Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Mat 6:33

Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

The profitable pursuit

I. What we are to seek.

II. How we are to seek.

1. First in time.

2. First in attention.

3. What are your desires?

4. What are your exertions? These last two will reveal the object of your search.

III. Why we are thus to seek these blessings.

1. Though destitute, as we naturally are, of His kingdom and righteousness, if we seek them in the manner here required, we shall obtain them.

2. Besides gaining this kingdom and righteousness, all other things shall be added unto us.

Religion has a friendly influence over secular affairs; other things occupy too much of your time and attention.

1. This undue solicitude injures your spiritual welfare.

2. It is hurtful even to your temporal welfare. (W. Jay.)

Religion our chief concern

1. From the excellence of the objects which it proposes.

2. From the certainty of its rewards. (W. Fleming, D. D.)

The care of the body transferred to the soul

I. The conclusion to which the Saviour arrives.

1. The carefulness forbidden.

2. The grounds on which the prohibition is founded.

(1) It is heathenish.

(2) It is ungrateful.

(3) Fruitless and unnecessary.

(4) Unwise.

II. The duty commanded us.

1. The objects we are to pursue-The kingdom of God.

2. The precept given us respecting them-Seek first.

(1) Make religion our earliest and primary object of attention.

(2) Give it preference.

3. The promise annexed to the pursuit.

III. Three reflections.

1. What a friend to man is Christianity!

2. What an enemy to our peace is a worldly spirit:

3. What a reproof does this administer to multitudes of the hearers of the gospel! (J. E. Good.)

The first object in life

Suppose a man should be religious for the sake of temporal advantage. Whatever a mans motive, that is the first thing. Therefore this man is not seeking first the kingdom of God, but the temporal advantages to which his religion is subservient. Do not let a poor man be tempted to think that because he is not richer, either he is not a seeker, or God is not a faithful promiser. Occasions on which we may especially urge this text:-

1. Upon the young man just entering into life.

2. The man who is passing under some temptation to compromise a principle for the sake of some worldly interest-in friendship or business. Whatever be your engagements in life, remember that you have a prior one. And in whatever relation you stand to man, never forget that you have a higher one.

Keep your eye on the eternal.

1. Remember that there is a kingdom within, in which the spiritual is to reign over the carnal.

2. That there is a kingdom around you, which is Gods Church, which is your foremost duty to extend.

3. That there is a kingdom coming which shall put to shame all the riches of this present world. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The first concern

The word seek is contrasted with the same word used in the thirty-second verse: After these things do the Gentiles seek. With what activity, zeal, are these things attended to!

I. We need no argument to convince you that the things after which the gentiles seek occupy a great place in mens minds and necessarily so. Religious ordinances not merely for enjoyment, but to strengthen for the toil of life. But men postpone their salvation. This is against Gods ordinance, Seek first.

(1) In point of preference.

(2) In point of time.

(3) In point of anxiety.

II. The assurance connected with this command. This is a positive assurance; the fulfilment depends upon the faithfulness of God.

1. He argues from the less to the greater-Is not the life more than meat?

2. He takes us to Gods providential care over the lower creatures.

3. If men indulge in disquieting care, what benefit do they derive?

4. Disquieting care is as unnecessary as it is unprofitable. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. A common objection is, How is it that so many good people are in want? Have they been seeking God first? (W. Cadman, M. A.)

Seeking first the kingdom of God

I. What is the kingdom of god?

1. To have the whole of ones heart in subjugation to God.

2. To extend the Church.

3. To pray for and help on the Second Advent.

II. What is his righteousness?

1. There was the righteousness in which man was first made.

2. There is a righteousness which is a part of the character of God.

3. There is a righteousness composed of all the perfections of the life of Christ.

Now this is the righteousness which every good man seeks.

1. That it will justify him before God.

2. Then something that will justify him before his own conscience.

3. The comfort of the thought that it is not to attainers, but to seekers.

4. There is one God in providence and in grace. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Mans first duty

I. His first duty.

1. In priority of time.

2. In excellence of value.

3. It implies diligence.

4. It implies consideration. How the unjust steward planned his conduct.

5. Seek a personal interest in the kingdom of God.

6. Seek the extension of the Redeemers kingdom.

7. Seek the glory of the kingdom.

II. His reward. Godliness hath promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. God is revealed as love; will He allow His servants to starve? He has given a positive pledge He spared not His own Son; shall He not with Him freely give us all things? (H. M. Villiers, M. A.)

I. The extent to which the precept of the text is neglected.

1. By the busy, anxious, laborious class of the community.

2. By the lovers of pleasure.

3. By the lovers of worldly honours and sordid applause.

4. By the professors of religion.

II. The duty of a stricter regard to the precept.

1. The kingdom of God is entitled to this deference.

2. If not sought first, will never be found at all.

3. In this search, all other essential throes will be granted. (J. W. Cunningham, M. A.)

I. What are we to understand by the kingdom of God? The reign of God, the ascendency of God. Self is the great usurper. The righteousness named is the Christian character in all the details of practical religion. To seek them, is to desire these above all other things.

II. All these things shall be added unto you. Temporal necessities. The kingdom of God, etc.

1. It will guard a man against those vain, ostentatious habits above his real income, which bring so many into difficulties, and eventually ruin.

2. It will preserve from those lax and slovenly habits of management which bring so many into ruin.

3. It will preserve from all dishonesty. (Hugh McNeile, M. A.)

Mans first duty, and Gods promise

Jacobs blessing has the preference over Esaus. It is well to obtain first the dew of heaven, then the fatness of the earth. Things are only of value as God blesses them; Gods gifts are better than His permissions. The promises of prosperity in the New Testament are small.

I. How far may our text be used as a motive to godliness? Suppose a family with whom everything goes wrong, their best pains useless. No religion in the family. If I could work a moral change, I feel that the only way of avoiding want. No matter what means used, so long as the man is brought to God. But we must not make secular good the motive; this would not be seeking first the kingdom.

II. What restrictions does our text impose upon human carefulness? It gives no sanction to those enthusiasts who would renounce all worldly provision. Anxiety they ought to dismiss, but not attention; lay aside distrust, but not industry. Not to seek only the kingdom, but first; this implies a second. The text gives no promise of superfluities. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

What t is meant by seeking the kingdom of God?

1. A fixed design and resolution to that end. Like the term and end of a mans journey, towards which the traveller is continually tending, and hath it always habitually in his intention, though he doth not always think of it every step that he takes.

2. Care and diligence as to the means. That we make religion our business, and exercise ourselves in the duties of it, both in public and private. With the same seriousness and application of mind as men do in their callings and professions.

3. Zeal and earnestness in the pursuit of it. The greatness of the design, and the excellency of what we seek after, will justify the highest degree of discreet zeal and fervour in the prosecution of 2:4. Patience and perseverance in our endeavours after the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Notwithstanding all the difficulties, discouragements, the opposition and persecution we may meet with, for righteousness sake. (John Tillotson, D. D.)

I. Constantly and sincerely make use of all means such as He hath prescribed whereby to obtain and practise true grace.

II. Consult and study the Word of God, wherein He hath revealed His will to you.

III. Make it daily your prayer to God, that He, for His Sons sake, will assist you with His grace and Holy Spirit in doing this. (William Beveridge, D. D.)

Providence leaves no excuse for indolence

Take the flowers of the field. They do not reap nor plant; and yet God clothes them with beauty. Very good; the flower has to develop. There is not a single flower in all the wilderness, nor in all gardens, whether of the Orient or here on our continent, that does not work for a living. It sprouts from the seed. It sends down its roots, and every one of these roots is a purveyor hunting underground here, there, and everywhere; developing, spreading out, sucking within and sucking without, dissolving the mineral, pumping here for the juices that are to run up, and searching for water yonder. The willow finds moisture, even though you should not be able to. In darkness the long vine reaches out to the light, seeks it, and at last finds it. Every plant that lives and comes to perfect plant-life is a worker, only on the plane to which he belongs with his limited development, and with his limited organization. It works for a living; and what does it find? What does the bird find? He finds that God so orders the affairs of this world that when ha works according to his nature he is provided for. The plant, when it works and develops itself according to the laws of its nature, finds that providence has provided for it. When a man works and develops according to his nature, he finds a providence that makes it possible for him to live and to thrive. (Beecher.)

Unfitness a great occasion of anxiety

Men are mistaking all the time what they are fit for. Shall a weak man go into the ring to wrestle? Shall a dell and heavy man go on the road to race? Shall an unskilled man undertake to carry on the most skilful shop? Men are all the time miscarrying and miscarrying; it is the collision between impotence and desire that is all the time putting them back; and they are worrying and fretting and anxious. (Beecher.)

1. Because nothing can happen to any without Gods general permission.

2. Because nothing shall happen to His people without Gods special direction.

3. Because in what does happen, the terms good and evil, as we are accustomed to employ them, are often misunderstood and misapplied.

4. Because sufficient will be afforded by every passing day to exercise oar powers and occupy our thoughts, without extending our views beyond. (T. Dale, M. A.)

Forecasting sorrow

1. It renders us insensible to present good.

2. It unfits for the activities of to-day. Anxiety depresses.

4. It gives a practical denial of the Christian creed.

5. It has a saddening influence upon others. (T. Jackson, B. A.)

Anxiety depresses

Men are worn out, enfeebled, aged more by corroding care than by hard labour. Look at a housemaid; if she be bright, cheerful, high-spirited, her toil is performed efficiently and speedily, to the satisfaction of herself and her mistress. How different if she is cheerless and gloomy! A merry heart goes all the day: a sad tires in a mile, observes our great dramatist; while the Chelsea philosopher says, Give us, oh, give us the cheerful man that sings at his work. He will do more in the same time; he will do it better; he will persevere longer. One is scarcely sensible to fatigue when marching to music. (T. Jackson, B. A.)

