One of the verses running through my head these past few weeks has been Matthew 6:33. Around age thirteen, I began teaching a “Junior Church” class on Sunday mornings. Though I don’t remember many of those lessons, I remember one specifically: Matthew 6:33. This may be because of the accompanying tune I taught them for this verse.
Six or seven years ago, I preached a sermon from this passage. My “big idea” (or, Perfect Blend as I call it) was that we sometimes get too caught up in the minutia and miss the big picture: God Himself.
Over the next three blogs, I’m going to look even closer at this verse by breaking it up into three distinct sections. First, today with “Seek the Kingdom of God”; Then, “and His Righteousness”; And finally, “and He will give you everything you need.”
The background
First, I wanted to mention two things many of us probably already know, but are worth revisiting. This verse is a part of the Sermon on the Mount. Also, Luke echoes many of these principles (almost word for word) in Chapter 12. It’s interesting to read them side by side, and you may want to go do that right now.
I’m going to primarily focus on Matthew 6. My Bible breaks it down into three sections: Giving to the Needy (1-4), Prayer and Fasting (5-18, which includes the well-known Lord’s Prayer), and finally, Money and Possessions (19-34).
The principle Jesus taught here is simple: life will have many worries. Some are financial, others personal. Regardless, they should not dominate our thoughts.
Instead, Matthew 6:33 should be our priority. But, what does He even mean? Here’s the full verse again in the New Living Translation.
Seek
Seek is an interesting word. The Greek word zēteō was used 119 times in scripture. It might seem pretty basic at first. It sounds like a command to go find it.
So then, ask yourself: how do you find the Kingdom of God? If we take the word seek literally, as it was used in Matthew 2:13, it sounds as if there is a physical item to be found akin to Herod searching for the baby Jesus from that passage.
I’m not trying to be factitious here. If we’re to understand scripture, we need to truly take the time to internalize basic words like this.
There is another verse where zēteō was used that begins to bring this command into context: Matthew 12:47. The KJV uses the English word “desiring” whereas the NIV and NLT use forms of the word “want.” Either way, it works.
Desire the Kingdom of God. Meditate on that for a moment before continuing reading.
Still with me? Awesome. We’re not done. There is another pair of verses that use zēteō: Matthew 7:7 and Luke 11:19. These are within the context of prayer. But, before we go down that rabbit hole, let’s look at the next part of the verse: the Kingdom.
The Kingdom
I find it interesting that of every translation I tend to use, only the NLT chose to capitalize the K in kingdom. This appears to be a deliberate choice, though I can’t find anything in the original Greek to explain why.
I’ve sometimes thought about what Jesus meant when He used phrases such as “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” or “you are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Generally speaking, I think that we take this to mean the literal Heaven: our eternal resting place. Focus on what’s lasting (Matthew 6:20) instead of carnal (Matthew 6:19).
It also goes beyond the afterlife, especially in the context of Mark 12:34 (“You are not far…”).
So, once again, we need to look at the original language to understand the deeper meaning. The Strong’s has several definitions of basileia — kingdom — and they all reveal something fascinating.
Kingship. Dominion. Rule.
To say it another way, we are to “Seek to be ruled.” In other words, to submit to…
The rule of God
I covered this word in a previous blog, so be sure to check out my write-up on Genesis 1:1 HERE. Completing the thought from above, “Seek the rule of God.” To be under Him. To submit to His will.
Above all else
Now, let’s finish the clause (side note: I first wrote claus, then realized that Tim Allen has forever corrupted my spelling of this word).
The phrase “above all else” comes from the Greek word prōton. I did not see any references to electrons or neutrons, however.
My jokes aside, there’s very little to argue here. The Strong’s is full of definitions; most come down to positional authority. If I had to expound upon it, I would say it this way: before anything else, this should be your priority.
And in that context, the clause is complete. Revisiting the rabbit hole I mentioned, we are to prayerfully seek God’s rule in our lives. That’s what matters most.
How it applies to us
The full application of this verse I’ll leave for Part 3 of this series. Nevertheless, we can still learn a lot from just the first portion of Matthew 6:33.
God is to be number one. His path for us should supersede our own desires. I’ll cover those desires more soon, but for now, I want to leave you with a thought.
What can you bring under God’s authority today? Spend some time in prayer, asking Him to reveal to you what He wants you to turn over to His dominion.