seek Jesus for hunger

Next Jesus turns to people’s attitude to uprightness. Matthew uses the verb “to hunger” 9 times, but in all the other 8 it refers to literal hunger while here the meaning is clearly metaphorical (as it is twice in Luke and once in John). With it is linked thirst, which is more often used in the metaphorical sense (cf. Ps. 42:2). Jesus is speaking of an intense longing after righteousness that may be likened to both hunger and thirst. Everyone now and then does what is right, but Jesus is pointing his hearers not to occasional acts but to a passionate concern for the right. Righteousness is often used in the New Testament for the right standing believers have before God because of Christ’s atoning work, but this is often said to be a Pauline concept rather than one that Matthew sets forth. Now it is plain that Matthew has a strong interest in the upright living that should characterize the servant of Christ, and we must not try to turn him into a pale shadow of Paul. But we must not minimize his emphasis on grace either (cf. v. 3). Specifically we should notice that he is not suggesting that people can make a strong effort and achieve the righteousness of which he is writing: it is a given righteousness, not an achieved righteousness. The blessed do not achieve it but hunger and thirst for it. They will be filled, which surely means that God will fill them (cf. 6:33, “his righteousness”). We need not doubt that the term here includes the doing of right, an indication that we are expected to live in full accordance with the will of God. How could anyone have a strong desire for a right standing before God without at the same time strongly wanting to do the right? Today there is a strong emphasis on social righteousness, the liberation of people from oppression, and that can scarcely be out of mind either. Righteousness is a rich and full concept, but whichever way we understand it, it is a righteousness that people cannot produce of themselves. We are to do our best and we may be able to avoid “the gutters of life,” but this righteousness is a gift of God. And of those who have this wholehearted longing for the right Jesus says, they will be filled.²⁶ They do not achieve it of themselves, but God fulfils their longing. God will not disappoint anyone who has this deep desire to do his will. Those who long for righteousness will have a full measure, not a mere trace. There are two thoughts here, the first of which insists on the disposition of the seeker. The good gift of God does not come indiscriminately to all the race, but only to those who seek it wholeheartedly. The second is that, for all their intense longing, the seekers do not fill themselves with righteousness, but are filled; righteousness is a gift of God.¹

the righteousness of God is a gift when one is saved.

What about the natural man; does he hunger and thirst for righteousness? The ones I meet do not! “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The “natural man” is in contrast to the spiritual man who has found that Christ is his righteousness—“… of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).²

. “Blind guides” is a perfect description, one that must have brought a smile to the lips of the listeners. Jesus had used it before (Matt. 15:14). The Pharisees were blind to the true values of life. Their priorities were confused. They would take an oath and use some sacred object to substantiate that oath—the gold in the temple, for example, or the gift on the altar. But they would not swear by the temple itself or the altar. It was the temple that sanctified the gold and the altar that sanctified the gift. They were leaving God out of their priorities.

Jesus knew that the Pharisees wanted both the gold and the gifts on the altar. This is why the Pharisees practiced “Corban”—anything dedicated to God could not be used for others (Matt. 15:1–9; Mark 7:10–13). These men were not seeking for the righteousness of God; they were greedy for gain. They worked out a “religious system” that permitted them to rob God and others and still maintain their reputations.³

These future possessors of the earth are its presently-installed rightful heirs and even now they hunger and thirst after righteousness. They experience a deep desire for personal righteousness which is, in itself, a proof of their spiritual re-birth. Those who are poor and empty in their own spiritual poverty recognize the depth of their need and hunger and thirst for that which only God can give them. To hunger means to be needy. It is joined with to thirst; the born-again man has a God-given hunger and thirst (inner passion) for righteousness. This hungering and thirsting continues throughout the life of the believer. He continues to hunger and to be filled and to hunger and to be filled. God supplies his every spiritual need daily. This act of hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the by-product of a regenerated life.

Lawlor (p. 60) rightly states that this is the description of a man who has already been saved. Nowhere does the Bible command unbelievers to hunger after righteousness in order to be saved. Rather, Paul clearly states “there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom 3:11). The biblical writers make it clear that while man must come to Christ for salvation, it is not within man’s normal ability and desire to want to come to God. Therefore, God is depicted throughout the New Testament as the seeking Saviour going after the lost. They shall be filled (Gr chortazō) refers to a complete filling and satisfaction. The psalmist proclaimed: “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (107:9). This filling comes from God, who is the total source of satisfaction of His people. It comes now and it will continue to come throughout eternity to those who hunger and thirst for it.⁴

