Matthew 5:6, the good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be satisfied. Righteousness refers to the character of someone who is in right relationship with others around them. The good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for, Jesus is using a metaphor, he’s carrying on the theme of lack, being without, the powerless, those who grieve over loss, those on the outside, to be in a perpetual state of hunger. It’s a state of lack, but not just lack, when we are hungry, we lack something and we want it, it irritates, agitates, puts us in a constant state of tension and awareness of the fact that we lack this thing. What is the thing that we should hunger and thirst for, to be in right relationship with someone. Righteousness refers to the character of someone who is in right relationship with others around them, but it can refer to a whole group of people as having a quality of righteousness, which means all the relationship are equitable and people are in right standing with one another, they treat each other rightly.
The way that we do right by someone, depends on the type of relationship it is, different types of behaviors will qualify as doing right by that person. The way righteousness is used most in the Hebrew Bible, is when the stories are about people who are responsible for creating and ensuring righteousness in the community and they’re doing a really terrible job, usually is why it gets brought up. The apostle Paul, he sees there’s a super important insight into the whole story of the Hebrew Bible, the one who God will count as righteous. The one who does right by God is the one who stakes everything on God’s word and promise and just trusts in God and for Paul, that’s what it means to give our allegiance and trust and faith to Jesus. When Paul reflects on righteousness, he’s focusing on trust and the right relationships that he developed amongst people. To be right by God, is to be someone who does right by other people on the basis of trust, God will declare the ungodly to be people who are in right standing with him.
Paul’s point is, God is the one who justifies the ungodly. To be declared righteous by God means to be someone who did right by God, which means that in our life we will do right by other people who are made in the image of that God, that we are doing right, by doing right to others. God is the one who searches the heart, Proverbs and Psalms talk about this, this is about why God tests people, to discern what is in us. God in his wisdom and generosity will be just and fair and generous with how he evaluates people, but he’s evaluating us. We can see James and Paul reflecting and working all these themes. The fact that God would be generous to us and overlook our failures, but the moment that becomes an escape clause for us to begin compromising, then we need to get some Holy fear and trembling. The drama of the life of following Jesus is to trust that God will be generous with us while we do righteousness, but not while we remain in our old humanity’s behaviors.
The good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for rightness, it’s showing that it’s something that we’re not seeing or experiencing, it’s not something we have in the present, it’s people doing right by each other and therefore, right by God. There’s a serious lack of rightness we see going on around us and it puts us in a constant state of agitation, anxiety and discontent, if we’re hungering for it, what we desire is a time and a place, when there is true justice, when everybody does right by everybody. If we’re not hungering and thirsting for people to do right by each other, we’re not paying attention. This is where knowing about God, turns into knowing God and that’s ultimately the invitation, to discover a relationship, because once we understand who God is, we begin to understand who we are.
Our value doesn’t come from what we produce, our worth doesn’t come from what we achieve, our identity isn’t defined by our past mistakes or future fears, it’s defined by the one who created us and sustains us. When circumstances shift, God remains, because when answers feel far away, God is still present and when life feels short and fragile, God is eternal and that’s why the Bible repeatedly reminds us that life is brief. To wake us up, life is short, don’t waste it chasing things that don’t last and don’t trade eternal truth for temporary comfort and don’t get trapped in the endless race for more, while missing what truly matters, because once we understand the eternal nature of God, we begin to see life differently, every moment matters and every choice matters and relationship matters. The meaning of life isn’t hidden in success, pleasure or achievements, it’s found in knowing the one who stands outside time and stepped into it, so that we could know him.
In reality, we trust God only as long as life feels safe, the bills are paid, as long as the diagnosis isn’t serous, as long as the relationship isn’t falling apart, the moment things go wrong, fear takes the driver’s seat and faith gets pushed into the back, that’s not faith rooted in truth, that’s emotional faith. Emotional faith is unstable by nature, but true surrender happens when we decide that God’s Word carries more authority than our feelings, our thoughts and our circumstances. When we stop trying to make God fit into our plans and instead, allow him to take the throne of our heart, we struggle spiritually, because God isn’t actually first in our lives, our desires are, our fears are, our comfort is, but scripture makes it clear, that faith without surrender doesn’t work.
