Christian Character - Pure In Heart

Previous - The Merciful
In Matthew 5:8 Jesus says “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”  This is the next Beatitude we will discuss.

When we look up the word “pure” in Strong’s, we see that it means clean and unstained (katharos).  Helps further defines it as “without admixture” and “what is separated (purged), hence "clean" (pure) because unmixed (without undesirable elements)”.

Before we can go further with the word “pure” we need to add context by defining the word “heart” as well.  Heart is never used in the Bible to describe the physical muscle that pumps blood throughout the body, but instead is used figuratively.  When we look in Strong’s we see it defined as “mind, character, inner self, will, intention, and center.”  It is basically who we are.

I think 1 Samuel 16:7 shows that God looks at who we are on the inside.  Samuel was told to go anoint one of Jesse’s sons and Samuel looked at Eliab and based on his outward appearance thought that this was who God wanted anointed.

“But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

Eventually Samuel anointed the youngest son David.  God chose David because of what he saw within David and not necessarily based on any outward characteristic man could see.  God chose him based on his heart.

In Matthew 15:11 Jesus spoke a parable; “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”  He later explained that parable to his disciples in verses 17-20 when he said:

“Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

I think this is a good illustration of the word “heart” used to mean who we are.  When we talk about the heart, we are dealing with motivations and attitudes and desires.

We still do not have a clear picture when we look at pure in heart.  When we rephrase it to something like “unmixed or single-minded motivation, attitude, and desire”, we leave it wide open to mean anything.  We could easily take this to mean pure evil instead of pure love.  Therefore, we must also consider that Jesus was speaking here and included “for they shall see God.”

There is only one place where we can see God.  That is in heaven; the kingdom of God.  In Exodus 33:20 we read “And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.”  The Bible is pretty clear that looking upon God as a man is certain death.  In fact, the Bible says in Exodus 33:21-23 that God was so careful with Moses that God put him in a crevice and blocked him from seeing God’s glory as he passed by.

“And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.”

We cannot see God and live.  We can only see Him where he is and that is in heaven.  Since sin does not exist in heaven and according to Romans 3:23 we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God the only way into heaven is through Jesus Christ.  His sacrifice, his blood, washed away our sin making it possible to enter heaven.

This sinless requirement rules out a purity of evil.  The motivation, attitude, and desire must be aligned with what God wants.

Those who are pure in heart are they who have a single-minded motivation, attitude, and desire for that which pleases God.
Next - The Peacemakers

Christian Character - The Merciful

Previous - Those Who Hunger and Thirst
Next we look at Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

What is merciful?  As used in this verse, Strong’s defines it as “full of pity” and “compassionate”.  Webster defines merciful as “treating people with kindness and forgiveness: not cruel or harsh: having or showing mercy: giving relief from suffering”.

Let us address the elephant in the room.  Nowadays “pity” is seen as negative and in some cases it actually is.  When pity is shown in an “I am better than you” spirit, then it is a negative.  This is not the kind of pity being used here.  Instead we are talking about sympathy or sorrow born from empathy.  This pity is the understanding or trying to imagine another person’s feelings.  This lines up with compassion which is also used to define merciful.

When we talk about being merciful, we are combining a couple of things.  The first is being able to recognize and emotionally relate to another person’s circumstances and the other is a desire to help that person.  I think all of us can think of situations where we were able to really understand the pain someone is going through and tried to help that person through it.  Maybe it was understanding the dire straits a person was in after losing their job and what we did to help that person through that difficulty.

When I think of someone being merciful, I remember the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:29-39.  I think it is worth including that here.

“But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'

In reply Jesus said: 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii[a] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.''

'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?'

The expert in the law replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.'

Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise.'”

Samarians at the time were looked down on by the Jews.  They were a race of people that were a mix of Assyrians and Jews.  They did not believe everything the Jews believed and chose Mt. Gerizim as their “Jerusalem”.  They created a counterfeit religion and are an enemy to the Jews to this day.  This parable was definitely an attention getter and did not necessarily endear Jesus to the Jews.

It is not known if Jesus told this parable in response to a similar event that really occurred or if it was simply the way he chose to answer the question he was asked.  Regardless, the Samaritan was the hero of the story because he acted mercifully toward the injured man.  His actions went far beyond simply being a nice guy.  He dressed his wounds, allowed him to ride his donkey to the inn, took care of him that night, and then paid to have him looked after.  He even promised to return to settle any outstanding debt that may occur while he was away.  This was a man who truly understood this persons suffering and did all he could to help that man without any expectation of reward or repayment.

Now this Samaritan apparently had the wherewithal to do what he did.  Many of us are not in position where we could offer that much support to someone in need.  But I think the point here was that the Samaritan went out of his way to help this man.  He obviously had someplace to be and this changed his plans.  Rarely does compassion fit into our normal day to day plans.

Since we are talking about followers of Christ, will they obtain mercy because of the good deeds they have done?  I don’t think so.  I think they are merciful because they understand what mercy is because of the mercy God has shown them.

God’s mercy is in contrast to His Grace.  Grace is giving something good that is not deserved.  Because of Sin, we do not deserve eternal life, but God is willing to give it to us; “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8.  Mercy is withholding what we do deserve.  As sinners we deserve hell.  God did not give us what we deserved, but instead showed us mercy through Jesus Christ; “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 1:21.

As Christians we know that we do not deserve salvation and we know that there is no way in and of ourselves we can obtain it.  By ourselves, we are utterly helpless and undeserving.  It is mercy that has provided us a way to salvation.  We have come face to face with our depravity and unworthiness.  We know that we are utterly dependent upon God’s mercy through Christ.

I believe the mercy spoken of in this verse goes beyond acts of kindness.  I think at the core it is the ability to recognize your own sin and the mercy God has shown you and approach others from that perspective when in situations where you have the opportunity to show mercy.

It is easy to understand mercy as doing something helping someone that you did not have to.  The world is full of this type of example.  So let us look at mercy in a different way.

Maybe someone lashed out at you for something you did not do.  You understand that there is a deeper pain that contributed to that action.  You may feel that you did not deserve that attack and walk away justified from that person.  You say to yourself that you did not deserve to be treated that way and turn away from that person even though you know there is more to it.  Instead you act mercifully.  You forgive that person because you know of the forgiveness you have received.  You understand pain and how God has helped you overcome it so you show kindness and try to help with what the real issue is.  That help may or not be accepted, but mercy was still shown.  You did not withhold your forgiveness and compassion.

The merciful are ones who are compassionate and forgiving.
Next - Pure In Heart

Christian Character - Those Who Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness

Previous - The Meek
The fourth Beatitude is Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

In this Beatitude we see a difference from the previous three with that difference being desire.  In fact if we look up both hunger and thirst in Strong’s, we find “desire earnestly” as part of the definition for both of these.

I find it interesting that hunger and thirst are used.  Nothing satisfies those except food and fluids.  They are also recurring.  In time we all hunger and thirst again and seek things to satisfy those desires.  But it is not food or drink the followers of Christ are desiring in this verse.  It is righteousness; divine approval, what is deemed right by God.  It is only righteousness that will satisfy.

We can see David writing about this thirst and hunger in Psalm 42:1-3:

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?”

When we are hungry or thirsty, we desire to satisfy that desire.  Sometimes we ignore that desire for whatever reason, but eventually we are driven to find something, anything to stop that hunger or thirst.  I think that is what Jesus is talking about here.  These are people who are driven to be satisfied by those things God approves of.  And it is not just for themselves, but for the world around them.  They want to live in a God approved land.

In Colossians 3: 1-2 Paul writes “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”  As Christians we are told to desire and direct or mind to things above, heavenly things, and not worldly things.

Consider what Paul wrote about setting our desires on heavenly or earthly things.  Followers of Christ cannot satisfy their desires through seeking things of the world, only through seeking righteousness.    Romans 8:5-6 address what happens when we try to satisfy ourselves through worldly things:

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

Paul is talking about a spiritual death here as opposed to life (salvation).  I think this desire after Righteousness exists because followers of Christ know satisfaction only in those things that lead to life.  No one is ever truly satisfied by more money or more things or drugs and alcohol.  These things are counterfeits, deceptions, earthly things.  They never satisfy.

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are those who earnestly desire those things approved by God.
Next - The Merciful

Christian Character - The Meek

Previous - They That Mourn
Next in the list of Beatitudes is Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

When we look up the work “meek” in Strong’s Concordance, we find that it is defined as mild or gentle.  Webster defines meek as “having or showing a quiet and gentle nature: not wanting to fight or argue with other people.”

This specific usage of the adjective “meek” is found in just a few places in the Bible.

In Matthew 11:29, Jesus says this about Himself, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Jesus also quoted a prophet when directing His disciples on how to answer anyone asking about the ass they are supposed to bring him in Matthew 21:5 with these words “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”

And finally when Peter talks about wives adorning themselves he writes “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price” In 1 Peter 3:4.

Considering who (Jesus and wives) is being described as being meek, the word does not mean weakness or cowardice, but instead a gentleness and self-control.  True followers of Christ are not arrogant, conceited, or pompous.

The meek are those who are gentle and exercise self control.
Next - Those Who Hunger and Thirst

Christian Character - They That Mourn

Previous - Poor in Spirit
The next beatitude is Matthew 5:4 “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

It seems counterintuitive that someone who mourns is blessed.  To mourn means to lament or feel guilt.  Usually one mourns over a death or lost relationship or any number of losses of something important to them.  I believe we need some context here to understand what was being mourned.

In scripture (Luke 4:17-21) we read where after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He referenced the book of Isaiah and proclaimed that the scripture was fulfilled that day.

“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

It appears that he read from Isaiah 61:1-2.  If we look back in Isaiah we learn that Isaiah was talking about a time in the future, the time of the Messiah and the Church.  This is a continuation of what Isaiah was saying about great sin and great grace.  I believe it would take a discussion of the entire book of Isaiah to fully understand the context of the time and all that he was saying, but you can begin with chapter 59 and go from there to get a decent picture.

If we look at Isaiah 61:2-3 we get an idea of who are those that mourn:

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

In these verses, there are two distinctions of mourners; “…all that mourn…” and “…Them that mourn in Zion…” I believe that the former are those who mourn over any sorrow and look to God for comfort, but in the case of the latter, it would seem that they are ones who mourn in a holy way since they themselves have no troubles.

What are these two groups mourning or is it non-specific?  All people have experienced sorrow in their lives.  And those in Zion are not experiencing any type of loss so I don’t think we are talking generalities here.  God will only comfort His children who call upon Him.  Also, this part of Isaiah is dealing with great sin and great grace.  When considering these two points I believe that the mourning is for the sin that caused it.

I do not mean to imply that God would not comfort those who mourn over the loss of a loved one, or a relationship, or any number of things we feel important.  I believe He would and does.  But in the context of the Beatitudes and Isaiah, I don’t think we are talking about Jesus’s followers as people who mourn.  I think here we are talking about a specific mourning that destroys lives and separates us from God.

They that mourn are those who mourn because of what sin does.
Next - The Meek

Christian Character - Poor in Spirit

Previous - Christian Character
The first Beatitude is Matthew 5:3; “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Since all the Beatitudes begin with the word “Blessed”, it would make sense to take a moment to understand what that means even though we are addressing character traits.

According to Strong’s Concordance, “Blessed” is defined as happy, blessed, to be envied (makarios).  Helps Word-studies expands this definition as “a believer in enviable (‘fortunate’) position from receiving God’s provisions (favor) – which (literally) extend (‘make long, large’) His grace (benefits).”  In other words, it describes someone who is happy and fortunate because God extends His grace to him or her.

I believe that being blessed is not a reward for possessing one or more of these character traits we are discussing here, nor do I believe that the trait is a result of being blessed.  We cannot earn grace and even when we do receive grace it does not come with these traits as a byproduct or side effect.  I simply believe that God has extended His grace to those who follow Christ and the natural result is that we are blessed.

Let us move on to the topic “The Poor in Spirit”.

First, we need to break this into two parts (“poor” and “spirit”) and understand them both before we can use them together.  Again I will use Strong’s Concordance and Helps Word-studies to understand the original meaning of these words.

Poor (ptochos) is an adjective Strong’s defines as “poor, destitute, and spiritually poor, either in a good sense (humble devout persons) or bad.  Helps expands this by describing it as bent over, deeply destitute, completely lacking resources.

It is a little more difficult to nail down spirit (pneuma) because both Strong’s and Helps define it as wind, breath, or spirit and that the context determines which it is.  Since this verse speaks to people being blessed, we can rule out wind, leaving breath or spirit.  I think the context also rules out breath as in something we exhale since poor would not be used to describe breath.  This leaves us with spirit.

