Seek First…

“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.” Matthew 6:31-33

Seek first the kingdom and these things shall be added to you.  From the lips of our Lord, this is a command with promise.  When we obey His command, to seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, we have the promise of receiving just what we need to aid us in our pursuit, on a daily basis.  Just as the Levites received provision from the Lord for their obedient service to His command, so too do we receive benefit from Him for obedience.  Appointed by God, each of His children through Christ Jesus is a royal priest (1 Peter 2:9) in the order of Melchizedek, Jesus Himself being the High Priest (Hebrews 7).  We, now in Christ, have a greater priesthood than the Levites and also a greater responsibility as well as a greater portion.

“The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, and His portion.”  Deuteronomy 18:1

The task at hand, to seek the kingdom and His righteousness is so great that what portion we could provide by the work of our own hands is shamefully insufficient.  He who called us to such great calling is faithful and provides for us out of His own portion.  We eat from His table; we eat His flesh and drink His blood.  Paul writes,

“Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?”  1 Corinthians 9:7

Because it is so costly to seek the kingdom and His righteousness, we are commanded by Jesus to forsake all that we have, even a daily pursuit of life’s basic necessities, and follow after Him.  We are not called to seek the kingdom and His righteousness at our own expense, but to forsake all and seek at His expense.  The pursuit is so demanding, we have not even time to look for something to eat or something to put on.  So long as we obey Him, he takes care of those details for us. So the question is, practically, how do we obey?

The Kingdom…

A kingdom is fundamentally comprised of three parts, a king, its citizenry, and the king’s law.  When seeking a kingdom, those are the things you must seek.  First, the king.  What does it look like to seek King Jesus?  Answering an altar call?  Praying “the sinner’s prayer”?  Reading your bible 36 hours a day?  Going to church on Sunday?  It is none of these.  Truly, we do not begin to seek Him on our own.  We must first be dragged to Him against our will.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:44

The word, “draw”, in the Greek is helko (elkw) which carries with it the meaning “to drag” a thing like a dead body that has no mobility of its own.  That is what we are before coming to Him for the first time, dead in sin with no mobility in ourselves to move toward the light of life.  Being born from above works on the same principle, that is, prior to birth, the person to be born is incapable of any activity to initiate the process.  So it begins with God, and then the ball is in Our court (use of the uppercase indicates the shared nature of the court, that it is His and according to grace He has given to us a portion to share).  The shared responsibility that we have after coming to life is in this, that He continues to instruct us and we must continue in obedience.

So the question, “What does it look like to seek King Jesus?” has still not been answered.  Many say, “It’s about a personal relationship with Jesus…” and in the same breath say, “you need to turn to the bible, turn to your pastor, turn to this or that for answers.”  It is about a personal relationship and there are two ways, working together, that one is cultivated.  First, it does one well to understand that Jesus is the one and only Word (Logos) of God.  The bible is not.  It is words about God written by men who have spoken to, had experiences with, and been inspired by God.  We can learn a great deal about Jesus and the words that God has said to men from the bible (and so we should) much like we can learn a great deal about Plato and what he said by reading books by and about him.  Reading books does not create a personal relationship.  Personal relating creates a personal relationship.  In our day, a personal relationship cannot be had with Plato.  He is dead.  Jesus, however, is living and has said to us that He will be always with us, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

This is how it works.  When you have need of something, anything, you talk to God.  Do you need an answer for some pressing matter?  Ask Him and wait for an answer. Don’t take matters into your own hands, running to the bible without direction, or put them into the hands of others, running to your pastor or spiritual role-model.  It may happen that He will send you to the bible, another person, or even something else, but it should come from Him before you move in one direction or another.  Do you need a loaf of bread?  Ask Him and wait until He tells you what to do to get it.  Don’t be double-minded, on the one hand asking Him “in faith” while on the other having or scheming a plan B.  When seeking the King of kings, there is no plan B.  You ask and you wait.  Simple as that.  When He responds, He’ll be sure to make you aware.

The second part of seeking the King segues into seeking the second part of a kingdom, its citizenry.  Jesus says,

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.  For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:19-20

Just sentences ago I wrote, “Don’t take matters into your own hands, running to the bible without direction, or put them into the hands of others, running to your pastor or spiritual role-model for direction.”  And now I write to seek out the people of God to find the King?  What contradiction!  Or is it?  Jesus says that He is in the midst of His people.  How can you find an invisible Jesus?  Find His visible people, the ones led by His Spirit and obeying His commands.  When you go them, it is not to put matters into their hands in the same manner that a person would go to a pastor for spiritual counseling.  It may happen that Godly counsel is given, but that’s not why you go.  Look again at Jesus’ words.  “if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask…” When you seek the King by seeking His people, it is to assemble with them to ask Him together.  Sometimes He won’t answer when you ask alone because He compels us in many ways, this is one, to be communal rather than individual.  Check out Acts 12 to see some of this.  It is one of many recorded examples of God’s people seeking God together.  The first century disciples of Jesus understood this principle, to go to God together, and so He heard them and great things were accomplished.

