It would be eternally sad if you should turn from the one who guarantees satisfaction to things that will never satisfy long! How blessed if you should return to the Father through the way he had told you to come, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and should thereby find his satisfaction.
The third point of advice in Christ's statement about how to discover God's righteousness is that a man must desire it intensely. In Christ's words he must “hunger and thirst after righteousness” if he is to be filled. Oh, how quickly these words pierce to the spiritual heart of a man! And how quickly do they separate real spiritual hunger from mere sentimentality and vaguely religious feeling!
The second point of the fourth beatitude is that the one who would know true happiness must desire, not merely righteousness, but perfect righteousness. This means desiring the righteousness of God. It is necessary that we see this and see it clearly, for you and I are always ready to settle for something less than God requires. We are like children who refuse to eat the nourishing dinner set before us. And if it were possible, we would always rush to substitute some of our own goodness for God's.
Now, the verse is most specific about how one can obtain this happiness. The reason why so many people are unhappy spiritually is that they will not accept God's remedy. What must man do? The answer has three parts. First, he must desire righteousness. Second, he must desire a perfect (and, therefore, a divine) righteousness. Third, he must desire it intensely. That is, he must desire it enough to abandon all hope of achieving salvation by his own efforts and instead cling to the efforts made for him by God. Each of these points is suggested explicitly in the beatitude.
This beatitude follows in a very definite order upon the first three of Christ's beatitudes. There is a sense in which it stands at the heart of this short compendium of Christ's teachings.
