What is the context? Clue: How available was food and especially water in ancient Palestine?
They were poor compared to America and water was not readily available. One could quickly die of dehydration in the arid conditions. Jesus is not describing genteel urgings but desperate hungering and thirsting – those who keep on acknowledging their spiritual poverty, keep on seeking to live out God’s +R as a starving man longs for food or a man perishing from thirst longs for water. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? What are you hungering and thirsting for? Remember there is the world’s way (it is passing away) and the King’s way (endures forever). What +R is Jesus referring to? What happens we are saved (2Cor 5:21)? How are we then to live? What does Jesus emphasize in Mt 5:21-48? When we are saved we receive the +R of Christ at that moment and forever (2Cor 5:21) Christ becomes now and forever our source of righteous living (cf 1Cor 1:30) And so based on our position in Christ, the King calls His subjects to practice +R as our lifestyle from the heart (see Mt 5:21-48 where Jesus con
