City Life Starter

Written by Scott Fiddler

The Word

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Matthew 5:6

Commentary

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be blessed because they will satisfied. If you have ever fasted, you understand the level of desire to which Jesus is referring. After about 18 hours of not eating, all you can think about is food. You notice every billboard, commercial, and fast food restaurant. All you think about is food. It consumes you. Thirst is the same way. After a workout or a few hours in the sun, all you can think about is a glass of water. 

Jesus is saying if you desire sanctification in the same way, you are positioned to receive God’s blessing of having what you desire. Unlike those who desire wealth or recognition, wrongly thinking it will satisfy them, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will obtain it and be satisfied by it.

One of my favorite Stoics was the first century philosopher Seneca. He had so much wisdom many Christians thought he was secretly a Christian. He was not, and what he said about desire is classically Stoic: “He needs but little who desires but little. He has his wish whose wish can be to have what is enough.” In other words, reduce your expectations and you will be satisfied. This is good advice concerning wealth and material things, perhaps even Biblical, but Jesus has different advice regarding righteousness.

However, so many Christians wrongly take a Stoic approach to sin. When celebrity pastors fall, or people in leadership commit egregious sin, they say things like “Well, we are all sinners,” and “Nobody is perfect,” which is all true, but hardly worth saying, and more importantly, it is not what Jesus said. When Jesus rescued the woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned, Jesus told her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Jesus summarized much of what He preached on the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “Be perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus is not about dummying down the high bar of righteousness but helping people over it.

Application

But it all starts with our desire. If you desire wealth, notoriety, or personal peace and happiness more than having victory over sin, you will not to be satisfied. If you are a Christian, Jesus saved you to make you like Him, a changed person, poised to change the world.

Prayer

Lord, help me to hunger and thirst after righteousness, so I can experience the blessing of being satisfied. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.