MATTHEW VI. 33.
THE Lord Jesus in His great Sermon on the Mount gives many solemn directions and admonitions to His disciples as to the spirit they should cherish and the conduct they should pursue in relation to God and their fellowmen. Among other things, He warns them against the love of the world, and directs them to make it their chief concern to lay up “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” He further exhorts them not to be over-anxious about their temporal maintenance, as to what they should eat and drink, or put on, but to exercise constant trust in their heavenly Father, who cared for the fowls of the air, and the lilies of the field, and who, knowing all their needs, was able and willing to supply them. And then He proceeds: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” It may not be unprofitable at the beginning of a New Year to consider briefly the exhortation and promise expressed in these words from the lips of the great Prophet of the Church and the great Saviour of sinners. Let us notice, then, first, the objects of desire and effort here presented to view, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”; secondly, the call in regard to these objects, “seek ye first;” and thirdly, the promise, “and all these things shall be added unto you.”
I.—The objects presented to view: “the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” There is a kingdom upon earth, of which God Himself is the immediate author and upholder, distinct from the other kingdoms of the world. It is to a certain extent invisible to the eye of sense, but none the less real and glorious on that account. He has appointed His Son as king in this domain, and the subjects of it are all such as are vitally united to Him by the Holy Ghost, and have accepted Him as their Lord and Saviour.
We become subjects of our earthly kingdom by a natural birth; but we become subjects of “the kingdom of God” by a spiritual birth. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We may enjoy many great and valuable privileges of a common kind by membership in an earthly kingdom, such as the one we live in, but such privileges secure us nothing for eternity. It is only those who are vital members of God’s kingdom that have a right to, and are prepared for, the eternal inheritance of the saints in light. How inexpressibly important it is then for us to have a real, living place in this kingdom! Everything else pales into insignificance beside it. Such privilege should be among the first, the supreme things in our esteem. To be permanently outside this kingdom is to be lost for ever.
The Lord Jesus, further, associates with God’s kingdom, as an object of spiritual desire and effort, “his righteousness.” We are to understand this expression, in a comprehensive sense, as embracing all the blessings that are to be enjoyed in His kingdom. God is righteous in all His ways, and even when He manifests Himself as a God of infinite grace and love to unworthy sinners, as He does in this kingdom, He acts consistently with righteousness, and furthers all the ends of righteousness. He provides righteousness for those who have none, and enables them to walk in “the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.” He provides, for example, the great blessing of justifying righteousness. As sinners under a broken covenant of works, we have no righteousness that can meet the just requirements of that covenant. The Son of God came from heaven to earth, and by His substitutionary obedience unto death, wrought out the necessary righteousness in this respect. By His obedience “many shall be made righteous.” Their sins are forgiven, and their persons are accepted. They are made “accepted in the Beloved.” Then there is, next, the blessing of sanctifying righteousness. Whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. He puts within them a new heart and a right spirit—a heart that loves righteousness and hates iniquity. Regeneration is the beginning of sanctification, and He carries on this work in them—of dying unto sin and living unto righteousness—until at death He makes them perfect in holiness, and presents them faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy. There is, further, the blessing of active righteousness—the practical side of sanctification. God calls His people to a life of obedience to His gracious and holy commandments. These embrace within their scope all the relations in which they stand to Himself, to their fellow-Christians, and to the world outside. He sets the perfect standard of righteousness before them in His Word, and it is He also that supplies grace for active conformity to that standard. “Without me,” saith Christ, “ye can do nothing.” The rule of righteousness, and the grace to observe it, are both to be had in God’s kingdom.
II.—Let us, secondly, notice the call to “seek first” His kingdom and righteousness.
This exhortation was addressed immediately to the disciples and followers of Jesus, who were already, in an important sense, inside the kingdom. It signifies, then, a call to “seek first” the promotion of this kingdom in relation to themselves and others. They had by no means attained to perfection, and so they needed to know more and more the blessings of this heavenly kingdom in their hearts and lives. They required to experience more and more deliverance from the evils that were contrary to their best interests, and to rejoice, in still greater measure, in the gracious blessings of righteousness that God had provided in His Son. And then, it was theirs to seek the promotion of God’s kingdom by every lawful means in relation to others. Jesus had already taught them to pray, “Thy kingdom come”; and they were to seek the coming of His kingdom among Jews and Gentiles. Thus also He directs His people and servants still.
His exhortation is, “seek ye first” these things. The word “first” here is of prime importance. These great objects were not to be matters of secondary interest, or even of merely equal interest, to temporal affairs. They were to be supremely first. It would appear that even the true followers of the Lamb were in danger of forgetting this; through remaining carnality and unbelief, they were liable to be engrossed with the things of time and sense, and to allow their affections to go unduly after such things. And so their most glorious Lord and Master must warn and stimulate them on the subject, and teach them that “the kingdom of God and his righteousness” were to be the principal objects of their concern and effort, and that their heavenly Father would attend to all their lesser interests.
The call has also a forcible bearing upon sinners still outside the kingdom. “What shall it profit a man though he should gain the whole world, if he lose his soul?” Multitudes have no other concern than, “What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And wherewithal shall we be clothed?” If they are supplied for time, they care nothing for eternity. A truly deplorable case to be in! And even where there is sometimes a faint desire for a vital interest in the kingdom of God, it is permitted to be overborne by worldly concerns and interests. The Lord Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Let this be your first, supreme, and overwhelming concern. Your everlasting all is at stake. Blessings of infinite value for time and eternity are to be obtained by every true seeker.
And the seeking is to be done by sincere, earnest, importunate prayer at God’s throne, with the use of all the other means of grace that He has appointed, the reading of the Word, the preaching of the Gospel, and the observance of sacramental ordinances in due order. This is the line along which the kingdom of God will be promoted in ourselves and others.
III.—Lastly, we observe the promise: “All these things shall be added unto you.” Christ here intimates that if His hearers sought the kingdom first, above everything else, God would supply all their subordinate and temporal needs. Their heavenly Father knew all their common necessities, and would see to their supply: they were to put implicit confidence in Him for that. But no promise is extended to those who put earthly things first, and heavenly things second. Such persons will be allowed to look after themselves, and find out, in their painful experience, that it is an evil and bitter thing to depart from the living God. If God’s children fall into this snare, they suffer as well as others. Many of them have suffered very grievously, both in Old and New Testament times, through concessions to the spirit of the world—giving the lesser things, a place above the higher.
And what shall be said to those who have no concern beyond the things of earth? They hold all that they possess on the most uncertain tenure—they have no promise of an abiding portion—and God, in righteous judgment, may sweep everything from them in a single moment, and leave them to entire destitution and misery. The call goes forth: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” May God, in His abundant mercy, enable many of our readers to obey the exhortation, and may He give them to enjoy the fulfilment of the promise, with His blessing, during the coming year!