It renders insensible to present good

A young lady once expressed to Hogarth, the great satirist, a wish to learn to draw caricature. Alas! said he, it is not a faculty to be envied. Take my advice, and never draw caricature. By the long practice of it I have lost the enjoyment of beauty; I never see a face but distorted, and have never the satisfaction to behold the human face divine. So, by constantly looking at the dark side of their life, its distorted and unpleasant aspect-evils at hand and those looming in the distance-men lose the power to appreciate the blessings which are theirs, and make them an object of envy to their neighbours. (T. Jackson, B. A.)

I. Folly to be wholly taken up with the accessories, and neglect the principal.

II. Trouble not yourselves about futurity.

1. Do not anticipate your cares.

2. Do not add vexation to your life by forecasting and designing uncertainties.

3. Leave events to Gods infinite, all-wise disposal.

4. Look after your present duty.

5. Reserve all your strength about you, to bear you up against present difficulties and temptations.

III. Tomorrow is a new day.

1. Brings care of its own.

2. Brings new duties.

3. Fresh troubles.

4. Both its hands are full. Today has enough to do of its own; to-morrow brings its own harvest. (Adam Littleton, D. D.)

The evil here is

I. The evil of punishment.

1. Afflictions.

2. Troubles.

3. Incumbrances and turmoils of life. Every day finds us enough to do. Every year brings us enough to suffer.

II. The evils of sin.

1. Temptations and lapses.

2. Allurements.

3. Suggestions of Satan.

4. Enticements of the world.

As if the load of cares each day lays upon our shoulders were not heavy enough, we ourselves do fetch in more grist, and heap more bags still upon ourselves, by bringing future cares upon us. (T. Jackson, B. A.)

Taking no thought for the morrow

We must regard this injunction as Christ here regards it, as flowing from faith.

1. Faith may be intuitive. It springs at once from love. You have experienced hours when the Presence of a heavenly Friend seems most real; doubt was impossible. Such a faith is a defiance of lifes evils, dares all futurity. The faith of love soars above all the sorrows of time, and gazes on the glory of immortality.

2. Faith arises from reflection on the revelation of God. The belief springing from love does not always live; it is fitful. In nature we find a Fatherly care extending to the least of Gods creatures. Is it possible that faith in this Father can exist with anxious care for the morrow?

3. Faith rises from the conscious feebleness of man. The more we are conscious of our own ignorance and powerlessness, the more utterly can we leave the future in Gods hands. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The future does not belong to fear

The past belongs to gratitude and regret; the present to contentment and work; the future to hope and trust. (Beecher.)

Meeting sorrow

1. This meeting trouble half way is both a sin and an act of folly. God watches over us as individuals. We are doubting Gods love and care for us.

2. This habit of looking out for sorrows makes us forget our past and present blessings.

3. It is a sin to meet sorrow half way, because our present troubles are sufficient without seeking for others.

4. It is a sin because it is a want of faith in God.

5. It makes us melancholy, suspicious, and unfit for duty. (Wilmot Buxton.)

Anxiety produces an unhealthy habit of mind

A man once planted two rose trees, one on either side of his house. The trees were equally strong and healthy, but after a time the one grew and prospered, the other withered and died. Then the man discovered that the living rose tree was on the sunny side of the house. Brethren, we must have the sunshine of faith and hope on our lives, or we cannot live. I have read of a little child who was often observed playing by itself, and laughing and singing with delight. They asked the child what it was playing with, and the little one answered, I am playing with sunbeams. It would be better for some of us who are too apt to look on the dark side to imitate that happy child. If we allow ourselves to be always haunted by the shadow of fancied misfortune, we shall lose faith in prayer, since the black shadow will have eclipsed the face of God. (Wilmot Buxton.)

The future should not embitter the present

Will you shudder at winters snow whilst the flowers of summer are growing around you? (Wilmot Buxton.)

By fighting with fancied ills, we shall be too exhausted to struggle with real misfortunes

Your feet will become so tender from treading on imaginary thorns, that they will not endure the true thorny path, and there is such a path for all to tread. (Wilmot Buxton.)

Sorrows to be borne single

John Newton says: Sometimes I compare the troubles we have to undergo in the course of a year to a great bundle of fagots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry to-day, and then another, which we are to carry to-morrow, and so on. This we might easily manage if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our trouble by carrying yesterdays stick over again to-day, and adding to-morrows burden to our load before we are required to bear it. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

Foreboding

I. Its nature. It is a painful, growing, contagious, discouraging habit.

II. The causes of this unhappy disposition. Constitutional. Bad health. Lack of faith in God.

III. The remedy for this evil habit or disposition of mind. If the result of physical causes must be treated accordingly. If the result of constitutional melancholy must be borne patiently, etc. If from defective faith can only be remedied by an increase of faith. (Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald.)

Live one day in the day

We may consider the year before us as a desk containing 365 letters addressed to us; one for every day, announcing its trials and prescribing its employments, with an order to open daily no letter but the letter for the day. Now, we may be strongly tempted to unseal, beforehand, some of the remainder. This, however, would serve only to embarrass us, while we should violate the rule which our Owner and Master has laid down for us. (Jay.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God] See Clarke on Mt 3:7.

His righteousness] That holiness of heart and purity of life which God requires of those who profess to be subjects of that spiritual kingdom mentioned above. See Clarke on Mt 5:20.

The seventh reason against these worldly cares and fears is-because the business of our salvation ought to engross us entirely: hither all our desires, cares, and inquiries ought to tend. Grace is the way to glory – holiness the way to happiness. If men be not righteous, there is no heaven to be had: if they be, they shall have heaven and earth too; for godliness has the promise of both lives. 1Ti 6:3.

All these things shall be added unto you.] The very blunt note of old Mr. Trapp, on this passage, is worthy of serious attention. All things shall be added. “They shall be cast in as an overplus, or as small advantages to the main bargain; as paper and pack-thread are given where we buy spice and fruit, or an inch of measure to an ell of cloth.” This was a very common saying among the Jews: “Seek that, to which other things are necessarily connected.” “A king said to his particular friend, ‘Ask what thou wilt, and I will give it unto thee.’ He thought within himself, ‘If I ask to be made a general I shall readily obtain it. I will ask something to which all these things shall be added:’ he therefore said, ‘Give me thy daughter to wife.’ This he did knowing that all the dignities of the kingdom should be added unto this gift.” See in Schoettgen.

To this verse, probably, belong the following words, quoted often by Clement, Origen, and Eusebius, as the words of Christ: , , . “Ask great things, and little things shall be added unto you; ask heavenly things, and earthly things shall be added unto you.”

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The kingdom of God, and his righteousness, in this verse, are terms comprehensive of whatsoever appertaineth to the honour and glory of God, either as means, or as the end. Let your principal care and study be how to get to heaven, and how to promote the kingdom of God in the world; to bring your hearts into subjection to the will of God, that the kingdom of God may be within you, and how to bring others to the obedience of faith and of the will of God. And for the things of this life, it shall fare with you as it did with Solomon, 1Ki 3:12, who asked not riches and honour, but had them. You shall have for your necessities, Psa 37:4; Mar 10:30; 1Ti 4:8.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

33. But seek ye first the kingdom ofGod, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added untoyouThis is the great summing up. Strictly speaking, it has todo only with the subject of the present sectionthe right state ofthe heart with reference to heavenly and earthly things; but beingcouched in the form of a brief general directory, it is socomprehensive in its grasp as to embrace the whole subject of thisdiscourse. And, as if to make this the more evident, the two keynotesof this great sermon seem purposely struck in it”the KINGDOM”and “the RIGHTEOUSNESS”of the kingdomas the grand objects, in the supreme pursuit ofwhich all things needful for the present life will be added to us.The precise sense of every word in this golden verse should becarefully weighed. “The kingdom of God” is theprimary subject of the Sermon on the Mountthat kingdom which theGod of heaven is erecting in this fallen world, within which are allthe spiritually recovered and inwardly subject portion of the familyof Adam, under Messiah as its Divine Head and King. “Therighteousness thereof” is the character of all such, soamply described and variously illustrated in the foregoing portionsof this discourse. The “seeking” of these is themaking them the object of supreme choice and pursuit; and the seekingof them “first” is the seeking of them before andabove all else. The “all these things” which shallin that case be added to us are just the “all these things”which the last words of Mt 6:32assured us “our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of”;that is, all we require for the present life. And when our Lord saysthey shall be “added,” it is implied, as a matter ofcourse, that the seekers of the kingdom and its righteousness shallhave these as their proper and primary portion: the rest being theirgracious reward for not seeking them. (See an illustration ofthe principle of this in 2Ch 1:11;2Ch 1:12). What follows is but areduction of this great general direction into a practical and readyform for daily use.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But seek first the kingdom of God,…. Meaning either the Gospel, and the ministration of it; in which sense this phrase is often used, see Mt 21:43 and which is diligently to be sought after, and into; to be constantly attended on, and to be preferred to our necessary food, to raiment, or riches, or any enjoyment of life: or else the kingdom of glory, which is prepared by God, and is his gift; for which he makes his people meet here, and will introduce them into it hereafter.

And his righteousness; the righteousness of God, which is revealed in the Gospel, and is what gives a right and title to the kingdom of heaven. This is not the righteousness of man, but of God; and is no other than the righteousness of Christ; so called, because he is God who has wrought it; it is what God approves of, accepts, and imputes, and which only can justify in his sight, and give an abundant entrance into his kingdom and glory. Heaven is to be sought for in the first place, as the perfection of the saints’ happiness; and Christ’s righteousness is to be sought for, and laid hold on by faith, as the way and means of enjoying that happiness; without which, there will be no entering into the kingdom of heaven.

