Question
What does it mean to "hunger and thirst for righteousness"?
Analysis
The text, Matthew 5:6 in the Sermon on the Mount
The fourth Beatitude sits in the opening of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12), Jesus's portrait of the character of kingdom citizens. Each Beatitude opens with makarios (G3107), "blessed, happy," a congratulation pronounced over an unexpected group (TBESG). The Beatitudes move in sequence, from "poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3) and "mourn" (Matthew 5:4) and "gentle/meek" (Matthew 5:5) to this fourth one, so the person who hungers for righteousness has already come to spiritual poverty and grief over sin. The hunger follows the emptiness.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.", Matthew 5:6 (WEB)
What "righteousness" (dikaiosunē, G1343) means here
The Greek word carries a deliberately broad range, which is why the Beatitude resists a single narrow reading:
Dimension of dikaiosunē | Sense | Supporting note |
|---|---|---|
| Right standing with God | Righteousness God supplies / reckons | TBESG §1: "δ. θεοῦ, a righteousness divine in its character and origin" (Mat.6.33; Rom.1.17; Php.3.9) |
| Right living before God | Conformity to God's will in thought + action | TBESG §1: "conformity to the Divine will in purpose, thought and action" (Mat.5.6; Mat.6.1) |
| Justice in the world | Things being set right | TBESG §2: "in narrower sense, justice" (Act.17.31) |
This reference does not flatten the term to only one of these. In Matthew the word leans toward practical, lived righteousness, note Jesus immediately says kingdom righteousness must … (Matthew 5:20) and warns against practicing "your righteousness before men" (Matthew 6:1). Yet the same gospel says to "seek first God's Kingdom and his righteousness" as something given ("all these things will be added to you," Matthew 6:33). The hunger is therefore for righteousness in the full sense, to be right with God and to live rightly.
The intensity of the image, hunger AND thirst
Jesus pairs the two most basic survival drives. This is not a mild preference but craving. The grammar in Greek points to hungering for the whole of righteousness, not a portion. The promise, "they shall be filled" (Greek chortazō, used of feeding to full satisfaction), answers the image: the one appetite that is always met.
Old Testament background, thirst for God
The hunger-and-thirst picture is rooted in the Psalms and Isaiah, where longing for righteousness and longing for God himself run together:
| Text | The craving |
|---|---|
| Psalms 42:1-2 | "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." |
| Psalms 63:1 | "God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." |
| Isaiah 55:1-2 | …, God's free invitation to the spiritually hungry. |
Nave's Topical Bible files righteousness substantially under faith and fruit: "By faith" (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3-24) and a long "FRUITS OF" list running from Deuteronomy 6:25 through the New Testament (Nave's, RIGHTEOUSNESS). So the biblical idea of righteousness joins received-by-faith and expressed-in-fruit, exactly the two dimensions the hunger reaches toward.
The lifelong pursuit, Paul in Philippians 3
Paul gives the clearest worked example of hungering for righteousness as an ongoing drive (Philippians 3:7-14):
- He counts every former advantage "loss… rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8).
- He renounces "a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law," for "the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Philippians 3:9), the received dimension.
- Yet he immediately presses on: "Not that I have already obtained… but I press on… I press on toward the goal" (Philippians 3:12-14), the pursued dimension.
This is the hunger in motion: already given right standing in Christ, still straining after full conformity to him. The deep-dive on sanctification frames the same dynamic, righteousness is both a status received at conversion and a transformation pursued for life.
How the hunger is satisfied, and why it keeps returning
| Question | Biblical answer |
|---|---|
| Is the hunger satisfied now or later? | Both, "they shall be filled" is a present spiritual reality (Matthew 6:33) and a future consummation |
| How is it fed? | Spirit + Word + prayer + community (means of sanctification, Romans 12:2; John 17:17) |
| Why does it return? | Like daily food, righteousness is sought continually; Paul "presses on" rather than arriving (Philippians 3:12) |
Where traditions differ (multi-view)
The Beatitude itself is not denominationally contested, but how the received-and-pursued righteousness relate connects to the sanctification debate. These are presented neutrally, endorsing none:
| View | Emphasis on "hunger for righteousness" | Held by |
|---|---|---|
| Reformed | Imputed righteousness received by faith; progressive pursuit, never completed in this life | Calvin, Westminster; mainstream evangelical |
| Wesleyan / Holiness | Genuine attainment of higher holiness possible in this life ("entire sanctification") | Wesleyan-Methodist, Holiness denominations |
| Lutheran | "Simul justus et peccator", fully righteous in Christ, still sinner; daily return to grace | Classical Lutheran |
| Catholic | Infused righteousness cooperating with grace; growth through the sacramental life | Roman Catholic |