“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The two desires go together. They are used here to express strong spiritual desires and needs. The original word was used in the Greek classics to express “seeking with eager desire.” On other occasions in the New Testament, it is used to express “an ardent craving, and intense yearning, a profound sense of need.”
When you stop and think about it, even in everyday life, hunger and thirst are powerful impulses. If left unfulfilled, we would eventually die. We need to keep in mind that we are composite beings. That means that we are two-fold beings. We are composed of a body and a spirit (Genesis 1:26-27; James 2:26). This may be observed as well in what the Lord said in Matthew 4:4. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Physical bread can feed the physical man, but it cannot feed the spirit of man; only the Word of God can do that. We have a soul to feed as well as a body.
The man of the world has no appetite for spiritual things. We must be careful for what we hunger and thirst in the spiritual realm and in the world! The worldly man craves what is physical. He looks to the material. He seeks what is momentary, the temporary. He seeks fleshly gratification. He does not realize and does not seem to care that the pursuit of these things will lead him to the grave and into eternity unprepared for the judgment. He will die without God and without Christ, and he will have perished forever to face his bleak sentence in Hell (Matthew 25:46).
He has cultivated a yearning, a craving, a hunger and a seeking alright, but they for the wrong things (Galatians 5:19-21). He does not pursue truth and righteousness (Psalm 42:1-2). On the other hand, the man or woman who wants to please God has his or her goal or desire in life set in a different direction (Colossians 3:1-2; John 14:1-3; Colossians 1:5). Such persons wish to bend their wills to God’s will (Romans 12:1-2). They have this deep inward desire to hunger or thirst to please the Lord (Psalm 42:1-2). This deep desire reminds me of a hymn we sing, “Oh to be like thee Blessed Redeemer” this is my constant longing and prayer.
The truly wise man will be the one who seeks a knowledge of God’s Word and follows it (Matthew 7:24-27; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). The truly successful person is the one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness and who thus succeeds in pleasing God. Those who hunger and thirst will be able to enter that everlasting home in Heaven. Note the last part of Matthew 5:6, which reads, “for they shall be filled.” Mediate on these passages, too. “For he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9). “But they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing” (Psalm 34:10). “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). David said, “my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…” (Psalm 23:5-6). Just think of the rich and abundant blessing the righteous have here in this life, and then beyond that, we have the hope of Heaven, too. We can “awaken after God’s likeness and be satisfied” (Psalm 17:15).
How hungry and thirsty are you for spiritual things? Has your spiritual appetite been hindered? Did you know that in a land of material prosperity that if we are not careful, we can allow ourselves to be drawn away from God? Read Luke 12:15-21 and Luke 16:19-31 and see what happened to those men! Is your spiritual appetite still keen? Do you still attend worship and Bible study regularly (Hebrews 10:25; Matthew 6:33)? Has your love for the Lord grown cold?
