The first question to ask is a simple one: do you feel a hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Maybe you’re not sure. What would this look like or feel like in your life?
Let’s consider it in three different ways.
(1) In your own conduct
Do you feel a strong desire to live righteously – or at least to live more righteously than you do right now?
Remember, the idea of hunger and thirst in this verse is not the feeling of being slightly peckish and thinking a light snack or a cup of coffee would be nice. It’s the feeling of being utterly famished or parched, desperate for sustenance, being unable to go on without experiencing relief.
Is that how you feel in terms of wanting to live in a way that honours and pleases God? Do you look at the life of Jesus and feel an intense longing to be more like him?
If so, do you ever feel a sense of personal failure that you continue to fail to live up to that example?
Here’s how David expressed similar feelings in Psalm 38:5-8:
My wounds grow foul and fester
because of my foolishness;
I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
all day long I go around mourning.
For my loins are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am utterly spent and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
Or have you perhaps fallen into a rut in which you don’t feeling anything at all in that regard?
(2) Righteous before God
Do you feel a strong desire to be seen as righteous in God’s sight?
When you read Bible passages about God’s promises to the righteous or the faithful, do you feel an intense longing to be counted among them?
For example, Jesus himself said:
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
(Matthew 13:41–43)
In Psalm 37:39-40, David expressed this hope:
The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their refuge in the time of trouble.
The Lord helps them and rescues them;
he rescues them from the wicked, and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
How do you feel about your own prospects of being counted as righteous by God? Hopeful? Confident? Despairing? Hopeless?
(3) Righteousness in the world
Do you feel a strong desire to see righteousness flourish in the wider world – in governments and their institutions, in the media, in corporations, or simply within the general public?
Are you concerned or distressed by the things you see or hear daily in the news? Do you wish for peace and justice for those who need it the most?
Do you feel despondent because there never seems to be any end to the violence, the greed and the corruption?
Do the words of Psalm 53:1-3 sometimes reflect your own thoughts?
Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts;
there is no one who does good.
God looks down from heaven on humankind
to see if there are any who are wise,
who seek after God.
They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse;
there is no one who does good,
no, not one.
You will be filled
If you identify with one, two or indeed all of these feelings, then Jesus has good news for you. If you believe in his message and trust God, then your desire for righteousness, whatever form it might take, will be satisfied. Your hunger and thirst will be filled.
This is, of course, a promise of how we and the world around us will be changed when Jesus returns to the earth. We will be physically transformed and will no longer feel the temptations to greed or selfishness or illicit pleasure that currently plague us. The world will be under the leadership of Jesus and his followers, who will bring about justice and deliverance for those being oppressed or living in dire straits.
However, Jesus’ message is not simply to hang on and wait until his return. There is an application for our everyday life now as well. While we will not experience that physical transformation until Jesus changes us at his return, we can (and must) undergo a mental and spiritual transformation right now.
What does this mean?
It means filling your mind and your time with things that bring honour to God and serve the needs of other people, rather than things that only honour and serve yourself. This won’t completely satisfy your hunger and thirst for righteousness – there is nothing you can do to achieve that by yourself – but it can give you a taste of what we are looking forward to in the future.
Only God can truly satisfy this hunger and thirst. Change your mind and your attitude to be more like Jesus, and he will complete that transformation by changing your body when he returns.
1 Corinthians 15:50-55 puts it like this:
What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
Nihilist to Christian 