Satisfaction Guaranteed | Tabletalk

Satisfaction Guaranteed

A slogan for a popular American restaurant chain is “Come hungry, leave happy.” The catchy phrase puts expression to what makes any restaurant successful: attracting would-be diners by playing on their growling stomachs with the promise of satisfaction. As the slogan implies, hunger is a sort of unhappiness. We get that. No one needs a dictionary to define the portmanteau hangry.

Yet in the fourth beatitude, Jesus says there is a sort of hunger that makes one happy: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matt. 5:6). The word for “blessed” in the Greek could also be translated “happy.” “Happy are the hungry!”—really? Could there be anything more absurd? To speak of hunger and thirst is to speak of want or lack. It implies the absence of something desired. Why should we be happy if we’re missing out on something we really need? The reason is because of the nature of the hunger of which Jesus speaks and the nature of the filling. If we long for the right things, we will be filled in real and lasting ways.

The Hungry Soul

Those reading through Matthew’s gospel get to this beatitude and likely think of the previous chapter, where Jesus gave this rejoinder to the devil during His temptation (quoting from Deuteronomy):

Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)

The beatitude pronounces that all will be well for those who have the right sort of hunger, who prioritize the things of God even above physical necessities. Blessed are those who can say, with Jesus, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34). We can explore this more by asking two things: What is Jesus saying about how we should hunger? And what is He saying about what we should hunger for?

How the Hungry Soul Desires

The metaphor of hunger and thirst here is helpful, as it shows us the seriousness with which we must pursue the things of God. To say that righteousness is something we hunger for is to say that it’s something we need. In fact, it’s a matter of life and death. The image of hunger and thirst helps us distinguish between wants and needs. My children want to play video games and are upset if I deny them. The stakes are unthinkably much higher if I were to deny them the food they need. The righteousness of God is a matter of need for the Christian. We want it, yes, but we want it because we need it. Consider how the psalmist will describe his longing for God in similar language:

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Ps. 63:1)

The desire is serious. It can’t be put off. The godly stop at nothing to get more of God in their lives. They will not be contented with vain substitutes but earnestly seek after the real thing and do not stop until they have acquired it. That means they will want more prayer, more Bible, more preaching, more communion with the saints, more godly conversation, more heavenly meditation. A desire for these things is a desire for the Lord, who uses these very means to draw us into a deeper relationship with Himself. This hunger is, therefore, the sign of spiritual life in an individual. Just like a newborn cries for her mother’s milk, Christians are to “long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).

To be disinterested in the things of God is a most perilous position. The elderly and unwell need careful monitoring since they will often have no appetite and unintentionally starve themselves of needed nutrients because they don’t eat. Hunger is a sign of life—dead men don’t hunger. Likewise, spiritual hunger is a sign of spiritual life. Martyn Lloyd-Jones presses the seriousness of the issue:

I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture, you can be quite certain you are a Christian; if it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again.¹

What the Hungry Soul Desires

What is meant by “righteousness” in Matthew 5:6? There are probably two primary ideas at play here. The first is a personal righteousness. R.T. France explains that when Matthew uses this word in his gospel, he is “overwhelmingly concerned with right conduct, with living the way God requires.”² R.C. Sproul similarly says that “real righteousness is, simply, doing what is right.”³

The gospel tells us that in the person of Jesus Christ, God gives us Himself in all His indescribable sublimity and inexhaustible sufficiency.

But the hungry soul also longs to see righteousness in the world. Jeremiah Burroughs took this to be the primary meaning behind “righteousness” in this beatitude. A desire to see the world operate in righteousness is hard-wired into all of us by virtue of being made in the image of a God who is Himself righteousness. You do not need to be a believer to know the difference between good and evil. We have an innate sense that equity and justice are good in the world, and oppression and violence are bad.

In 1997, Jewish philosopher Leon Kass set forth the idea of “the wisdom of repugnance,” which suggested that an innate negative revulsion to something could be evidence of that thing’s inherently evil qualities.⁴ I like Kass’ more colloquial term for this concept better: the yuck factor. There are wicked things in this world to which the only proper response is to sigh, weep, or even gag. Evil makes us sick to our stomach, but the thought of righteousness is to give us a hunger that demands to be filled.

