Blessed are...

Hungry for Holiness

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6

The righteousness for which we are to be hungry and thirsty, if we are to be blessed, is not just legal, it is also moral. As disciples of Christ we have received the righteousness which is God’s gift. We have been declared innocent on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us. We are set free from the penalty of sin. We have been forgiven.

However, Jesus says that we should strive to be free, not only from the penalty of sin, but also from sin’s power. It will not do for us to claim, as some do, that once we are in a right relationship with God then we do not need to amend the manner of our life. If we truly love God, then we not only receive His salvation, we also need to seek to live as He requires. This is the moral aspect of righteousness. Without it, we resort to cheap grace: we gladly accept the grace that saves us, but we ignore the grace that changes us. No Christian can afford to do this. What’s the point in accepting legal righteousness unless we are at least willing to try living ‘rightly’ before God in the world? We don’t need more saints who trumpet their salvation on Sunday, then become indistinguishable from the world during the rest of the week. We must seek righteousness for the workplace as well as in worship.

To hunger and thirst for righteousness, is to seek to reflect the values of the Kingdom in the way in which we live, trusting always in God, who is both our guide and our goal.



Holy God,
Forgive me, for accepting Your gift,
but omitting to offer my own.
Forgive my eager grasp of the pardon You provide,
but my hesitation in letting go of those things
that are not Your will for my life.
May I learn to give You my every deed as an act of worship.
In the name of Christ, I pray.
Amen.