ready to teach, but they taught anyway. They wanted others to believe they were qualified to teach. They were deceptive. The same is true today. Many men and women are motivated to teach because they like teaching. Having a desire to teach does not mean someone should teach. There is nothing wrong with men and women learning to teach others while they learn scripture. But it is wrong to pretend to be an accomplished scholar of the Bible.

This passage reveals that those who are “pure in heart” are not driven by impure desires and are not attempting to appear to be something that they are not. They are what they appear to be. They are not pretenders. A man or woman who is “pure in heart” is not a hypocrite. Another characteristic of the “pure in heart” is that they are honest about themselves. They do not try to deceive.

Does Not Lie. King Saul provides another characteristic of a heart that was not pure in 1 Samuel 15:1-23. God had commanded King Saul to kill all of the Amalekites and not to take any spoils of war.

Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. (NASB) 1 Sam 15:3

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. (NASB) 1 Sam 15:9

Some of us might have done the same thing. We might have been logical and rationalized that God did not really mean what we heard. Saul sinned. So God sent the prophet Samuel to Saul and accused him of disobedience. Samuel gave Saul an opportunity to reveal his heart. Here is Saul’s response to the prophet.

Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the LORD, and went on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” (NASB) 1 Sam. 15:20-21

Saul lied because he wanted to deceive Samuel and God. As a result, God stripped him of his throne (1 Sam. 15:26), and sent the prophet Samuel to find another king to replace Saul. Saul’s heart was not pure. He lied. He was deceptive. His motives were wrong.

Samuel went to the house of Jesse to find a new king. He would have selected Eliab, but God stopped him. Samuel would have made a bad mistake. We do the same. We look at a man or woman and think that they are great only to discover later that we were a poor judge. We are always looking at the outside. How do they present themselves? Are they funny? Are they charming or are they dressed nicely? God looks at the heart and He did not want another Saul. God was looking for a man with a good heart. So God made this statement to Samuel.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (NASB) 1 Sam. 16:7