But
seek first His kingdom and His righteousness:
zeteite (2PPAM) de proton ten basileian [tou theou] kai ten
dikaiosunen autou (1 Kings 3:11-13;
17:13;
2 Chronicles 1:7-12;
31:20,21;
Proverbs 2:1-9;
3:9,10;
Haggai 1:2-11;
2:16-19;
Luke 12:31;
John 6:27)
(Mt 3:2;
4:17;
13:44-46;
Acts 20:25;
28:31;
Romans 14:17;
Colossians 1:13,14;
2 Thessalonians 1:5;
2 Peter 1:11)
But
(1161)
makes the contrast with the Gentiles. Jesus is saying
rather than being like the pagans who are concerned about
their physical needs, the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven
should be concerned about and seek after the things of God.
Seek
first His kingdom - He does not say seek for
the kingdom which is what Jesus would have said if He was
addressing this command to unbelievers. Seek for it to get
into it was not what He was saying. He was speaking to those
who are kingdom citizens to make the interests of God's
kingdom their priority. Kingdom citizens should ponder "Is
what I am going to say or do going to advance God's kingdom
and glory?"
Spurgeon writes that...
When I had resolved to
enter college, walking across Midsummer Common, just outside
of Cambridge, revolving in my mind the joys of scholarship and
the hope of being something in the world, that text came to my
heart,
"Seekest thou great things
for thyself? Seek them not" (Jer. 45:5)
"Seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you."
All was given up,
everything was renounced, the finest prospects seemed to melt
into thin air, merely on the strength of that text, believing
that God would most certainly fulfill to me his promise if I
could keep his precept.
God will always keep His
word to the letter. Actually He will usually go beyond what
the letter seems to mean. In this instance (cf "And the
LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him" 1 Kings
5:12), while He gave Solomon wisdom, He also added to him
riches and a thousand other things which did not appear in the
compact.
Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you (Matt. 6:33).
He who makes promises about
infinite blessings will throw in everyday things as if they
were of small account and were given in as a matter of course,
like the grocer’s paper bags in which he packs up our
purchases.
Seek
(2212)
(zeteo) means to try to learn where something is or try
to find as a searching for what is lost seek. To attempt to
learn something by careful investigation or searching. Seeking
in the present context speaks of a single minded focus, as
when one's eye is "single" (clear) (see notes
Mt 6:22-23)
Zeteo
is in the
present imperative
so what Jesus is saying is
that the antidote to worrying is to make a daily choice to
prioritize God's kingdom and righteousness. Make it the habit
of your life to prioritize seeking God's Kingdom and
righteousness.
Notice
then that Jesus is
not suggesting but commanding all citizens of the Kingdom of
heaven who still live on earth to cease making material things
the center of their life ("stop worrying" Mt 6:25-32). Instead
the believer's lifelong pursuit is not for things
but the presence, pleasure and Person of Jesus Christ our Lord and our King
("kingdom" always indicates a "king"). See
related resource by Anne Ortlund -
Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
Dear
Lord, may the words of Johnson Oatman's great hymn be
our soul's deepest desire...
Higher Ground
I’m pressing on the upward
way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Refrain
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s table land,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.
Refrain
I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.
Refrain
I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till Heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Refrain
In Mt
6:25-24 what Jesus has done is reduce what we seek for to
effectively two categories, the essentials of life versus
God's Kingdom and righteousness. Seeking for the former will
make us anxious and worried. Seeking for God will give us
peace that passes human understanding.
Jesus
gives God's key to open the door to freedom from worry and
anxiety - make the conscious, volitional choice every day of
your life that your thoughts and actions will demonstrate that
the kingdom of God is your priority in this world which is
passing away.
Have you
every heard of "worry beads" (fidget beads or
komboloi [from kombos = knot or large number of knots + loi =
a group that sticks together] in modern Greece - look it up in
Google) which is a string of beads that
when fingered or played with supposedly relieves nervous
tension? You can get them at some great prices on EBay but they don't work!
However Jesus' powerful teaching beginning in Matthew 6:25 and
culminating in His command in Matthew 6:33 is the truth that
can
set you free if diligently "fingered" (i.e.,
mediated upon and
put into daily practice).
What
Jesus is saying is that in essence "What you seek, you find."
This principle reverberates throughout the Bible...
But from there you will
seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search
for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deut 4:29)
As for you, my son Solomon,
know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart
and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and
understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He
will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject
you forever. (1Chronicles 28:9)
R C Sproul explains
that...