How can we be thus filled? How can our hungering souls be satisfied? We must look to the One who promises to fill us, which is exactly what Jesus is offering in this beatitude.

The Bountiful God

But how is Jesus able to promise the satisfaction of any and all who desire to be filled? Do you view this statement with slight suspicion? We are used to “satisfaction guarantees” that are anything but. But when God promises satisfaction He actually grants it, and here’s how: because He gives us nothing less than Himself. The gospel is that God gives us nothing short of Himself in the person of His Son. God is not giving us a toy, a check, or even a meal. The gospel tells us that in the person of Jesus Christ, God gives us Himself in all His indescribable sublimity and inexhaustible sufficiency.

Since God is an infinite being, there is no shortage of life and happiness that He can offer. There is no first come, first served with God. There is no “act fast before it’s too late”—not in the sense that He will run out of the righteousness that He here promises to bestow. In Him is found the “fountain of life,” which can never run dry (Ps. 36:9). George Swinnock once wrote that “God is a sphere, whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.”⁵ To have access to a God like that is to have access to an infinite resource. We may make unlimited withdrawals from this account, and we will never be denied. Nothing can deplete His treasury. We could ask a world of righteousness from God, and it would be as though we asked for nothing:

You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing. (Ps. 145:16)

It is such a small act (opening the hand) yet has such a massive effect (satisfying every living thing).

Note also in this beatitude that God’s boundless supply is matched by boundless grace. He offers us the infinity of His fullness, and how does He set the price? Simply by our desire. Jesus does not say that in order to be filled we must bring money, merit, good works, or polished prayers. He says to simply bring an appetite. To receive the thing you need most in life, you simply have to want it. That’s the cost. That’s it. Jesus is the One who fulfilled all righteousness so we don’t have to—we just have to hunger for His (Matt. 3:15).

All the fitness he requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.⁶

This is the lesson that comes through in Psalm 81. In this psalm, the Lord pleads with a rebellious Israel to return to Him. We can sense His exasperation with the nation:

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me! (Ps. 81:8)

If you are a parent, you have probably said something similar to your child: “Just listen!” But amazingly, the reason the Lord longs for Israel to listen isn’t so that things would go easier for Him, but so that things would go better for them. He has blessings that He is eager to bestow. “Open your mouth wide,” He tells them, “And I will fill it” (Ps. 81:10).

If we feel we are lacking, it’s not because God is stingy, but often because in our disobedience or doubt we have not opened our mouths wide enough to receive all that He desires to give us. It’s not that God doesn’t have enough; it’s that we so often desire far too little. So His plea to errant Israel isn’t to sit down and shut up, but to come back and open up. This is the heart of our God: He loves to give good things to those who walk uprightly (Ps. 84:11). We don’t need God to give more; we need to want more. We need to open our mouths wide and then we shall be filled. If we would only ask, “Feed me till I want no more,” we will be satisfied (Luke 1:53, Ps. 22:26).⁷

There is a sweet complement between God and His children: We have problems; He has resources. We have desires; He has satisfaction. We have needs; He loves to meet them. What a happy thing it is to be hungry when your God is a God who says, “I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jer. 31:25; see also Ps. 107:9).

1. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1960), 72.
2. R.T. France, The Gospel According to Matthew (Inter-Varsity Press, 1986), 167.
3. R.C. Sproul, Matthew (Crossway, 2013), 83.
4. Leon R. Kass, “The Wisdom of Repugnance,” The New Republic. vol. 216, no. 22. (Washington, DC: CanWest, June 2, 1997), 17–26.
5. George Swinnock, The Incomparableness of God (Banner of Truth, 2021), 27.
6. Joseph Hart, “Come, Ye Sinners,” 1759.
7. Peter Williams, “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,” 1771.

Source

Poor in Spirit

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

“Till we are poor in spirit we are not capable of receiving grace. He who is swollen with an opinion of self-excellency and self-sufficiency, is not fit for Christ. He is full already. If the hand be full of pebbles, it cannot receive gold. The glass is first emptied before you pour in wine. God first empties a man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace.”

