L. C. FOX-SMITH - 13/05/25: I’ve been continuing with the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes show us eight ‘heart conditions’, and each one of them is followed by a promise. Today I focussed on Matthew 5:6, ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.’
Blessed - To be blessed is to be in God’s favour. The fulfilment that this favour brings is not of this world and cannot be replaced by worldly things. When blessed, we will receive the gift of true fulfilment, a fulfilment that can only come from God. We begin to experience it now, but receive its fullness in eternity.
Hunger and thirst - This is used as a strong metaphor to help us understand that what we feel is much more than a desire, it’s a physical need and a spiritual yearning.
Righteousness - I’ve always thought of righteousness as behaving morally but in this context it goes much deeper. To be righteous is to know God, to live by His word and to grow in a relationship with Him. To be righteous is to live according to His will.
Filled - This is God’s promise to satisfy our spiritual yearning. As we’ve seen in previous passages, the promise is for both our life here on earth and our eternal life. As we grow in our relationship with God, He will sustain us until we are ultimately fulfilled by Him and with Him in Heaven.
I’m still blown away by how much we can get from a single sentence from the Bible. Using ‘hunger’ in the metaphor is so powerful. If we are hungry, and we don’t satisfy that hunger, we will become weak, desperate and may even die. We can be peckish without even realising it, but to be truly hungry is a different feeling altogether. When we’re hungry, we ‘need’ food. We could eat grass but it won’t nourish, sustain or fulfil us. To hunger for righteousness is to need the spiritual fulfilment that only God can give. We can’t find it anywhere else.
Which of the Beatitudes resonate with you the most today?