What kind of kingdom would you want to be a part of?
Jesus spoke these incredible words to His followers:
‘But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ (Matthew 6, verse 33)
It can be easy to hear that wrong. After all, many of us grow up hearing the message of : ‘Reach for the stars. You can be anything you want to be. If you dream it, you can do it.’
Hollywood certainly feeds us that message as we see movie after movie of the unlikely hero conquering the odds to save the day. And win the girl in the process (as if girls are a trophy to be won, but that’s another article).
Sometimes we buy into it as well. It’s an easy thing to do – ‘All these things’ sure does sound like a lot of things.
LIFE IS LIKE A BOX OF CONTEXT
Which is why it is so important to read verses in context. Read by itself, Matthew 6.33 is the kind of verse you can build a movement around. And people will follow because, “All these things”.
But in the verses leading up to it, we see that Jesus is actually talking about what we eat and what we drink and what we wear. You know, the basics, the necessities, the things we need to survive. These are the things that Jesus is saying you will have if you seek after the things of God.
We might be tempted to look around the world and come to the conclusion that not everybody has these things. It might seem like God is not coming through on His promise.
Well two things on that:
Are people really seeking God first and His righteousness? Because that was the condition, right? And the reality is that too many people are seeking to build their own kingdoms. We like comfort, we like comfortable, we like easy and so we tend to chase after those things rather than sacrifice, service and the Saviour.
Do those of us who have the ‘these things’ use them well when it comes to other people? Jesus told us, ‘The poor you will always have with you’ which many take to mean a defeatist attitude of ‘we will never be able to have no poor people’.
But actually Jesus meant something else entirely. In the Old Testament it says, ‘There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.’ This is what Jesus meant. The call has been made on us to be looking after those around us and when we fail to do so, then it results in people who do not have enough.
ENTER THE KINGDOM
This has maybe given you a bit of a different picture compared to what you thought Christianity was about. Simply put, if you seek after the things of God, then all your daily needs will be met. On top of that your purpose is to use your life and posessions to be part of creating a world where everyone has greater access to having their needs met.
Are you able to imagine what the world might look like if all of us started living that way and using our resources to that end? It certainly is the kind of kingdom I have been interested in my whole life and I’d love for you to take a closer look.