“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
5:6
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Matthew uses the term “righteousness” as personal fidelity to God. He does not use it in the sense of justification or imputed righteousness. Therefore, the term does not refer to personal salvation.
Those who “hunger and thirst” have basic needs. This is the hunger of a person starving for food. This is intense desire.
for they shall be satisfied.
If our basic orientation is “for righteousness,” God will meet our need. God will show how He will do His will on earth as it is in heaven. God will satisfy people who hunger for personal righteousness and—one day—for the righteousness of a nation as well. Jesus will set up His Messianic kingdom in time on earth.
For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Is 61:11
Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. Da 9:24
PRINCIPLE:
Our spiritual appetite reveals our heart.
APPLICATION:
Thirst for truth says something about us. It shows where knowing God lies on our scale of values. What we hunger for is where our priorities lie. Most Christians live their lives devoid of knowing God. They are no different than non-Christians in this.
…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, Php 3:10
The Christian life is a supernatural life and demands supernatural execution. Intense desire for righteousness is characteristic of a godly person. Do we really want it? God will bless those who operate on the basic need of knowing and doing God’s will. It is not enough to treat our spirituality casually; it is all or nothing. We cannot push spirituality to the outer edge of the periphery of our orientation to life if God is going to bless us.
If we fill desire with success, savings, and satisfaction in things other than God, then we will never know what it means to fundamentally orient to God. We will never know how to conform to God’s thinking. This approach to God is like longing for a mid-afternoon snack rather than a full-course supper.
This verse is all about hungering and thirsting for principles from God’s Word and understanding of how to apply those principles to experience.