And all these things shall be added unto you: of the free bounty, goodness, and liberality of God, without your thought and care, and much less merit; even “all these things”, meat, drink, clothing, or whatsoever worldly sustenance else is necessary for you: which are not parts of the happiness of saints, only appendages thereunto; which they have over and above what they are, or should be chiefly seeking after. The Hebrews r say,

“that no good sign will be shown to Israel, until they return and “seek” three things: “afterwards the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord”;

, “this is the kingdom of heaven”; and “David their king”, according to its literal sense; “and shall fear the Lord and his goodness”; this is the house of the sanctuary, as it is said, “this goodly mountain”, and Lebanon.”

r Jarchi & Kimchi, in Hos. iii. 5.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

First his kingdom ( ). This in answer to those who see in the Sermon on the Mount only ethical comments. Jesus in the Beatitudes drew the picture of the man with the new heart. Here he places the Kingdom of God and his righteousness before temporal blessings (food and clothing).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “But seek ye first the kingdom of God,” (zeteite de proton ten basileian kai ten dikaisousnen autou) “Then you all seek first (in priority) his kingdom and righteousness,” Rom 14:17-18. The kingdom of God differs from “the kingdom of heaven,” in that the latter refers restrictedly to His New Covenant church, and the former refers to all that is under God’s jurisdiction or domain.

2) “And his righteousness,” (kai ten dikaiosunen autou) “And his righteousness,” the righteousness of God, things that are morally and ethically right in His sight or presence; For the saved and unsaved, parents and children, all responsible human beings, such as was required even under the Law of Moses.

3) “And all these things shall be added unto you.” (kai tauta panta prostethesetai humin) “And all these (kind of) things shall be added to you all,” your food, your drink, your clothing and your shelter, the necessary things of life for living, moving, and having or holding your existence, Act 17:28; Heb 13:5; Php_4:19.

The “ye” of this verse refers to the new called company of disciples, the church body; It is the light of the world “ye” and salt of the earth “ye”, to whom He was speaking specifically; They were to trust wholly in God to supply their needs, as they sought to do His work, as an executive body and example of His righteousness now on earth, Mat 5:1-2; Mat 5:13-14; Mat 5:20; Mat 16:18; Mat 18:15-17; The “ye” of the Sermon on the Mount was the “chosen ye” whom Jesus had called from among the Gentiles, to be His witnesses and witnessing agency, was His church, a New Covenant company to which He committed His work and worship-services of this age, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:26; Act 1:22; Act 10:37; Act 15:13-15; Joh 20:21; Mat 28:18-20; Mr 16:15; Eph 3:21.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Mat 6:33

. But rather seek first the kingdom of God This is another argument for restraining excessive anxiety about food. It argues a gross and indolent neglect of the soul, and of the heavenly life. Christ reminds us that there is the greatest inconsistency in men, who are born to a better life, being wholly employed about earthly objects. He who assigns the first rank to the kingdom of God, will not carry beyond moderation his anxiety about food. Nothing is better adapted to restrain the wantonness of the flesh from breaking out in the course of the present life, than meditation on the life of the heavens. The word righteousness may be either understood as applying to God, or to the kingdom: (463) for we know that the kingdom of God consists in righteousness, (Rom 14:17,) that is, in the newness of spiritual life. All other things shall be added This means, that those things which relate to the present life are but favorable appendages, and ought to be reckoned greatly inferior to the kingdom of God

(463) On the latter supposition, we would naturally have expected that, instead of τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ, we would have had τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτὢς, when αὐτὢς would have stood for τὢς βασιλείας. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(33) Seek ye first the kingdom of God.The context shows that the words point to the seeking of prayer, rather than of act, though the latter meaning is, of course, not excluded. What is thus to be sought is the kingdom of God (the change from the less personal kingdom of heaven is significant), the higher spiritual life in its completeness, for ourselves and for others; and with it we are to seek His righteousness, that which, being perfect beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, must be His gift to us, and therefore to be sought in prayer. One who seeks for this may well be content to leave all else in his Fathers hands. Even without his asking they shall be added unto him in such measure as is best for him. Among the few traditional sayings ascribed to our Lord of which we can think as probably an authentic report of His teaching, is one to the same effect quoted by Origen and Clement of Alexandria, Ask great things, and little things shall be added to you: ask heavenly things, and earthly things shall be added to you.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

33. Seek The word is here emphatic, opposed to the seek of Mat 6:32. After these things the Gentiles seek, first and supremely; just as you should seek, first and supremely, the kingdom of God. No one can read the history of heathen nations, especially the great nations of antiquity, in the right spirit, without perceiving their sad condition arising from their loss of the proper knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. Losing all thought of his care, they cared supremely for themselves. They had nobody else to take care of them. Sordid, unscrupulous, and cruel selfishness was the result. No substitute for God was found in idolatry; for their idols, being the personification of their own passions, produced truly nothing but a self-worship, and so aggravated the evil. Against this whole system of Gentilism our Lord here raises the standard. Sons of men, you have a Father in heaven; relax this intense self-care; trust yourselves to him; know him as holy, and seek his righteousness; and so accepting his dominion, doubt not that all earthly goods shall be subordinately added unto you.

First the kingdom added We have here a summary of the whole requirement God supreme and earth subordinate; his kingdom first, and all proper earthly good as an appendix. He who does this will be religious first, industrious and prudent next, and will place faith in his heart, instead of care, finally.

Kingdom of God That is, the dominion or supremacy of God. With your trust in God, obey the laws of God. He is holy; be ye, therefore, holy. And, as I am his messenger, speaking in his name, come ye out under my guidance from the kingdom of Gentilism into the kingdom of God.

All these things All the things of Mammon that you need. Even in all true worldly good, God will be better than Mammon.

Shall be added unto you So that, under all these prohibitions of anxious distrust, the blessed Jesus presupposes that there shall exist in our hearts a rightful, trusting care, and a provident thought for the true and temperate enjoyment of earthly good which shall be added, through our proper performance of duty, by our heavenly Father unto us. The interpretation which we have here given arises from the text, and completely repudiates and refutes the skeptical charge that our Lord teaches either a high impracticable morality, a monastic unworldliness, or a filthy, mendicant, idle life, like that of the friars of popery.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The care which God demands:

v. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

To seek, earnestly to covet, to put the whole heart to the gaining of, the kingdom of God, is a most necessary care for the disciples of Christ, for the children of God. For this kingdom is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom 14:17. To possess this righteousness, which is well-pleasing to God, to be filled with the fruits of this righteousness, to become rich in truly good works, that is a goal worthy of the Christian’s ambition. Such a constant seeking after purity of heart and holiness of life will incidentally stifle all care and worry of this life. And the little things of this earthly body and life will then come as a matter of course, the main object of the quest having been secured. They will be cast into our laps as an overplus, as an addition to the great bargain which our seeking has gained. Therefore, once more:

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 6:33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, &c. That is, true religion; the advantages of the kingdom of God; righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, Rom 14:17 the treasures mentioned in Mat 6:20. Compare 1Ki 3:11-12. And his righteousness, that is to say, the image of God and all the fruits thereof, springingfromtheinfinitemeritofChrist,thefountainofallrighteousness,asillustrated by the Lord Jesus Christ, and not as understood by the Pharisees. See ch. Mat 5:6. Dr. Sykes, here, by righteousness understands the Messiah; the righteous branch, who was to rule in righteousness, and in whose days the righteous were to flourish. See Sykes on Christianity, p. 35. But the former interpretation seems most agreeable to the context. The meaning of the original word is, shall be added over and above; than which expression nothing could have been more proper; for these temporal blessings are by no means essential to the stipulations of the covenant of grace, but are entirely to be referred to the divine good pleasure, to add or withhold as God shall see fit. The goods of this world ought not to be looked upon by Christians as trueand essential advantages. They should make a good use of them, if God thinks proper to bless them therewith, 1Ti 4:8 but if not, their duty is, to be satisfied with their own portion, whatever it is, being possessed of spiritual goods, and hoping for those that are eternal. Heb 11:10; Heb 11:13; Heb 11:16-17.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 6:33 . ] now states what they ought to do, instead of indulging that care forbidden in Mat 6:31 .

] in the first place , before you strive after anything else; your first striving. In that case a second is, of course, unnecessary, because their food, their drink, and their raiment . But in the the subordinate striving after something is not even “darkly” sanctioned (de Wette); on the contrary, and notwithstanding the , this striving is excluded as much by Mat 6:32 as by . Accordingly, that first striving is the only one.

The simple is distinguished from . not in respect of degree, but only in such a way that the latter points out the direction of the striving. Hence , 2Sa 3:8 . Comp. note on Rom 11:7 ; Phi 4:7 .

. ] (see the critical remarks) where the belonging to both substantives refers, according to Mat 6:32 , to God, and is meant to convey the idea that what is to form the object and aim of our striving is the Messianic kingdom , the becoming partakers in it, the being admitted into it, and the moral righteousness which God imparts to the believer to assist him to attain the kingdom.

] See Mat 6:31-32 . The distinction between and lies merely in this, that in the former it is the demonstrative idea on which the emphasis is placed, whereas in the latter it is the idea of universality that is so. See Winer, p. 510 [E. T. 686]. Comp. Lobeck, ad Aj . 1023; Saupp, ad Hipparch . VI. 5.

