I suppose I could just as easily have said – what should you be looking for, but that isn’t quite the same. Phrasing it as seeking first places it in a different context, more of a directive. What does this phrase mean to you? If you are a Christian your first thought should be the scripture in Matthew (6:33) when Jesus is telling His disciples to “…seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” In considering those 9 words you have to get your head around: seek, kingdom, righteousness – and that isn’t the simplest thing to do.
Obviously you need to have an operational definition of each of those words, not just an intellectual one, and then you need to understand why you need to do as the scripture says, and lastly how any of this impacts in your daily life. If you back up a few verses you’ll see that Jesus had been talking about that you can’t serve God and riches and then He tells us to not worry. Why? Because if we’re seeking first then the end of the verse tells us that “…all these things will be added…” Seeking the things first misses the point.
Seek is not a passive word, it isn’t merely an intellectual exercise – it’s active and means intently looking everywhere, searching to find your ‘prize’. And the prize is the kingdom. To understand and appreciate the kingdom of God, we need to go to the source for discovery. We have the manual, Bible, to assist us in our understanding but it will be a lifelong journey of discovery. This is a daily ‘activity’ rather than something you might consider doing in your spare time. The kingdom encompasses everything so it is a worthy quest. It’s important to realize that it is something we can find or Jesus wouldn’t have told us to seek it.
In its most basic definition, righteousness means right standing. And in this instance, Jesus is telling us to seek His righteousness. Our righteousness is based in Him and His standing with God and in our faith in Jesus. There are many scriptures that tell us of those who believed, righteousness was accounted to them (Hebrews chapters 11,12). So what do you base your righteousness on? More specifically… what do you seek?
