Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).
The end which all healthy religious striving proposes to itself, is to attain this righteousness in fellowship with God; and it can be perfectly realized only when the will is entirely united with God. This condition of perfect oneness of will with God is essential to full self-contentment, that is, blessedness. Therefore, when this righteousness is attained, then, and not till then, will perfect blessedness enter.
Because man had perfect righteousness before the fall, he enjoyed perfect blessedness. If you and I shall, by divine grace, attain to blessedness hereafter, it will be because God has restored us to righteousness. As it was in the first paradise, so must it be in the second—righteousness is essential to the blessedness of man. We cannot be truly happy and live in sin. Holiness is the natural element of blessedness; and it can no more live out of that element than a fish could live in the fire. The happiness of man must come through his righteousness: his being right with God, with man, with himself—indeed, his being right all round.
Spiritual Appetites
Hunger and thirst are appetites that return frequently, and call for fresh satisfactions; so these holy desires rest not in anything attained, but are carried out toward renewed pardons, and daily fresh supplies of grace. The quickened soul calls for constant meals of righteousness, grace to do the work of every day in its day, as duly as the living body calls for food.
MATTHEW HENRY
Hunger and thirst are the strongest of all our bodily appetites. In like manner this hunger in the soul, this thirst after the image of God, is the strongest of all our spiritual appetites, when it is once awakened in the heart: yea, it swallows up all the rest in that one great desire, to be renewed after the likeness of him that created us. From the time we begin to hunger and thirst, those appetites do not cease, but are more and more craving, till we either eat and drink, or die.
JOHN WESLEY
Where the healthful appetite after righteousness is defectively developed in Christian life through undue brooding over faults or nursing of despondent grief, there Christianity grows pale-complexioned, sickly, and womanish. There needs the irrepressible hunger to be and to do what is right, in order that a man may be maintained in the activities of spiritual manhood; and this desire, when inspired with promises of success and ardent through high enthusiasm, grows into a holy ambition, a noble and eager daring, covetous of the best gifts.… It is true that there is still pain in such hunger and thirst of the soul. Man never attains his moral ideal. Dissatisfaction with himself is, in fact, the root of spiritual desire; and here, as in all desire unaccomplished, there must be pain.
J. OSWALD DYKES
Many there be who are most anxious to please God and make conscience of all known sins, yet find in themselves so much darkness of mind, activity of rebellious corruption, forwardness in their affections, perverseness in their wills, yea, a constant proneness to all manner of sins; and, on the contrary, they can perceive so little of the fruits of sanctification, so little evidence of spiritual life, so few signs of divine grace at work within, that they often seriously doubt if they have received any grace at all. This is a fearfully heavy burden, and greatly casts down the soul. But here is divine consolation. Christ pronounces “blessed” not those who are full of righteousness, but those who hunger and thirst after it. Those who mourn over their depravity, who grieve over the plague of their hearts, who yearn for conformity to Christ—using the means constantly—are accepted of God in Christ.
A. W. PINK
Righteousness
By “righteousness” is meant piety towards God, vital religion, godliness. By a starving man nothing is accounted of any value, in comparison with that which will satisfy the cravings of hunger. How rich then and precious the promise to such, as are hungering and thirsting after righteousness that their spiritual wants shall be supplied and that they shall be filled with that for which they are so earnestly longing.
JOHN J. OWEN
The metaphorical meaning of the verbs is that of longing desires. The righteousness is the establishment of which was the aim of Christ’s work, and the condition of participation in the Messiah’s kingdom. They will obtain righteousness in full measure, namely, in being declared righteous (Rom. 5:19; Gal. 5:5), at the judgment of the Messiah (Matt. 25:34) and then live in perfect righteousness, so that God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).
H. A. W. MEYER
Gift Of God
No willing and running, no laboring chase after it in our own strength and in our own way, attains unto righteousness: ours is to desire it; it is for God to give it.
RUDOLF STIER
There is a negative kind of holiness, which is neither pleasing to God nor profitable to man: it consists merely in an abstinence from open sin, and a discharge of external duties. But real holiness pervades the whole man: it comprehends the whole circle of divine graces: it reaches to the thoughts and desires of the heart; and assimilates us to God in all his communicable perfections. Now this is that which the true Christian shall be filled: in all his dispositions towards God and man, he shall be changed: he shall not only be delivered from all that would injure his character among men, but shall be “transformed into the very image of his God in righteousness and true holiness.”
CHARLES SIMEON
He that gave the thirst likewise provides the water, and the one exactly meets the other. It is not the will of our heavenly Father that any longing in our hearts, prompted by himself, and therefore sincerely seeking him, shall perish unsatisfied. A satisfying righteousness therefore must be provided for the people of God. And it must be provided outside of us. To eat means to be nourished from without. Since the sinner is devoid of all righteousness, it is self-evident, that the source of his supply must be sought beyond the confines of his own evil and empty nature. For it to be otherwise would mean that hunger could be stilled with hunger. Our Lord’s meaning obviously is that the coming order of things, the new kingdom of God, brings with itself, chief of all blessings, a perfect righteousness, as truly and absolutely the gift of God to man as is the Kingdom.
GEERHARDUS VOS
He hath also promised to fill the hungry with good things, to rain down righteousness on the dry and parched ground, to fulfil the desires of them that fear him. So that it is but our asking and his giving; our opening the mouth and he will fill it; our hungering and his feeding; our thirsting and his watering; our open hand and his open heart.
JOHN TRAPP