Seeking demands an
intensity, a perseverance that will not be denied, and a zeal
to achieve the desired objective. In addition to refocusing
your goal of righteousness, allow the Scriptures to speak to
your motivation and commitment. (Sproul, R. Vol. 1: Before the
Face of God: Baker Book House; Ligonier Ministries)
J R
Miller (Biography)
wrote that...
We need have only one care,
that we put the first thing first—faithfulness to God. Then
all else we need for both worlds will be supplied. God will
never fail us; but we forget, sometimes, in our rejoicing over
such an assurance, that we must fulfill our part if we would
claim the divine promise.
It will not always be easy.
Tomorrow it may mean a distasteful task, a disagreeable duty,
a costly sacrifice for one who does not seem worthy. Life is
full of sore testings of our willingness to follow the Good
Shepherd. We have not the slightest right to claim this
assurance unless we have taken Christ as the guide of our
life.
First
(4413)
(proton from protos = leading, foremost,
prominent, most important) means first in time, place, order,
importance. The word first indicates one’s first and
ever dominant concern.
The
concept of “seeking first” for the things of God is a
predominant biblical concept that touches one's motivation and
priorities including how one spends their "leisure" time, the
goals one sets in their life, and whether or not they
experience spiritual growth.
What do
you “seek first”? If you are like me, then people, possessions, power, prestige,
pleasure, and other desires compete for your priority. All of
these things can quickly bump God out of first place if we
don’t actively choose to give Him first place in every area of
life. A good way to begin each day is by declaring Romans 12:1
(see note
Romans 12:1)
and then living out the rest of that day as a "living
sacrifice".
It is
interesting that Jesus does not say we are to refrain from
pursuing the material treasures of this world, but that we are
replace those desires with a pursuit that has far greater
significance in this life and the life to come.
What
does it mean to pursue God's righteousness? One aspect is
surely to submit to God's will that His children live
righteously as described in the beatitudes - poor in spirit,
mourning over sin, meek in spirit, hungering and thirsting for
righteousness, etc. In a word this pursuit equates with
sanctification or present tense salvation (see discussion of
the
Three Tenses of Salvation)
Barnhouse gives a
practical illustration of what this righteousness looks
like in a kingdom citizen...
A butcher was once asked
what difference it made to him when Christ entered his life.
He replied, “I stopped weighing my thumb.” He then told how,
before becoming a Christian, he put meat on the scales in such
a way that his thumb trailed down, approximately the weight of
an ounce. He had included that thumb in the weight of beef,
pork, lard, and every other item of his merchandise. But after
Christ came into his heart, he stood away from the scales and
gave a full sixteen ounces of meat. And when he served
customers whom he had formerly cheated, he added an ounce to
make up for past peculations. The Kingdom of God produces
complete integrity in a believer. (Barnhouse, D. G.
God's Glory : Romans 14:13-16:27. Page 13. Grand Rapids, MI.:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
Charles Spurgeon tells the story of a young man who openly
confessed his decision to trust Christ. This decision sorely
offended his father, who advised him,
“James, you should first get yourself established in a good
trade, and then think of the matter of religion.”
“Father,” said the son, “Jesus Christ advises me
differently; He says, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God’ “
(Matt. 6:33).
Lord of the cloud and fire,
I am a stranger, with a stranger's indifference;
My hands hold a pilgrim's staff,
My march is Zionward,
My eyes are toward the coming of the Lord.
--Old Puritan prayer.
In
Faith's Checkbook, Spurgeon has a devotional on Mt 6:33
entitled God First, Then Extras...
SEE how the Bible opens:
“In the beginning God.” Let your life open in the same way.
Seek with your whole soul, first and foremost, the kingdom of
God, as the place of your citizenship, and His righteousness
as the character of your life. As for the rest, it will come
from the Lord Himself without your being anxious concerning
it. All that is needful for this life and godliness
(see note
2 Peter 1:3) “shall be
added unto you.”
What a promise this is!
Food, raiment, home, and so forth, God undertakes to add to
you while you seek Him.
You mind His business,
and He will mind yours.
If you want paper and
string, you get them given in when you buy more important
goods. And just so, all that we need of earthly things we
shall have thrown in with the kingdom. He who is an heir of
salvation shall not die of starvation, and he who clothes his
soul with the righteousness of God cannot be left of the Lord
with a naked body. Away with anxious care. Set all your mind
upon seeking the Lord (see notes
Colossians 3:1;
Colossians 3:2).
Covetousness is poverty,
and anxiety is misery:
Trust in God is an estate,
and likeness to God is a heavenly inheritance.
Lord, I seek thee, be found
of me.
