The Beatitudes, Part Four: Hungering and Thirsting
It's not uncommon to hear of an ambitious person being "hungry" to get things done.Writers apply this term to athletes who want to make it to the professional league, to actors who would like to become famous, and to business people who aspire to be the CEO or president of a major corporation.People drive themselves to work harder.They practice longer and harder than others because they push themselves to study every facet of their discipline.Their ambition is unlimited.They seem to play every angle to get the attention of their superiors.They sell themselves to people who might be useful in promoting them.
Some of the nuances that Jesus uses in Matthew 5:6 are not present.A person from the depths of his being has a driving need to satisfy a desire.William Barclay gives a colorful description in his Daily Study Bible commentary.
The meaning of a word is conditioned by the background of the person who speaks it.That is true of this beatitude.It would convey a different impression to those who heard it for the first time.
Most of us don't know what it is to be hungry or thirsty in modern life.It was very different in the ancient world.No man ever got fat on a working man's wage, which was the equivalent of three pence a day.A working man in Palestine only ate meat once a week, and the day laborer was never far from the border-line of real hunger and actual starvation.
In the case of thirst, it was still more so.It wasn't possible for most people to turn a tap and see the clear, cold water in their house.In the midst of the hot wind which brought the sand-storm, a man might be on a journey.He had nothing else to do but to wrap his head in his burnous body and wait for the wind to blow so he could drink.There is no parallel to modern western life.There is avol.1, p.
We can see that Jesus is not using "hunger" or " thirst" as we would describe a hunger or thirst that can never be satisfied.With physical appetite, this would be a hunger and thirst that, even after a full meal with plenty of drink, we would still feel as though we could eat and drink more!"It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food that leads to his death unless he drinks", as Barclay describes it.99-98).
We should have the kind of desire we need to get righteous.The Bible's writers often use imagery of hunger and thirst to show an ardent desire for the things of God.
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul for You, O God.My soul wants the living God.When will I appear before God?
In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water, I will seek you and my soul will thirst for you.
A constant cycle of consuming a most vital necessity for spiritual life and strength is shown by limiting hunger and thirst.
In the introduction to this series, I mentioned that the Beatitudes seem to be linked in two general groups with the first four directed towards one's relationship with God.Each link leads to the next one.We will acknowledge our spiritual bankruptcy if we are poor in spirit.We are allowed to mourn over the cause of our bankruptcy, our sins, as well as the ever-present corruption of human nature and its reign of sin and death in this world.When we are measured against the standard of God's holiness, and have nothing that will grant us preference over others, we must allow these two virtues to condition our behavior toward both God and men.Poverty of spirit, mourning and meekness is part of the motivation to make up for deficiencies in our character God graciously exposes by revealing to us what we really are.We must follow our confession of the sins God has revealed if we want to be in His image.
Important steps toward salvation are accomplished by hunger and thirsting after righteousness.These steps are referred to as a number of terms in God's Word, including justification, growing, overcoming, becoming perfect, going on to perfection, and seeking holiness.We must make the choices to sacrifice ourselves in order to fulfill God's desire for us.God wants us to live with Him the same way he lives in His Kingdom.
The first question was "What is righteousness?"We know it means "rectitude," so it may seem like a no-brainer.We feel equipped with a direct biblical definition of the important biblical concept of "all your commandments are righteousness."The Bible's use of "righteousness" is so broad that it is considered a synonym of salvation in some places.
Let the skies pour down righteousness, and let the earth open, so that they can bring forth salvation.The Lord has created it.(Isaiah 45:8)
This is an example of a typical Hebraic technique in which the two terms are used synonymously to reinforce and explain each other.The author makes his meaning clearer.There are other instances in the Bible.
I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel's glory, if you listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness.There is a song in the bible, "Isaiah 46:12-13."
My salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the people.(Isaiah 51:5).
My salvation is about to come and I need to do righteous things.(Isaiah 56:1).
My soul will be joyful in my God because he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.There is a song called "Isaiah 61:10."
Though the Bible uses "righteousness" so broadly, it doesn't help us understand it because "salvation" is one of the bible's most comprehensive terms.Since no one has fully experienced salvation, we look through a glass and try to comprehend it.
In Matthew 6:33, Jesus commanded, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."The sense of seeking all of God's blessings is present here.This verse shows a broad New Testament application of the term as well as its priority to life.This meshes perfectly with the metaphor of hunger and thirst.It needs to be ambitiously yearn to accomplish.Jesus said that God's Kingdom and His righteousness are the most important things in life.It is important to seek God's righteousness.
