Luke 6:21 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.’ Here it is. The man who truly has something spiritually is a man who is not pursuing or satisfied with or living totally for material things. The things of this life do not fill him. The man who is going to be blessed by God is a man who is dissatisfied, a man who is hungry, a man who still has a void within him. How beautifully this is brought out in the book of Revelation, those words to the Laodiceans, where they think that they are rich, they think that they are well provided for, they think they have established themselves in the matters of life, they think they have good jobs and comfortable homes, and the word of God comes to them and says, ‘Don't you know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked in the sight of God?’ The Lord Jesus Christ is teaching these simple spiritual values, that the kind of person who is going to be blessed by God both now and in eternity is exclusively the person who has a hunger for that blessing, who has a void within, who is not naive and shallow, and limited enough to be wholly satisfied by the cheap tinsel of this life. He has got a hunger; there is a restlessness within his soul, a void within, a hunger and a thirsting. ‘Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.’ Clearly this is not an absolute word. There are many things even in this fallen world which cause the believer to be happy and to laugh with joy. Chiefly, these are joys which come from the prospect of heaven and being with his Saviour, but there is some joy attached to the kind providences of God in this life also. God has left some causes of happiness in all this side of death. However what Christ is speaking of is the Christian’s realisation that this world is away from God, and that it is not his home. This life is a veil of tears because of the curse, but it is especially a veil of tears for the child of God, whose treasure is in heaven, and who encounters human rebellion against God which distresses him on a daily basis. Deep sorrow comes also from indwelling sin and the sometimes-failing attempts to overcome it. That sorrow is necessary and is a proof of genuine conversion in one who desires ‘to depart, and to be with Christ’, and who strives to be holy. ‘They shall laugh’ with an inexpressible sense of triumph over darkness, knowing that mortality has gone forever, and they fully possess that eternal life which is promised in Christ.They're not self-satisfied, they're not content and pleased by silly material things, they're not filled, satisfied and contented with their lifestyle. They hunger and they mourn because of the shortcomings and the inadequacy of life in general and their own lives.