Blessed are the Pure in Heart
Matt 5:8 April 10, 2011
Intro:
A couple of years ago we went to Ottawa as my wife Joanne had some work to do there, so Thomas and I tagged along to check out our nation’s capital. One of the places we visited was the historic Canadian mint – where money is made – and we had a tour but unfortunately no free samples. One of the things we saw, secured behind some very thick glass, was a specially-produced coin. In 2007, the Canadian mint produced 5 special gold coins, each weighing 100kg, with a face value of $1 million dollars. That’s right, a million dollar coin. Don’t try to put that in the coke machine…
Why? It was designed as a showcase of a technological breakthrough that allowed the Canadian mint, already a world leader in the refinement of gold, to achieve a never-before level of purity – 99.999% pure. Less than 10 parts per million of other elements. The guides were quite excited to tell us about the mint’s incredible accomplishment of “five nine” gold, and bragged about this incredible purity.
There is something appealing about purity. Whether in our gold or our drinking water, the idea of “purity” is appealing to us. Now what about our hearts?
Blessed are the Pure in Heart:
Today’s beatitude says, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” As appealing as pure gold is, I think most of us would resonate with a desire for a pure heart more. Is there not something lofty in those words of Jesus, that touch some space inside of us that longs for that idea of purity?
So then what of our hearts now? Ha! most of us think, not likely… We know our failures, our sins, probably even well enough that they have become comfortable, and so we hear this beatitude and most of us think “well, that must be someone else, I am not pure, I am a sinner…”. But maybe that is not quite true…
Maybe we need to understand what this “purity” Jesus talked about is. My theological dictionary says this: “The purity of the NT community is personal and moral by nature. It consists in full and unreserved self-offering to God which renews the heart and rules out any acceptance of what is against God. Those who are pure in heart in this way are called to participate in the kingdom of God” (TDNT 3:425). It is an important definition, and there is a really important context for us to understand here. See, the Pharisees were all about purity – they went to great lengths to observe the external requirements of the law, and took great pride in their accomplishments. The rituals were of the utmost importance to them, hand washing and Sabbath keeping and food eating. “Purity” in this external way for the Pharisees was the goal and the way of life. But now Jesus says something different, He re-defines purity and internalizes it for us, essentially reversing the external idea and making it about our hearts. Now of course our actions still matter, but in Jesus’ view our right actions begin and arise from our pure heart.
I like this definition because it captures the tension between our work and God’s work. We participate by “full and unreserved self-offering to God”, God “renews the heart”, and then we “rule out any acceptance of what is against God” by the power of God dwelling within our renewed heart. Essentially, we give God all of us, He makes us pure, and together we live in the Kingdom of God winning the constant battle against temptation.
In wondering if we are included in Jesus’ statement – if we are included among the “pure in heart”, let me ask another question – have you ever seen God? Even a glimpse… an inkling… a tiny vision, at least enough that awakened you to want more. I think you probably have, or else you probably wouldn’t be here. We have seen God, we’ve seen His hand on our lives, seen His work in us and through us, seen His presence in ways that are very real to us. Certainly not in fullness, but most of us have seen God. So there must be something of purity in us, some place where the Holy Spirit has come and wiped some small part of the muck off so that we can catch a glimpse of a different way, a deeper life, a fulfilled joy, that invites us to come and see more. And as we respond, the Holy Spirit wipes a little more muck off, and we see a little more, and we respond and the process happens again and again, and as we cooperate with God and “hunger and thirst” and create space in our lives for God to work, the Holy Spirit purifies us, and we see God.
Here’s my point: two things are in view here: our initial response to the invitation God extends to each of us to receive His love and become His child, at which time God purifies us; AND our ongoing lives of growing obedience to God and rejection of temptation, where God continues to make us pure. Now, this ongoing journey is one of intentional cooperation, of dedicated effort, and of great reward: we continue to “see God”.
