BEATITUDE #4:
“Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they shall be satisfied.”
Just as food and water are physical necessities, righteousness is a spiritual necessity.
Both hunger and thirst are intense desires. The concept Jesus spoke of in Matthew 5:6 was a more powerful concept in His culture than it is in ours. For the most part we don’t know what it really means to hunger or thirst. Most of us have never experienced a ‘drought’. We think of hunger as an empty feeling we get when it’s 1:00 p.m. and we are used to eating at 12:15 p.m.
The righteous have a strong desire to please God, to do His will, and be ‘right’ with Him—because they know that “Righteousness is the road to life and the path to immortality” [ Proverbs 12:28 ]. So, to them, it’s the only way to live, and it’s the only way to Heaven.
Biblically, righteousness means “to be made right with God.” That righteousness is given when a person believes in Jesus. At that point he will understand he is a sinner separated from God. He becomes broken in spirit, mournful, and meek. He wants to be restored to a right relationship to God and be forgiven, desiring to be freed from self and sin’s power.
They believe that life is not about the acquisition of things or the achievement of goals, but is about getting to know God—the God that loves them and made them for a purpose.
They know that they fall ‘far short’—not measuring up to their own standards, much less God’s—and that they can’t ‘make’ themselves righteous, since God is the only One that can do that.
Every other religion can be summed up in one word: “Do.” You have to “do” things to get to go to ‘heaven’. But, Christianity is different. It can be summed up in the word, “Done.” Jesus died on the cross to ‘pay’ for your sins past, present, and future—so we can be righteous. So, it’s “done”!
They maintain their spiritual ‘hunger’ for God by reminding themselves how much God loves them, and that if they are not ‘hungering’ for God, it is because they’re ‘full’ of themselves! (“And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” [ Ephesians 3:18-19 ]).
They make knowing God their number one goal of life, since possessions, position, power, prestige, or anything other than God will not ‘fulfill’ them. (“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need” [ Matthew 6:33 ]). When you hunger and thirst for righteousness you will reach out to God. Then He will give what only He can give—true satisfaction. Happiness is a ‘by product’ of knowing God.
They ‘connect’ with God daily by reading the Bible—which is their ‘instruction’ manual for life. (“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” [ 2 Timothy 3:16 ]).
That’s what Kingdom ‘citizens’ are like: they can never get enough of God’s righteousness. King David was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water” [ Psalm 63:1 ]. David’s hunger and thirst for God never diminished—and it shouldn’t for the Christian either.
Only God can satisfy that kind of desperation. Not until people hunger and thirst after righteousness do they attain the fulfillment God can give. God strips away our external self-righteousness and forces us to look at who we are ‘inside’. Jesus said, ”I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger” [ John 6:35 ].
A person who truly hungers and thirsts for righteousness realizes he is dealing with a life-or-death issue–not just an ‘activity’ to be checked off ones ‘to do’ list. Have you ‘armed’ yourself with righteousness to diligently avoid sin?
Do you hunger and thirst for the ‘righteousness’ of God?
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FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT #6:
GOODNESS
Commonly, “good” connotes merely more or less admirable motives and deeds, and its use is often no more than unthinking politeness.
“Good” has implications of some degree of excellence. What varies is the precise degree of excellence that lies unexpressed and hidden in the ‘heart’. We sometimes use “good” as a sweeping generality.
It has so many uses that one dictionary, The Reader’s Digest Complete Oxford Word Finder, devotes an entire page in very fine type to list them! Its common usage suggests: a desirable quality; something commendable; favor; reliable; enjoyable; beneficent; kind; noble; admirable; welcomeness; competence; attractiveness; thoroughness; soundness; exemplary; moral excellence; and moral rightness.
In the word “goodness,” the inner qualities of virtue, excellence of character, morality, and attitude that we see in a person’s behavior come to the forefront. Goodness is the unselfish desire to be open-hearted and generous to others. It can also be described as moral excellence and virtuous. It often reflects a great strength of purity of character.
