Read: Matthew 5: 8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Reflect:
99.44% Pure and it floats?  Proctor and Gamble’s Ivory soap stands by its claim of purity, but what about the pure in heart?

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were fixated on the kind of purity that a bar of soap can provide.  They were so focused on external actions and ritual that they had missed the point of purity.

Later Jesus said to these same religious people “you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25).

Notice that in the beatitude, Jesus describes purity of the heart.  Purity begins on the inside.  He will describe this in greater detail later as he reminds the Pharisee – “You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:26).

Respond:

Want to see God? No amount of Ivory soap can make us clean.  No religious ritual in itself can make us spiritually clean either. How would you describe purity of heart to someone else?