Seeking the kingdom by seeking it’s citizenry is two-fold.  Often times when I hear the words, “you must seek…” I (and maybe you too) envision some epic individual or personal quest, only to be accomplished with the aid of many needful things gathered along the way.  This is half true when it comes to the kingdom.   The obvious reason to seek the kingdom’s citizens is that they have/are some thing that you need.  The other half of the truth and less obvious reason is this, that you also possess/are some thing that they need.  Though we have liberty in Christ, this does not make us independent, it makes us interdependent.  The whole body of Christ grows together, not in part, and so it must work together for growth.

“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”  Romans 12:4-5

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”  Ephesians 4:11-16

The effective working that causes growth is that every part does its share.  This absolutely cannot happen within an infrastructure built around a pulpit with a clergy-laity division.  Jesus did not build your Sunday morning social club, deceived and deceiving men did.  There is a reason that no matter how hard you try to make it fit, churches today bear no resemblance to the assemblies we see built by Jesus in Acts. He is not today’s churches no matter what trickery is employed to convince you otherwise.  Perhaps, contrary the belief of them in the system, this is why He burned down the idol just outside of Dayton.  Jesus was crucified outside of the city and that is where we must go, away from the things that men have built, to find Him.  It is there that we will also find one another and everyone who has been obedient to the calling of God.  When we do assemble it is for the already mentioned purpose of seeking Him together, but there is more.  In seeking the kingdom, we also assemble with its citizens to stir up love and good works, not soup-kitchens but every part doing its share; to minister to one another, assessing and putting others needs before our own; to edify one another by sharing with each other all things that He has given to individual persons for the profit of all.  All of these activities boil down to one thing, obedience to King Jesus’ commands.

The third part of seeking a kingdom is to seek the King’s law, to abide in it and in Him by obedience to it.

“On the first day of the first month he began his journey from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.  For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.”  Ezra 7:9-10

Jesus says,

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.  As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” John 15:5-10

And also,

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

James exhorts the same,

“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  James 1:21-22

Obedience to the law of Christ manifests itself in the seeking of His people to bear their burdens.  His command is to love one another and His kingdom is built upon self-sacrifice.  He is the chief cornerstone and the doorway into The Kingdom.  When we follow His steps, walking as He walked and doing as He did, when we lay down our own lives at His command for the edification of the household of God, His open doorway is supplied to us and so we enter into His kingdom.  There is no other way.  This brings us to the rest of His command…

…And His Righteousness

What is His righteousness?  It comes out of faith.  How so?  First, what is faith?  It is the assurance that we have that He is our Father and we are His children, and that assurance is by the testimony of His Spirit in ours.  Faith is not a thing that originates within a man, it is a gift (charisma) of God according to grace.  You cannot have what you are not dealt.  These are hard words because they necessitate our helpless dependence upon Him alone for our life in Christ, but that is the point.  The heart faith that leads to a mouth confession does not originate in the heart, it comes from God by His Spirit.  Faith is the direct result of being born from above.

Being born from above by His Spirit gives us this faith, that just as our Father raised His Son Jesus from the dead, so too do we share in His inheritance, if indeed we suffer with Him.  With the assurance that our life is hidden in Christ, we can lay what we now have down for the Beloved (Christ our King and all of His body parts) knowing that He will give back to us life more abundantly.  Without such assurance, it is impossible to lay down your life.  It is only with the promise of new life can we be willing to lay down the old life.  If you don’t have it, ask.  By this faith given to us by God, we can work the works of righteousness that please Him.

Faith does not manifest itself as the presumption that with it, everything will be smooth sailing.  I hardly consider a life lived for God that ends with torment on a cross as smooth sailing.  Rather, faith resolves in this way, that even when things “appear” to be working out contrary to the will of God, with it we stand firm according to His command and we suffer long despite the apparent circumstances, knowing this: that all things work out for good to those who love God, those who are the called according to His purpose.  Our salvation is a gift of God by grace through faith that through it, we are His new creation in Christ Jesus, made for good works.  Because of the nature of these works prepared beforehand for us to walk in, we must have the assurance of new life in Christ in order to accomplish His work for us, that is, to die for our brothers and sisters.  Our reasonable service to God is dying on behalf of our brothers and sisters.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13

Faith is the beginning of our relationship with God.  The end, what is cultivated through it, is love.  Peter details the process.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.  For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.   Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  2 Peter 1:5-11

The righteousness of God is love.  It is the end of what begins with faith.  Seek His righteousness, to do it, through Christ Jesus and so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior.