KTC: The Pure Heart of Sanctification

Thoughts on Davidic Kingship.

Last week we saw that Faith, Repentance and Baptism all point to our keeping God’s commandments and entering into His covenants.  This week we begin a new segment - Keeping The Commandments - in our quest of becoming sanctified, which includes cultivating a Pure Heart, the Torah Commandments and Covenants, and Receiving God’s Spirit.  One of the major teachings that Yeshua promoted was to purge ourselves of an impure heart. In the Old and New Testaments, this is referred to as an uncircumcised heart.

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The Process of Perfection
Our Process of Perfection looks like this:

                                                                     Individual Salvation
                                                                             Born Again
​                                                       (Redemption / Sanctification)
          Born of the Blood / Born of the Water > Keeps the Commandments > Born of God/Spirit

                                                                       Married Exaltation
                                                                     Going Onto Perfection
                           Becoming Perfect > Reaches the Full Stature of Messiah > Sees God the Son

Our Thoughts, Our Hearts, and Our Actions
Man has three major aspects to his existence that determine his character and ultimately his destiny - his thoughts, his heart and his actions.  The Scriptures set out a relationship between our thoughts, our hearts and our actions. Thoughts are the beliefs, opinions, and ideas that reside in our minds, it is those things that we think about. While it is true that our hearts are considered the center of our emotions - how we feel, our hearts also include our attitudes and desires that are the motivators of what we do - our actions.  Here are key scriptures that layout these concepts:

Our Thoughts
"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace," Romans 8:5-7 "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth." Colossians 3:2 

Our Hearts
"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:" Proverbs 23:7 "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23 "To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires," Ephesians 4:22-24 “And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." Deuteronomy 5:21

Our Actions
"He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live." Proverbs 4:4 "But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart," Matthew 15:18-19 

​“I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10 

In summary this is what our thoughts, our hearts and our actions look like:​

Our Thoughts	>	Our Hearts	>	Our Actions
Beliefs ​Opinions		Desires ​Attitudes		Words Deeds

Sanctification and a Pure Heart
We see in the scriptures that those who are sanctified, have pure hearts and will see God.

"Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?" The answer given is: "He who has clean hands and a pure heart..."  Psalms 24:3-4
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matt. 5:8

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The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that Jehovah-Yeshua would put His law in our minds and hearts and that those who are God's people, those who were sanctificed, would have pure hearts. And since our hearts include our attitudes and desires that determine what we do - the motivators of our actions - it is these attitudes and desires that Yeshua will change to purifiy our hearts.  Jeremiah 31:33

Yeshua tells us how he will effect this change in us - it is because it is His great love for us that He suffered and died for sin, and gave us His Law. Yeshua's love for us becomes the reason for obeying Him and for loving one another. The table below summarizes these concepts.

Our Thoughts (Beliefs, Opinions)	>	Our Hearts (Desires, Attitudes)	>	Our Actions (Words, Deeds)
Those who are sanctified who have pure hearts will see God. ​		Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  John 15:13 - If ye love me keep my commandments. John 14:15 Love one another as I have loved you. John 13:34 ​		Cultivating Charity - Pure Love. 1 Cor. 13 Obedience to the Commandments - Clean Hands ​
The What		The Why		The How

Pure Love
The end result of a pure heart results in the expression of pure love.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."  1 Corinthians 13:1-8


​Perfection and a Pure Heart
In the Sermon on the Mount, we see here one of the first aspects of becoming perfect - having righteous motives - Pure Heart - for keeping God’s Commandments - we don’t steal from one another because we love our neighbor.  And thoughts don’t progress to be impure desires and attitudes, which then becomes action.​