God is….Pure

So as I wrap up the 3rd word in the study of Words used to describe God a thought comes to mind. 

Purity of heart or purity of action? 

As I studied the word Pure in Scripture I found that almost all of the references have been to pure gold or pure oil or pure frankensense; things like that.  There were a handful of verses that more directly related to what I was looking for, the word pure in reference to God.  Take a look and then I will circle around to the question above.

Job 4:17(NKJV)

    ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?     Can a man be more pure than his Maker?

Matthew 5:8(NKJV)

    Blessed are the pure in heart,      For they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8(NKJV)

    Blessed are the pure in heart,      For they shall see God.

1 John 3:1-3(NKJV)

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 

Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

To purify gold it has to be heated or smelted.  In other words it has to undergo a stressful process to get it to purity.  The above verse tells us that if we believe in Jesus, that alone purifies us.  Does that mean we get to bypass the stressful part?  Not at all.  Scripture clearly tells us that we will go through trials and tribulations for Christ.  I guess the difference is that we get purity before the stress instead of the other way around. 

Revelation 22:1(NKJV)

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 

Alright so back to the question.  Based on what I know of Scripture, purity of heart is the more important of the two.  My reason for believing that are twofold.  First all of the references that Jesus Himself made to "where a person's heart is".  Secondly I refer to the passages where Paul has said things like "the spirit is wiling but the body is weak" indicating that no matter how pure our hearts, physically we are doomed to failing over and over again. 

Make sense?

Now that doesn't give one free rein to do impure things because that would come back to the heart issue.  And make no doubt about it, you can't fool Jesus about where the heart is.