Purity of heart is to will one thing
Submitted by Dirk Gently on October 08 1999 at 22:02:17
In reply to Some thoughts on purity Submitted by Ben on October 07 1999 at 19:47:11
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Recently I started to read Søren Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. Here's a selection from Section 3. * * * * * "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts ye double-minded." For only the pure in heart can see God, and therefore, draw nigh to Him; and only by God's drawing nigh to them can they maintain this purity. And he who in truth wills only one thing can will only the Good, and he who only wills one thing when he wills the Good can only will the Good in truth. Let us speak of this, but let us first put out of our minds the occasion of the office of Confession in order to come to an agreement on an understanding of this verse, and on what the apostolic word of admonition "purify your hearts ye double-minded" is condemning, namely, double-mindedness. * * * * * I mention this because I think it's a mistake to focus on sexuality in a discussion about purity. Yes, we are to be pure sexually. (I'll leave the debate about what that means to a later discussion.) However, "purity" is much more than that. I'm of the opinion that homophobia is a much graver matter than most (and perhaps all) issues I've seen discussed on this board. Christ said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." (Matthew 15:18-19) That's what purity is not. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) gives an excellent picture of what purity is. Guess how many verses mention sexual issues in these three chapters. Would you believe 6 out of 91? I know that many of us post here because our sexuality is the area where we struggle the most. I'm not trying to minimize that. I just want to point beyond a negative definition of purity (I'm pure if I don't . . .) to a positive understanding. ("Blessed are the poor in spirit" etc.) Dirk |