"Be not
anxious... which of you by being anxious... why are ye
anxious? ...Be not therefore anxious... But seek ye first
his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:25,27,28,31,33).
Let us remind
ourselves once again, and keep it clearly before us, that
the fundamental meaning of the word which has been
translated into our English word 'kingdom' is
SOVEREIGN RULE. It will then immediately be apparent
that this verse 33 that we have read takes on new meaning
and value: 'Seek ye first the sovereign rule of God, and
then it follows that all these things will be added.'
You note the context.
This verse is found right in the heart of what has come
to be called 'the sermon on the mount', which covers
three whole chapters, 5, 6 and 7 - one hundred and eleven
verses. This is the first of five discourses by the Lord
recorded by Matthew. You will notice, further, that what
is here was given primarily to His disciples, who were
the nucleus of this sovereignty, this rule, this Kingdom.
"Seeing the multitudes, he went up into the
mountain: and when he had sat down, his disciples came
unto him: and he opened his mouth and taught them"
(Matt. 5:1,2): so that it is evident that this has to do
with those who are immediately and essentially within the
compass and meaning of this sovereign rule. Dr. Campbell
Morgan calls this section: 'Jesus the King, His
Propaganda and Enunciating of Laws'. It is the
enunciation of the laws of the King and His Kingdom, of
the Ruler and His rule.
THE
LAW OF HEART REST UNDER THE SOVEREIGN RULE OF GOD
Here, then, is a law of
God's sovereign rule: "Seek ye first his kingdom,
and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you." We see, from the context, that it
has to do with fretful preoccupation over ways and means
in this life, especially the cares of tomorrow -
incidentally getting right to the root of many a nervous
breakdown, of a good deal of neurosis. But we shall not
attempt to deal with that. We are enunciating a law, a
law of the sovereign rule, which stands over against this
constantly reiterated word - anxious, anxious, anxious.
It is therefore the law of heart rest under the sovereign
rule of God - heart rest because you are in the Kingdom.
Our mentality at once visualises a sphere, a realm; but
that comes second. Because you are within the sovereign
government of God, "all these things" are
there.
A
POSITIVE LAW
But note - it is not a
passive law. The Lord Jesus does not say, here or
anywhere else, what kindly people often say - 'Oh, don't
worry, the Lord will take care of you, and will look
after that. It will all come out all right.' He no more
says that than He would say, on the other hand:
'Substitute an insurance society for God and all is taken
care of.' Nor, to bring it into the realm of religion,
does He say: 'Hand it over to the priest, and he will
take care of that'; or: 'Hand it over to the church, and
rid yourself of all responsibility.' I put it in that
way, in order that we may get right at what He does say.
Somehow or other, we must get to the real heart of this
thing, the meaning of this, and so we strip off any
mistaken or false ideas, and any wrong courses. There are
many people who think that, if only they could adopt some
policy (insurance or otherwise!), or some expedient, by
which responsibility and liability could be taken off
their own shoulders and placed for them somewhere else,
they would come to rest - and it does not work that way.
You may be the most heavily insured person in creation,
and still be the most anxious person, the most worried,
the most fretful. There is no guarantee of heart rest
along the lines of shelving of responsibility, nor along
the line of a false passivity which says, 'Don't worry,
it will all come out all right.' The law is not passive.
But notice - it IS
positive. The Lord does not say, 'Oh, don't worry.' He
says, 'Seek first...' The law is a very positive one, you
see. 'Seek first...' and then responsibility will be
taken, then the other will be looked after. 'Seek ye
first the sovereign rule, the government, of God, and His
righteousness.' It is the positive principle of viewing
everything in the light of how it serves God's rule. If
you will only do that, you come into the good that is
here. Our own interests come second or last. His
interests come first, and when life is arranged on that
basis - ARRANGED on that basis - and kept on
that basis, then the other follows; God looks after the
other things.
DELIBERATE
ARRANGEMENT OF LIFE
I said, when life is
ARRANGED on that basis. The fact is that it takes
some of us a long time to get life on to that basis. It
is only after having lived a long time that we begin to
re-arrange life in this way. Well, better late than
never! But here is a word for young people and for young
Christians - especially to young people who are in a
position to arrange their lives in any way. Perhaps you
have just started married life together, or are
contemplating doing so. Now is the time to arrange it on
this principle of the sovereign rule. Now is your
opportunity to make it quite unnecessary in after years
either to undo much or to regret much. All these laws of
the sovereign rule are very practical, as you see, and
this is a very practical one. Where shall we live? What
kind of a home shall we have? These are practical
questions. You must arrange everything on this principle.
