A Correct Attitude Towards Christ

Matthew 5:6-9

The Lord’s Beatitudes detail what it means to be “Blessed!” Many people claim to be “blessed and highly favored.” But if you probe deeply enough, “blessed” is usually associated with material gain—health and wealth. While these are great and desirable characteristics, they are not what our Lord Jesus was referring to. No, Christ Jesus has something far more substantial in view when He uttered the word “Blessed.”

You see the way to heavenly blessedness is the opposite of the worldly path normally followed in pursuit of happiness. It is quite natural reasoning that leads us to think happiness is found in riches, merriment, abundance, leisure, and such things. The truth is quite different when the Scriptures are consulted.

The Beatitudes give Jesus’ description of the character of true righteousness. They designate the attitudes that should mark each genuine Believer’s daily experience. The attitudes addressed in verses 6 through 9 are generally focused toward our Lord. While it has become common for folks to confess their disappointment, disbelief, anger, and frustration with the Lord, this passage enlarges upon holy feelings towards Him. Let us look at what He envisioned for us. Use this opportunity to examine your own heart…how do you feel towards our Lord Jesus?

A Right Attitude Towards Our Lord (Vv. 5:6–9).

We Are to Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness (5:6).

A blessing is pronounced on those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: they are promised satisfaction.

The Role of Believers is Given (5:6 A): God Blesses Those Who Pursue Virtue, Moral Purity, Good Ethics, and Fairness.

We are to Have an Appetite or Passion for What is Right. There is in all healthy people the hunger for food, for love, for God. This beatitude, however, is a passionate hunger and thirst for goodness, for personal holiness. Righteousness refers to integrity, virtue, purity of life, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting. There is also a strong desire for justice where each person is given what he is due or has earned or deserve.  

Christ Calls Believers to Have a Passion for Righteousness. In our own lives; We should long to see honesty, integrity, and justice in society. We are to look for practical holiness in our church. Like the people of whom Gamaliel Bradford wrote, we should have “a thirst no earthly stream can satisfy, a hunger that must feed on Christ or die.”

We are Not to Desire Self-righteousness, nor Unfairness. We are to be the opposite of the self-righteous Pharisees. The Pharisees were not “righteous;” they felt they had attained righteousness. Therefore, they did not have a continual appetite or desire for it. They were more concerned with “legalities” of God’s law and their own laws than with being truly right in the heart with God and their fellowman. We're not to be prickly, perfect and proud about our morals. This simply feeds the self-righteous ego. Jesus spoke of those who seek God’s righteousness rather than attempting to establish a righteousness of their own.

Romans 10:3, For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Philip. 3:9, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

This Spiritual Appetite is to be a Continuing Desire for Personal, Social, and Future Righteousness. 

Philip. 3:13-14, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [14] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Like the Apostle Paul, Christians growing closer to the Lord Jesus want what he wants. When evil happens, we hurt for victims and long for the end of evil's influence and strength. We want God's victory over evil to be complete soon—even now. We hunger for the end of trouble, for the full measure of God's peace and righteousness. Whenever you pray for God's will to be done, you are getting hungry for righteousness. Pray often, until the little hunger pangs become a holy passion and your heart becomes centered on what God wants most.

What about the natural man; does he hunger and thirst for righteousness? The ones I meet do not! They have a hunger for more sin.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).

The “natural man” is in contrast to the spiritual man who has found that Christ is his righteousness—“…of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor.1:30).

The Reward of Believers is Given (5:6 B): We Will Receive Righteousness in Full.

The blessing to the hungry soul will be abundantly satisfied in Christ!

What We Seek, Righteousness, Will Fill Us; It Will Satisfy Our Hunger and Thirst for a Right Relationship with God.

When We Have This Intense Longing for Righteousness We are Blessed. Furthermore, filled means Satisfaction because we are so filled with God that we completely do God's will, without tripping up, careless sinning, making mistakes, and disappointing God. Filled relates to Satisfaction in total discipleship and complete obedience.

The idea is that God Will Completely Satisfy Our Spiritual Hunger and Thirst. There has never been a desire to be holy which God was not willing to gratify! Through the gospel and the power of the Spirit we have all we need to be truly holy. See Isa 55:1-3; 65:13; John 4:14; 6:35; 7:37-38; Ps 17:15.

Also in Christ’s Coming Kingdom: We Will Be Filled, For Righteousness Will Reign! All corruption will give way to the highest moral standards under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, Ask the People of the World if they are Satisfied with what it Offers.

Ask the actress, surfeiting with fame and fortune, but peering out on life hungrily: “Are you getting what you want?” We could say to the eminently successful finacier who commands his fleets and controls his industries: “Are you getting what you want?”

We could say to the laborers and workers of America who are enjoying the highest standard of living in history: “Are you getting what you want?”

We could say to the consumers of America who have the best homes, the most comfortable furniture, the finest food, the cleverest gadgets, and the smoothest, most powerful automobile: “Are you getting what you want?””  ---The Secret of Happiness

Beloved, the desire to be “blessed” is likely universal to believers and non-believers alike. The way to deep abiding happiness cannot be obtain from sources in this world. No, the true source is the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, we must hunger and thirst for divine righteousness; this condition in the soul will secure the Lord’s blessing of being filled with righteousness!