John
Stott sums it up...
“In the end, just as there
are only two kinds of piety, the self-centered and the
God-centered, so there are only two kinds of ambition: one can
be ambitious either for oneself or for God. There is no third
alternative.”
(Stott,
John: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount: 1985, Intervarsity Press)
Constable asks and answers an interesting question....
In view of this
promise how can we explain the fact that some committed
believers have perished for lack of food? There is a wider
sphere of context in which this promise operates. We all live
in a fallen world where the effects of sin pervade every
aspect of life. Sometimes the godly, through no fault of their
own, get caught up in the consequences of sin and perish.
Jesus did not elaborate this dimension of life here but
assumed it as something His hearers would have known and
understood. (Tom
Constable's Expository Notes on the Bible)
A QUESTION OF
PRIORITIES...
WHERE DO YOU SPEND
YOUR TIME AND MONEY?
Pastor Ray Pritchard offers some insights on seeking
writing that...
Everyone seeks something.
We are all by nature seeking people. Some people seek for
money, others for fame, others for pleasure, others for
self-validation, others for sexual fulfillment, and others for
worldly power. We may seek a husband or a wife or we may seek
children or a new job or a better education or a new home or
new friends or a new church. The tragedy of our time is that
so many people are wasting their lives chasing after three
things that can never satisfy—money, sex and power. We want
money, so we sacrifice our families to get it. We want sex so
we sacrifice our morals to get it. We want power so we
sacrifice our friends to get it. And when we finally get it,
it doesn’t satisfy...
Here’s a simple test to
help you discover what you truly seek in life. This test is
absolutely foolproof. You tell me how you spend your time
and your money and I’ll tell you what you are seeking.
You can say anything you like, you can come to church and look
very religious, but your time and your money don’t lie. Time
is life and money is nothing but the time it takes to make the
money. Show me your calendar and your checkbook and I’ll know
the truth about your priorities.
This week I read about a man who looked at his life and
concluded that he was just like the Professor on Gilligan’s
Island. “The Professor knew how to turn banana peels into
diesel fuel and he could take algae and make chocolate fudge,
but he never got around to fixing that hole in the boat so he
could get off the island. Same as me. I spent my life learning
to do amazing things that didn’t matter, and I ignored the
hole in my boat. And that’s why I’m stuck where I am.”...
If you want righteousness,
you can have it. Let me go out on a limb and make a bold
statement. Whatever righteous thing you desire in the
spiritual realm, you can have if you want it badly enough. I
don’t think we appreciate the importance of that truth. Most
of us are about as close to God now as we want to be. We have
about as much joy as we want, about as much peace as we want.
Abraham Lincoln said that “most people are about as happy as
they want to be.” Totally true. We are the way we are because
that’s the way we want to be. Either we’re happy that way or
we’ve accepted that this is who we are and we’re not going to
change. For the most part, you are where you are right now
because that’s where you want to be. If you were hungry for
something better from God, you could have it....
What we seek, we find. This
is true in every area and realm of life. Unless we seek, we
will not find. And what we seek, for good or for ill, we
eventually find. (Matthew 6:33 The
Fourth Law: What You Seek, You Find)
Are
you a God seeking person? Do you really want to know? Ask a
brother or sister in Christ? Or better yet ask an unsaved
person who knows you. They many not know the Scriptures like
you do but you may be surprised at their answer. If the answer
surprises you and you discover others don't see you as a God
seeker, consider Pastor Pritchard's five suggestions to
stimulate your seeking first God's kingdom and His
righteousness...
First, admit your need.
You cannot change until you admit that you need to change. If
you are happy the way you are, then I have nothing to do say
to you. But if you are tired of turning banana peels into
diesel fuel while there’s a hole in your boat, then pay
attention because your life could be radically changed.
Second, cry out to God for help. Early on Sunday
morning I met a man who said, “It happened 16 years ago
today.” What happened? “Sixteen years ago my life hit rock
bottom. Alcohol had destroyed me. My marriage was gone, my
career was ruined, and my life was a wreck. I had tried
everything the world had to offer and nothing seemed to make a
difference. When I finally had nowhere else to turn, I cried
out to Jesus. Sixteen years ago today, he heard my cry and
changed my life.” That man was in our early worship service on
Sunday. He is living proof of the life-changing power of Jesus
Christ. He cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him from
the pit of destruction. If you need the Lord, cry out to him
today. Seek him with all your heart and you will find him.
Third, surround yourself with God-seeking people. You
know who they are. God-seekers aren’t hard to spot. Find some
friends who truly seek the Lord and glue yourself to them. Go
where they go, do what they do. Follow their example.
