“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6
The Lord continues describing who will inherit the kingdom of God. He started with the poor in spirit, a person broken over their separation from God because of their sin, a person who mourns over sin as God does seeing it as a reproach to an absolutely holy God and
a person who in meekness willing hears wand does what God says. Now the Lord adds the fourth characteristic. A person who in meekness is willing to follow God leads to a person who has a strong craving to know what God thinks and says.
Blessed are they The Lord continues to remind us there are some who are in this category, who exhibit these characteristics from their hearts. They are blessed by God, His curse is not on them
Hunger and thirst The Lord uses two words that describe intense cravings. Hunger means to crave food ardently. It is used of the Lord in the wilderness after His forty day fast. The word indicates the person is famished. Then the Lord says they thirst. The word indicates one who painfully feels his need for water, and eagerly longs for it in any form. Righteousness The word means what is approved of the Lord – what He says is right. The Lord describes a strong desire to be what God want us to be; to act as God wants us to act and to please Him in every part of our lives.
What can we learn? With this characteristic the Lord hits organized religion right between the eyes. They intensely strive for their own self-righteousness instead of God’s righteousness. Today the church is filled with lackadaisical, the lukewarm. They, just like those who have an intense desire to perform works, are sure they will please God (like Cain). Yet they fall short of the righteousness of God. This helps us understand why many will say to the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” The Lord’s response? “Depart from me I never knew you.” We see this characteristic of a true believer comes from the heart as exemplified in David. “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) If one does not have a love for and hunger for the things of God he had better check to see if his salvation is real.
There is a second lesson. The Lord describes the basic needs of man. After breathing, man requires food and water to live. These are essentials. When man does not have these two necessities, he will leave all other things, his home, money, friends and work to get these two necessities. Gaining righteousness is a driving urge for the believer just like food and water.
Third, we recognize this is not a one and done event. The Greek verbs indicate a continual action. The Lord does not say “did hunger” but who “does hunger”. The true believer does not worship on Sunday and that is good enough. This is a daily need. It must be satisfied multiple times each day – continually.
Finally, we see it is not just hungering and thirsting that is the issue. Both believer and unbelievers will hunger and thirst. Unbelievers hunger after the things of this world – the things we are told not
to love. Believers desire righteousness, to become like God – very different needs!