Lent
The season of lent is about just such a pursuit, just such intentionality and focus on our spiritual lives in preparation for Easter. Thus far we’ve looked at several specific sins that seek to throw more muck into our lives and keep us from seeing and experiencing God’s Kingdom – we’ve talked about pride and the poor in spirit, envy and wanting some other life, acedia and hungering and thirsting, and greed and mercy. While all the sins fight against purity of heart, the one we are going to talk about this morning is the sin of lust.
Sexual Desire v. Lust:
I want to begin this discussion with a couple very important initial observations. First and foremost, as Christians we believe that our sexuality is an incredible gift of God, a beautiful core part of us that was designed and created by God before sin ever entered the world. When and if our discussion of sex is a mostly negative message, of condemnation, we are not teaching what the Bible teaches. So hear me clearly: our sexuality is a beautiful gift of God.
Second, I am sensitive to the fact that some of you find this an uncomfortable topic for public conversation, but the reality today is that our society is so saturated with wrong messages about sex and especially about lust that we need to talk about them in order to help us to live as “the pure in heart” in the middle of a very mucky world.
Third, in talking about lust and other sexual sin I am very mindful of an imbalance between the church today and Scripture. The church today in general makes a big deal about sexual sin while making no big deal about a host of other sins like greed and sloth and envy and gossip. Scripture doesn’t differentiate like we do, accepting some sins while getting really vocal about others, so we need to be careful that we aren’t being hypocritical by saying we oppose sin but in reality only opposing certain types of sin. All sin destroys the life of God in us and undermines our witness to the power of Jesus to bring us into a better life.
Before getting deeper into a discussion of the sin of lust, we need to distinguish between our natural, God-given sexual desires and lust. Our sexual desires are good gifts of God that lead to life and intimacy and pleasure when lived out as God has designed. But like many of the good gifts of God, it is possible for them to be twisted into something that will not bring life and intimacy but will instead bring pain and loneliness and isolation.
So how then do we distinguish between the good gift of God and lust? Let me suggest this – when our desires are about ourselves, when they are selfish, they are lust. Godly sexual desire is not selfish, it is rooted in a desire to be in an intimate and exclusive relationship with someone of the opposite sex, and then to physically express that relationship in a mutually enjoyable way. Godly sexual desire is about relationship. Lust, on the other hand, is all about “me”. It is what I want, what will make me feel good, what will meet my “needs”. It is the opposite of relationship, and in fact it pulls us away from relationship. Lust is our God-given sexual desires perverted into selfishness and removed from the safety of a lifelong, exclusive relationship.
Lust – the beginning place:
Lust is the beginning place for a whole host of other sexual sins, like adultery (when a married person has sex with someone who is not their spouse), and fornication (sexual relations between unmarried people). These sinful actions come out of a lustful heart and mind, and they do great damage. Our society, as saturated in sex as it is, still recognizes the harm in adultery. Society sees it as a destroyer of marriage, and by and large rejects it as wrong. But not so with fornication – our society does not, by and large, see this as a problem anymore. God certainly does, make no mistake, and so do I. Sex outside of marriage is wrong, and it does great damage. I’m not going to get into this point here, except to say briefly: aside from the obvious things like pregnancy and STDs, sex outside of marriage damages future relationships (including, especially, marriage), it damages self-confidence, it creates depression and anxiety, it opens up deep wounds of rejection and self-loathing, and it has a damaging effect on our souls.
Why “deadly”:
I want to pull away from the outward expressions of sinful sexuality like adultery and fornication and back to the interior sin of lust. The ancient Christians called these sins “deadly”. If lust is, as I’ve described it, essentially a good desire just turned selfish, what is “deadly” about that, especially if we keep those lustful thoughts inside and don’t allow them expression in relationship with others? This is a question well worth asking, because the world around us certainly does not see the harm in lust. In fact, I would go so far as to say our world thinks lust is a good thing not a harmful thing. Sexual images are everywhere, they are impossible to avoid in our society. You can’t even go to the grocery store without walking past a whole rack of magazines with digitally altered images carefully crafted to arouse. Virtually every movie and TV show has some element of this embedded in it – even the Food Network: I like to watch “Top Chef”, a cooking competition, and recently the finals were in the Bahamas and the host (a former model) introduces the first challenge in a skimpy bikini. And those are the images that are pushed upon us – it is now possible to view pornography very easily over the internet and in video games and on TV instantly and from anywhere – many of you have a cell phone in your pocket that you could use to connect to the internet and look at sexual images right now, from a church pew. But you wouldn’t, because we feel shame. And that is an important clue for us.