Eventually one of two things will happen. Either they will
drive you nuts and you will leave them or they will rub off on
you and you will become a God-seeker too.
Fourth, wait on the Lord. This is a hard discipline for
most of us to practice. Our message to God is, “Give me
patience, and give it to me right now!” We want spiritual
maturity and we want it by 11:30 a.m. We’re not accustomed to
waiting patiently on the Lord. But waiting has many positive
benefits. The very act of waiting purifies our hearts and
increases our longing to know the Lord intimately. As we wait
and as we pray, we become like the deer panting for the water.
Our souls grow hungry to know the Lord.
Fifth, spend time in fasting. I believe there is a
direct connection between biblical fasting and seeking the
Lord. For some, that might mean going without a meal once a
week in order to wait on God. For others, it might mean going
a day without a meal. The ancient discipline of biblical
fasting can be practiced many different ways. I have found it
beneficial to take a day a week and fast from sunrise to
sundown. And on occasion I have fasted for several days at a
time. Fasting slows us down, reorients our perspective, weans
us away from our love of the world, and puts us in a spiritual
position where we can seek God with fewer distractions. (If
you would like instruction in this area, I highly recommend
the book A Hunger for God by John Piper from Crossway Books.)
(Ed note:
A Hunger for God
is available free online.
Also see notes on fasting from
Matthew 6:16-18)
The great mystic Thomas a Kempis (who wrote The Imitation of
Christ) said, “Seek God, not happiness.” We have it all
backwards. We seek happiness and hope to have God thrown in as
a bonus. But we end up with neither. The paradox of the gospel
is that when we truly seek God, we find him, and we get
happiness (deep fulfillment, lasting joy, the abundant life)
too. But it takes years for many of us to figure that out, and
some of us never get it straight. To the very end, we pursue
earthly happiness and our own agendas and we wonder why life
leaves us frustrated and disillusioned. (Matthew 6:33 The
Fourth Law: What You Seek, You Find)
David
encourages us...
O fear the LORD, you His
saints; For to those who fear Him, there is no want. The young
lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the LORD
shall not be in want of any good thing. (Psalms 34:9,10)
(Spurgeon comments: "Jehovah will not allow his
faithful servants to starve. He may not give luxuries, but the
promise binds him to supply necessaries, and he will not run
back from his word. Many whims and wishes may remain
ungratified, but real wants the Lord will supply. The fear of
the Lord or true piety is not only the duty of those who avow
themselves to be saints, that is, persons set apart and
consecrated for holy duties, but it is also their path of
safety and comfort. Men seek a patron and hope to prosper; he
who has the Lord of Hosts to be his friend and defender
prospers surely. They are fierce, cunning, strong, in all the
vigor of youth, and yet they sometimes howl in their ravenous
hunger, and even so crafty, designing, and oppressing men,
with all their sagacity and unscrupulousness, often come to
want; yet simple-minded believers, who dare not act as the
greedy lions of earth, are fed with food convenient for them.
No really good thing will be denied to those whose first and
main end in life is to seek the Lord.)
The LORD knows the days of
the blameless; And their inheritance will be forever. 19 They
will not be ashamed in the time of evil; And in the days of
famine they will have abundance...25 I have been young, and
now I am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Or
his descendants begging bread. (Ps 37:18,19,25)
(Spurgeon comments: "None can deprive them of it,
and none shall destroy it. What they have on earth is safe
enough, but what they shall have in heaven is theirs without
end... Their bread will be given them. Our Lord stayed himself
on this when he hungered in the wilderness, and by faith he
repelled the tempter. If God’s providence is our inheritance,
we need not worry about the price of wheat. Faith, if it do
not preserve the crop, can do what is better, namely, preserve
our joy in the Lord.")
and
all these things will be added to you:
kai tauta panta
prostethesetai (3SFPI) humin
(Mt 19:29;
Leviticus 25:20,21;
Psalms 34:9,10;
37:3,18,19,25;
84:11,12;
Mark 10:30;
Luke 18:29,30;
Romans 8:31;
1 Corinthians 3:22;
1 Timothy 4:8)
All
(3956)
(pas) means all without exception and in context all
"these things", the things we "need" (not greed) to live this
life for the glory of our Father Who art in heaven.
Added
(4369)
(prostithemi from prós = to or besides +
títhemi = put) means to add something to an existing
quantity. We have food and clothing for today but God will add
necessary essentials in the future as the need arises. When
our priority is spiritual, God will take care of the material,
for where God guides, He provides.
