What Does Jesus Mean "Hunger and Thirst After Righteousness?"

New International Version
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Matt 5:6

A quick reading of the commentaries would have you believe that the Jesus was only noting that if we hunger and thirst after the righteousness that we have already received through our decision to call him Lord, that we will be filled. I have a hard time with this interpretation. Why would I be hungering and thirsting after what I have already received...for what has already been imputed to me?

On the other hand, I may have Christ's righteousness in me, and yet I continue to act in ways that are not righteous. Certainly I might hunger and thirst to grow in my understanding of what it is to be outwardly righteous and to have the inner peace that comes from a righteousness that flows from within. Some might have difficultly differentiating this idea from legalism, but it is quite the opposite. We are not sinning less because we are looking for a legal pardon for that sin. We are sinning less because our love of the Father and his Son causes us to hunger and thirst after their idea of righteousness...to discover it through the Word, and then to live it out. 

Then we would also hunger and thirst after righteousness in this fallen world. We know that this is the will of the Father, as Jesus prayed "on earth, as it is in heaven." This might be taking place at two levels. 

1. We want our children, neighbors, coworkers and even our enemies to be blessed as we are when they repent and enter the Kingdom of God. So we hunger and thirst after the righteousness of those who are not yet righteous before God.
2. We desire to see righteous action among even the heathens. Our heart is heavy as we see the depravity of men all around us. We seek after righteousness through our participation in the changing of the culture. We can't help but be drawn by our hunger and thirst to help the victims of sin and even those who are perpetrating harm.

Then What?

If I am hungering and thirsting, I should be acting. Our wealth keeps us from having any thought or idea about what it is to hunger or to thirst. Even if we have fasted for spiritual, health, or other reasons, we have generally done so in a way to keep our hungering to a minimum. We plan it out so that the discomfort is not that problematic. There is certainly no comparison to the hunger that those who are not certain about their next meal or have been hungry for a long time. There is no comparison to the thirst of someone who is parched with no clear indication that they will find relief any time soon.

So we are hungering and more like a modern American who has a mealtime delayed by an hour. We are thirsting like someone who has forgotten to take a water bottle on an hour hike. And the efforts to slake that thirst after righteousness is about the same as the hiker who knows he has bottled water in his car just ahead.

A Lack of Work to Be Done?

Is there a shortage of unrighteousness in the world? In the US? In our neighborhood? Last time I checked, righteousness is in short supply and becoming more scarce by the day. The number of my friends and family that have divorced their spouses, been unfaithful, participated in sex outside of marriage, fallen into addiction, or just lived a life punctuated by sinful behavior is way beyond my recollection of such behavior in the '50's or early '60's. Maybe there have been other times when society has been this proud (I don't need God), but it is hard to imagine.

As noted in earlier posts, the pride of this generation is probably unmatched in history. Most of my associates who are not fellow Christians have almost no interest in God, and believe that humans are perfectly capable of handling all the things they might have previously called on God to do. This might be the largest missionary field ever, in that pride is the sin God hates. Some folks who look like really fine people, give to charity, work to help the poor, are filled with pride. We should be hungering and thirsting to deal with so much sin at such a high level. How do we reach them?

What will you do to sate your hunger or thirst? So many "good" Christians seem to be immobilized or clueless as to how to help bring about change. Many have told me they have no idea what they could do, or that they lack any specific passion. My admonition is to be like Paul and head off toward some mission field. If God redirects you, great. If he doesn't, then keep walking and working until you feel led otherwise.

A Heart of Love - Developing

 

An ongoing struggle to get what "love" really means

Have you arrived? Christians commonly make a pretty big issue about the fact that we never achieve perfection while still on Earth. Makes total sense to me. And there are many sermons and discussions held among Christians about how to be better at the business of being Holy. I've spent the better part of my life hearing those sermons, reading the Bible over and over, participating in small groups (remember when they were called Sunday School and conveniently met on Sunday before church?), and doing a fair amount of writing on the subject.

The core tenant of the Bible is "love." Can we agree? Do you feel like you love well? Do you work on loving God and loving others better? I feel like I've been figuring out how to do that my entire life, and from time-to-time there is some sense that I get it. Not like I'm perfect, but that I get it!

I look at the love chapter.  I Cor: 13  Good place for advice. How am I doing. Pretty good...