 

Paradoxically, King David’s most notorious sins give us a glimpse at just what makes him a great man of God. You probably know the story. After years on the run from Saul, David’s kingdom is finally established. But in his security, he began to make moral compromises. He already ignored God’s explicit command in Deuteronomy 17:17 that Israel’s king “shall not acquire many wives for himself,” which is subtly told to us in 2 Samuel 5:13: “And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem…”

But then we come to 2 Samuel 11. It begins with David remaining safely in Jerusalem rather than going out to war with his armies. Then it sees the king lusting over the wife of one of his soldiers, impregnating her, and having her husband killed in battle. Thus, in one chapter, the man after God’s own heart explicitly broke Commandments 6-10 and implicitly broke Commandments 1-5. How can we honestly number such a man among the people of God?

In response to David being rebuked by the prophet Nathan, David composed Psalm 51, which includes these great prayers:

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you may be justified in your words

nd blameless in your judgment…

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me…

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (vv. 1-4, 11, 16-17)

Here we see the great truth of salvation. God’s people are not the perfectly righteous, for no one is. Those whom God favors acknowledge their sins and trust Him alone for salvation. As Yahweh said in Isaiah 66:2:

But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.

The blessed are like David. They confess their spiritual poverty and put their faith in the Lord alone to save them.

 

Last week, we began our study of the Beatitudes by briefly considering their context within the Sermon on the Mount and then focusing upon the word that begins each: blessed. From that study, we concluded that being blessed meant being supremely and lasting happy because we have found favor with God Himself. Indeed, we emphasized that this blessedness or happiness is not a momentary grace; rather, it is a state of being. Thus, the Beatitudes are not a list of virtues to cultivate, which would mean we must be poor in spirit, mournful, etc. in order to be blessed. No, the Beatitudes are characteristics that the blessed are known by, to some degree at least.

Keeping that in mind, we now come to the first Beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? We can answer that question negatively and positively.

Negatively, being poor in spirit is not the same as simply being financially poor. It is somewhat popular today, as it has occasionally been in history, to think of the poor as being inherently more righteous than the wealthy. However, William Tyndale is correct that:

Riches is the gift of God, given man to maintain the degrees of this world, and therefore not evil; yea, and some must be poor and some rich, if we shall have an order in this world. And God, our Father, divideth riches and poverty among his children, according to his godly pleasure and wisdom, so doth not poverty certify thee; but to put thy trust in the living God maketh thee heir thereof.

Indeed, while Jesus warned against the dangers of riches, there is no virtue in poverty. Remember that in Exodus 23:3 God forbid the Israelites from being “partial to a poor man in his lawsuit,” which was obviously a tendency even among the ancients. Of course, Proverbs gives us the most balanced understanding, saying:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the LORD?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God. (30:8-9)

 

As we noted last week, although the majority of people are born into physical poverty, no one is born into spiritual poverty. It is an internal work of the Holy Spirit.

Neither is spiritual poverty what Kent Hughes calls showy humility. Martin Lloyd-Jones talks about encountering such a man, who said, “You know, I am a mere nobody, a very unimportant man, really. I do not count; I am not a great man in the Church; I am just one of those men who carry the bag for the minister.” The doctor noted:

He was anxious that I should know what a humble man he was, how ‘poor in spirit’. Yet by his anxiety to make it known he was carrying the very thing he was trying to establish… the man who thus, at it were, glories in his poverty of spirit and thereby proves he is not humble. (47)

 

We are each made in God’s image and, in this life, even the wicked still have God’s common grace upon them. Thus, it is not beneficial to act as though we have no positive qualities or worth. For instance, an Olympic athlete who denies his own excellence exhibits false humility. True humility, however, is acknowledging that all of his greatest efforts contribute nothing to his worth before God and that God is the supplier of that very excellence. Indeed, Bach was known to begin his compositions with a prayer for help and concluded with writing SDG (soli Deo gloria). He glorified God through acknowledging his dependency upon Him, and it would have only been a false humility for him to insist that his music was bad.

 

Thomas Watson makes the distinction between being spiritually poor and being poor in spirit. The Laodiceans were spiritually poor, as Revelation 3:17 says of them, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” Their dependency upon material wealth was impoverishing them spiritually. Of course, unbelievers are also spiritually poor. Yet, like the Laodiceans, most cannot see their true poverty, and Watson is right to note that “he is in the worst sense poor who has no sense of his poverty” (33).

