Slave of Two Masters

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  Matthew 5:7

Hmmm.  Interesting.  According to Stott, the J B Phillips translation is the most accurate and given the context, in this case “pure of heart” is not so much the “clean of heart” as in David’s plea, “Create in me a clean heart,” but rather it should be translated “utterly sincere.” 

Professor Tasker, whoever he may be, defines “pure in heart,” as the “single-minded, who are free from the tyranny of a divided self.”  “Truth in the inward being,” and “who does not lift up his soul to what is false,” is a person who is in his relations with both God and man free from falsehood.  “Their very heart- including thoughts and motives- is pure, unmixed with anything devious, ulterior or base.”  This is the person truly “without guile.”  Only the pure in heart will see God, for only the utterly sincere can bear the dazzling light of His truth. 

This seems to be more of the “There is a God, and I am not He,” strand that holds the Beatitudes together.  Pure in heart ties together closely with humility.  I know that it is very easy for me to want to step in and start pulling strings, shaping stories, shading truth all for “good.”  Wanting what I deem “best” for those I love, I step in to “fix things up.”  Which is a lack of trust in God.  What really says, “He is not doing His job properly,” and needs my manipulation to “to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”

The other tyranny which stains my heart is my public self.  Keeping my eye on appearances and “what will folks think of me,” rather than keeping my eye on my True Master, and seeking His approval.  It is indeed easy enough to slide into different roles in different situations, seeking the applause of a fickle audience.  Sometimes we tell a tale so many times that what is true and what is fantasy gets lost in the clutter. 

So John O’Hair spoke yesterday.  On the two sins of God’s people. My people have committed two sins: 
They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, 
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. And he described this fountain/spring in Africa, in the middle of nowhere.  Bursting out from under this rock and filling a crystal clear pool fifteen feet deep.  And yet God’s people, me, turn our collective backs on this bubbling source of life, and go scrabbling about in the dirt, looking for our own. 

So I guess it’s pretty hard to see God if I am focused on me and my own little world of digging.

Then Cameron led us, of course,

Come, thou Fount of every blessing,

tune my heart to sing thy grace;

streams of mercy, never ceasing,

call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

mount of thy redeeming love.

May I be single minded, Oh LORD, pure of heart.