Blessed are they which hunger and thirst ...

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled,”

How strange this beatitude must sound to the ears of non-Christians! Righteousness is intrinsically bound up together with the word holiness which is one of the primary attributes of God alongside love and truth. God n His inner being is holy and in His actions he is righteous. Righteousness is His holiness in action. The laws of God represent His holy character and demand integrity, truth, honesty, truthfulness and so on. The heart of the Christian has been regenerated and now reproduces the character attributes of God which results in righteous living on a personal level and in our relationship with others. The person who has been touched by God and his conscience awakened hungers and thirsts for righteousness to characterise his private behaviour as well his relationships with others. The person described by Paul in Rom.ch7 has come to recognise that the laws of God are righteous and holy, but he is powerless to live righteously before God and men. Regeneration re-constitutes our nature, enabling us to live righteously and so hunger and thirst are replaced by fulness, the promise of Jesus is now fulfilled in our life, we have deep satisfaction in the knowledge that we are now living righteously in accordance with God’s holiness. According to Jesus’ promise our lives are blessed by being filled with righteousness. There is of course a future eschatological significance to Jesus’ promise of blessedness related to His future kingdom.