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (v. 6). Commentators say that what Jesus had in mind here are those believers who passionately search for the imputation of the righteousness of Christ by which we receive our standing before God. We do not have enough righteousness of our own to get us into heaven, they say. Only those who are clothed with the righteousness of Christ will ever enter into His kingdom. Certainly that is true, but I doubt that is what Jesus had in mind here, because even though we are justified by faith and not by our works, we are justified unto works. We have been elected by God and received His grace unto righteousness. Even though our righteousness will never justify us, the fruit of our justification is growth in real righteousness. As Martin Luther said, we were dead in our sins, but God raised us from the dead, and He declared us well while we were still in sin. That is what justification by faith means. Not only did He give us that declaration, but He gave us the medicine by which we actually do become conformed to the image of Jesus, and every Christian is called to grow up into maturity and righteousness.

Elsewhere in this Gospel we are going to see this quest for righteousness, but we have an allergy to it because we tend to link righteousness with self-righteousness, that which the Pharisees displayed, rather than with real righteousness. Real righteousness is, simply, doing what is right. That should be a concern for us, and not just a passing concern. The images used here are those of hunger and thirst. This message was given to people who, for the most part, lived in the desert, who knew what it meant to have such a parched palate that their thirst was so consuming that just one cup of cold water would dramatically improve their condition. They also knew what it meant to endure starvation, to go hungry for long periods of time. For someone who is in that state of hunger, like one who crosses the desert and runs out of water and prays every second for the appearance of an oasis, the pursuit of that oasis is the only thing that keeps him going. The intensity of that sort of thirst and hunger is what Jesus says should mark our lives.

As a young man Jonathan Edwards wrote down resolutions for the virtues that he sought to achieve in his life, and by the grace of God he became a model of righteousness. At almost the same time there was another man in colonial America who also sought after righteousness without the aid of God. His name was Benjamin Franklin. Franklin made a list of the virtues that he wanted to manifest. Each day he would examine himself as to whether he had accomplished a particular righteousness during the preceding twenty-four hours. He confessed that, after noting for a number of consecutive days his success with humility, that he was becoming proud of his humility. Even the unregenerate understand at certain points their failure to achieve real righteousness.

That would be a wonderful thing to have on our tombstone, that we were righteous. We ought not to despise righteousness as something that belongs only to the self-righteous; rather, we should love righteousness enough to pursue it intensely as those who hunger and thirst, because God promises that if we hunger for righteousness, we will not be sent away empty. We will receive the bread of life that will feed us for eternity. If we thirst for righteousness, the Son of righteousness will come with living water that will well up in our souls to eternal life. We will be filled. We will be satisfied from these pursuits.⁵

So again, the blessedness pronounced on them who hunger and thirst after righteousness. It were a weakness of judgment indeed, to suppose, that the righteousness such souls most earnestly desire, is the righteousness of mere moral honesty and justice between man and man in life. These things the laws among men enforce, and the Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord’s days, prided themselves upon them. Surely no one who reads his Bible can for a moment, if he thinks rightly, suppose that the Son of God came upon earth to preach what even unenlightened heathens had always insisted upon. This would be indeed to run back to the law of Moses, instead of preaching the Gospel of Christ. But the righteousness the Son of God had in view, when declaring these souls blessed which hungered and thirsted for it, was his own complete righteousness, which alone can justify a poor sinner in the sight of God. So that in the hungering for it, the soul gave evident proofs that he had no righteousness of his own to appear in before God, and therefore earnestly longed to be cloathed with Christ’s robe of righteousness, and garment of salvation. And graciously the Lord Jesus here declares all such shall not hunger in vain. He who excites the hunger in the soul, is He who also satisfieth it. And hence the promises and the performance. Psalm 132:9–16. Isaiah 61:1, 2, 3, 10, 11.⁶

5:6 hunger and thirst for righteousness. This is the opposite of the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. It speaks of those who seek God’s righteousness rather than attempting to establish a righteousness of their own (Ro 10:3; Php 3:9). What they seek will fill them, i.e., it will satisfy their hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God.⁷

For thew Gospel to have Jesus in the heart and to love him fully

5:6 Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness recognize that God is the ultimate source of real righteousness, so they long for his righteous character to be evident in people’s lives on earth. They shall be satisfied by responding to his invitation to be in relationship with him.⁸

1 Morris, L. (1992). The Gospel according to Matthew (pp. 98–100). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press.

2 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34, pp. 75–76). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

3 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 84–85). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

4 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 1884–1885). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 82–83). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

6 Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary: Matthew–John (Vol. 1, p. 36). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

7 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Mt 5:6). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

8 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1828). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.