Lust is our sexual desires turned selfish, and the very fact that we keep this from other people – hiding away in a room alone – should be a good indicator to us that there is something wrong with this. We don’t want to “get caught”, so we do whatever we can to try to keep our lustful thoughts secret.
And this starts to help us see how dangerous and destructive lust is. If we have to keep it secret, it has power over us. It nurtures fear – the fear of getting caught, of others finding out what we are really like, which we believe will then lead to rejection. It enslaves us. Lust creates this whole interior world in our minds and our hearts – a world with big promises that never ever delivers. We see images and create fantasies, but they never become real – they exist only inside of us, and they eat away at our souls and our healthy sexual desires by perverting them so far that when we find ourselves in a real relationship with another person we have this massive burden of garbage built up in our minds and our hearts. We have expectations, wants, and pre-conceived notions of what this part of our relationship should be like. And it never is. And that creates problems.
The reality is that sex as God designed and prescribed is better. But we can’t experience that until we have, to use the language of the beatitude, been “purified” – till we have been healed and freed from those destructive images and expectations and fantasies that will damage our real relationships because, and it comes back to this, they are essentially selfish in nature. Lust destroys the good thing God created for us.
So why is it so powerful?
If God’s way is so much better, as I believe, why then is lust so powerful? Aside from the influence of society which constantly tempts us to lust, I think there are two main reasons why lust is so powerful: because it is immediate, and because it is easy. We’ll get more into these ideas in adult education, where we are going to focus our discussion on having healthy relationships overall and how that enables us to work with the Holy Spirit to stay pure in regards to our sexual desires (so if you are sitting there thinking you might want to skip adult ed today because of the subject matter, be reassured… I won’t embarrass anyone or put anyone on the spot).
But just briefly: lust is powerful because it is immediate – when we choose to entertain lustful thoughts or look at images that fuel lust, this selfish internalization has an immediate reward – we don’t have to wait or be in a healthy relationship. But here is the truth: that reward is temporary and ultimately destructive, like drinking salt water when you are thirsty or continually scratching some itchy spot and ending up ripping off your skin. This is especially applicable to our young people (though everyone else too) who aren’t married and so I want to be very clear: whatever temporary pleasure lust may bring, it will hurt you. It is bad for you. That is why God calls it sin – not because He doesn’t want us to enjoy anything but because He DOES want us to enjoy it and He knows, since He made us, that staying pure will lead to the life most full of joy. Yes, you have to wait, and waiting is hard. But it is so very, very worth it. Don’t get sucked into the lie of our society that says lust is harmless, pornography doesn’t hurt anyone, and that asks “how could something that feels good be wrong”? Lots of things that feel good are temporary and harmful, live for the things that feel good that last and don’t destroy.
Second: lust is powerful because it is easy. Selfishness always is – I don’t have to think about others, I don’t have to agree, I don’t have to communicate, I don’t have to solve problems, I don’t have to risk. Lust, and especially pornography, is powerful because it demands nothing of us at first, but then it enslaves us. The alternative, creating and nurturing close, intimate, marriage relationships, is a lot harder. And that is why it is so much better.
As theologian Fredrick Buechner has been quoted as saying, “Sex is like nitroglycerin; it can either be used to heal hearts or blow up bridges.”