] will be added , namely, to the moral result of your striving. Comp. the saying of Christ handed down by Clement, Origen, and Eusebius: , , (Fabricius, Cod. Apocr . i. p. 329), which differs from our passage in the generality of its terms, and in having .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Ver. 33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness ] That as the end, this as the means; for grace is the way to glory, holiness to happiness. If men be not righteous there is no heaven to be had; as if they be, they shall have heaven and earth too: for godliness hath the promise of both lives; and godly men, in Scripture (Abraham, Job, David, others), were richer than any: and so men might be now if they would be as godly. The good God had furnished Constantine the Great with so many outward blessings, as scarcely any man dare ever have desired, saith St Austin. a He sought God’s kingdom first, and therefore other things sought him: and so they would do us, did we but run the same method. Riches and honours, delights and pleasures, life and length of days, seed and posterity, are all entailed upon piety, Pro 3:16-17 Deu 28:1-14 Psa 112:2-3 . The wicked in the fulness of his sufficiency is in straits, Job 20:22 , when the godly in the fulness of their straits are in all-sufficiency. Oh, who would not then turn spiritual purchaser, and with all his gettings get godliness? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” saith divinity (first, before anything else; and first, more than any other thing). Seek ye first the good things of the mind, saith philosophy, b Caetera aut aderunt, aut certe non oberunt. But our senseless over valuing of earthly things and under valuing of heavenly is that which maketh us so carkingly careful in the one, and so recklessly affected in the other. The lean kine eat up the fat, and it is nothing seen by them. The strength of the ground is so spent in nourishing weeds, tares, or grain of little worth, that the good wheat is pulled down, choked, or starved. Earthly mindedness sucketh the sap of grace from the heart, as the ivy doth from the oak, and maketh it unfruitful. Correct therefore this ill-humour, this choke-weed: cast away this clog, this thick clay, that makes us like that deceased woman in the Gospel, that being held of a spirit eighteen years, could not look up to heaven, Luk 13:11 . And learn to covet spiritual things, labour for the meat that perisheth not. Lay hold upon eternal life, whatever you let go. Temporal things are, nec vera, nec vestra, mutable and momentary, mixed and infected with care in getting, fear in keeping, grief in losing. Besides, they are insufficient and unsatisfactory, and many times prove instruments of vice, and hindrances from heaven c Spiritual things, on the other side, are solid and substantial, serving to a life that is supernatural and supernal. They are also certain and durable, Nec prodi, nec perdi, nec eripi, nec surripi possunt. They are sound and sincere, a continual feast, without cessation or the least intermission, d they serve to, and satisfy the soul; as being the gain of earth and heaven, and of him that filleth both. Seek ye therefore first, &c. Our Saviour, in his prayer, gives us but one petition for temporals, five for spirituals, to teach us this lesson. Scipio went first to the capitol, and then to the senate, &c. Aristotle saith, first take care of divine things: that is the best policy. . (Polit. vii. 8.)

And all these things shall be added unto you ] They shall be cast in as a bonus, or as those small advantages to the main bargain; as pepper and pack thread is given where we buy spice and fruit; as a handful is cast into the sack of grain, or an inch of measure to an ell of cloth. These follow God’s kingdom, as the blackguard do the court, or as all the revenue and retinue doth some great lady that one hath wedded. The night of Popery shall shame such as think much of the time that is spent with and for God; for in their superstitious zeal they were wont to say, Mass and meat hinders no man’s thrift. It would be a great stay of mind, if the king should say to us for ourselves, the same that David did to Mephibosheth, “Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness,” and “thou shalt surely eat bread at my table continually,” 2Sa 9:7 . Or if he should say to us for our children, as David did to Barzillai the Gileadite concerning Chimham: “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good unto thee: and whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that will I do for thee,” 2Sa 19:38 ; hath not God said as much here as all this, and shall we not trust and serve him, cleave to him, and rest on him without fear or distraction?

a Bonus Deus Constant. mag. tantis terrenis implevit muneribus, quanta optare nullus auderet. Aug. Civ. Dei, 5. 25.

b Quaerite primum bona amimi. Cicero.

c Lucrum in arca facit damnum in conscientia. Aug.

d . Diog. ap. Plut.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

33. ] Not with any reference to seeking all these things after our religious duties, e.g. beginning with prayer days of avarice and worldly anxiety, but make your great object, as we say, your first care.

] Not here the forensic righteousness of justification , but the spiritual purity inculcated in this discourse. . answers to , spoken of in ch. Mat 5:48 , and is another reference to the being as our Heavenly Father is. In the Christian life which has been since unfolded, the righteousness of justification is a necessary condition of likeness to God; but it is not the . . here meant. , these things, all of them the emphasis being on the genus all such things: , all these things ‘ the whole of the things mentioned ’ the emphasis being on , the fact that all without exception are included. See Winer, 18. 4.

. ] There is a traditional saying of our Lord, , , . Fabric. Cod. Apocr. i. 329. (Meyer.)

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

the kingdom of God. See App-114. Occurs five times: Mat 6:33; Mat 12:28; Mat 19:24; Mat 21:31, Mat 21:43.

His: i.e. God. L T [A] WH R omit, and read “His righteousness and kingdom”.

shall be added. Hebraism = come on afterward, as in Act 3:12, Act 3:3. Luk 20:11. Septuagint for Hebrew. yasaph.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

33. ] Not with any reference to seeking all these things after our religious duties, e.g. beginning with prayer days of avarice and worldly anxiety, but make your great object, as we say, your first care.

] Not here the forensic righteousness of justification, but the spiritual purity inculcated in this discourse. . answers to , spoken of in ch. Mat 5:48, and is another reference to the being as our Heavenly Father is. In the Christian life which has been since unfolded, the righteousness of justification is a necessary condition of likeness to God; but it is not the . . here meant. , these things, all of them-the emphasis being on the genus-all such things: , all these things-the whole of the things mentioned-the emphasis being on ,-the fact that all without exception are included. See Winer, 18. 4.

.] There is a traditional saying of our Lord, , , . Fabric. Cod. Apocr. i. 329. (Meyer.)

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 6:33. , seek ye) the kingdom which is nigh at hand, and not difficult of acquisition.-, first) He who seeks that first, will soon seek that only.-, kingdom.-, righteousness) Heavenly meat and drink are opposed to earthly, and thus also raiment; and, therefore, St Luke in his twelfth chapter leaves raiment to be understood at Mat 6:29, and righteousness at Mat 6:31, although righteousness also filleth; see ch. Mat 5:6.[296]-, his) sc. righteousness.-See the note on Rom 1:17.-, these things) An instance of Litotes.[297]-, shall be added unto) These things are a or appendage of the life and body (see Mat 6:25); and still more so of the kingdom (see Luk 12:32).

[296] Sc. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they shall be FILLED. See also Gnomon in loc.-(I. B.)

[297] The word used in the original is , concerning which John Albert Burk says, in his Explanation of the Technical Terms employed in the Gnomon-

LITOTES, , , EXTENUATIO, qu singul in Gnomone passim allegantur, vix ac ne vix quidem differunt.

For explanation and examples, see Appendix.-(I. B.)

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

kingdom of God

The kingdom of God is to be distinguished from the kingdom of heaven (See Scofield “Mat 3:2”), in five respects:

(1) The kingdom of God is universal, including all moral intelligences willingly subject to the will of God, whether angels, the Church, or saints of past or future dispensations Luk 13:28; Luk 13:29; Heb 12:22; Heb 12:23 while the kingdom of heaven is Messianic, mediatorial, and Davidic, and has for its object the establishment of the kingdom of God in the earth (See Scofield “Mat 3:2”) 1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:25.

(2) The kingdom of God is entered only by the new birth Joh 3:3; Joh 3:5-7 the kingdom of heaven, during this age, is the sphere of a profession which may be real or false. (See Scofield “Mat 13:3”) Mat 25:1; Mat 25:11; Mat 25:12

(3) Since the kingdom of heaven is the earthly sphere of the universal kingdom of God, the two have almost all things in common. For this reason many parables and other teachings are spoken of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew, and of the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke. It is the omissions which are significant. The parables of the wheat and tares, and of the net Mat 13:24-30; Mat 13:36-43; Mat 13:47-50 are not spoken of the kingdom of God. In that kingdom there are neither tares nor bad fish. But the parable of the leaven Mat 13:33 is spoken of the kingdom of God also, for, alas, even the true doctrines of the kingdom are leavened with the errors of which the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Herodians were the representatives. (See Scofield “Mat 13:33”).

(4) The kingdom of God “comes not with outward show” Luk 17:20 but is chiefly that which is inward and spiritual Rom 14:17 while the kingdom of heaven is organic, and is to be manifested in glory on the earth. (See “Kingdom (O.T.),” Zec 12:8, note; (N.T.),; Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:24, note; Mat 17:2, note.) (See Scofield “Zec 12:8”), Luk 1:31-33 See Scofield “1Co 15:24” See Scofield “Mat 17:2”

(5) The kingdom of heaven merges into the kingdom of God when Christ, having put all enemies under his feet, “shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father” 1Co 15:24-28 (See Scofield “Mat 3:2”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

The First Things First

But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.Mat 6:33.

There is no sentence which more distinctively expresses the mind of Jesus regarding the conduct of life than Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness. It gathers up everything into itself. It is His definition of the chief good which is within the reach of men. Many other words of His may be taken as ruling principles of life, but they are only parts of this simple and sublime utterance. It is the secret of Jesus, the clue which He put into the hands of men to guide them through the labyrinth of life.