We can’t live in victory, while still holding on to control and we can’t experience peace, while constantly doubting God’s Word. Living with God first brings clarity, it doesn’t remove challenges, but it removes confusion, we may not know exactly how things will work out, but we know who we trust and that trust produces peace, not the absence of problems, but confidence in the middle of them. This is what Jesus meant when he asked, why are you afraid, you of little faith? Fear grows when God shrinks in our thinking, faith grows when God is given his rightful place.
The way that we do right by someone, depends on the type of relationship it is, different types of behaviors will qualify as doing right by that person. The way righteousness is used most in the Hebrew Bible, is when the stories are about people who are responsible for creating and ensuring righteousness in the community and they’re doing a really terrible job, usually is why it gets brought up. The apostle Paul, he sees there’s a super important insight into the whole story of the Hebrew Bible, the one who God will count as righteous. The one who does right by God is the one who stakes everything on God’s word and promise and just trusts in God and for Paul, that’s what it means to give our allegiance and trust and faith to Jesus. When Paul reflects on righteousness, he’s focusing on trust and the right relationships that he developed amongst people. To be right by God, is to be someone who does right by other people on the basis of trust, God will declare the ungodly to be people who are in right standing with him.
Paul’s point is, God is the one who justifies the ungodly. To be declared righteous by God means to be someone who did right by God, which means that in our life we will do right by other people who are made in the image of that God, that we are doing right, by doing right to others. God is the one who searches the heart, Proverbs and Psalms talk about this, this is about why God tests people, to discern what is in us. God in his wisdom and generosity will be just and fair and generous with how he evaluates people, but he’s evaluating us. We can see James and Paul reflecting and working all these themes. The fact that God would be generous to us and overlook our failures, but the moment that becomes an escape clause for us to begin compromising, then we need to get some Holy fear and trembling. The drama of the life of following Jesus is to trust that God will be generous with us while we do righteousness, but not while we remain in our old humanity’s behaviors.
The good life belongs to those who hunger and thirst for rightness, it’s showing that it’s something that we’re not seeing or experiencing, it’s not something we have in the present, it’s people doing right by each other and therefore, right by God. There’s a serious lack of rightness we see going on around us and it puts us in a constant state of agitation, anxiety and discontent, if we’re hungering for it, what we desire is a time and a place, when there is true justice, when everybody does right by everybody. If we’re not hungering and thirsting for people to do right by each other, we’re not paying attention. This is where knowing about God, turns into knowing God and that’s ultimately the invitation, to discover a relationship, because once we understand who God is, we begin to understand who we are.
Our value doesn’t come from what we produce, our worth doesn’t come from what we achieve, our identity isn’t defined by our past mistakes or future fears, it’s defined by the one who created us and sustains us. When circumstances shift, God remains, because when answers feel far away, God is still present and when life feels short and fragile, God is eternal and that’s why the Bible repeatedly reminds us that life is brief. To wake us up, life is short, don’t waste it chasing things that don’t last and don’t trade eternal truth for temporary comfort and don’t get trapped in the endless race for more, while missing what truly matters, because once we understand the eternal nature of God, we begin to see life differently, every moment matters and every choice matters and relationship matters. The meaning of life isn’t hidden in success, pleasure or achievements, it’s found in knowing the one who stands outside time and stepped into it, so that we could know him.
In reality, we trust God only as long as life feels safe, the bills are paid, as long as the diagnosis isn’t serous, as long as the relationship isn’t falling apart, the moment things go wrong, fear takes the driver’s seat and faith gets pushed into the back, that’s not faith rooted in truth, that’s emotional faith. Emotional faith is unstable by nature, but true surrender happens when we decide that God’s Word carries more authority than our feelings, our thoughts and our circumstances. When we stop trying to make God fit into our plans and instead, allow him to take the throne of our heart, we struggle spiritually, because God isn’t actually first in our lives, our desires are, our fears are, our comfort is, but scripture makes it clear, that faith without surrender doesn’t work.
We can’t live in victory, while still holding on to control and we can’t experience peace, while constantly doubting God’s Word. Living with God first brings clarity, it doesn’t remove challenges, but it removes confusion, we may not know exactly how things will work out, but we know who we trust and that trust produces peace, not the absence of problems, but confidence in the middle of them. This is what Jesus meant when he asked, why are you afraid, you of little faith? Fear grows when God shrinks in our thinking, faith grows when God is given his rightful place.