Positively, being poor in spirit means acknowledging our wholesale spiritual poverty. The Greek word for poor is πτωχος, which as Kent Hughes notes:

It comes from a verbal root that denotes “to cower and cringe like a beggar.” In classical Greek ptochos came to mean “someone who crouches about, wretchedly begging.” In the New Testament it bears something of this idea because it denotes poverty so deep that the person must obtain his living by begging. He is fully dependent on the giving of others. He cannot survive without help from the outside. Thus an excellent translation is “beggarly poor.” (17)

Indeed, if we are not careful to note that a beggarly poverty is meant, we may easily and subconsciously think of American poverty. Only homelessness really comes close to resembling the beggarly poverty of the ancient world, and even then, we still have homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other such programs to give aid. But still, it reflects the original idea of complete and utter dependence upon others. That is the kind of poverty that Jesus speaks of.

But it is not material poverty but poverty of spirit. The Greek word πνευμα, like the Hebrew ruach, can mean spirit, wind, or breath. Here, as is frequently the case, it refers “to the inner person, with his feelings or inner strength” (Beeke and Smalley, RST Vol 2, 231). Thus, by saying poverty of the spirit, Jesus is moving past all external factors and going to the root of who we are. And crucially, all of humanity is poor spiritually. Although God created us with the immeasurable wealth of dwelling forever with Him, we renounced those riches through our sin. All sin is a rejection of God’s goodness and a declaration of our own supposed divinity. Yet that rebellion leaves us destitute. Try as we may, we have nothing apart from God. He is the almighty Creator, who has created all things, and He is the Giver of the spirit of life within each of us. And in our arrogance, we commit treason against Him.

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April 2 | HAPPINESS IS . . .

“Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the gentle … those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … [and] those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (Matt. 5:3–10).

✧✧✧

By the world’s standards, Christ’s definition of happiness is shocking and contradictory!

A quiz in a popular magazine characterized happy people as those who enjoy other people but aren’t self-sacrificing, who refuse to participate in negative feelings or emotions, and who have a sense of accomplishment based on their own self-sufficiency.
But Jesus described happy people quite differently. In fact, He characterized them as spiritual beggars who realize they have no resources in themselves. He said they are meek rather than proud, mournful over their sin, self-sacrificing, and willing to endure persecution to reconcile men to God.
By the world’s standards, that sounds more like misery than happiness! But the people of the world don’t understand that what is often thought of as misery is actually the key to happiness.
Follow the Lord’s progression of thought: true happiness begins with being “poor in spirit” (v. 3). That means you have a right attitude toward sin, which leads you to “mourn” over it (v. 4). Mourning over sin produces a meekness that leads to hungering and thirsting for righteousness (vv. 5–6), which results in mercy, purity of heart, and a peaceable spirit (vv. 7–9)—attitudes that bring true happiness.
When you display those attitudes, you can expect to be insulted, persecuted, and unjustly accused (vv. 10–11) because your life will be an irritating rebuke to worldly people. But despite the persecution, you can “rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great” (v. 12).
You are one of God’s lights in a sin-darkened world (v. 14), and while most people will reject Christ, others will be drawn to Him by the testimony of your life. Be faithful to Him today, so He can use you that way.

✧✧✧

Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God for the grace He gives you, enabling you to have Beatitude attitudes. ✧ Ask Him to make you a bright light in someone’s life today.

For Further Study: Read 1 Peter 2:19–23. ✧ How did Jesus respond to persecution? ✧ How should you respond?

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 105). Crossway Books.

April 1 | CULTIVATING BEATITUDE ATTITUDES

“When [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And opening His mouth He began to teach them” (Matt. 5:1–2).

✧✧✧

Only Christians know true happiness because they know Christ, who is its source.