Many of the deep-reaching principles of Jesus were spoken in opposition to those of the Scribes and Pharisees, but in this instance He passes beyond the ideas of any sect or class, and sets forth His thought of the chief aim of life in contrast to what was universally held then, and is also widely, if not universally, held now. In His moral perspective the desirable things of life are arranged in a startlingly new order, and with a surprisingly strong emphasis. He places first what men degrade to a very subordinate position. In the foreground, as mens highest and best good, He sets the quest for the Kingdom of God.

I

The Kingdom of God

Every man who would make life a success must have something that is always first for him. Now Jesus declared that the great first thing of life is the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness.

1. The Kingdom of God and His righteousness is one of the key-phrases of the gospel, and it is freely employed in many connexions. Christ takes it from the common stock of political phraseology, from which the men of His nation clothed their aspirations. In a theocracy the State adopts the language of the Church and advances identical claims. The Kingdom of God, as the formula of Messianic politics, meant no more than a mere project of nationalist triumph. But Christ, in adopting the phrase, purged it of secularism, exalted it from the plane of politics to that of morals, and enlarged it until all the drama of human life could be gathered within its meaning. It stood for loyalty to the higher self, obedience to the Divine monitions of conscience, the pursuit of righteous ends, the self-dedication to spiritual service, the sustained crusade against evil within and without the man himself. Christ tells us that there is a true order of human endeavour, and that when that order is followed all the lesser concerns of human life find sufficient and unfailing guarantee. Make these your principal concern, and you lose the summum bonum itself, and do not even secure them. Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. He unrolls before us no alluring picture of reward, no Muhammadan Paradise of feasting and pleasure, but He tells us that we are the sons of the Most High, and bids us live as such.

Nor sang he only of unfading bowers,

Where they a tearless, painless age fulfil,

In fields Elysian spending blissful hours,

Remote from every ill;

But of pure gladness found in temperance high,

In duty owned, and reverenced with awe,

Of mans true freedom, which may only lie

In servitude to law.

2. The Kingdom of God which we are to seek is a great ideal, under which all lesser aims must find their place; it provides us with a great end of all action to which the plans and purposes of our daily lives are but means; it informs our lives with a great principle by which all our acts are co-ordinated and to which they are relative. The word kingdom speaks of something wide, all-embracing, manifold, but with all its manifoldness made one by law, which impresses upon all its diverse elements the unity of one will, one purpose, one destiny. We are too apt to speak of an ideal as something wholly unattainable, and to excuse ourselves for not living the ideal life by saying that it is ideal; that is not the sense in which our Lord speaks of the Kingdom of God. It is rather an ideal to be realized in every act, and therefore within our reach at every moment; imperfect as we are, it is to be embodied in us, and made visible to the world through our lives. To seek for the material objects, the subordinate aims of life first, before this ideal is apprehended, is to invert the order in which God would have us live; to immerse ourselves in details, without constant reference to the ideal, is to break up our lives, our characters, our institutions, into incoherent fragments devoid of all unity. The details are not indeed unimportant, but they are important only in relation to the ideal, which gives to them all their beauty, all their excellence. Without it they are but as the random streaks of colour on a painters palette; with it, and in due subordination to it, they are as the various brush-strokes which gradually realize on the canvas the one purpose of the painters mind. All these things, these lesser objects, these fragmentary aims, these partial goods, shall be not theirs who strive for them alone, but theirs who seek first the ideal, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

In all ages men have dreamed of isles of the blessed and Elysian fields. Some have dreamed of Utopias in this world. But in all these dreams only externals have been considered. Pindar sings:

For them the night all through,

In that broad realm below,

The splendour of the sun spreads endless light;

Mid rosy meadows bright

There with horses and with play

With games and lyres they while the hours away.

And Plato in his ideal republic, and modern dreamers, plan only for an equitable distribution of property and the elimination of poverty, that should accompany the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven. But the first characteristic of the Kingdom of Heaven is that it is inward. Facts prove that men can be rich and educated and yet vile. Nations have been prosperous and cultured, but rotted away because of their sin. The Kingdom of Heaven is in the heart of men. St. Paul said, The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.1 [Note: H. K. Ebright.]

3. The Kingdom of God, to use Bishop Gores terse and pregnant definition, is, human society as organized according to the will of God, just as the world of the New Testament is human society as organized apart from the will of God. It means the will of the Father-king done in earth, as it is in heaven. Now to take up our ordinary daily work, whatever it be, as a ministry of human service fitting into the great plan of God for a redeemed universe, and to do it to that end, to set that high purpose and ideal over it all and be absolutely faithful to that, cost what it may of success or gain, whether in the form of wages or profits, to eliminate the mercenary motive and substitute that spiritual purposethat is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in our common occupations.

The Kingdom of God is an empire with three provinces. One province is a mans own heart, when the throne of Christ is once really set up in it. Another province is the Church as it is established upon the earth. And another is that final and magnificent condition of all things, when Christ shall come and reign in His glory. There are, then, before every one these three great primary objects: the first is to have the whole of ones own heart in subjugation to God; the second is to extend the Church; and the third is to long and pray for, and help on, the Second Coming of Christ. If we have begun to make the Kingdom of God our great object, then our first desire is that Christ may have His proper place in our hearts. Our great longing is after holiness. We are more anxious about our holiness than we are about our happiness. And then every day we are trying to make some one happier and better. We have in our circles inner ones and outer ones. We do not neglect the nearer for the sake of the farther one; but yet we do not so confine ourselves to that which is close that we do nothing for that which is far off. But we love the Church, the whole Church of Christ; we are trying to increase the Church of Christ; we go about with a missionary spirit. And, further, our eye is looking for the coming of Jesus. It is a happy thought to us every day, Now the coming of Jesus is nearer than it was yesterday, because it is to us no fear; we are not watching against it, we are watching for it; it is the climax of all pleasant things to us.

The return of Christ in bodily form to reign over His faithful ones, their own bodies rescued from death and the grave, is the aim and goal of our exultant hope. For that return His early followers eagerly waited. And their eager hope suggested that perhaps they might hear His voice and see His face without passing under the dark shadow of death. That expectation was not fulfilled. And we cannot share it. But, long as the time seems, that day will come. Had we witnessed the creation of matter, and known that long ages were predestined to elapse before rational man would stand on the earth, our expectation would have wearied at the long delay. But those long ages rolled by; and for thousands of years our planet has teemed with rational life. So will pass by whatever ages remain before our Lords return. Many reasons suggest that, though not close at hand, it cannot be very long delayed. Doubtless we shall lay us down for our last sleep. But in our sleep we shall be with Him. And when the morning dawns we shall wake up in the splendour of the rising Sun.

Yes, I come quickly.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.1 [Note: J. Agar Beet, The Last Things, 112.]

4. Thus the Kingdom is both individual and social. It begins with the individual indeed; it can do nothing unless it transforms the springs of action within him. But it does not end with the individual. It proposes to regenerate society also, and so to renew both that every individual act and every social agency shall be in harmony with the original ideal of God. Its Founder in His humility declared the Kingdom of God to be like leaven which rests not till it pervades and restores the mass unto itself. And when He sat upon His throne, He said, Behold, I make all things new.

The Kingdom of Heaven does not mean the kingdom in heaven. The phrase describes the Kingdoms temper and quality, not its locality. It is a term spiritual, and not geographical. John Bunyan had a wonderful vision of spiritual experience in Bedford gaol. It is accurate enough so long as you make it subjective. A man ought to escape from spiritual pest-holes, and struggle out of spiritual despondency, and get the burden of his sin loosened from the shoulders of his soul, and vigorously climb hills of difficulty, and valiantly fight the devil, and get mountain-top visions of the Glory Land, before he gets to the Celestial City. But if you forget that these are interior experiences that the great spiritual dramatist is describing, and make them instead a picture of a mans actual attitude towards the world, then the pilgrims achievement ceases to be a spiritual exercise and becomes a terribly selfish performance. For the thing that is true about the man who really seeks the Kingdom where it ought to existthat is, on earthis that he will not run away from the city of destruction, but do his best to make it a city of God; will not calmly desert wife and family to get personal spiritual treasure; and will not be carelessly indifferent to his companions on his trip because they are not of his sort. And if he comes to a slough of despond, he will try to drain the swamp instead of merely floundering in and floundering out again; and when he escapes from the castle of the Giant Despair, he will bombard the castle and do his best to make an end of the giant for the sake of other poor pilgrims. His business is not to get to the City Celestial as soon as possible, but to bring celestial atmosphere and celestial splendour into all the regions through which he moves.1 [Note: W. MacMullen.]

5. Our Lord adds, and his righteousness. What does He mean? There is a righteousness such as that in which man was originally made upright; there is a righteousness which is a part of the character of God; and there is a righteousness composed of all the perfections of the life of Christ. These three righteousnesses are all one. Now, this triple righteousness is what every good man is seeking after: first, something which will justify him before God, and then something which will justify him to his own conscience, and to the world, in believing that he is justified before God. And where shall a man find his justification before God but in faith in Jesus Christ? And where shall a man find the justification of his faith and hope that he is justified, but in the justification of his own good works which he is doing every day? To those, then, that seek these two thingsthe kingdom and the righteousnessthe promise belongs.

Righteousness, as it was understood and taught by Christ, includes the two things which we often distinguish as religion and morality. It is right-doing, not only as between man and man, but as between man and God. The Lawgiver of the New Testament, like the lawgiver of the Old, has given to us two tables of stone. On the one He has written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and on the other, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. In these two commandments the whole law is summed up, the whole duty of man is made known.1 [Note: G. Jackson, The Teaching of Jesus, 129.]

