But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. . .
Ah. Mathew 6:33. A verse I know and love. This verse has always struck such a beautiful chord in my soul, but more often than not, these are the only words I refer too. I know that God’s kingdom comes first, but what happens before and after these few words?
One of the most important things I learned as a theology student is the importance of context. Without biblical context and looking at everything around the key verse, it is all too easy to take verses out of context and misinterpret or misuse them.
I’ll be the first to admit that misusing verses is an easy thing to overlook. Granted, simply saying “seek first the kingdom of God,” is not misusing the verse. However, without understanding what led to those words being said and what comes after, we could run anywhere with it. I’ve used it to justify my dislike of politics or getting involved in other things, and I’ve even used it to criticize those Christians who are heavily involved in politics.
**Disclaimer: I do not like politics, and I do believe that often times Christians rely heavily on the government to do their bidding for them. I do not agree with Christians feeling the need to have a government official to force their beliefs on America. I do not believe that America was founded as a “Christian nation”, and I believe that American Christians are losing sight of Jesus and the fact that He Himself was not all lovey dovey with the government. These opinions are my own, and I realize that I am not in the majority of American Christians right now, but my faith is bigger than America and preserving America and “making America great again”. My faith is for the Kingdom of God and the entirety of the Body of Christ which includes every nation.
I fully understand that I can sometimes be stubborn and set in my ways and what not, but as a student of theology, I refuse to stay in the realm of “I’m right and no one else’s opinion matters”. Studying God’s living breathing Word is ever-changing, and it teaches me new things everyday.
So, I’m selling shirts that say “Kingdom Over Everything” to raise money for my trip.(I’ll post another blog specifically for that later. . .) In order to prepare myself for selling them, I decided to go back a read through Matthew 6. When I got to verse 25, my world was shaken. Somehow I had forgotten that right before telling us to “seek first the kingdom of God”, Jesus told us to not be anxious.
Now if you’ve read my other blogs, you’ll know that I super struggle with anxiety. It’s so crippling sometimes it causes me to stop functioning. Yet somehow, I’d forgotten the reason I fell in love with Matthew 6:33 was because seeking God’s kingdom was the way to combat anxiety.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.“ (Matthew 6:25-33 ESV)
How could I forget the beautiful power in these verses? How could I forget the words the gripped my heart so fully? I’d become so obsessed with making the verse justify my beliefs that I’d completely forgotten the power and truth of the entirety of God’s word.
Let this be a warning, a cautionary tale, a whatever you want to call it. It’s so easy to get caught up in justifying your own faith that you forget about the whole and the Body. Don’t ever lose sight of the whole. Solo Christianity is not a thing. It’s just not. But all too often we Christians let little things divide us and separate us, and for what?
We have the biggest thing binding us, #Jesus, but we let foolish things divide us because we get so stuck in what we think is right, and we refuse to hear what others have to say. Agh.
I don’t think that’s where I thought this blog was gonna go, but alas, here we are.
Don’t forget to focus on the whole and the kingdom and not just yourself. It’s not about you. It’s about Jesus and His sacrifice and being a part of the Body of Christ.
Don’t forget to read and reread and reread again, and don’t forget to study again and again and again. You will always learn something new. You will always fall more in love with the one and only infinite God.
Don’t let the verses you’ve come to love become trite and meaningless. Take them an cherish them forever.
