Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Hunger and thirst stand for the whole condition of want and deprivation; Christ calls blessed those who, though stripped and cheated, desire nothing but what is just and right. Their groaning exposes them to mockery, yet it prepares them for happiness, for God will satisfy their righteous desire.
AI summary
Christ crowns His sermon with blessings because He came to bless us, and His pronouncement makes us truly blessed. The world is wrong about happiness: it calls the rich and powerful blessed, but He calls the poor in spirit blessed instead, overturning every carnal notion of what makes a man happy.
AI summary
Commenting on Matthew 5:3-12
Not yearning for wealth or honor, but for Christ's justifying righteousness imputed to us by faith. To hunger for it means knowing our poverty, sensing our need through spiritual sight, valuing it above all other righteousness, and earnestly grasping it. They shall be filled with it and never seek another.
AI summary