6. Gods righteousness is itself the very spirit of His own Kingdom. Christ does not here tell us merely to seek righteousness, though elsewhere we are thus bidden; but to seek Gods righteousness. Any righteousness which is of our own making, which we try to gain by standing aloof from Him, is worth nothing at all. His righteousness does not merely mean righteousness like His, but His own very righteousness. We must receive Himself into our hearts, and then His righteousness will spring up within us and overflow all our doings.

And we receive God into our hearts by receiving Christ. Christ is all His followers are to be; in Him the righteousness of the Kingdom is incarnate. From henceforth the righteous man is the Christ-like man. The standard of human life is no longer a code but a character; for the gospel does not put us into subjection to fresh laws; it calls us to the study of a living Person, and the following of a living Mind. And when to Jesus we bring the old question, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? He does not now repeat the commandments, but He says, If thou wouldst be perfect, follow Me, learn of Me, do as I have done to you, love as I have loved you.

Unselfed and inchristed is the phrase that has been employed to set forth the great transaction of spiritual renewal; and observe how the Apostle encourages us to serve a writ of ejection on the old tenant, our evil self, and to bring in a new occupant of the premises: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. No betterment or reformation of the depraved tenant, who is also in hopeless arrears with his landlord, but a peremptory order to move out! Moreover, the Christian is considered to have done this very thingevicted his former self, and set its goods and chattels out upon the sidewalk. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So vividly and strongly did this conception take hold of Martin Luther that he used to say, When any one comes and knocks at the door of my heart and asks, Who lives here? I reply, Martin Luther used to, but he has moved out, and Jesus Christ now lives here. 1 [Note: A. J. Gordon: A Biography, 100.]

II

The Kingdom First

Seek ye first. It is interesting to note that the word translated seek in the text has for one of its meanings, if not for its primary significance, to beat the covers for birds. It is the sportsmans method of seeking. How does a sportsman seek? Many readers of these words will know from experience what it means in the way of work, even under the most favourable conditions, for a sportsman to fill his baghow he must be prepared to wade swamps, climb uplands, push through brake and brier, watch, wait, wriggle, and in fact do everything but fail, for no sportsman worthy of the name cares to come back with an empty bag. If, however, he is to succeed, his whole soul must be in his quest. Hand and eye and ear must all be working in concert. For note it is birds under cover to which the word relates, and, that being so, the bird is up only for a brief moment, and must be taken as it flies. What a startling suggestion is thisthe Kingdom of God like a bird on the wing! It is a passing thinghere now, and to-day within present sight and range; but it is speeding past, and we must take it as it flies lest to-morrow it should be under cover, and these things be hid from our eyes.

1. Firstthat is now, and without further procrastination, if the fresh dawn of existence is no longer mine. It is suicidal to persist through another hour in filching from my soul its proper patrimony. My times are uncertain; my health is brittle; hardening and ossifying influences are incessant in their action; God is free to take His departure. Is it not the folly of follies to stand in jeopardy for one instant more? Firstthat is, when I rise in the beginning of each day. If I have sought and found the Kingdoms gold and crystal and pearl and gem, let me renew acquaintance with them every morning. To them, and to the Lord who makes and keeps them my own, let me return, when mind is clear and thought is vigorous and weariness is far away. So they will gleam into warmer loveliness and greater worth.

We would fill the hours with the sweetest things

If we had but one day;

We should drink alone at the purest springs

In our upward, way;

We should love with a lifetimes love in an hour

If the hours were few;

We should rest not for dreams, but for fresher power

To be and to do.

We should waste no moments in weak regret

If the day were but one;

If what we remember and what we regret

Went out with the sun;

We should be from our clamorous selves set free

To work and to pray,

And to be what the Father would have us to be,

If we had but a day.1 [Note: Mary Lowe Dickinson.]

2. But to seek the Kingdom first means more than this. It means an act of deliberate preference on the many occasions in life when counter claims come up. Again and again it may be that, in our inner life, in our family life, in our business life, in our public life, there come, and will come, times when the forces of the world, of self, of sense, of earthly affection, of taste, of ambition, pull one way, and the interests of the Kingdom of God the other, and for an hour, a day, a week, a month, perhaps, there is a struggle as to which is to be put first.

The major problem of life is that of its dominant note, its central issue, its great first thing. The one supreme business of living is to get that decisive emphasis on the thing that is first. The supreme tragedy of life comes to the man who gets the major emphasis on something else than the first thing. All life is then out of proportion, all experience a tangle, and all tasks in confusion. There are strong lives that stagger and sink because they have missed the course. There are men of genius who go out in despair because they have put the major emphasis on the wrong thing. It is no more possible to bring strength to a life with a false axis than to keep the solar system in order with some other body than the sun as its centre. Poe and Byron, and Burns and Shelley, and De Quincey and Napoleon, and Nero and Saul were men who got the emphasis in the wrong place, and their splendid lives crashed to inglorious ruin. Lesser men in lesser measure exhibit the same tragedy of misplaced emphasis and disordered lives.

The sister of Nietzsche tells us that, when the thinker was a little boy, he and she once decided to take each of them a toy to give to the Moravian Sisters in support of their missionary enterprise. They carefully chose their toys and duly carried them to the Sisters. But when they returned Nietzsche was restless and unhappy. His sister asked what ailed him. I have done a very wicked thing, the boy answered. My fine box of cavalry is my favourite toy and my best: I should have taken that! But do you think, his sister asked, do you think God always wants our best? Yes, replied the young philosopher, always, always! The lad was then, at least, following a true instinct. Professor William James, in his Lecture to Teachers on The Stream of Consciousness, says that every object is either focal or marginal in the mind. That represents with psychological precision the difference between the sanctities of life as they appeared to my Syrian bushman [who made a god out of only the residue of the tree he had felled] and the sanctities of life as they appeared to the boy philosopher. In the one case they were merely marginal; in the other they were grandly focal. Surely, if they have a place at all, they should be in the very centre of the fieldregal, transcendent, sublime. The whole matter is summed up there.1 [Note: F. W. Boreham, Mountains in the Mist, 66.]

3. Of course the ideals of Christ and the world are not opposed as good and bad, or as right and wrong, but as first and second. It is a total misapprehension of our Lords words to say that He forbids His followers to think of getting the wealth of the world, or of securing what they shall eat and drink or wherewithal they shall be clothed. Mens fault and folly lie in seeking them as if they were primary and essential; in making them the treasures of the soul; in thinking of them with anxious and absorbing care, as if they supplied the supreme need of life. The Kingdom of God is not set in opposition to the things of the world for which men seek; it is set above them. It belongs to a realm that is higher than the physical and the material. It has to do with the essential life of mana life that is more than existence, more than meat, more than riches. Man is a child of earth and time, but he is also a child of Goda spiritual being, made in His image, with power to think His thoughts and live in fellowship with Him. All thought and effort which are dominated by a lower conception of mans nature are misdirected. They leave him unsatisfied and undeveloped. The riddle of our life is never solved until we say, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

It is as if a company of sculptors should spend all their time and effort providing pedestals,some able to get only rough boulders from the wayside, others polishing and finishing fine shafts of purest marble,but nobody thinking of carving a statue to set thereon. Or as if a company of painters busied themselves exclusively with finding and stretching their canvases, some getting only coarse sacking, others silks of the finest web,but nobody ever painted a picture. Now Jesus is saying here, Dont bother so much about the pedestals and the canvases. They are absolutely insignificant beside the statues and the pictures. These are the paramount concern. The roughest boulder that carries a noble statue is better than the finest shaft of polished marble that carries nothing. The coarsest sacking upon which some rude but great etching has been sketched is better than the most delicate silk which is absolutely blank. So the meagrest living upon which a life of human service and spiritual significance is built is infinitely better than the most luxurious existence which but cumbers the ground with its purposeless and useless occupancy of space and time.1 [Note: C. D. Williams, A Valid Christianity for To-Day, 281.]

4. Jesus is asking men to do what He did Himself. He knew the numberless spiritual perils of poverty. He suffered hunger, and had power to make the stones of the wilderness bread. But to use His power in that way would have shown that He put self before God, and the satisfying of hunger before the interests of His Kingdom. He saw that life is more than meat, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He set the Kingdom first, and the angels ministered unto Him. Because He was tempted thus He is able to succour those who are tempted by the same pressure of need. It is in divinest pity that He says to the poor, Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. He knew the tragedies of the souls of men, knew how the soul could be lost in the strong and urgent pressure of the demands of the body. Therefore He spoke so convincingly and so persuasively of the Heavenly Fathers care, and gave the great assurance of His loving watchfulness. To Him man is dearer than to himself. He bids men trust God to provide what they need for the body, and give their anxiety and strength to the doing of His will. God will not deny Himself. Faithfulness on our part will be answered by faithfulness on His. His name has ever been Jehovah-jireh: The Lord will provide. If men seek first the Kingdom of God, He will not fail to add all these things.

Trust in God, an unshaken confidence in God, which is never dismayed at the changes or surprises of lifehe who has this faith will not be distracted by anxious care concerning the things of this life. He will make God the supreme object of his choice and service, will seek first His Kingdom and righteousness, confident that the Father, who knows all his needs, will confer the minor benefits. This confidence that God will approve and bless us in all our life if we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness, and seek all other things second, is the faith which removes mountains (Mar 11:23); it is adequate to the greatest difficulties and perplexities of life. It steadies, strengthens, and unifies all our efforts, preventing us from wasting our energies by dividing life between two inconsistent objects, and from wearing our hearts out by corroding cares, needless anxieties, and unbelieving fears. There can be no doubt that Jesus would include this concentration of life upon spiritual good and the trustful spirit which it inspires, in that love to God which comprises all forms of service which we can render to Him.1 [Note: G. B. Stevens, Theology of the New Testament, 110.]