The thing that matters and governs, and in relation to
which everything now has to be arranged, is: How does
this serve the interests of the sovereign rule of God?
Put that first, and you
will escape many a tragedy, such as we see in many
places. Oh, a nice house and a nice home, maybe, but
altogether out of relation to the interests of the Lord,
both in distance and in other ways. It is going to be an
incubus, a hindrance and a limitation; the things of the
Lord are going to be made to suffer. And there are many,
many spiritual tragedies - lives that have lost out with
the Lord, both in spiritual measure and in usefulness to
Him, both in service and in a related way in His Church;
and so we could spread it out. The whole matter of
getting on in the world, of success or ambition - what a
range this covers! Now the law and principle of this rule
of Heaven is that life must be arranged in the first
place in relation to God's interests and God's rule. This
must come first, and if it is, you may rest assured that
God will look after your interests. You will certainly
not suffer in the long run. God will be true to His side
of the undertaking.
And then there is the
maintaining of the arrangement, the remaining on that
basis. It is so easy to be drawn out by a thousand and
one things. In fine points, all the way along, the enemy
is trying somehow or other to divert, to draw away, to
put something in that takes the place of the interests of
the Lord. This is a serious and earnest business, calling
for all diligence and watchfulness and stedfastness. It
is, as I have said, not passive by any means. It will not
just happen willy-nilly. "SEEK ye
first..."
SEEK
FIRST THE KINGDOM
Now that word 'seek' is
emphatic. "Seek, and ye shall find", said the
Lord elsewhere, "for... he that seeketh
findeth" (Matt. 7:7,8). Here is the picture of
someone applying themselves with diligence. SEEK: set
yourself upon this thing, make it your business and keep
at it. Seek FIRST - and keep on seeking first -
the sovereign rule of God. Take the alternative course -
put your own affairs and interests first - and the
inference is perfectly clear though the Lord does not say
so explicitly. For He is saying: 'You are anxious. WHY
are you anxious?' He is dealing with people who are 'up
against things', and the inference is that, if you adopt
the alternative of putting your own interests first, then
you must take responsibility for the consequences. You
have to reckon with life without the sovereign rule of
God. It is a terrible thing never to be able to appeal in
the court of God, never to find that the Lord is really
working everything for good, never to know that there is
no need at all to be anxious. Take the burden, carry the
weight yourself, work life out yourself, and sooner or
later you will come up against some tremendous situation
with which you cannot cope, and that is the alternative
which many have so grievously found.
"BUT"
- on that word there is a turnover, a turn round, a
change of position - "BUT seek ye
first..." It is just the question of God's sovereign
rule in our affairs, in our life, which we may know and
enjoy and prove and find to be real. It is a wonderful
thing at long last to find that it has been real, even
when we thought that it was not working that way, and
that God was not at work in things in our interest, to
find at long last that where He seemed to be least active
He still had the situation in hand. Yes - to live long
enough with God to be able to look back upon situations
which at the time seemed to deny that the Lord was
governing, was ruling, and to be able to see that those
were the very things which worked out to good. It is
true. Perhaps you who read these words find yourself
today in a situation where it is difficult to trace the
sovereign hand of God; but God's word stands and God's
undertaking is sure. He says: 'You put first My
interests, My rule, and I will look after the rest - all
these things shall be added'.
Let us make sure that
this has got home. We have to make this a personal matter
- for anxiety, is a personal matter, is it not? It is OUR
anxiety, it is OUR troubles and bothers, it is OUR
complications and difficulties. It is all just OURS.
May it not be that a lot of it is unnecessary? -
unnecessary because, as we go here or there, proceed on
some errand, some purpose, to transact something, or
carry out some project we do not stop to ask: 'Now, what
interest of the Lord can be served in this?' Impulse,
whim, fleshly desire - what WE would like - all
these things arise and govern the course of our lives,
and the Lord says, 'Stop! The first thing is: Where do I
come in? How are My interests going to be served?'
Perhaps that might seem very exacting, even legal; but it
is not so - it is the way into this beneficent rule of
God.
