Matthew 5:6

Memory Verse

Happy are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness, because they will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).

The righteousness the Jews are hungering and thirsting for is the Kingdom of God, in which Israel will possess righteousness (Matthew 6:33; Isaiah 58:8). At the time Jesus is speaking, Israel will be in the wilderness. The man of lawlessness has broken his covenant with Israel and set himself up as a god in the temple (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). In this context, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness from God will be happy because they will be satisfied when Christ returns to set up His kingdom—a kingdom in which righteousness will rule (Matthew 13:41).

In contrast, believers today possess the righteousness of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30); they are not hungering and thirsting for what they have obtained in Christ. Christ is an end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe (Romans 10:4). This is righteousness out from faith, not works of the law (Romans 10:6). Through the gospel of the Christ—Christ died on behalf of our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures—God’s righteousness is revealed to us today (Romans 1:17).

Therefore, these words cannot be applied to the Christian because Jesus is not addressing the Church. Those who seek to apply these to the Church must allegorize the Scriptures to fit their own personal interpretation. Let us of the Church be wise enough to understand the context of Scripture and rightly divide the word of truth, for we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 1:9–11).