Blessed Are Those Who Hunger for Righteousness
Deep spiritual longing for justice and holiness leads to complete satisfaction.
This beatitude speaks of intense spiritual appetite—hunger and thirst that can only be satisfied by righteousness. It encompasses both personal holiness and social justice, the longing for things to be made right. Those who hunger for righteousness actively pursue God's kingdom values, not passively waiting but actively seeking. Hunger and thirst were literal for most of his hearers: a day-labourer earned one denarius, about one day's food (Matthew 20:2). The promise is that this hunger will be satisfied—fully, abundantly, beyond expectation.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Martin Luther King Jr. connected this beatitude to the civil rights movement, calling it the divine mandate to pursue justice until it rolls down like waters.
Gospel of Matthew
Written about in
- What Christianity says about longing and hope
The beatitude uses hunger and thirst rather than preference. What is wanted is righteousness, both personal and the world set right, and the promise attached is that this particular appetite is fed.