Seek His Righteousness
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33
What makes this verse of scripture so important is that we find it in what is known as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which He spoke to the disciples and the multitudes. This sermon covers Matthew chapters five through seven. Chapter six is right in the middle of Jesus’ discourse.
This verse is important because it contains a promise. The promise is that the Lord will provide everything that we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.) Show More
Let’s look at the context of Matthew 6:33, But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Immediately it is obvious that there are three parts to the verse:
- Seek the kingdom of God
- Seek His righteousness
- All these things shall be added to you
In our last message, we focused on Seeking the Kingdom; today we will focus on Seeking His Righteousness.
Matthew chapter six covers four important areas of a Christian’s devotional life.
- Charitable deeds, compassionate acts towards the poor, alms giving.
- Prayer, communication (dialogue) with the Lord.
- Fasting, giving up food, and then taking that time to draw closer to God.
- Avoiding the seeking of wealth as a means of having confidence in life. Our confidence must be in the Lord alone. (Hebrews 10:35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise
As we will see these four areas should be central to every Christian Believer life. We all know that we should be doing these things, and I am sure that we do to some degree. However, Jesus is not just saying that these are things that we should do, but that we must do them with the proper attitude and motivation. In other words, what’s our heart attitude? Are we doing these things to please some (1) religious system, (2) to please man, or (3) to please the Lord?
Trying to please or satisfy a religious system.
This is a common occurrence to those who believe that belonging to a particular denomination or group is the means of salvation and righteousness. This kind of thinking might be true if you were a Jew living under the Old Covenant of the Law. However, it’s not true if you are a Christian living under the New Covenant. Jesus provided the New Covenant when He went to the Cross, died, was buried, and then resurrected on the third day.
The heart of the New Testament salvation message is found in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Reading carefully, we see that we are saved by GRACE, Grace means that it is undeserved and unearned; it is a free gift of God. This Grace is received through FAITH, that is, repenting and believing that what Christ provided through the Cross was sufficient to receive the love, forgiveness, and acceptance of God.
Verse 9 is critical to the point that I am making that it is not about trying to please or satisfy a religious system, “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” This speaks to the heart of Grace; you don’t deserve it, and you can’t work for it. All of the religious exercises, practices, and rituals cannot save you. Only by turning (repenting) to Jesus and believing in Him can one be saved. Right living or righteousness is the evidence that you truly believe in Him! Right living is not the means of salvation! This is what James meant when he said, “But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:18 Your righteous deeds or works is the evidence of your salvation.
Now I am sure that someone is thinking about Romans 4: 22, but hasn’t the righteousness of Christ been imputed to me? “22 And therefore “it was accounted to him (speaking of Abraham’s faith) for righteousness.” 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
The answer is yes, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us because we are born-again, and the seal of the Holy Spirit is upon us, the Holy Spirit living in us. Spiritually speaking, we are righteous, but it is in the natural realm that we must learn to be led by the Spirit, to walk in righteousness so that the world would see that we are (1) Christians and (2) see that is why we receive the blessings of God.
Pleasing man is an age-old problem.
Jesus had to deal with this during His ministry. As you know, Jesus did not hold the religious Jews, the Pharisees in particular, in high regard because they often sought to circumvent the “spirit of the Law” with the “letter of the Law.” The Pharisees were more concerned about how they appeared to people. They wanted to appear pious and holy in public. In effect, they were man-pleasers and not God-pleasers.
Jesus said of the Pharisees, Matthew 15:14, “Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” This is a rebuke to those who lead others astray with false teaching and a warning to those who follow a person, a leader, or authority figure blindly. I think the Apostle Paul said it best as to what our attitude should be in 1 Corinthians 1:2, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Perhaps you can begin to understand the tendency to obey the letter of the Law and not the Spirit of the Law when you realize that the Old Testament had 613 laws, rules, and regulations. Six hundred and thirteen laws tended to lead people into the attitude of religious ritual or practice—thereby neglecting the motivation of love for obeying the Lord. The term “legalism” describes the literal interpretation of the Law and missing the Spirit or purpose of the Law. Whereas we are to operate with the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)
When you understand that the Lord desires to bless us and that we punish ourselves when we violate His commandments. For example, everyone knows John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, look at verse 17, which follows, 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Can you see it! God doesn’t need to punish; people punish themselves when they disbelieve what He has said in His Word.
Keep in mind, God cannot bless what He doesn’t approve of. That is why righteousness is so important. The purpose of the Law was to show the Jews what was right in God’s eyes. This is what righteousness is, “doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord.”
In the book of Judges, we see a series of seven military leaders called judges whose sole purpose was to deliver the Jews out of destruction by their enemies. The destruction was of their own making. They walked away from the Lord and sinned. The people continually did “what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6, 21:25). This simply means that people did what they wanted, ignoring the principles of God. They got themselves into serious problems because they were unrighteous. Sadly, many Christians do the same thing. They violate the principles of God and expect the Lord to bless the mess! 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “obedience is better than sacrifice.” In other words, it is better to be obedient from the heart than it is to be sorry afterward with tears and regret or penance.
The Lord has created a moral universe.
What I mean by a moral universe is that the Creation described in Genesis operates in the following way: obey the Ten Commandments, and you will be blessed, break the Ten Commandments, and you will suffer the consequences. Even before the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses in the Book of Exodus, every human being then and today has a conscience to know right from wrong. When God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, God was simply codifying or putting in writing the moral principles put in place at Creation. Ever since Adam and Eve ate of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” mankind has a built-in compass that can distinguish good and evil. Now, it is true that as human beings, we can choose to over-ride our conscience and do evil or neglect to do good. After all, the Lord has given us the ability to make free-will choices. However, make the wrong choices, and you must pay the consequences; in a sense, the moral universe “punishes you”! It is no different from breaking civil Law; if you commit a crime, you will be caught and have to pay the consequences. So, it is in the spiritual realm.
When a person does wrong or evil in God’s, it is not God who punishes you! It is the consequence of living in a moral universe. For example, gravity is a scientific law; essentially what goes up must come down. So, if you jump off the roof of your home and you are badly injured as a result, should you be surprised? Did you really expect to fly? You don’t have to learn the principle of gravity in school before gravity takes effect. Gravity is always in effect. The same is true of the principles associated with the Ten Commandments. They are always in operation.
So, what are we to do?
If you want your needs met by the Lord, follow these guiding principles from the Word, and you will do well!
Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
Matthew 22: 37, “Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law (613 of them) and the Prophets.”
Romans 13:8, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.”
Col 3:23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.