‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ (Matt 5:8)
The Real Deal
In the final pages of his bestseller Digital Fortress, Dan Brown explains why the hero uses an intriguing sign off on notes to his girlfriend: ‘without wax, David’: ‘During the Renaissance, Spanish sculptors who made mistakes while carving expensive marble often patched their flaws with cera – wax. A statue that had no flaws and required no patching was hailed as a sculpture sin cera – without wax. The phrase eventually came to mean anything honest or true. The English word ‘sincere’ evolved from the Spanish sin cera. David’s secret code was no great mystery.’
Having that integrity to truly love God is a most significant step to living life on earth as God fully intends
The Lord Jesus was deeply concerned with the mixed motives in the service of the religious leaders when he was on earth. Their original avowed intention of pleasing God had become so overtaken with impressing their admiring public that they had become hypocritical and he pointed out that their only reward was being honoured by people. They were insincere, full of wax, not genuine.
They had duped the bystanders, and had quite likely convinced themselves of their goodness too. But they would never fool the God who weighs the motives of the heart (Prov.16:2).
Real Value
As a man, Jesus knew the truth of the statement he made when he said ‘Blessed are the pure in heart.’ Having that integrity to truly love God is a most significant step to living life on earth as God fully intends; it means we see God as much as is possible in the here and now, and so can enjoy the purpose of our lives fully!
Keeping It Real
It’s easy for us to be critical of the Pharisees, isn’t it? However, we need to examine ourselves closely with questions like: ‘Do I get upset if what I do for the Lord doesn’t get commented on by the people around me?’
The Lord Jesus was deeply concerned with the mixed motives in the service of the religious leaders when he was on earth.
Hebrews 10:22 outlines that our approach to God is to be made after we have checked our motives and principles for that integrity, dealt with the shortcomings that we have found and committed to not living the same way afterwards. The ‘sprinkling’ mentioned in that verse refers to a ritual where something was marked as for being for God’s use alone; our hearts should be like that!
A Real Challenge
As a final thought, the method to test those statues for wax was to apply heat and see if any part of the ‘marble’ melted. Isn’t that like the picture 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 paints about our lives? We will all be examined to see the reasons for which we did things in our Christian lives, so let’s try and live ‘without wax’.
Tony Jones, The Church of God in Aberkenfig
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