He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious, the king is his friend.

Proverbs 22:11

This really shouldn’t be rocket science. Those who converse with us and do life with us that have gracious words are beloved by us and we value them. They are our friends; even if they are newly acquainted. Conversely, those who use snippy language and obviously stretch the truth are kept at arms-length. Why? Because we don’t trust them and we can’t value anything they say or do. 

There is a caution with the above scenarios and that caution is discerning pure motives from ulterior motives which can be very challenging even for us ordinary folk. Just think how challenging it must be for a king or in our day in age for a president or for a celebrity or an elite athlete. The world wide web provides a whole new layer of deceit and fraud and evil motives to those who already live with ulterior motives in their hearts.

So, what is the average person to do? 

We average folks are to be the ones with pure hearts…pure motives. We are the ones who are to use gracious words that flow from our pure hearts displaying in full color our genuine Christ-like love for those around us. Two things will happen when our hearts are full of pure motives. 

First, we are seen as trustworthy whether we are dealing with a beggar or with a king; our pure motives are the same. People see the same person in the classroom or board room that they see in the church pew. Those around us may not agree with all our assessments or even have the same worldview that we show forth, but they know we are genuine and that we will treat them with goodness and kindness.

Second, we will be able to discern a malicious heart more readily. It is kind of like counterfeit money. A bank teller is trained only with authentic money. Over and over again authentic money passes through their hands and is studied with their senses. When a counterfeit is placed in front of them, they know it immediately. Why? Because they are so attuned to the real thing, the fakes are easy to spot. And so it is with a pure heart saturated with Jesus. When an ulterior motivated or fake hearted person tries to pass themselves off as having trustworthy purposes, the pure heart can spot this quickly and discern how best to proceed in Jesus’. 

We are not naturally pure of heart! We’ve discussed this at length in many of the 31 Days of Proverbs devotionals. Only through Jesus can we have a new heart that is pure, but we have to exercise that pure heart and keep it nutritionally healthy with prayer and listening to God through His Word. Of all the people in the world, born-again believers should be able to stand before ‘kings’ with gracious speech given from a pure heart! 

Let’s make that our goal today and every day!

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,  O LORD my Rock and my Redeemer.

Psalm 19:14