Fellowship with God
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is something more than simply wanting to be a righteous person. If anyone had experienced physical hunger, it was Jesus himself. Shortly before delivering the Sermon on the Mount, he had been in the wilderness for forty days without food! He knew well what it meant to hunger or thirst for something. But why righteousness in particular?
Perhaps it is common to associate righteousness with paying our bills, obeying the law, and being generous to those who have less than we do. But righteousness in God’s eyes is about more than this. It’s about hungering and thirsting for fellowship with God. A life in which keeping God’s commandments and following Jesus is the absolute top priority. It is not about trying to become righteous in our own strength, but about a deep longing for God to transform us from within, so that we may live according to his will.
The prophet Joel pointed precisely to this when he prophesied that God would send “the teacher of righteousness” [Norw, translation]—that is, that the Holy Spirit would give us guidance and strength to live righteously in God’s eyes. Only then would we experience that God dwells among us. The Holy Spirit, then, helps us to practice righteousness.
No Hunger, No Progress
To be full is the opposite of feeling hungry. “Woe to you who are full now” (Luke 6:25). God has no time for those who are full—and neither did Paul. That is why he was very critical in his letters to the Corinthians. He believed they were so satisfied with what they had achieved that they had become full. They were no longer pressing forward on the way.
Without hunger, there was no progress and growth among the Corinthians, according to Paul.
It is not only in the Sermon on the Mount that we read about God’s view of righteousness. The Bible is full of promises for people who are righteous. That they shall not be shaken, that they shall live in blessing, and that God will care for, help, and strengthen the righteous.
In the Bible, we can also read about various people who were righteous in God’s eyes. Noah, Daniel, Job, and not least Paul, who finished his race in righteousness and received the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8).
For They Shall Be Satisfied
The promise Jesus gave to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness is that they shall be satisfied. If all you desire is to live in fellowship with God and in accordance with his commandments, then, as Joel prophesied, you will receive guidance and power from the Holy Spirit to live righteously in God’s sight.
1 John 4:11 states that we ought to love one another just as God has loved us. A righteous person, therefore, loves the people around him with the same unconditional love that God has for humanity. It’s good to be around righteous people.
A Shining Light
“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” (Prov. 4:18)
If you are a righteous person, you have fellowship with God and receive the strength and guidance to live according to his commandments. You become an example for others. Someone who shines like a beacon in a world where many are preoccupied with glory, power, and selfishness.
The ripple effects of thirsting and hungering for righteousness actually extend far beyond simply being a blessed person.
“And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (Dan. 12:3)