SEEK FIRST (Part 2)
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” Matt. 6:33
The second phase in examining this verse will focus on what we are seeking. Remember that the Greek word for seek is zeteo. We discovered that this root word has several different meanings. It can mean “to strive after”, “to look for”, and “to try to gain “,” to endeavor “,” to desire or wish “,” to expect, require or demand or to search for. It is a verb of action. We don’t sit by and wait for something to happen. It is used to describe looking for something that was lost, hunting earnestly for it until it is found. It is used for tracking down someone to kill. This word describes forceful, deliberate, concentrated effort. Seeking means work, and lots of it. Winston Churchill got it right when he said, “Never, never, never give up.” That is seeking. You get a hold on what you’re after and you just don’t let go no matter what. The antonym tells us something too. The opposite of seeking is neglect.
It’s clear that Jesus expected us to actively engage in seeking. We do not sit idly by waiting for God to give us marching orders. We are to get up and get going. We are to search fervently, leaving no stone unturned. Jesus gave us several parables about this endeavor. All of them stress the urgency and intensity of the activity. All of them press us to examine our motivation. If this activity isn’t first in our lives, then we have missed the mark entirely. There is no middle ground here – no “10 easy steps”, no “effortless plan”. If we are going to be engaged in zeteo, it will mean that other things will have to be abandoned. Now we can see why Jesus said that unless you loved him more than family, friends and familiar things, you could not enter into his kingdom.
Let’s imagine that we have reached the point where we understand that this call requires complete commitment. We don’t want laissez-faire spirituality. We are ready to make zeteo the primary focus of our live. Suddenly we run into a puzzle. Seeking in and of itself will take us nowhere. Unless we know what it is that we are seeking, we will be all action without direction. As the old saying goes, “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”. Jesus is quite specific about our direction. He does not tell us to go out in a mad frenzy looking for God. He says quite pointedly that the goal of our search is only two things – God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. In order to see the full picture of our call to make zeteo the most important activity of life, we better know what these two goals mean.
The word translated kingdom comes from the Greek basileia. In its variations it means “king”, “kingdom”, “to rule” and “royal”. Our word for kingdom is used dozens of times in the New Testament. Jesus provides more than ten parables about the nature of the kingdom. The concept is interchangeable with “kingdom of heaven”. This interchangeability is important because it immediately implies that the kingdom is not intended to be equivalent to an earthly domain. Jesus confirmed this in front of Pilate (“my kingdom is not of this world”). But there is a much more subtle reason that God’s kingdom is not the same as the domain of an earthly king. God’s kingdom is about His reign and it therefore not limited by space and time. It does not belong to a particular temporal period or a particular geography. In fact, its citizens are not at all what we would expect. It belongs to the poor in spirit and the persecuted.
The most important aspect of the kingdom is its connection with several other Greek words. These words are translated as “proclaim”, “bear witness”, “persuade” and “word”. Notice that none of these words are the kind of activities that belong to the rule of a typical human king. Yet the New Testament insists that God’s kingdom is intimately connected with these concepts. The reason why this is true is that God’s kingdom is the result of God’s personal activity. The kingdom does not originate with us. It can’t be sustained by human effort. The kingdom is an expression of God’s reign. It is His master operation in the universe. It is independent of human activity. We do have a role to play but it is not a role of making it happen. It is the role of being a witness to its existence – proclaiming it, bearing witness to it, persuading other of its existence, announcing it in word. Notice that all of these actions presuppose its existence. We are only pointing to something that is already there.
In addition, God’s kingdom is the result of God’s creative activity – an activity that occurs, just like the first creation, by fiat, that is, by merely speaking it into existence. The kingdom is entirely God’s making. Its citizens do not contribute to its existence – they merely participate in its government. K. L. Schmidt says, “The kingdom is not achieved by individualistic ethical achievement but by membership in community, which stands under the promise”.
Consider the deeper implications of this revelation. God establishes His kingdom through His own personal announcement – a creation by speaking it into existence. Immediately we see a connection to John’s prologue, “In the beginning was the Word”. The kingdom is promised in God’s covenant, a covenant that He makes with Himself. The kingdom arrives with the incarnation and is announced as peace to the world; again entirely of God’s own doing. Jesus proclaims that the kingdom is “at hand”. It is immediate. Its urgency is foremost in Jesus mind. Why? Because He has arrived. In God’s timing, the declaration of life turning point has come. Finally, the promise is fulfilled in the death and resurrection by the power of God. Human agency is not part of this plan. It is God’s plan on behalf of humanity, energized and executed by God.
When we seek God’s kingdom, we are searching for a relationship, not a realm. We are not looking for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. We are looking for the proper hierarchy of the moral order. It is not possible to find God’s kingdom in some place. We won’t find it in a church or a seminary, in a tranquil setting or a bustling community. We will find it only by searching for the correct correspondence between the king and us. That correspondence begins with motivation. Jesus asks us to question the priorities of our lives. What is the first priority? Is my first priority to place God in the proper role as ruler and king? Do I see myself as His servant, a citizen by His election, in a kingdom that is entirely of His making? Do I acknowledge and act on the basis that He is my sovereign Lord? Or do I build my own kingdom of personal power? Just as we saw that the essence of sin is the issue of authority, we now find that the essence of citizenship is the issue of authority. “Seek first God’s kingdom,” means essentially that I look for every way possible to put myself under the authority of my Lord. To do otherwise is to sin because if I am not placing myself under His authority, I am usurping His authority. That can only mean that I am building my own kingdom.
I cannot bring the kingdom of God into existence. He has already done that. It is His show, not mine. But I can bring myself into His kingdom by acknowledging His rightful place as Ruler and Lord. I can seek His kingdom by offering myself as His servant. There is a purpose behind the order of discussion in this chapter. Jesus deliberately teaches his disciples the pattern of prayer before he demands that those who would be citizens seek God’s kingdom. The first lines of that prayer set the stage for the answer to our question, “What should we seek?”. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” There it is! Hallowing His name means revealing the holiness that God is. He is holy. We only become holy through His grace. But hallowing His name means that by word and deed we come to the place of reverence before Him, acknowledging the community He has established with us. And that community can mean only one thing – His will be done. To assent to the holiness of God is to express His eternal right to rule His creation. It is to acknowledge the proper order of the universe under God. That acknowledgement must find its active expression in submission to His will. Jesus, as the first citizen of the Kingdom, leads by example. “Not my will but thine be done” is the motto of the Kingdom citizen. If we are going to seek God’s kingdom, we will follow a singular path that leads us to greater and greater acknowledgment of the priority of His will in our lives.
The Kingdom of God is nothing less than God’s rightful authority and power over all of creation. It is not a kingdom of this world because it is a kingdom of all that exists. This world is just much too small for such a kingdom. The kingdom of God is the activity of the Holy God everywhere He reigns – and that happens to be a very big place. When my motivation is clear, when I see that God calls me into a community with Himself, I will suddenly be confronted by the fact that the God who created everything that exists wants me to be a citizen of His domain by choice. I have the choice to look for His rule in every aspect of life. I have the choice to search for His design in every part of Being. If I do, says Jesus, I will find what I am looking for. I will know who He is and who I am. I will discover the most important relationship in existence.
Imagine what it means to be a citizen of the kingdom that encompasses everything that is. Imagine what it is like to live in a kingdom where the King is in control of it all and He has the knowledge, power and will to make it all work perfectly. Imagine how marvelous it is to know that your responsibility as a citizen is to simply honor the King in everything you do, and He will take care of all the rest. Imagine how simple life would be. Imagine how clear life would be. Who would ever turn down an offer to belong to that kingdom? Just imagine.