III

All these Things

1. The possession of the Kingdom carries with it every needful thing. All values are included in the Divine. Within the Kingdom is absolute beauty, the altogether lovely, and if you seek for that the beautiful must come to you. Within the Kingdom is absolute truth, and if you seek for that the true will come to you in the process. And if you do with all your might whatsoever your hands find to do, and do it for the highest end, those necessaries of life which money can buy will also come to you. Good workers who live for the Kingdom never lack bread. It is true that often the very best of them get nothing but bread, or bread and salt, whilst those who care nothing for the Kingdom get bread and many things besides. But as Lewis Morris puts it, Strong souls need little more than bread and truth and beauty.

Strong souls within the present live;

The future veiled,the past forgot;

Grasping what is, with thews of steel,

They bend what shall be, to their will;

And blind alike to doubt and dread,

The End, for which they are, fulfil.

And it was to make strong souls that Jesus came.

There is a story in the Arabian Nights of a prince who brought to the king, his father, a fairy tent folded into the confines of a walnut shell. When it was spread in the council chamber it sheltered the king and his counsellors. When taken out and spread in the courtyard, it provided shade for all the household. When taken out on the great plain, where the army were encamped, it grew until all the hosts were beneath its canopy. It had flexibility and expansiveness which were indefinite. That gives us a fair symbol of the expansive, co-ordinating, all-inclusive capacity of the Kingdom of God, which gathers into its confines all the needs and all the treasures of men.1 [Note: W. MacMullen.]

2. There are many things which we get by aiming beyond them. Philosophers of the world tell us that we should aim at what is near and tangible, and should not concern ourselves with what is shadowy and remote; that to talk of and aim at such things as Gods love and Gods righteousness and a high and chivalrous rule of duty is wasting our time on things not within our reach. Now, that these high and far things are indefinite and misty to us at times is granted. If you get into argument with some philosopher of the lower school he can easily show you that his aims are more practical, as he calls it, that the things he aims at are more clearly in his view. But how if the Divine law holds good in spite of his practical philosophy; how, if by aiming at what we admit is remote and dim, we make sure of getting all that is really worth having in these everyday things? When we have aimed at getting reputation we have missed it; when we have aimed at doing duty and helping man the reputation has come. Have we never found this law holding good even in the struggles of our inner life? When we fought with a number of small faults we made little progress. When we aimed at some high, self-devoted goal beyond, they disappeared. The other things were added. When men fire the rocket of the life-saving apparatus out to a ship, they aim, not at the deck, but considerably above it.

A woodsman wielding his axe swings it upward to lop off the heavy branch, but finds it hard work. His skyward strokes are feeble, for the law of gravitation operates against him and to a certain extent neutralizes the power of his arm. He next swings it downward, and every stroke makes the hills resound. He works with and not against the law of gravitation; and the power of this central law of creation being added to the power of his muscles, he prosecutes his work with energy and success. Every stroke has a double powerthe power of the arm and the power of gravitation. Thus man in pursuit of evil proceeds in the teeth of the most potent laws of the Divine Governmentthe odds are all against him, his strokes are all upwards; and sooner or later he must be made to feel the weariness of wrongdoing. But the good man places himself in harmony with the moral law of God, and thus the strength of the law becomes his panoply. His goodness is so far an advantage to him and not an impediment. And in prophecy the reign of goodness is always associated with the reign of plenty; when the knowledge of God will cover the earth, then and not before will a harvest of wheat be reaped upon the tops of the mountains. Evil and famine on the one hand, goodness and abundance on the other, always go together.1 [Note: J. C. Jones.]

A man gifted with powers and capacities for the calling desires to become an artist. He will aim high. He tells himself that he will not be content with mediocrity, nor allow himself to sink to the lower level of other men. Of him it shall not be true:

That low man seeks a little thing to do,

Sees it, and does it.

Rather will he be one who, if he fail, can cry:

Better have failed in the high aim, as I,

Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,

As, God be thanked, I do not.

But how shall he become such a one? Only when he has stood before the great masterpieces of all time, and felt the spirit of their creators breathe upon his own. He must enter into their mind; he must feel the nobility of their conceptions touch his own faculty of imagination; he must see the vision of the lesson they sought to write upon their canvas; he must catch the loftiness and grandeur of the spirit that animated them. And what follows? In proportion as these things enter into his soul, possess his faculties, transfuse their own powers into his, will success and greatness meet him. Had he sought success and greatness for themselves alone he would have failed; but, seeking first the spirit of a Masters mind, all these things have been added unto him.2 [Note: G. Nickson.]

3. It is only when our hearts are on the chief thing that secondary things yield pleasure. It is possible to have a thing, and yet not to have the good of it. There it is in our hands, the very thing we wanted apparently, and yet it does not seem to be the thing we wanted. It is not the thing, but the aroma of pleasure that is in the thing that we really wish; just as we wish a rose for its smell. Now, pleasure is a very delicate article. Men miss pleasure by the ways they take to get it. If they snatch impatiently at it, it escapes them. Except those in actual destitution, professional pleasure-seekers are the most miserable of men. People who spend their life in pursuit of pleasure never get it. One who knew about these things very well said, Pleasures are like poppies spread; you seize the flower; its bloom is shed. We go to some of the most beautiful objects in nature. If we happen to take them in a wrong light, on a bad day, at a false angle, they lose all their beauty. Or if we are trying to experience some pleasant sensation, the least thing wrong with our health, the least thing amiss with the experiment we make, spoils all. The poise of our mind is everything. Pleasure comes when we are seeking something else, when we are rejoicing in hard work, when we are resting after long exertion, when we have won some worthy object of ambition. The true flower of satisfaction is thrown into our lap by an invisible hand when we are thinking little or nothing of it.

One of the first and most clearly recognized rules to be observed is that happiness is most likely to be attained when it is not the direct object of pursuit. Both the greatest pleasures and the keenest pains of life lie much more in those humbler spheres which are accessible to all than on the rare pinnacles to which only the most gifted or the most fortunate can attain. It would probably be found upon examination that most men who have devoted their lives successfully to great labours and ambitions, and who have received the most splendid gifts from Fortune, have nevertheless found their chief pleasure in things unconnected with their main pursuits and generally within the reach of common men. Domestic pleasures, pleasures of scenery, pleasures of reading, pleasures of travel or of sport, have been the highest enjoyment of men of great ambition, intellect, wealth, and position.1 [Note: W. E. H. Leckie, The Map of Life, 19.]

Oh righteous doom, that they who make

Pleasure their only end,

Ordering the whole life for its sake,

Miss that whereto they tend.2 [Note: R. C. Trench.]

4. The things we wish to have are not really in our hands at all. Suppose that when we grasped the thing we could make certain that the pleasure for the sake of which we grasped it would not evaporate in the process, how could we make sure of grasping it? It might be taken from us when we were within a few inches of it. The things for which men toil and suffer are often taken from them in this way. The things the Gentiles seek can never be in our hands. They remain in Gods hands. They are always His, and not ours at all. They are like old illuminated manuscripts or curiosities which you see on the table of a museum or library. We may examine them, and read them, but we cannot take them away. We cannot acquire freehold rights on Gods great estate. We are only tenants at will, and therefore what we should first do is to gain the goodwill of the Proprietor, especially as it is a great deal more than His goodwill which He offers us. He offers us His love and Himself, and it stands to reason that all these things will be thrown into the bargain.

It is only a poor sort of happiness that could ever come by caring very much about our own narrow pleasures. We can only have the highest happiness by having wide thoughts, and much feeling for the rest of the world as well as ourselves; and this sort of happiness often brings so much pain with it, that we can only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose before everything else, because our souls see it is good. There are so many things wrong and difficult in the world, that no man can be greathe can hardly keep himself from wickednessunless he gives up thinking much about pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is hard and painful. And so, if you mean to act nobly and seek to know the best things God has put within reach of men, you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not on what will happen to you because of it. And remember, if you were to choose something lower, and make it the rule of your life to seek your own pleasure and escape from what is disagreeable, calamity might come just the same; and it would be calamity falling on a base mind, which is the one form of sorrow that has no balm in it, and that may well make a man say,It would have been better for me if I had never been born.1 [Note: George Eliot, Epilogue to Romola.]

This is the sovereign remedy: to believe utterly in the Heavenly Fathers love and wisdom and make His Kingdom and His righteousness the supreme concerns, leaving all lesser interests in His hands. Seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Here is the secret of a quiet heart. Nothing, says St. Chrysostom, makes men light-hearted like deliverance from care and anxiety, especially when they may be delivered therefrom without suffering any disadvantage, forasmuch as God is with them and stands them in lieu of all.2 [Note: David Smith, The Days of His Flesh, 295.]

Oh, if we draw a circle premature,

Heedless of far gain,

Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure

Bad is our bargain!

Was it not great? did not he throw on God,

(He loves the burthen)

Gods task to make the heavenly period

Perfect the earthen?

Did not he magnify the mind, show clear

Just what it all meant?

He would not discount life, as fools do here,

Paid by instalment!

He ventured neck or nothingHeavens success

Found, or earths failure:

Wilt thou trust death or not? He answered Yes

Hence with lifes pale lure!1 [Note: Browning, A Grammarians Funeral.]

The First Things First

Literature

Alexander (S. A.), Christ and Scepticism, 109.

Clayton (C.), Stanhope Sermons, 127.

Davies (J. Ll.), Social Questions, 154.

Ebright (H. K)., in Drew Sermons on the Golden Texts for 1910, 37.

Ewing (J. F.), The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, 241.

Hare (J. C.), Parish Sermons, i. 283.

Hort (F. J. A.), Village Sermons, ii. 81.

