Mat. 5:6 ... "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
Most simply stated, "righteousness" is maintaining a right relationship with God, and that can come only through faith in God and obedience to His instructions. This is not saying that righteousness is what you develop through obedience, for righteousness cannot be achieved by anything you do. If it could, then righteousness would be something earned through meritorious service, making it a debt God owes to a person. But God cannot be put into debt to man! The New Testament rather speaks of one "being clothed with the righteousness of Christ," (Rev. 7:12-14). When you put your faith in God as the Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, and the Source of life and existence, and then submit to His will revealed in Holy Scripture, Christ confers His rightousness upon you. The expression in Rev. 7:12-14 symbolizes righteousness as a beautiful, elegant robe with which Christ clothes His approved disciple. It is a robe of His origin and design, available only from Him, and conferred only by Him.
A najor component of Christian character is, therefore, being deeply concerned about becoming righteous. It must be a constant driving urge within you, similar to the ever present desire for food. A person can eat a full meal to complete satisfaction, and within hours the pressing cry of the body for food returns. Then, the longer the person goes without eating, the greater the hunger builds until the person craves food. This desire and need continues daily throughout life; and if the person does not eventually satisfy that urge, he will die of starvation. Jesus says in Mat. 5:6 that our desire for right-eousness must be similar to our hunger for food and thirst for water. The need for water is greater than that for food, and the lack of water will lead to death more quickly than starvation without food.
Righteousness is therefore spiritual food for the soul as much as physical food is for the body. Everyone on earth hungers for food and thirsts for water to maintain physical life. But a great part of mankind ignores the soul's need for spiritual food and drink. The body deprived of food and water will die, and the soul deprived of righeousness will also die. The New Testament often speaks of people who are physically alive but spiritually dead. Those who are righteous, and therefore spiritually alive, are a blessing to the world. They do good, spread benevolence, maintain peace, and build harmonious rela-tionships that continually improve society. Those who are not righteous and are spiritually dead, are not a blessing to the world. They are the source of dysfunction in society, disturbing the peace and disrupt-ing the general welfare. From those utterly destitute of righteousness come the criminal element, the violent, and those who corrupt morality and thus wreck the lives of many others.
Righteousness, God's gift to those of faith who respond to His will, is an essential to good character and the welfare of all humanity. It lifts the plane of human life above the common desire to satisfy physical desires, the Epicurean goal to "eat, drink, and be merry." Rightousness sets higher goals than wealth, power, fame, and being served rather than learning the true joy of serving others who for many reasons lack the essentials for a pleasant, meanigful life. Righteousness is NOT walking about detached from the daily struggle of life, with hands together and fingers upward, with eyes lifted to the sky, and the continual verbal emission of the Lord's Prayer, special Scriptures, and "praise Jehovah." That is the world view of the righteous, religiously oriented life. But being truly righteous is what has been des-cribed above, and it is the real hope for the best world here in which to live.
The popular models of good character that are publicly advocated do not include righteousness as a component, because they are secular and omit religion and spirituality. But the wisdom that transcends the physical dimension in which we live, that is, the wisdom from the spiritual dimension revealed by Christ, advises us that righteousness is an essential component of good character. Without it, any character model is flawed and will not ulitmately succeed.
