Sunday Devotional: Matthew 6:33

But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given in addition to you.

This is one of the most popular and often-memorized verses of the New Testament. In context, it is part of the so-called “Sermon on the Mount,” which is either a three-chapter account of a sermon Jesus gave, or it is a collection of Jesus’s teachings, of which perhaps only the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-11) were delivered on a hillside while the rest of the “sermon” are things Jesus taught throughout his ministry that Matthew grouped here so he could have them in one place. I tend toward the latter view, but that’s a discussion for another time.

Jesus is teaching about God’s providence. While we spin and sew to make clothes, the flowers are even more beautifully “dressed” without doing a day’s labor. We toil and harvest to make and grow food, yet the wild animals have plenty to eat without ever having to boil water. If God takes care of the flowers and the animals, will He not even more take care of us, the pinnacle of His creation, the ones to whom He gave dominion over the created order (Genesis 1:28-30)?

So why are we always so anxious about everything? If we know the Lord and recognize His sovereign hand over all of creation, why do we fret about our lives? Sure, we shouldn’t be reckless and test the Lord (Luke 4:9-12), but neither should we live in fear.

In our modern culture, this attitude of living in fear extends well beyond having food to eat and clothes to wear. We worry about getting sick, about earning money, about what our friends or social media might think about us. So many things to worry about. Jesus’s response is: “Seek first the kingdom of God.”

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned about the problems life throws at us, whether money, disease, or relationships. It means our chief priority in life, the number one thing we need to be concerned about, is the Kingdom of God. Have we put our faith in Christ, so that whatever might happen to us here, we know our souls are in his hands? Are we, above all other things, seeking to be faithful to the Lord in all areas of our lives, following His commandments, and honoring Him in all our ways? (Note: “seeking” does not mean “doing perfectly”–it means we are trying, failing, hating that we failed, and trying again.) This is what it means to seek the Kingdom of God first.

If we do that, Jesus says, all these other things, being fed and clothed and generally looked after, will be given to us in addition. Some translations render this, “will be added to you.” However you translate the verb, it is important to notice that these things will be added, not simply “given” (the Greek verb is prostithēmi, not didōmi). I think this places the emphasis on seeking God’s Kingdom first, and underscores the point that all these other concerns are extras. They are add-ons to that which should be our primary concern. If we are more anxious over the “extras” than we are about the main thing, then our priorities are backward. That’s like worrying about whether or not the wi-fi in your new car is working while the engine’s on fire.

What are you most anxious about today? Is it your health? Finances? Family? These are worthy of your concern, but have they become more important to you than seeking first God’s Kingdom? Go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to help you prioritize your anxieties, that you might honor Him first, and let Him take care of the rest.