One of the main barriers to understanding the Beatitudes is the tendency to view each one individually rather than seeing them as a whole. Although each Beatitude contains truth and can lead to much blessing as well open its treasures, there is an inter-relatedness and unity that can lead us to even greater blessings.
This week is the fourth of the eight Beatitudes, which makes this the perfect week to explain something wonderful about these Beatitudes. The Beatitudes has a wonderful symmetry, and their basic structure divides naturally into two sections.
The first four Beatitudes are to be understood at two levels. First, they describe the four steps of salvation. Secondly, these same four Beatitudes reflect the experience that Christians go through to come into a living relationship with God.
We can say that Christ links blessings with our recognition of our deep spiritual poverty, separation from God and need for His grace and help (Matthew 5:3). This recognition leads to a deep sorrow for our spiritual poverty and sin coupled with a growing realization that our own efforts and righteousness are unable to compensate for that spiritual poverty (Matthew 5:4). This in turn results in a humility towards God, looking to Him to provide the power and strength required for salvation and blessing (Matthew 5:5). This attitude of surrender and meekness is not rooted in spiritual inertia and abdication of one’s responsibility to seek God, but is motivated by an intense and conscious desire for spiritual reality through Christ (Matthew 5:6).
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)
Righteousness must here not be understood as being the Christian righteousness in general, whereby the person becomes pious and acceptable before God. These eight beatitudes are nothing more than the teaching about the fruits and good works of a Christian, which must be preceded by faith, out of which these beatitudes must grow and follow. Understand the outward righteousness: he is a really blessed man who perseveringly and assiduously strives to promote the general welfare and the right conduct of everyone, and who helps to maintain and carry this out with word and deed, with counsel and act.
This is also an excellent beatitude, which comprehends many good works, but which is by no means common. For example, if a preacher wishes to be counted as hungering and thirsting for righteousness, he must be ready to instruct and help everyone in his congregation, not just a select few, and when he sees something that is wrong that he be on hand to warn, rebuke, and correct. Today we have many people outside of Christ who take special interest in doing what they say is right, but is not the hungering and thirsting after righteousness. If this were the case there would be no suffering or injustice, but complete righteousness and blessedness on earth.
To “Hunger and thirst after righteousness;” Jesus is telling the listeners that in order to attain it one must have great earnestness, a yearning eagerness: If there is a lack of this hunger and thirst all will amount to nothing. There are too many hindrances, both on the part of the devil, who is everywhere blocking the way, as well as on the part of the world, which is so wicked that it cannot endure a pious person, who wants to do right or help others to do it. It is painful to see how shamefully people act, and reward whole-hearted kindness with ingratitude, contempt, hatred and persecution.
You should have such a hunger and thirst after righteousness that will never diminish or cease and cannot be satisfied, so that you care for nothing else, only so that you may accomplish and maintain what is right, despising on the other hand everything that would hinder you. If one cannot make the world altogether pious, let him do what he can. It is enough, that he has done his own duty, and has helped some, if only one or two. If the others will not follow, then let them go, in God’s name.
For you have a consolatory, certain promise, with which Christ attracts his followers, that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled; that is that they shall be delightfully rewarded for their hunger and thirst by seeing that they have not labored in vain, and that at last some have been reached who have been benefited; and it will be manifest not only here upon earth, but still more hereafter, when everyone will see what such people have accomplished by their diligence and perseverance, although things do not go as well as they would like, and they have nearly lost heart; as when a pious preacher has snatched so many souls out of the jaws of the devil and brought them to heaven; or a pious faithful ruler has helped many lands and people, who bear this testimony of him and praise him before the whole world.
The back then the Pharisees and today’s false teachers teach so that whoever wants to get to heaven must buy from them their good works and merit. They are so full of righteousness that they look contemptuously upon the poor sinners. In Luke 18 the Pharisee intoxicated with self-sufficiency, blurts out his contempt for the poor publican, is profuse in his self-congratulations, so that he pays his respects to God, and is thankful that he alone is pious and other people bad.
Observe, these are the people who Christ here speaks, the proud, self-sufficient spirits that tickle themselves with and find joy and pleasure in the fact that other people are not pious, whereas they ought to pity, compassionate and help them; they cannot do anything but despise, backbite, judge and condemn everybody; and everything must be a stench and filth except what they themselves do. They should be going out and instruct and benefit a poor faulty sinner, instead they shun the sinner. One day they will hear Christ say (Luke 6:25) “woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger.” For as those shall be filled, who now hunger and thirst; so must those forever hunger, who now are so full and satisfied, and yet no one can get any good from them, or boost that they have ever helped any one or led him in the right way.