THE BEATITUDES (5)

Blessed Are They Which Do Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness

Matthew 5:6

Victor M. Eskew

 

          Jesus’ fourth beatitude states:  “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled” (Matt.5:6).  This beatitude continues the natural progression of Jesus’ teaching in the beatitudes.  First, a person realizes he is a sinner before God.  He, then,  mourns over his sinful condition.  Third, he possesses a meek spirit, that is, a spirit that is willing to conform to whatever it is the Lord desires of him.  Now, it is up to the individual to seek the righteousness of God.  This is not a casual seek-and-find exercise.  It involves a desire that is likened unto hunger and thirst.  If an individual will yearn for God’s righteousness, the Lord promises that he “shall be filled.”

          Dear readers, there is a way for the lost to become righteous.  The plan whereby man can become righteous is found in the gospel of Christ.  Paul asserted this in Romans 1:16-17.  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:  for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jews first, and also to the Greek.  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:  as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”  The key words of this text for our discussion are the words, “for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.”  Therein where?  Therein the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In essence, the sinner asks the Lord with a sorrowful heart:  “Lord, how do I become righteous?”  In response, the Lord says:  “I have revealed how you can become righteous in the pages of the gospel.  If you will seek that righteousness, it can be yours.”

          Now, the responsibility is placed upon the one who is lost.  If he is earnest, he will seek the righteousness of God with a passion that is liken unto hungering and thirsting.  Those who manifest that type of a desire for righteousness will find it.  When it is digested, the spiritual man will be filled to capacity.  He will find relief from the pains of hunger and thirst. 

          One of the interesting aspects of spiritual hungering and thirst is that it is not a natural desire.  Our physical man naturally becomes hungry and thirsty.  We feel the pains of both when we lack food and water.  This is not so with the spiritual man.  The spiritual man does not naturally yearn for food and drink.  The spiritual man can go for days, weeks, months, and years without a person’s realizing that he is malnourished or dehydrated.  The spiritual man must develop the ability to yearn for the righteousness of God.  It is a need that the individual must intentionally focus upon every day.  As he fulfills the need within, more and more he will develop a more natural desire for righteousness.  This desire, however, will fade over time if the individual does not continue to eat from God’s Word and drink from the fountain of divine truth.

          Jesus said:  “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17).  This truth provides all men with the knowledge of how to be right with God.  Too, it enables the child of God to continue to live right throughout the remainder of his life.  Therefore, Peter instructs us to desire God’s Word like a newborn baby desires his mother’s milk.  “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2).  Again, we emphasize that this desire is not something that manifests itself in a physical craving.  We have to motivate ourselves to partake of God’s Word on a regular basis.  We have to intentionally feed ourselves today and we have to intentionally drink from the well of truth tomorrow.  When a person does, he will learn the plan of righteousness.  Then, he must implement that plan into his life.  “Little children, let no man deceive you:  he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous” (1 John 3:7).  “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:29).  When we do righteousness and are born again, we have a new life in Christ.  “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).  Notice, old things are passed away.  We no longer have the stain of sin on our souls.  That sin is removed.  We no longer have to carry the guilt and shame of the past.  The blood of Jesus takes all of those things away.  When we learn of His righteousness, we become new creatures. 

          Paul was a man who hungered and thirsted after righteousness.  Once he was convinced that Jesus was the Christ, Paul’s desire for righteousness boiled within him.  He persisted in that desire for his entire Christian life.  Listen to Paul’s words to the Philippians regarding how he changed once he learned of the Christ.  “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.  Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:  for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:7-11).  Paul counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.  He longed to know the Christ.  Paul sought the righteousness which is of God by a faith that comes through hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).  We asserted earlier that Paul’s hunger for the righteousness of God continued till the end of his life.  Notice a request Paul made of Timothy in his second epistle to his son in the faith,  “The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, and especially the parchments” (2 Tim. 4:13).  Even while locked in a Roman prison cell knowing that death lingered near, Paul wanted the books and the Scriptures so he could continue to be nourished with the righteousness of God.

          The Lord’s promise connected to this beatitude is clear.  If we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we shall be filled.  The Lord has plenty of righteousness to satisfy our spiritual cravings.  We can be filled.  In fact, we can be filled over and beyond our capacity.  The filling that we get through partaking of God’s Word never causes us to become bloated or fat.  It simply satisfies and causes the spiritual man to grow and become more like the Christ.  Too, it causes the inner man to yearn to know the things Paul longed to know:  the Christ, “and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.” This righteousness also enables us to look forward to “the resurrection of the dead.”

          Dear readers, we hunger and thirst physically and fill ourselves beyond capacity to our detriment.  It is high time that every Christian focuses upon his inner man.  Let us hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God.  The psalmist tells us that this should be desired more than gold, yea, than fine gold.  He also proclaims that God’s righteousness is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb (See Ps. 19:10).  When any person hungers and thirsts for righteousness, he will taste, and see, that the Lord is good (Ps. 34:8).