I consider the basics of love: Unconditional, sacrificial, forgiving, trusting.  Needs more work...

I revisit The Beatitudes ... Again! Thank God I have the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen?

I hear another sermon on dying to self.  Agghhh!

Here is where I find myself at this writing. Motive. What is motivating me to do whatever I do. Month to month. Day to day. Moment to moment. Do I act out of self interest or is my first or even second thought about any decision: Is this God's will, and does it show love of God and others?

For a decade or so, the idea of being continuously in prayer has seemed to me more important that a daily devotional of any length. Maybe these two ideas dovetail. My continuous prayer would be to have the heart of God as I make my way through the day.

That heart of God would result in acts for God and others that are motivated by nothing other than believing that the act will further the interests of God or the person effected. What are my more likely motives:

• Will this give me bonus points with Jesus
• Will this make the other person like me more
• Will I get loved back because I'm doing this
• Will I personally benefit financially or emotionally
• How will my act effect my reputation or legacy
• Do I have any potential for loss, harm, or pain
• Will my family benefit
• Will my close friends benefit

Pretty sad, right?

But I'm practicing having a heart of love. The story is developing. How about you?

The Beatitudes Are Intended to Change Everything!

The Beatitudes as You've Never Heard Them - Sermons by Charles Spurgeon

When Jesus gave His sermon on the mount, those who heard it were "amazed." They were amazed because the content of that sermon was more radical than anything uttered before or since. The life that Jesus offered to those on that hillside was beyond what anyone could have conceived. Today this sermon is counted as the most important ever spoken, and yet today's finest minds, inside and outside the church, still don't appear to get the potential for change that Jesus laid out for them.

Like most who have spent their life, or most of it, in church, I have heard many sermons on the Beatitudes. Maybe more than most, I have also read numerous books that tackled the hope and opportunity that these simple sayings portended. Many of these teachings were quite beautiful and helpful in forming my Christian life. If you take your Christianity seriously, you probably think you have a pretty good idea of what Jesus was talking about that day. I certainly felt that way until late 2013.

The story begins almost a decade ago. I started a small group for the purpose of reading the Bible straight through in great detail. Members came and went over the years. On some evenings I had only two others sharing their thoughts about the verses we were covering. But we kept moving along and in the Fall of 2013 we finished the Old Testament and moved on to the New Testament.

During almost all of those nine years I had relied on Thru the Bible by J. Vernon McGee as my primary reference. I love Dr. McGee, and had previously read the entire 5 years of Bible exposition he shares on radio even today, many decades after his passing.

As we got into the Beatitudes, however, I was unsettled by his analysis. I felt that others had done it better, and that he was far too eager to make these passages about end times rather than now. I did agree with him on one thing; many Christians have taken the Beatitudes to be the "10 Commandments" of the New Testament, and have missed out entirely on the blessing of grace that Jesus came to proclaim.

In any case, I started doing an internet study on the Beatitudes. In the course of this study I found the most amazing sermons I have ever heard preached. The content was stimulating at every level, from visceral to intellectual, and from emotional to practical. But as a special additional blessing, the writing was just beautiful. I described it to friends as like listening to a picture. I was so amazed that I listened to all eight sermons four times. It may not surprise you to hear that these sermons were the work of Charles Spurgeon.

Of course, they didn't have recording equipment in the 1860's, so we don't have his voice. However, the sermons were transcribed at the time, and a reader has read these sermons very beautifully on YouTube videos available at http://bit.ly/Beatitudes1

I encourage you to go listen to the Spurgeon sermons first hand. In addition, for some time I have been feeling led  to write a modern version of these sermons as a small book so that I might share the wealth of Spurgeon's fabulous interpretation of Jesus' words. As with my last book, I am going to write this new book on my personal blog, and when completed make it into a final manuscript available to buy. Please subscribe to the blog if you want to be kept updated on each new chapter.

In the meantime, please consider reading my just released book God Called - He Needs Your Decision! which is available on Amazon's Kindle, and has just been release in paperback. You can read the introduction here or you can see some of the reviews here.

Tell others! Tweet this:   The #Beatitudes as You've Never Heard Them http://bit.ly/1mqcNqp  Based on Charles Spurgeon Sermons pic.twitter.com/d0Y07eWJut

The first chapter of The Beatitudes as You've Never Heard Them, begins here.