Howard (H.), The Raiment of the Soul, 58.

Jackson (G.), The Teaching of Jesus, 129.

Jenkinson (A.), A Modern Disciple, 107.

Kingsley (C.), Sermons for the Times, 167.

Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., iv. 550.

McIlveen (J.), Christ and the Christian Life, 121.

Miller (G. A.), The Life Efficient, 39.

Miller (J.), Sermons, i. 37.

Porter (N.), Yale College Sermons, 268.

Reid (J.), The First Things of Jesus, 119.

Southouse (A. J.), The Men of the Beatitudes, 127.

Talbot (E. S.), Sermons at Southwark, 267.

Wardell (R. J.), Sermons in Homiletics, 116.

Williams (C. D.), A Valid Christianity for To-Day, 276.

Wilson (J. M.), Sermons Preached in Clifton College Chapel, ii. 7.

Woodhouse (F. C.), The Life of the Soul, 262.

Young (P.), in Sermons for the People, vi. 121.

Christian World Pulpit, xii. 164 (H. W. Beecher); lxi. 184 (F. W. Macdonald); lxxv. 300 (G. E. Darlaston); lxxxi. 156 (W. MacMullen).

Church of England Pulpit, lxii. 166 (H. H. Henson).

Church Family Newspaper, Jan. 12, 1912 (J. D. Thompson).

Record, May 28, 1909 (G. Nickson).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

seek: 1Ki 3:11-13, 1Ki 17:13, 2Ch 1:7-12, 2Ch 31:20, 2Ch 31:21, Pro 2:1-9, Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10, Hag 1:2-11, Hag 2:16-19, Luk 12:31, Joh 6:27

the kingdom: Mat 3:2, Mat 4:17, Mat 13:44-46, Act 20:25, Act 28:31, Rom 14:17, Col 1:13, Col 1:14, 2Th 1:5, 2Pe 1:11

his: Mat 5:6, Isa 45:24, Jer 23:6, Luk 1:6, Rom 1:17, Rom 3:21, Rom 3:22, Rom 10:3, 1Co 1:30, 2Co 5:21, Phi 3:9, 2Pe 1:1

and all: Mat 19:29, Lev 25:20, Lev 25:21, Psa 34:9, Psa 34:10, Psa 37:3, Psa 37:18, Psa 37:19, Psa 37:25, Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12, Mar 10:30, Luk 18:29, Luk 18:30, Rom 8:31, 1Co 3:22, 1Ti 4:8

Reciprocal: Gen 13:2 – General Gen 24:1 – blessed Gen 24:35 – flocks Gen 42:25 – to give them Gen 49:25 – with blessings Exo 16:4 – a certain rate every day Exo 16:21 – General Exo 22:29 – shalt not delay Exo 34:26 – first Num 15:20 – a cake Num 18:30 – the best Deu 6:24 – for our good Deu 7:13 – he will also Deu 13:18 – to keep Deu 32:47 – General 1Sa 30:19 – General 1Ki 3:13 – And I 1Ki 7:1 – thirteen years 2Ch 1:12 – I will give 2Ch 17:5 – he had riches 2Ch 18:1 – riches 2Ch 29:3 – He in the first 2Ch 33:13 – brought him 2Ch 34:3 – to seek Neh 7:4 – the houses Job 28:3 – searcheth Psa 23:1 – I shall Psa 27:4 – seek Psa 63:1 – early Psa 71:16 – thy righteousness Psa 112:3 – Wealth Psa 132:3 – I will not Psa 132:15 – I will satisfy Psa 137:6 – if I prefer Pro 8:17 – those Pro 8:18 – and righteousness Pro 22:4 – By Pro 27:27 – enough Pro 28:10 – but Pro 30:8 – feed Ecc 9:10 – thy hand Isa 26:9 – my spirit Isa 30:23 – shall he Isa 33:6 – fear Isa 51:1 – ye that follow Jer 37:21 – and that Eze 36:29 – call Eze 45:18 – In the first month Dan 4:36 – added Hos 2:21 – saith Joe 2:19 – I will send Amo 5:14 – Seek Hag 1:4 – to Hag 2:19 – from Zec 8:12 – to possess Mal 3:10 – and prove Mat 7:7 – seek Mat 12:28 – then Mat 15:32 – and have Mar 8:2 – and have Luk 9:59 – suffer Joh 5:4 – first Col 3:1 – seek 1Ti 6:6 – godliness Heb 11:6 – diligently 1Pe 5:7 – for

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE ECONOMIC PRECEPTS OF CHRIST

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Mat 6:33

To recognise these precepts of the Sermon on the Mount as high and beautiful may in some important degree touch and mould our dispositions. But we fail to make the intended use of them if we do not receive them as authoritative. And yet it is inevitable, perhaps, that in the cold mood in which we come to these precepts, we should ask, Are they commands of universal authority? If we are to accept the authority of what Christ says, that authority must not be identified with the letter of the precept. We must penetrate through the letter to the spirit, to the principle of which the letter is the expression. This is the secret of the teaching of Christ.

I. To whom was Jesus speaking?The supposed impractical character of the precepts of this discourse has been sometimes explained by the suggestion that they were addressed only to the small company of the followers of Jesus. That might have been so. But it seems certain that, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is addressing a larger audience. The teaching has manifestly a general character. He was addressing, no doubt, His disciples. But by His disciples we are to understand all who were willing to accept Him as their Master.

II. What was implied in discipleship?Supposing that there were hundreds or thousands willing to receive instruction from Him, what did He desire to make of them? He was always speaking about a kingdom. To instruct men as His disciples was, in the mind of Jesus, to prepare them for the Kingdom of God. He does not define the kingdom, He illustrates it.

III. The kingdom we seek.There are things which men, by their natural impulses, desire on earththe things which gratify the senses, the means which enable them to exalt themselves. They who would be disciples of Jesus Christ must not give their minds to these, must not set their affections upon them. They must seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Imagine the two classes of interest set in express competition with each other. On the one hand, the good things of earth; on the other, the things that are invisible. Christ points to the two classes thus competing for mans affections, and says imperatively to His disciples, Seek not those; seek ye these.

IV. An imperative command.Yes, imperatively, and at first without qualification. There can be no question, in the school of Christ, what our aims should be. With whatever consequences, at whatever cost, the Christian is called upon to set his affections upon things above. On every account, and with no misgivings, listen reverently to these precepts of Christ as laying down the law of your Christian life. Do not embarrass yourselves with the syllables of the letter. Suffer Christ to speak paradoxically if He will. Be sure that He knew what sort of address mens consciences wanted. The community will assuredly be the more prosperous in all that belongs to secure and diffused well-being, for the prevalence of the mind that sets duty above inclination, service above pleasure.

The Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, d.d.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

6:33

There is nothing that we really have to do in making a living that will need to interfere with our work in the kingdom of God. The point is that we must be concerned first about the righteousness belonging to the kingdom. While doing that we can also do what is necessary for our temporal needs, and it is in that way that “all these things shall be added unto us.”

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

That is, let your first and chief care be to promote the kingdom of grace in this world, and to secure the kingdom of glory in the next; and in order unto both, seek after an universal holiness and righteousness, both of heart and life, and then fear not the want of these outward comforts, they shall be added in measure, though not to satiate; for health, though not for surfeit.

Observe, 1. That Christians must here on earth set themselves to seek heaven or the kingdom of God.

2. That God’s kingdom cannot be sought without God;s righteousness: holiness is the only way to happiness.

3. That heaven, or the kingdom of God, must be sought in the first place, with our chief care and principal endeavour.

4. That heaven being once secured by us, all earthly things will be superadded by God, as he sees needful and convenient for us.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 6:33. But You my disciples have more important business to employ your minds about, and have higher hopes to encourage you. Therefore seek ye first That is, in the first place, and with the greatest earnestness and concern, as being the principal things, the kingdom of God As described Rom 14:17, namely, that God, reigning in your heart, may fill it with the holiness above described, and the happiness consequent thereon; and, in order thereto, his righteousness Not your own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God by faith. Compare Rom 10:3; Php 3:9. For it seems most natural to interpret the expression of that way of becoming righteous which the gospel proposes, and by which alone we can be put in possession of the kingdom of God on earth, or in heaven. And all these things shall be added unto you For if you seek, as now directed, the kingdom of God, first and principally, all things pertaining to this life shall, in the course of the divine providence, be bestowed on you as far as they can contribute to your real welfare, and more you would not desire.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 33

The kingdom of God and his righteousness; that holiness which will make you a member of Christ’s spiritual kingdom.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

Rather than refraining from the pursuit of material things the disciple should replace this with a pursuit having much greater significance. Seeking the kingdom involves pursuing the things about the kingdom for which Jesus taught His disciples to pray, namely, God’s honor, His reign, and His will (Mat 6:9-10). This is one of only five places in Matthew where we read "kingdom of God" rather than "kingdom of heaven" (cf. Mat 12:28; Mat 19:24; Mat 21:31; Mat 21:43). In each case the context requires a more personal reference to God rather than a more oblique reference to heaven. Seeking God’s righteousness means pursuing righteousness in life in submission to God’s will (cf. Mat 5:6; Mat 5:10; Mat 5:20; Mat 6:1). It does not mean seeking justification, in view of Jesus’ use of "righteousness" in the context.

"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." [Note: Stott, p. 172.]

The "things" God will add are the necessities of life that He provides providentially, about which Jesus warned His disciples not to fret (Mat 5:45; Mat 6:11). Here God promises to meet the needs of those who commit themselves to seeking the furtherance of His kingdom and righteousness.

In view of this promise how can we explain the fact that some animals, plants, and 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.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)