Conclusion
Life in the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus’ whole point in the beatitudes, is not one where there are no sexual desires, but rather one where there is purity. Purity is not an absence of desire – we sometimes think that being a true follower of Jesus means that all of our desires are muted and then we just do what Jesus tells us to out of some numb obedience. I disagree as strongly as I possibly can – that is not life, let alone “life to the full”. I would argue the opposite, that life in the Kingdom of God is about our desires fully awakened, powerful, motivating, and then lived out within the Kingdom of God. C.S. Lewis has said this far better than me, so let me close with this:
From “The Weight of Glory” Chapter 1, Paragraph 1:
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
Adult Education Discussion:
On purity of heart:
1. What comes to mind for you when Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart”? Is it difficult to see yourself among that group?
2. Theologically, there is a difference between “justification” and “sanctification”. Justification is positional and relates to our citizenship; sanctification is the ongoing process of being conformed to the image of Christ. How do these two ideas relate to the idea of “purity” as described by Jesus?
3. It is easy for us to look at the Pharisees of Jesus day and reject their external religiosity, and smugly believe we are superior because we know it is the heart that matters. But is it really that simple? Where are some examples in the church today where externals matter more than the heart?
On the deadly sin of lust:
1. Is it even possible to live as “the pure in heart” in the midst of a sex-saturated North American culture?
2. If you agree that the church tends to look at sexual sin differently than other sin (such as greed, envy, etc…), why do you think that is? Does putting that “right” mean de-emphasizing sexual sin, putting greater emphasis on other sins, talking less about sin over all, or some other alternative?
3. Do you agree with my definition of lust as the selfish inward turning of our God-given sexual desire? Or is there more to it than that?
4. Let’s talk about healthy relationships. Are they hard, and are they worth it? What makes them hard? How does our societal unhealthy view of sexuality make our relationships harder, and what must we do about it?
5. Really, what harm does lust do?
6. We talked about lust as immediate and easy, and that gives it power. Recognizing the unique differences in the sin of lust as it relates to our life situation (eg: not-yet married, married, widowed/divorced, etc.), are there a few ideas of how to fight and win the battle against lust?
Personal Reflection Questions:
1. Do you see yourself as “pure in heart”? Differentiate in your mind and heart between justification and sanctification (see adult education discussion question #2). Allow the truth that God has justified you (placed upon you the righteousness of Jesus) to define your identity, and then reflect (from that strong identity) on where you are on the journey of sanctification. Fight the lie that says because you have sinned, you have to work to get pure before God will accept you. Fight that lie with the truth that you have been justified, and are on the journey of sanctification.
2. I believe that most people in our society have been damaged by our societies’ view of sexuality and/or by wounds we have experienced in our own lives in this area. Take this issue to prayer, seeking the power of the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts and emotions in this area, remembering the starting point that God created us this way and called it good. Then allow God to show you where the good thing He created has gotten damaged/tainted along your life’s journey. If this reflection opens up deep wounds, seek counseling to help you come to a place of healing and life.
3. Where do you struggle with lust? Do you give in because it is immediate and easy? Ask yourself this hard question: what temporary benefit does lust bring, and what would it cost to give that up for something better? Is it worth it?
4. Are there certain times you are more tempted to lust? What can you do to protect yourself and avoid those temptations?
5. Do you look at or read pornography? It is a simple, yes or no question. If you read the question and are thinking of anything other than “yes” or “no”, your mind is trying to rationalize the sin and keep you trapped. You might be thinking “not very often” – it is still sin. You might be thinking “only when my spouse isn’t meeting my sexual needs” – that is the selfishness of lust speaking. You might be thinking “not as much as other people” – that is irrelevant. You might be thinking “well what I look at isn’t really porn…” – you are trying to fool yourself. If you get past the lies to the truth, and it is a “yes”, even if in part, you’ll need help. Swallow your pride and reach out for it from someone you can trust.
6. One of the strongest features of lust is the shame that keeps us from sharing our struggles with our sexual desires. This often comes down to us not having relationships as healthy as they should be. Reflect on your primary relationships – are they healthy? What can you do to make them healthier? Who can you share this struggle with? Check out the following website as a start: http://www.covenanteyes.com/
