Pure In Heart

The Pure In Heart

Neville Goddard 03-01-1963

I think you are all familiar with the 6th Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” I daresay it would be unwise to pick and choose among the beatitudes, and yet I daresay most people look upon this beatitude as the particular star in the heavens. It really seems the most inaccessible – not only the promise, but the conditions that must be met in order for the promise to be fulfilled. We must be pure in heart to see God – and what wouldn’t man give to see God! Yet, all he needs do in this world is fulfill this condition: to be pure in heart. What do we mean by “pure in heart?” Just what is it?

First of all, may I tell you: you need not think of moral perfection, and certainly it does not refer in any way to sexual purity, for we are told by the same one who uttered the beatitude that the harlot given to lust will go into heaven before the Pharisee. The Pharisee was perfect in keeping the outward law – the washing of the outside of the cup, of the hands, of the feet – and he abided by the law outwardly. Yet, he was told that the harlot given to lust would go into heaven before he did. So it is not that. What is the purity spoken of? “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

The Bible is a mystery. On the surface it seems simple and anyone should be able to understand that simple statement. Well, the Bible is not that simple. So what is this purity and what is the heart? The word “pure” is “katharos” ([Gr.] “to cleanse”), which means, “clear; unalloyed; pure, pure gold.” It was used on a tract of land completely cleared of all trees – no obstruction, none whatsoever. Here it is pure gold. To understand it we must go all over the Bible to get it.

In Psalm 73:1 we are told: “Truly God is good to the upright (Israel), to those who are “pure in heart.” So right away we set up Israel as the pure in heart. And then in the 1st chapter of John, Philip sees Nathaniel (which means “gift of God”) and says: “We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel looks at him, and at the moment is not quite sure that anything good could come out of Galilee. Jesus, looking at Nathaniel, said: “Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile.” (John 1:45-47) That is an Israelite – one in whom there is no guile, no deceit, incapable of duplicity. That is the true Israelite, “that is the heart.”

Now, in Psalm 24:3-4 the question is asked: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” Then comes the response: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.” Then you are told in the next line exactly what it means, “who does not lift his soul to what is false, who does not swear deceitfully.” “He will receive the blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation.”

So we bring the whole thing down to one simple, simple point: a man incapable of deceit for personal gain. If I tell you a story for amusement, where you and I can laugh together, that is not deceit. But if I tell it for personal gain, say in politics, in government, in religion, or in business – anytime I plot and plan a little scheme to get the better of another for my own personal gain – then I am not pure in heart. So, he is looking for one who is pure in heart because no one but such a one can see God. No one can be brought into the presence of the Ancient of Days and be presented to him but the pure in heart. He may have no intellectual background or social background or financial background – nothing the world would recognize –but he is incapable of deceiving another for his own gain. That one has the heart of the Israelite.