The world doesn't have righteousness as its top priority.We have come to us completely unbidden as an act of God's grace, and I hope that we do.Jesus says we have a responsibility to look after what God has given us.Are we to hunger and thirst?God provides the means for someone to accomplish something when he gives them a responsibility.Is it possible that we are using the means He has given?
The righteousness Jesus refers to in Matthew 5:6 is what comes to all through Christ, according to some.The three kinds of righteousness shown in the Bible are important in their own right.All three are important to Christian life and development and are included in Jesus' words.Each Christian has a relationship with God and with fellow man.Two of them are important, and the third less so because of the Christian's God-limited authority in relation to this world.
The first is the righteousness of faith that comes when God redeems sinners through Christ Jesus.When Christ's will is imputed to him, he will have legal righteousness before God.Paul changed the wording in Romans 3:10 to say "There is none righteous, no, not one."
God makes indictments against a world in which most people consider themselves to be good.In a mind not awakened to God's righteousness, filled with the pride of self-righteousness, deceived and blinded by the god of this world, it is a goodness perceived through their own standards.The unconverted Paul was an accessory in killing and persecuting God's true children and thought all the while that he was doing God service."They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work."
All of us have been in this picture.As sinners, we frequently broke God's law in word, thought and deed, and in many cases, were ignorant of doing so because of the deception and blindness Satan has wrought.The veil that was over our minds was removed by God.We were convicted of spiritual bankruptcy.When we used to think of ourselves as being involved in a "little" sin, but basically okay as measured against our neighbor and the evil people in society, we now begin to see ourselves differently.We don't have a leg to stand on.
Romans 2:4 makes it clear that only by God's mercy are we led to see ourselves to some degree as He sees us.We can measure our goodness, our righteousness, against God rather than our neighbor.We know that death for sin is staring us in the face, yet he has provided us with a perfect righteousness in Christ.This offer is not free because we have to surrender our lives to His rule.It costs us our lives to take advantage of God's offer, even as it costs Jesus his life to provide it.We become thirsty and hungry for God's offer of justification.
We can't stop here.Hunger and thirst have brought us to this point, but it is only the beginning.Even though we are justified, the hunger and thirst is still there because the justified person knows God has begun a good work in us.Romans 5:1-2 will be remembered by the hungry person.
Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we also have access to this grace in which we stand and hope for the glory of God.
Reconciliation and peace with God are brought about by justification.It also brings with it the hungering and thirsting for God.The goal of the process we began through God's calling is the creation of his image in us, as a result of our imputed righteousness.It can be ours.
Everyone who catches this vision must desire with all his being.Have we ever been offered more?Can any other goal in life be compared?We need to not neglect so great a salvation.We need to not let the potential slip from our grasp.Jesus used strong language to describe the desire for God's righteousness.He will satisfy it when he sees it in us.
The second kind of righteousness for which we are to hunger and thirst is the one that occupies the larger portion of our life after conversion.Jesus states this beatitude.He doesn't say, "Blessed are those who have hungered.".."Blessed are those who hunger."This hungering and thirsting is a constant state, and it must be this way for the second kind of righteousness, which is pursuing holiness, going on to perfection, or growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.The Bible calls it sanctification a lot.All of these terms are contained within their broad meaning.As we experience our relationship with God, this righteousness is created in us.It wants to be prepared for living in His Kingdom.
God does not have the ability to create his holy and righteous character.It requires the willing and freely given cooperation of the called; by exercising their free moral agency, they submit to Him in the experiences of life.Christianity is not a cake-walk through a garden.All else must be secondary to Him according to Jesus.We are to count the cost and bear our crosses.The way is difficult and narrow, he warns.The Christian's pilgrimage to the Kingdom of God involves the trek of the ancient Israelites through the wilderness.Their wilderness experiences expose a number of pitfalls that can destroy a Christian's faith.
God gives us a serious challenge through this beatitude.It establishes a demanding requirement because it is continuously needed.How much do we want to be good?We don't know if we want it as much as a man in need of food or water.Do we lack vision that we will give up our faith?They did not believe it when they heard the good news.They died in the wilderness before reaching their goal.They resisted God until they died.They didn't hunger for it.
Most of us have a desire for God's Kingdom and His righteousness, but it is often vague and not sharp.When the time comes to make a decision, we don't have the will to sacrifice for the sake of God.These are situations that show that we don't want to be righteous more than anything else.
Why do we do things like this when we want to be righteous?It is easy to say that the problem lies with human nature.Jesus gives an answer in Matthew.
The things that go out of the mouth come from the man's heart.For out of the heart go evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.To eat with unwashed hands does not mean that a man is bad.
