Title: Try God
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (43) Commentary on the Beatitudes (17)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:9).
Improvised Bible Reading
God completed the work of the cross to save mankind by sending his Son “when the time is fulfilled” (Galatians 4:4). The fulfillment of the time means that before Jesus was born in Judea 2000 years ago, he had created all the circumstances and conditions in advance so that his work could be accomplished perfectly. If we study theology by examining the history of that time with the records of the Bible, we find that countless situations and events must have happened one by one, and they are inevitably linked to each other, so that each has God's own will. And it's kind of embarrassing.
One of God's preparations included the attempt to write the New Testament in Greek. Greek was the most detailed and accurate way of expression among the languages of the earth at the time of Jesus. To some extent, German, which is considered the most scientific of the existing languages, has about 200 suffixes, while Greek has 800 suffixes, each with a different meaning. God wanted to convey the revelation of the ultimate salvation of mankind revealed on the cross of Jesus to future generations without being turbulent.
On the other hand, Korean seems to be one of the most unscientific languages. There is little distinction between tense, singular and plural, and articles. All the expressions are just vague. Of course, there is a clear advantage of being very rich in emotional expression as it is. Even the expression “yellow” can’t be translated into a foreign language, such as bright yellow, naughty-tinged, or normal. Presumably, our nationality is emotional and improvised, so it is reflected in our language.
Such a disposition of faith is also applied to reading and understanding the Bible. In the text, it is said that the pure in heart can see God. But how do we interpret a pure heart? Almost all believers simply think of it as trying to kill dirty and ugly thoughts and have a pure heart. Rather than trying to find out what the state of a pure heart is in detail, we want to eat a good heart.
That interpretation is not 100% wrong, but let's assume that we actually apply that interpretation to our religious life. “I must keep my heart clean, but what should I clean? Why do I keep having such useless and bad thoughts? Is there any good way to get rid of these thoughts at all? Instead, we should keep only a good heart. Shall we pray or read the Bible?” You have to work hard, but will you realistically achieve the desired results? In other words, would it be possible if a person now decides to never think badly again and only to have a good heart? Also, if you make such an effort and have some success, can you see God? If you have a good heart and you can't see God, then the Bible cannot be wrong, doesn't it mean that its interpretation is not perfect?
What does it mean to have a pure heart?
The human mind is like a rugby ball, you don't even know where it will bounce. Even after immigrating to the United States and having to deal with his wife who is suffering from hard work that she had never done before in Korea, she felt sorry for her and decided to treat her well. Even if he decides to understand that, if he doesn't prepare dinner properly, he adds up to what he had endured a while ago, and his anger soars.
It's not because people don't make up their minds and because they don't work hard as they've made up their minds. Before that, the bitter roots and thistles in the field of my heart were already in full bloom, so I couldn't even use my own hands. He said he couldn't overcome his wife's coercion, so he went to church once a week and reflected on himself.