The Greek word for goodness is “agathosune” (pronounced: ah-gah-thow-soo-ney). It can also be defined as “uprightness of heart and life.” While kindness is an ‘inner’ disposition of someone, goodness is a more an ‘outer’ and active term. Goodness is a generous character which is energized, expressing itself in active, outward acts of good towards and for others. Agathosune, at first glance, seems very similar to chrestotes (“kindness”). However, closer examination of its use in the Bible reveals a word indicating ‘zealous’ activity in doing good. Kindness or gentleness (“chrestotes”) is more passive.
It is more than an excellence of character, it is character energized—expressing itself in active good, but it does not spare sharpness and rebuke to produce good in others. Goodness is indicative of a ‘perfect’ balance in the various parts of the personality—one in whom everything that is noble and excellent works harmoniously together. Thus they can be gentle or ‘sharp’, but what they do always has the right balance and is good.
The scriptural concept is immensely deeper and its use much more restricted. This fruit of God’s Spirit is more inward, touching on every thought, word and deed of the godly person. This demands that motives be right before we call any action good. This means our central and all-influencing motive is loving God and regarding His will in all things. It means that the “good” person is one in whom righteousness (right doing) flows from inward devotion and love toward God.
True goodness is inseparable from godliness. Godliness is goodness’ source and foundation and the sole condition on which ‘real’ goodness is possible.
A good person may have failures, but it is the ‘direction’ of their desires and motivations that gradually determines their character, and not necessarily the degree of perfection they have achieved.
God is the Source of all that can truly be called “good,” describing Himself as “abounding in goodness” (Exodus 34:6). So, if God is the Source of good, how can a person ‘tap’ into that source? Jesus briefly addresses this question in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” [ Matthew 7:7-12 ]. Ask God for goodness, with the right motivation, and He be ‘glad’ to give it to you!
Part of expressing goodness involves giving. We give of our time, talent, and treasure to demonstrate God’s love for others as He works through us to share His love with those who are lost in sin. As we serve others and provide for their needs, God’s goodness is expressed through us.
When goodness and knowledge are combined, it provides for us the best way to “walk the talk” despite the ‘pulls’ of this world. Goodness provides the right disposition, motivation, knowledge, and the correct instruction. One devoid of the necessary knowledge cannot teach, and anyone destitute of goodness will not even try because they lack the impulse to help others in the right spirit.
The apostle Paul links goodness with full knowledge and admonition of each other: “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another” [ Romans 15:14 ]. Goodness will hold things ‘in check’ while guiding knowledge to build up rather than destroy. Biblical goodness is always, under every circumstance, beneficial.
To be good and express goodness may seem a timid and weak way to confront the challenges in the world, but this fruit of the Spirit has an enormous ‘strength’ to impact the world for good. Goodness expressed through the power of the Spirit can soften the harshness of the world. It can overcome hatred, comfort those who are wounded, and motivate people to see that true goodness comes only from God. Goodness can be, at the same time, kind and strong.
A good person always wants to alleviate suffering and to mitigate wrongs. They consciously look for ways to benefit others. Because they are not out to gratify themselves, their works are not self-centered—they are the benefactor of the weak, helpless, and those in trouble—and even sometimes of the ‘evil’.
How many times have we had an impulse to do some good and stifled it by giving ourselves some “good” reason why we should not? The apostle Paul reminds us “Do not quench the Spirit,” (1 Thessalonians 5:19), but “stir up the gift of God” to even greater intensity (2 Timothy 1:6), and that God “has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).
Goodness is something we must devote ourselves to. We must cultivate it because, coming out of this present ‘evil’ world, we have not been schooled in doing good. It is not part of our character. We have been schooled in being self-centered, and self-centered people cannot do godly good.
We need to then take every opportunity to yield to the Spirit for this purpose and labor to develop the goodness that is its fruit.