Jesus’ earthly ministry included teaching, preaching, and healing. Wherever He went, He generated great excitement and controversy. Usually great multitudes of people followed Him as He moved throughout the regions of Judea and Galilee. Thousands came for healing, many came to mock and scorn, and some came in search of truth.
On one such occasion Jesus delivered His first recorded message—the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). In it He proclaimed a standard of living diametrically opposed to the standards of His day—and ours. Boldly denouncing the ritualistic, hypocritical practices of the Jewish religious leaders, He taught that true religion is a matter of the heart or mind. People will behave as their hearts dictate (Luke 6:45); so the key to transformed behavior is transformed thinking.
At the beginning of His sermon Jesus presented the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12), a list of the godly attitudes that mark a true believer and ensure true happiness. The Greek word translated “blessed” in those verses speaks of happiness and contentment. The rest of the sermon discusses the lifestyle that produces it.
Jesus taught that happiness is much more than favorable circumstances and pleasant emotions. In fact, it doesn’t depend on circumstances at all. It is built on the indwelling character of God Himself. As your life manifests the virtues of humility, sorrow over sin, gentleness, righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, and peace, you will experience happiness that even severe persecution can’t destroy.
As we study the Beatitudes, I pray you will be more and more conformed to the attitudes they portray and that you will experience true happiness in Christ.

✧✧✧

Suggestions for Prayer: Ask the Holy Spirit to minister to you through our daily studies. Be prepared to make any attitude changes that He might prompt.

For Further Study: Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). ✧ What issues did Christ address? ✧ How did His hearers react to His teaching? How do you?

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1993). Drawing Near—Daily Readings for a Deeper Faith (p. 104). Crossway Books.

MARCH 18 | ANTICIPATING PHYSICAL PERSECUTION

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.—MATT. 5:10

The Greek word that is translated “persecuted” and “persecute” in Matthew 5:10–12 has the basic meaning of chasing, driving away, or pursuing. From that meaning developed the connotations of physical persecution, harassment, abuse, and other unjust treatment.
The believer who possesses the qualities described in the first seven beatitudes will be willing to face persecution “for the sake of righteousness.” He will have an attitude of self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ. He is exemplified by a lack of fear and shame and the presence of courage and boldness. The tense of the Greek verb indicates that the believer has a continuous willingness to endure persecution if it is the price of godly living.
Under the demands of this beatitude many Christians break down in their obedience to the Lord; here is where the genuineness of their response to the other beatitudes is most strongly tested. It is where we are most tempted to compromise the righteousness we have hungered and thirsted for. It is here where we find it convenient to lower God’s standards to accommodate the world and thereby avoid conflicts and problems we know obedience will bring.
But God does not want His gospel altered under pretense of its being less demanding, less righteous, or less truthful than it is. He does not want witnesses who lead the unsaved into thinking that the Christian life costs nothing.
Do a spiritual inventory and make sure you are willing to pay the cost for the sake of righteousness.

ASK YOURSELF
What causes us to wish that Christian faith weren’t so costly? When our hearts lead us to compromise in order to avoid detection and possible derision, what lies are we really telling ourselves? And why doesn’t the secretive safety provided by these actions leave us feeling satisfied?

MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 86). Moody Publishers.

MARCH 16 | THE NATURE OF PERSECUTION

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.—MATT. 5:10–12

Our Lord’s teaching on the beatitudes climaxes with this great and sobering truth: those who faithfully live according to the first seven beatitudes are guaranteed at some point to experience the eighth. Godliness generates hostility and antagonism from the world. Holy people are singularly blessed, but they pay a price for it.
However, persecution is one of the surest and most tangible evidences of salvation. If we never experience ridicule, criticism, or rejection because of our faith, we have reason to examine the genuineness of it. “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me” (Phil. 1:29–30).
To live a redeemed life to its fullest is to invite and expect resentment and reaction from the world. When Christians are not persecuted in some way by society, it generally means they are reflecting rather than confronting that society. And when we please the world, we can be sure that we grieve the Lord (cf. James 4:4; 1 John 2:15–17). Make sure you are living apart from the world and its allurements.

ASK YOURSELF
How do you experience persecution in your life, perhaps at work, within your family (including parents and in-laws), or among the various people you routinely associate with? How do you typically respond to it—if not directly, at least in the thoughts you entertain?

MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 84). Moody Publishers.

