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"Seek
first..."
We
find these words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 6:33. There
we read:
Matthew 6:33
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added to you."
According to
Jesus Christ, the FIRST we should seek, the top priority we should have,
is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This in turn, does not
simply refer to an external seeking. Nothing can be manifested outwardly
and be genuine, if it hasn’t first been established inwardly. It is the
heart that should FIRST, above all, seek the Lord and His
kingdom.
1. Matthew 6:19-20
Taking the
things from the beginning, we will start from Matthew 6:19-20. There
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:19-20
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal"
Though there
are earthly treasures, the real treasures are in heaven. It is these,
the real treasures, that Jesus Christ calls us to lay up. Really, what
is the profit if one is very rich on earth, yet he is very poor in
heaven? As Jesus Christ said to the angel of the church of Laodicea in
Revelation 3:
Revelation 3:17-18
"Because you say, "I am rich, have become wealthy, and have
need of nothing" and do not know that you are wretched, miserable,
poor, blind, and naked I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the
fire, that you may be rich;"
It is the Lord
Jesus Christ that has the real gold, calling us to go and buy from him.
Will we accept his call for heavenly riches, for refined gold, or will
we pursue the perishable riches of this world? As I Timothy 6:6-8 tells
us:
I Timothy 6:6-9
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be
content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a
snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in
destruction and perdition."
and
Hebrews 13:5-6
"Let your conduct be
without covetousness; be content with such things
as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave
you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my
helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
The great gain
is godliness. The genuine wealth is the heavenly. The really rich is the
one that has bought gold from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us therefore go
and buy from him refined gold to become truly rich, and let’s not
allow the deceit of riches and the cares of this world to make the seed
of the Word of God fruitless in our heart (Luke 8:14).
2. Matthew 6:21
Carrying on,
Jesus Christ makes clear why it has so much importance what one
considers as true treasures. Thus, in verse 21 we read:
Matthew 6:21
"for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"
Where our
treasure is there our heart will be also. In other words, it is
impossible to have our heart attached in the earthly and at the same
time to store treasures in heaven. Real treasures in heaven are stored
only by those that have their hearts in heaven. That’s why Paul says:
Colossians 3:2
"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."
And as the Lord continues:
Matthew 6:24
"NO ONE can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and
love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God and Mammon"
It is
impossible to serve both God and the world. The one is contrary to the
other. As James characteristically said:
James 4:4
"friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore
wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."
The more that
one desires the world the more God’s flame will be quenched in him and
conversely. Of course, we are not speaking about our physical presence
in the world, for all we live in the world and the Lord has set us as
alive witnesses in it. What we are speaking about is mixture with the
practices and the spirit of the world. It is impossible to serve both
this spirit and the Holy Spirit.
And as the Lord continues:
Matthew 6:25
"Because of this I say to you, do not be careful
about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; not about
your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body
more than clothing?"
(NKJV-Darby)
The phrase
"Because of this I say to you", links what Jesus
says in this passage to what he said previously i.e. that we cannot
serve two masters. In other words, "because of this" i.e.
because we cannot serve two masters, we should not be careful about our
life. Otherwise, we will serve the wrong master. DO NOT BE CAREFUL ABOUT
YOUR LIFE, and this includes any care that one may have: family,
children, finances, career, health and generally any care of this life,
small or big, daily or just of the moment, is included in this category.
Of course, the fact that we should not be careful about our life, does
not mean that life does not have cares. However, it is not we that we
should care for them. As I Peter 5:6-7 says:
I Peter 5:6-7
"Casting all your care upon Him, for HE CARES FOR YOU"
It is GOD who
cares for us, and the One to whom we should cast all our cares. This is
not just an exhortation. Returning to "because of this I say
to you" of the Lord, this shows that the service to the one
true Lord goes hand by hand with the carriage of every care from
ourselves to God. Or to say it differently, one can serve the Lord
only to the degree that he has carried his cares from himself to God.
Regarding the
topic of cares and the consequences they may have when they are not cast
upon the Lord, Jesus warns:
Luke 21:34
"But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed
down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life,
and that day come on you unexpectedly."
and again:
Luke 8:14
"Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when
they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches,
and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity."
and
II Timothy 2:3-4
"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the
affairs of this life, that he may please
him who enlisted him as a soldier."
The result that
cares have when they stay on a man of God is to make him fruitless. It
is not of question whether cares are something real. What is really of
question is what we do with them. Do we keep them on us, making our
hearts heavy, cumbersome, and thus inappropriate for fruit or we cast
them upon God that, as He tells us, CARES FOR US? As far as the Word of
God is concerned, it is once more very clear:
Philippians 4:6-7
"Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;
and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"
(NKJV-KJV)
3. Matthew 6:31-32
Turning again to Matthew 6 and the
words of our Lord:
Matthew 6:31-32
"Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or
"What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?"
"For after all these things the Gentiles seek."
It may be
reasonable to care, as it is also reasonable to love only those that
love you, to resist evil by defending yourself and so on. What the world
does may be reasonable but IT IS NOT CHRISTIAN. The fact that we walk
with reason does not necessarily mean that we walk with the spirit of
the Word. In contrast, I would say that we may be walking with the
spirit of the world, the spirit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil and it is exactly this spirit the Lord tells us not to yoke
together:
II Corinthians 6:14-18
"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has
light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what
part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As
God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I
will be their God, and they shall be My people." Therefore
"Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not
touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." "I will be a
Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD
Almighty."
The yoke for
which God’s Word speaks about in this passage, is not a physical one
but a spiritual one. The Lord loves every single man of this world and
for every single man He gave His Son Jesus Christ, so that "whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John
3:16). That’s why He also set us in this world to be its lights
(Matthew 5:14). It is not therefore the people themselves with whom the
Lord has a problem, but the system of the world and the spirit,
the ruler, that governs the world. The phrase "do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers" does not mean to forsake
for example our jobs and be physically isolated. Instead, what it means
is the forsaking of the mixture, of the yoking together with the
spirit of the world. We are yoked together with the unbelievers when we
subject ourselves to the spirit they are subjected to. That’s why
Romans tells us:
Romans 12:1-2
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is
your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God"
There is the
conformation but there is also the transformation. At any moment, each
of us does one of the two: he is either conformed with the world or
transformed with the renewing of his mind. He either lives for himself
or presents his body a living sacrifice to the Lord.
Returning to Matthew 6 and the verse
from which we started:
Matthew 6:31-34
"Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or
"What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For
after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows
that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own
things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
The existence
of cares is indisputable. However, let us not conform with the spirit of
this world, caring for them, for God tells us that He knows what we
need. In contrast, let us "be transformed by the renewing of our
mind", turning our heart to God and His kingdom and righteousness.
It is He our top priority, and the One that will cover more than
abundantly all we need. It is only His treasure that is a genuine one,
never perishing but stored up for us in heaven.
Tassos Kioulachoglou
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