When not speaking of the Holy Spirit, spirit in man is something given by God that returns to God upon death.  In Job 32:8 Elihu says “But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”  In 1 Corinthians 2:11 Paul speaks of this spirit when he writes “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him…”  In Ecclesiastes 12:7 Solomon says of what happens when a man dies with “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Paul writes in Romans 8:9-11 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”    And in Romans 8:16 Paul writes, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” 

Throughout the Bible spirit is used to talk about our mind and attitude such as Ephesians 4:23 “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” and Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” and Romans 8:5-6 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

There Bible also mentions unclean spirits and ghosts but those do not fit in the context of this Beatitude.  Also, the spirit of man does not seem to work either.  It is what it is and there is no indication that it can be poor or great.

It makes more sense that spirit in this context refers to an attitude or related to the mind.  Blessed are the destitute in attitude and though makes more sense.  These are people who are humble before God.  They have no arrogance or self-righteousness.  They know they are nothing without God.

When we include the last part of the verse into the context I think we get an even clearer picture of this trait.  Who are the ones spoke of when Jesus said “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”?  Only those who are saved will enter the kingdom of heaven.  I think this adds another dimension to the poor in spirit.

When taken all together, I believe that being humble in spirit means that one has fully given oneself over to God.  That person knows they have nothing to contribute, no way to earn God’s favor and everything they are is of God and for God.  This person has truly repented and relies fully on God for their salvation.

Those who are poor in spirit are ones who are humble before God.
Next - They That Mourn

Christian Character

Before proceeding, I would like to set some context here by defining a Christian.

It is understandable that it may be difficult to determine who a Christian is in this world.  It is label used by so many that the real meaning has been obscured.  Thankfully, however, it has not been lost.

In the original Greek the work Christian is Χριστιανός (Christianos) and is translated “follower of Christ”.  It may be surprising to learn that the term is only found three times in the Bible (Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16), but I believe this is sufficient to establish that term “Christian” was attributed to  followers of Christ.

In Acts 11:26, the term Christian is used to describe the disciples teaching in Antioch.  Acts 26:28 shows that the term “Christian” was already commonly known based on King Agrippa’s response to Paul’s address; “…Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Finally, in 1 Peter 4:16 Peter is addressing the persecuted and tells them not to be ashamed to suffer as a Christian.

I don’t know that anyone could actually consider themselves as a follower of Christ without first acknowledging why Christ came, died, and arose.  I believe the following eight verses explain what his life, death, and resurrection means to us:

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” –Romans 3:23

“For God so loved the works that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not parish but have ever lasting life” – John 3:16

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He save us.” –Titus 3:5

“Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish” –Luke 13:3

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” –Romans 10:13

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” –Acts 16:31

“If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness: and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” –Romans 10:9-10

I believe that those last two verses, Romans 10:9-10 are at the core of what it means to be a Christian.  Although they speak to salvation, I believe that the transformation that occurs is so profound and complete that it does exactly what 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Accepting Christ regenerates us and reconciles us with God.  We are completely transformed and our relationship with God is restored.

Since we are regenerated and reconciled to God, should there not be some way to identify the character of a Christian?  Are there any traits we can see that reflect the new person we are?  I believe there are and this series will dive into those.

This series is not trying to establish some type of litmus test that can be used to say whether a person is a Christian or not.  If it were, we would all fail because we all still sin and any snapshot of time in our lives would show where we failed to demonstrate one or more of these character traits.  Only God can know a person’s heart and only He can know the truth.

Instead, I hope that this series can be used to help the reader examine his or her own heart and better understand their Christian character and that of those around them.

This series will focus on Matthew 5:3-9.  It is the first seven of the eight Beatitudes that begin what has been called the “Sermon on the Mount.”  Those seven are:

·        Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

·        Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

·        Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

·        Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

·        Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

·        Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

·        Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.

I believe that Jesus is highlighting the character traits of His followers with these Beatitudes, and these traits exist because of the regeneration and reconciliation found through salvation.

Are these the only traits?  I do not think so, but they are of such importance that Jesus began his sermon with them.

The next submission in this series will begin with the first Beatitude, the poor in spirit.


The entire series can be found at these links:
Poor in Spirit
They That Mourn
The Meek
Those Who Hunger and Thirst
The Merciful
Pure In Heart
The Peacemakers
Conclusion