Daily Devotional

Wednesday, July 11, 2010

“Blessed are those who hunger

  and thirst for righteousness,

  for they shall be satisfied.

To better understand this beatitude, we must first understand what is righteousness. If we look at the structure of the beatitudes we see that the first three describe a man who has recognized his weakness without Christ; these are not descriptions of a man made full, but rather a man recognizing his emptiness without Christ.

The fourth beatitude pronounces a blessing on the man whom recognizes his emptiness, and seeks to be made full. So, righteousness could be viewed as a state of fullness, but of what?

Well, the next three beatitudes describe a man full of mercy, purity, and peacemaking, and is followed by the final beatitude which states that those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, will be blessed.

So, if the first four beatitudes describe the broken, grieving, quiet man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, and the next four beatitudes describe the merciful, pure peacemaker who gets persecuted for his righteousness. Wouldn’t this structure provide the definition for righteousness? The man was hungering for righteousness in verse 6 because he was empty, and was persecuted in verse 10, because he was made full.

So, righteousness can be defined as being full of mercy, purity, and peacemaking.

Prayer:

Lord, I am an empty man, and I seek to be filled by you and your Spirit. Please give me a heart of mercy, purity, and peacemaking, Lord, that I may better serve you.