But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
~ Matthew 6:33
There is perhaps no better time to examine our priorities than at the beginning of a brand new year. Since ancient times, such an exercise has been deemed beneficial, as clearly articulated in the dictum attributed to Socrates that “the unexamined life is not worth living”.
This deliberate act of self-examination is beneficial because it helps us to identify the things that we truly value, and prompts us to realign our lives, activities and goals accordingly.
Self-examination has an important place in the Christian tradition. This practice, if done prayerfully, may bring to light hidden sinful fixations and desires that subtly steer us away from God. It may reveal a pattern of life or a habit of mind that is a hindrance to the spiritual life and to our devotion to God.
What is the Christian’s priority on the basis of which he should order his life?
The answer is found in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus exhorted his hearers to “… seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). This verse is, of course. well-known to many Christians and has even been put to music, a song still sung in some churches today.
But what is this divine kingdom about which Jesus spoke? And what does it mean to seek it?
While Jesus did not offer a systematic presentation on the nature of the kingdom, he told numerous parables which provide lively glimpses of this divine reality.
The kingdom of God in the New Testament is indeed a multi-faceted term, as many scholars have pointed out. Its nature and significance can only be grasped if we study what the entire biblical canon—both the Old Testament and New Testament—has to say about it.
Drawing from the testimonies of both Testaments, the New Testament scholar George Ladd summarises their teaching on the kingdom in this way: “The bond that binds them (the two Testaments) together is the dynamic concept of the rule of God”. 1
The kingdom of God is therefore the reign or rulership of the sovereign and loving God, the Creator of all that is.
Now, if the divine kingdom is the reign of God, to seek after it surely means to submit ourselves to everything that God commands. In other words, to seek the kingdom of God, to come under his rulership and reign, is to love what God loves and hate what he hates. It is to be obedient to his word and conform to his will.
Seeking the kingdom means much more than regular attendance at Sunday worship (though this is important). It requires nothing less than a radical surrender of our desires, wants and ambitions. It requires that we bend our wills to God’s, a spiritual renovation of our lives.
This is seen supremely in the demand that Jesus makes to those who wish to be his disciples: “‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it’” (Matthew 16:24–25).
To seek the kingdom of God requires the seeker to die. It requires the seeker to die to his sin-driven self in order that he may truly live for God.
To seek the kingdom of God requires the seeker to die. It requires the seeker to die to his sin-driven self in order that he may truly live for God.
But there’s more!
Since God’s reign over creation is characterised by love, justice, mercy and holiness, those who seek it must also embody these values in their lives. This means that seeking God’s kingdom is not just a matter of the personal devotion of the individual to Christ. It is also always a call to strive for justice, peace and wholeness.
That is why Christians are not just commanded to seek God’s kingdom, but his righteousness also. In fact, the two are synonymous because the divine kingdom is the reign of the righteous King.
But what does it mean to seek the righteousness of God?
It is to conform our lives to the moral and ethical standards found in the Bible, and to strive to live by them in every aspect of our lives, especially in our relationship with our neighbour.
Here, seeking God’s kingdom has a relational or social dimension, which is nicely captured by the Wesleyan concept of social holiness.
Jesus instructed his disciples to seek first the kingdom of God, that is, to give it the highest priority in our lives. It is to put the kingdom of God and all that it stands for above everything else—our careers, our family, our comfort.
For it is only when we do this that the rest of our lives will be ordered in a way that glorifies God himself.
1 George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Eerdmans, 1974), 130.
Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College and Theological and Research Advisor at the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.