This is a series on the Lord's "Beatitudes" (Mt. 5.3-12). Click on the following links to explore the various installments (part one, "Spiritual Beggars," contains an introduction to the Beatitudes):
In the Lord’s beatitudes, Jesus gives us a glimpse into what it takes to be his disciple. It demands total commitment. The desires of our heart must be fixated on things that are holy and high. The fourth beatitude highlights this level of dedication.
“Congratulations to those starving and thirsting for righteousness, for they shall be satiated” (Mt. 5.6).
The Condition: Starving and Thirsting For Righteousness
Our world is filled with conflicting ideologies and ethical dilemmas, which can make the pursuit of righteousness seem like a daunting task.
However, Jesus reminds us that those who earnestly seek righteousness are on a path towards fulfillment. This beatitude serves as a beacon of hope for those navigating the moral complexities of life.
The Terms Involved Here
First of all, Jesus employs the terms “starving” (peinao) and "thirsting" (dipsontes) metaphorically, meaning to “crave ardently, to seek with eager desire” (Thayer, p. 498). This is not merely the type of “hunger” that makes you want to get a snack. Rather, Jesus congratulates those with the most intense desire for something — dying for it, such that your very life depends upon it.
“Righteousness” (dikaiosune) is the state of being right and doing right (cf. Vine, p. 535). It is conformity to God’s will in status, purpose, thought, and action.
The Bible often describes Jesus as the “righteous one” (Acts 3.14; 7.52; 22.14; 1 Pt. 3:18; 1 Jn. 2:1; 3.7, ESV). What made Jesus “righteous?” John’s gospel account explains. When Jesus traveled through Samaria, he became weary. His disciples urged him to eat something, but he said:
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (Jn. 4.34).
The thought of doing God’s will — by teaching the lost Samaritans of Sychar — gave him sufficient energy to keep going. Though physically hungry and tired, Jesus was also starving and thirsting to be right and to do right by God — and that desire filled his body and soul to the brim.
“My judgment is righteous,” Jesus said, “because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (Jn. 5.30).
To “starve and thirst for righteousness,” then, means to have an intense desire to conform your life to God’s will, both in spiritual status (being right with God) and in behavior (doing right by God).
The Case Involved Here
William Barclay notes that in Greek the verbs peinontes (hunger) and dipsontes (thirst) ordinarily are followed by the genitive case. This case generally denotes possession — e.g., “the flesh of me” (Jn. 6.55).
However, the Greek genitive is highly elastic, with more than a dozen different semantic usages, including a “partitive” sense (Greenlee, pp. 28f). When “hunger” and “thirst” are used with the genitive, it means to “hunger for of bread” or to “thirst for of water.” The idea is that one hungers for part of the bread or thirsts for part of the water; not necessarily for the whole loaf or tank.
However, in Matthew 5.6, Jesus connects these verbs with the accusative case. This may suggest a starving and thirsting for the whole thing — not some righteousness, but total righteousness (Barclay, pp. 96-97).
In short, Jesus congratulates those who are unsatisfied with being somewhat right or doing some right things. He blesses those who want to be completely right before God.
Often, we say: “Nobody’s perfect.” While true (cf. Rm. 3.23), many use this remark to excuse themselves from the total pursuit of righteousness. I’m not perfect; neither are you; so why not just welcome our imperfections?
On the contrary, Jesus blesses those who, although not perfect, have an intense desire to chase after total righteousness by putting away sin, getting right with God, and embracing right conduct, conforming entirely to the will of God. Paul put it like this:
“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Rm. 6.1-6).
In this passage, the inspired apostle describes those who have been made right by God through their conversion “into Christ Jesus.” This occurred when they, by faith, were “buried with him through baptism,” at which point they began to “walk in newness of life.” After a believer’s baptism, the “body of sin” was “done away with.” They became righteous in spiritual status (see “Your First Steps Toward Heaven” for more on God’s plan of salvation).
Then, once the “body of sin” has been “done away with,” Paul insists “we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Sin should not dominate our lives anymore. Rather,
"you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rm. 6.11-13).
Hence, Jesus congratulates those who crave (1) being made right by God (having all their sins washed away) and (2) those who live right before God (by completely putting away sin and practicing righteousness).
The Blessing: They Shall Be Satiated
“Satiated” (chortasthesontai) “means to feed or to fatten cattle.” It comes “from the word for fodder or grass” (cf. Mk. 6.39; Robertson, p. 41).
In this verse, it suggests abundance or satisfaction. Indeed, the Lord offers us an “abundant life” (Jn. 10.10). This is true in two senses.
First, we shall find satisfaction in righteousness.
To be clear, this is not the smug feeling that looks down on others and says we are righteous while others, who aren’t, don’t belong in “our” club (cf. Lk. 18.9ff; 16.15). Instead, it is the satisfaction of humble gratitude that leads to peace of mind and heart. Isaiah put it like this:
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26.3).
Likewise, Paul assured the Christians at Philippi that if they continued to “do” the will of God, which they had “learned and received and heard and saw in [him],” then “the God of peace will be with [them]” (Phil. 4.9).
In short, when we live right before God and men, we will have a deep and abiding sense of joy and tranquility — our wishes, needs, and joy will be satiated by the mere pursuit of righteousness.
Second, we shall find plenty of righteousness available in Christ.
In the previous interpretation, satisfaction was the thing promised by the pursuit of righteousness. In this sense, however, it is righteousness itself that Jesus promises to supply in abundance. Both senses are true.
If we crave righteousness, we must come to Christ for it (Jn. 7.37). Jesus said:
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (Jn. 6.35).
“Bread of life” signifies the bread that gives life. Jesus is the way by which men can become righteous — i.e., are justified or saved — before God (Jn. 14.6; Rm. 3.24f). This in turn secures spiritual “life” for all those who follow him (Jn. 3.16).
When Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, he told her:
“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jn. 4.13-14).
The literal water in Jacob’s well could only satisfy temporarily. One has to customarily drink that type of water to survive (the force of the present participle; cf. Wallace, pp. 521-522). But this contrasts vividly with Jesus’ description of those who “drink” (aorist tense) the water he gives. One need only take a single “drink” (the force of the aorist tense; cf. Wallace, p. 621) of his water and “never thirst” again! Why? Because his water — viz., salvation — will not merely be a placid well to which men must return repeatedly to assuage their thirst. Instead, it will become a “fountain of water” living inside them, which gushes up and continually nourishes those with access to it. His salvation flows constantly inside them, giving them eternal life.
Hence, those who crave righteousness need only come to Jesus for it and they will have it in abundance. Indeed, they will be justified (or made righteous, by having their sins washed away), and they will live righteously in him (by following his example and conforming to his teaching). In turn, this will lead to eternal life with him in heaven, where “righteousness dwells” (2 Pt. 3.13).
Conclusion
Once again, there is nothing congratulatory or blessed about starvation and thirst. This remark is made ironically. The irony is meant to make the audience think deeper about the Lord’s meaning.
Those who have an intense inner craving for righteousness — i.e., conforming to the will of God — shall find both satisfaction and righteousness in their pursuit, if they follow Jesus. They will acquire a sense of peace and joy in righteousness, and they will also be justified from their sins and live joyously in the righteous ways of Jehovah.
By contrast, those who think they are already spiritually full — i.e., who don’t seek the righteousness of God, but who think they are the determiners of what is right — will find neither satisfaction in life nor righteousness in God. As Mary put it:
“[God] has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty” (Lk. 1.53).
Crave to be right and live right before God, and you will be blessed indeed!