The source of our words and actions can be seen in the heart.We call it the mind today.When God awakens us to some of His great truths, there is a blush of first love, and we begin to hunger to apply them in our lives.What is already in the heart is in danger of being displaced by the new nature in order to lose our enthusiasm for the truth.In Galatians 5:17, Paul shows this resistance.
The flesh lusts against the spirit, and these are contrary to one another, so that you don't do the things you want.
Why don't we do the things we want?ingrained habits have the power to answer the question.They are difficult to break because they have been free for so long."But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the rule of sin which is in our members," says Paul.
The persistence of these habits can be depressing.Life can become discouraging if we don't seem to be making any progress.We must not give up.We have everything to gain and nothing to lose, which is of no value to the Kingdom of God.Discouragement makes Satan's work easier.
There are things we can do to increase our hunger.We would give everything we had to find food and water or die if we were hungry or thirsty.We need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get to where we want to go.
When we were adolescents, we didn't know that growth was happening until someone brought it to our attention.We made efforts to grow by eating and drinking the things that promote growth even though we weren't aware we were growing.We think that spiritual growth is not happening.We should not allow that to stop us.Even though the physical and growth will occur, we must keep making the spiritual efforts.Thank God for His goodness and mercy, and ask for wisdom, love and faith.You should keep studying God's Word.
If there is any virtue or good report on these things, meditate them.(Philippians 4:8)
"In the last days perilous times will come," Paul wrote in II Timothy 3:1.There is a great deal of danger in the multitude of visible, emotional and audible distraction that occupy minds nurtured by television, movies and radio.We invite the world into our homes through these channels.Television's intrusion into our lives has come to an end.Some people can't go anywhere without being accompanied by a radio, while others can only go if they have an internet connection.We need to ask ourselves if we are showing God that what this world bombards our minds with is really what we hunger and thirst for.How are we prepared for the Kingdom of God?
We must strive to keep the relationship alive with God because he is the source of what makes us grow.We need to fill our minds with His character and His wonderful purpose, but also know what this world is really like and what horrible situations those who have no knowledge of Him are in.These things will help to keep our hunger alive and sharp.
We need to ask God to give us insight into the glorious way he lives life, free of fear and pain, unworried about murder or harm, always creating and involved in wonderful projects that bring good to others.Do we want to live life like this?
The nature of Christianity today means the third kind of biblical righteousness doesn't touch as much on our lives.We must not allow ourselves to think that it is unimportant.Our direct personal relationship with God is what makes biblical righteousness more than a private and personal affair.It can be called a social righteousness.It is thirsting for both the community and the self.Civil rights, justice in the courts, integrity in business, and honor in home and family are some of the things it can involve.The covenant people lived in Israel as a kingdom in the Old Testament.This righteousness contemplates, "Let your light so shine before men, that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven"
Our citizenship is in heaven.Christians are shown by Peter as being aliens in a land not theirs, just passing through, as it were, to another place.We are called "ambassadors for Christ" by Paul.The Kingdom of God is our priority in many aspects of citizenship normally required in a country of residence.
Jesus is an example of what we need to do.He never moved to change society outside.He did not attempt to overthrow the government or get a crowd to vote it out of existence.He didn't participate in its politics or sit in juries to judge cases.Paul followed his example.Even though they were disgusted with the injustice done to the victims, the apostles had no record of them.They all may have been victims of government.They wanted the time to come when they could change things according to God.
We should have the desire to change things and so we pray every day.This shouldn't stop us from doing good.Jesus moved to change society internally through the preaching of the Kingdom of God and dying for the sins of mankind.He traveled around the nation doing good through healing, counseling and teaching, using his office as God's apostle.It wasn't yet God's time for him to do more.We don't have the office of God's apostle, but we still have his authority to do good works within our part of His body.
If we don't lose heart, we will reap in due season.As we have the opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially those who are in the household of faith.
Paul has an incentive to get more people to participate in seeking this righteousness.We don't want to give in to weariness, but we know that we will get rewarded.That is God's promise.We must also sow if we want a harvest.
Cotton Mather, a Puritan preacher, once said that the opportunity to do good imposes an obligation on him.When an opportunity arises to serve in this manner, he is implying that we have been favored.We should do it when we have the opportunity, no matter how often it occurs or how much self-denial it takes.The Bible approves of this maxim.
When you have the power of your hand, do not deny good from those to whom it is due.When you have it with you, don't say to your neighbor, "Go and come back, and tomorrow I will give it to you."
Our Savior is represented in this way and we should be thankful for that.We might need to ask ourselves, "How hungry am I to carry out this search for righteousness?"