Elsewhere Jesus declared...
"Truly I say to you, there
is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother
or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the
gospel's sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as
much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions;
and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first,
will be last; and the last, first." (Mark 10:29-31)
As Paul
wrote...
What then shall we say to
these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (see note
Romans
8:31)
The
psalmist writes that...
the LORD God is a sun and
shield; The LORD gives grace and glory. No good thing does He
withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, How
blessed is the man who trusts in Thee! (Psalm 84:11,12) Spurgeon
comments on these verses writing
There is no
good apart from God, and there is no good which He either
needs to keep back or will on any account refuse us, if we are
but ready to receive it. We must be upright and neither lean
to this or that form of evil; and this uprightness must be
practical—we must walk in truth and holiness, then shall we be
heirs of all things, and as we come of age all things will be
in our actual possession; and meanwhile, according to our
capacity for receiving shall be the measure of the divine
bestowal. This is true, not of a favored few, but of all the
saints forevermore. Verse 12. Here is the key of the
psalm. The worship is that of faith, and the blessedness is
peculiar to believers. No formal worshiper can enter into this
secret. We must know the Lord by the life of real faith, or we
can have no true rejoicing in the Lord’s worship, his house,
his Son, or his ways.
F W Grant wrote
that...
Here the Lord’s words mean
plainly, in the connection in which they stand, “Care you for
what belongs to God, and suits Him, and He will care for you:”
and “His righteousness means all that suits His character, as
revealed. Important as the lesson is, it is evidently not what
we need to dwell upon in connection with the present inquiry.
(Grant, F. W. Leaves From The Book)
J C Ryle writes that Jesus
offers us a gracious promise as a remedy against an anxious
spirit. He assures us that if we “seek first” and foremost
to have a place in the kingdom of grace and glory, everything
that we really want in this world will be given to us “as
well” as our heavenly inheritance. “In all things God works
for the good of those who love him” (Romans 8:28).. (Matthew
6:25-34 Expository Thoughts)
><>><>><>
First Things
First - In the late 19th century John Wanamaker opened a department
store in Philadelphia. Within a few years that enterprise had become one
of the most successful businesses in the country. But operating his
store wasn’t Wanamaker’s only responsibility. He was also named
Postmaster General of the United States, and he served as superintendent
for what was then the largest Sunday school in the world at Bethany
Presbyterian Church. When someone asked him how he could hold all those
positions at once, he explained. “Early in life I read, ‘Seek ye first
the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you.’ The Sunday school is my business, all the rest are the
things.”
One evidence of Wanamaker’s desire to keep the Lord’s work first in his
life was a specially constructed soundproof room in his store. Every day
he spent 30 minutes there praying and meditating upon God’s Word. He had
his priorities straight!
><>><>><>
Planned Neglect
- Have you ever noticed how the saints in the Bible were eager to let
God have His way in their lives? They bestirred themselves as soon as
dawn touched the sky in order to worship Him and seek His leading. For
example, Abraham got up very early to stand before the Lord (Gen.
19:27). Jacob in like manner arose from his stony pillows to worship God
after having seen a vision of angels in the night (Gen. 28:18). Moses
went early to meet the Lord at Sinai (Ex. 34:4). Joshua did the same
when he pre-pared to capture Jericho (Josh. 6:12), and Gideon followed
their example when he made his way at dawn to examine the fleece that he
had cast upon the ground to discern Jehovah's will (Judg. 6:38). Hannah
and Elkanah arose early to worship God (1 Sam. 1:19), as did Samuel when
he went to meet Saul (1 Sam. 15: 12). Job left his warm bed to offer
sacrifices for his children (Job 1:5), and the faithful women who had
followed the Savior arose at daybreak that they might go to the
sepulcher on the first Easter morn (Mark 16:2). Say, have you ever
gotten up early to study God's Word, to pray, and to seek His will? Does
He have priority in all you do?
A noted young concert artist was asked the secret of her success with
the violin. "Planned neglect!" she replied, and then explained. "Years
ago I discovered that there were many things which demanded my time.
After washing breakfast dishes, I made my bed, straightened my room,
dusted the furniture, and did a host of other things. I then turned my
attention to violin practice. That system, however, failed to accomplish
the desired results. So I realized I had to reverse things. I
deliberately set aside every-thing else until my practice period was
ended. That program of planned neglect accounts for my success!"
Christian, put priority on daily Bible study and prayer, even if you
must neglect some secondary things. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God!"
He who puts God
first will find God with him at the last!
><>><>><>