Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Matthew 6:25-34 part 2 of 2 - But Seek First ...

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Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

When a sentence starts with the word "but", we must see why. The previous sentence describes what the pagans are seeking, food and clothing. As we said yesterday, these last 10 verses of Matthew 6 are a treatise on what not to worry about. Specifically, eating, drinking and clothing are mentioned repeatedly.

Put God first! My testimony is that I was bi-vocational for about the first 13 years of congregational senior leadership. While leading Shomair, I also worked a full time job. However; I always put the work of the Lord first and prayed that He would redeem the time, so that the rest of my work could be done with excellence. My testimony is that God always answered my prayer. I worked hard, but my work was thorough and completed on time.

Consider how this verse ends. "... and all these things shall be added to you." What "things" could this be? We'll find the answer by examining the context. This is more than, "What's for dinner?" It goes beyond picking out what color of shirt to wear, or what flavor of drink to choose. Those are all choices. The admonition of these verses is not to worry about having clothing, food or something to drink.

Lastly, last time I mentioned briefly that trusting God is not a license to irresponsibility. It does not give God glory to not work and expect God to provide. The scriptures mention this. 1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, especially those in his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Please make my "rabbi" job easier and get this. Spirituality is never an excuse for irresponsibility.

I'm not talking about "serving mammon." Last week we discussed how it is impossible to please God while primarily seeking after money. Now we come to the conclusion to seek God's kingdom first (and His righteousness), then God will be Yehovah Yireh to you. This is commonly translated "God is my provider," but the Hebrew connotation is that "God will see to it." We seek Him (His kingdom and His righteousness) and God will see to it that we are fed, watered and clothed. That's His promise. Let's receive it.