We don’t talk very much about personal holiness today. The word sounds like it comes from some old tradition. We are beyond that today, we think. God is our friend and we are His sons and daughters. Besides, in an age where truth is considered relative, it is easy to write off some of God’s instructions as bygones of another age. 

Actually there is a great deal said in the Old Testament about holiness. The entire book of Leviticus has one theme that runs through it: “You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.” To be holy is to live in ways that please God and to abandon those things that don’t please God. Now that is a lifelong pursuit but a pursuit God calls us to.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6. All of us have experienced hunger in one form or another, and thirst. When those physiologic desires come, all we can do is to focus on that hunger and that thirst. We literally crave for food and drink. It is pretty much all that we can think about. Nothing can distract us until we get that food and find that drink.

Now think about having that kind of hunger and thirst for righteousness in your life. Righteousness is one of the chief attributes of God in Scripture and its meaning is holiness and right ethical conduct. God is described as being perfect in righteousness. So to hunger and thirst after righteousness is to have this deep abiding and insatiable thirst to be like God in our conduct, heart, and actions. 

To hunger and thirst after righteousness is to get up every morning with a desire to follow Jesus in whatever situations one faces that day. It is to be deeply conscious of areas of our lives that need renovation. It is the discipline, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to throw off the stuff in our life that holds us back from God and to nurture those things that bring us closer to Him. And at the center of that is a devotional practice where we spend time with Him.

But those who hunger and thirst after righteousness also have the same thirst for God’s will to be done in government, in places of work, in issues such as racism, and injustice in society. These are people who cannot just yawn at the events of our world and let them be, but who will act and pray in the situations where they can make a difference so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. These are people who can see the world as God sees it and stand up for what is just, ethical, right, merciful, and righteous.

To these people, Jesus says, “You will be filled.” ‘With what?,” we ask. With the very presence of God whom we hunger and thirst after. We will be filled with God because we hunger after Him and His righteousness. Are you hungry for His righteousness in your life and in the world around you? This is what we are called to: An insatiable appetite for Him and His will. 

Father, give me that kind of hunger and thirst for righteousness in my life and in the world. Help me to long for your will, your perfect and holy will in my life and in my community. Fill me with your presence today and tomorrow and the next day. Amen.