'Seek ye first the
kingdom of God, and His righteousness.' Here are two
things. First the kingdom - the sovereign rule of God.
Seek ye first, in other words, that which relates to
God's place in life: that is, His sovereign rule. He is
Lord, He is Sovereign: then seek first that which relates
to His place. It sounds very simple and elementary, but
God's place is a most important thing. What place has God
in this? Where does He come in? His place is as
Sovereign. His sovereign rule is His right.
SEEK
FIRST HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
And then His
righteousness - that which relates to God's character.
Seek ye first that which is like God - God-like. The
whole Bible is taken up with this matter of righteousness
and unrighteousness, and righteousness is what God is
like, what belongs to God. "Righteousness and
judgment are the foundation of his throne" (Ps.
97:2). Unrighteousness is that which is against God,
against which prophet and seer pronounce God's
displeasure and God's wrath. So when we are told that
what we are to seek, as a first priority, is (1) His
rightful place in our lives, and (2) that which is
God-like, we are getting to the very heart of this law.
It means that you and I are to seek in the first place
and at all times to be Christ-like, God-like - which is
only an extension of 'godly'; to bring the likeness, the
nature and character of God into the situation; to seek
that there shall be found here some expression of what
God is like as He has been revealed in Jesus Christ. It
means that it is our first and primary business to see to
it that our home shall be a place where God is known in
truth, a place characterized by what God is like; and it
means that all our interests are to bring Him, as to what
He truly is, into every situation in life.
That is not
exaggerating this word. His righteousness, His character,
His likeness, what He is in Himself: make it your
business to bring THAT in first, and then you
find the Lord right there in all His sovereign rule on
your behalf. Forgive the simplicity of this, but we are
accustomed to quoting this passage so glibly - 'Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you.' Yes, but what does
it mean? It is applied teaching, and that is one reason
why the Lord Jesus kept it for the disciples. It is sheer
nonsense to call upon unsaved men to live up to the
Sermon on the Mount. This is not a rule of life for the
unconverted. It is an impossible thing to present to
them. This is a practical basis of everyday life for the
children of the Kingdom.
GOD'S
KINGDOM AGAINST THE ENEMY'S KINGDOM
But there is always
lurking in the near vicinity another kingdom, another
government, another rule, another god, and the object of
that other kingdom is to bring the people of God into
servitude, into bondage, to hold them in toilsome labour.
Your mind will have immediately darted back to Egypt. You
remember that it says that ISRAEL was in Egypt.
Think for a moment. Isra-el - a prince with God.
The nation were the sons of Israel, and they were in
bondage, in servitude, in toilsome, wearisome labour in
Egypt. It is a picture. The laws of the rule of God are
intended for our emancipation, our deliverance, our
freedom, our rest, our prosperity, and there is the
shadow of this other rule always near. Not satisfied with
bringing the poor world under its abominable rule, it
seeks above all things to impinge upon the sons of God
and to bring them into toilsome bondage.
Many, many a child of
God is there, in the toils of anxiety, in the awful grip
of this other kingdom that would rob God of His glory in
His people, that would malign God in the very looks of
His children - anxious, burdened, worried, fretful - sons
of God! What a contradiction! It seems that some children
of God have entered into a terrible conspiracy with
themselves never to smile, afraid that they would be
giving away some spirituality. It is a very grievous
matter. God's thought for His people is that they shall
be an emancipated and free people, and that does not only
mean freedom from judgment and condemnation and the
penalty of sin, but freedom from this tyranny of the
anxious heart and melancholy face.
You see what the Devil
is after. This law of the sovereignty is of deep, deep
meaning and far-reaching effect. This other is another
kingdom, another rule, so different. One of the chief
objects of that other kingdom and rule is to bring God's
own blood-bought children into anxious care, to deny the
very redemption which God has wrought for them in Christ.
And so, in order to defeat the Devil himself, to destroy
the power of his rule - 'Seek ye first the sovereign rule
of God, and His righteousness', and He will take
responsibility and relieve you of your unnecessary care.
Is that practical? Is that important? Well, Jesus came to
bring in this Kingdom - this rule and this regime - and
to undo the other kingdom.
So it comes surely with
the backing of tremendous meaning: 'Seek ye first - give
priority to - the sovereign rule of God, and His
righteousness - His character, nature - and all these
things shall be added unto you.'