FEBRUARY 10 | DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE BEATITUDES

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.—MATT. 5:3

The series of conditional blessings Jesus promises, beginning with this verse and continuing through verse 12, are known as the Beatitudes. This name refers to a state of happiness or bliss. The blessedness promised in each is a divine characteristic, one that men and women can realize only as they share in God’s nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). When believers are truly blessed, they don’t experience merely an external, circumstantial feeling of happiness, but a deep sense of spiritual contentedness and well-being based on the objective spiritual reality that they belong to God.
We must understand that Christ’s beatitudes are distinctive and firm pronouncements, not merely ambiguous probabilities. Our Lord does not say that if we have the qualities the Beatitudes set forth, we are only likely to be happy; nor is this simply His wish for us. Adherence to these attitudes and practices will result in blessedness, just as surely as judgmental woes await those who are the subject of His pronouncements in Matthew 23.
The blessed life is the opposite of the cursed life. Blessedness is possessed by those who truly have the inner characteristics of the Beatitudes. Conversely, cursedness represents those who don’t know the Beatitudes, such as the Jewish religionists of Jesus’ time.
The Beatitudes are also distinctively progressive, each leading to the next in logical succession. Poverty of spirit demonstrates a right attitude about ourselves. That leads to mourning, gentleness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, showing mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking. If we have these traits we will rebuke the world so that it persecutes us and allows us to be lights in its midst.

ASK YOURSELF
We have often stated—rightly so—that God is more interested in making us holy than making us happy. So does it surprise you to see that happiness is a gift Jesus offers to those who take His Word to heart? What’s wrong with a theology that looks suspiciously at happiness?

MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 49). Moody Publishers.

FEBRUARY 9 | THIS SERMON IS FOR TODAY

He opened His mouth and began to teach them.—MATT. 5:2

Because of the Sermon on the Mount’s seemingly impossible demands and behavioral standards that are counter to everything the world practices and holds dear, many Christians have taught that the Sermon applies only to the millennial age. If it were not just for a future kingdom era, the argument goes, Jesus would not have commanded believers to be perfect, just as their “heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
But such an argument is invalid, for a number of reasons. First, and most obvious, the body of Jesus’ sermon nowhere indicates or even implies that its message should be set aside for a future age. Second, Jesus was delivering these instructions to people of the present age—His original hearers and us—not those living in the Millennium. Furthermore, many of the teachings become meaningless if we apply them to the Millennium. (For instance, there will be no persecution of Christians at that time; see Matt. 5:10–12, 44.)
The fourth reason these teachings have to apply now is that every principle and command Jesus sets forth is further applied by the writers of the New Testament epistles, directed to believers both then and now. And fifth, many other New Testament passages teach us standards that are equally unattainable as those in the Sermon on the Mount. Only with aid of the indwelling Spirit can these be done, even part of the time (cf. Phil. 1:9–10; Col. 3:1–2; 1 Peter 1:15–16).
Jesus’ sermon certainly does apply to us, marking out the distinctive lifestyle we should display to all those around us.

ASK YOURSELF
Which of the individual teachings from the Sermon on the Mount have you basically dismissed as being unattainable? Why have you classified one or more in this way? What could this deliberate refusal to obey tell you about the condition of your heart?

MacArthur, J. (2008). Daily readings from the life of Christ (p. 48). Moody Publishers.

JANUARY 14 | Spiritual Hunger and Thirst

SCRIPTURE READING: John 7:37–39
KEY VERSE: Psalm 11:7

       For the LORD is righteous,
       He loves righteousness;
       His countenance beholds the upright.

The more you learn about the Lord, the more you want to know Him. That’s what happens when you get just a taste of His goodness—you can’t get enough of His fellowship. In her book Lord, Only You Can Change Me, Kay Arthur observes:

God’s righteousness begins with a dissatisfaction, a yearning. When sin’s presence is finally realized, an inner longing is kindled and begins to burn with a slow, steady flame. A longing to be righteous! With every glimpse of God’s shining holiness and purity comes an accompanying awareness of self.
Finally the realization comes: “God, You alone are righteous.” A hunger and thirst for righteousness—His righteousness—awakens and grows. But how is that hunger and thirst to be satisfied?
We know we cannot quench it in ourselves, so we run to the fountain of living waters and receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He alone can lead us into a life of righteousness, by leading us into the truth …
Jesus is the fountainhead of God’s righteousness. Oh Beloved, do you see it? You can be as righteous as you want to be! How?
By totally depending upon God. By yearning for Him more and more. Ours is to be an ever-increasing hunger and thirst.

Satisfy my spiritual hunger and thirst for You, O God. Lead me into a life of righteousness through the continuing revelation of Your truth.

Stanley, C. F. (2000). Into His presence (p. 15). Thomas Nelson Publishers.