Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we
eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “With what
shall we clothe ourselves?” For all these things
the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. But
seek first His kingdom and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added to you.
(6:31–33). Worry is inconsistent with our faith in God and is therefore unreasonable as well as sinful. Worry is characteristic of unbelief. Those who have no hope in God naturally put their hope and
expectations in things they can enjoy now. They
have nothing to live for but the present, and their
materialism is perfectly consistent with their
religion. They have no God to supply their
physical or their spiritual needs, their present or
their eternal needs, so anything they get they
must get for themselves. They are ignorant of
God’s supply and have no claim on it. No
heavenly Father cares for them, so there is reason
to worry. To worry
about our physical welfare and our clothing is the
mark of a worldly mind, whether Christian or not.
When we think like the world and crave like the
world, we will worry like the world, because a
mind that is not centered on God is a mind that
has cause to worry. The faithful, trusting, and
reasonable Christian is “anxious for nothing, but
in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving [lets his] requests be made known
to God” (Phil. 4:6). He refuses in any way to “be
conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2).
Within this series of rebukes Jesus gives a
positive command coupled with a beautiful
promise: But seek first His kingdom and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be
added to you. The cause of WORRY is SEEKING THE things of this WORLD, and the cause of
CONTENTMENT is SEEKING the THINGS of GOD’s
KINGDOM and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS .
Jesus says, “focus your attention and hopes on
the things of the Lord and He will take care of all
your needs.”
Out of all the options that we have, out of all the
things we can seek for and be occupied with, we
are to seek first the things of the One to whom
we belong. That is the Christian’s priority of
priorities, a divine priority composed of two parts:
God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness .
As we have seen in the discussion of the
Disciples’ Prayer (6:10), basileia ( kingdom ) does
not refer to a geographical territory but to a
dominion or rule. God’s kingdom is God’s
sovereign rule, and therefore to seek first His
kingdom is to seek first His rule, His will and His
authority.
Seeking God’s kingdom is losing ourselves in
obedience to the Lord to the extent that we can
say with Paul, “I do not consider my life of any
account as dear to myself, in order that I may
finish my course, and the ministry which I
received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly
of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
To seek first God’s kingdom is to pour out our
lives in the eternal work of our heavenly Father.
To seek God’s kingdom is seek to win people into
that kingdom, that they might be saved and God
might be glorified. It is to have our heavenly
Father’s own truth, love, and righteousness
manifest in our lives, and to have “peace and joy
in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). We also seek
God’s kingdom when we yearn for the return of
the King in His millennial glory to establish His
kingdom on earth and usher in His eternal
kingdom. We not only are to have heavenly
expectations but holy lives (see Col. 3:2–3).
“Since all these things [the earth and its works, v.
10] are to be destroyed in this way,” Peter says,
“what sort of people ought you to be in holy
conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:11).

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