by Ayodele Abbis

Created on: April 06, 2011   Last Updated: April 10, 2011

“…but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things will be added unto you”

If you read this verse of the scripture out of context, one key fact pops to mind. It is that whoever said this must either have some authority that is unbeknown to men or is a complete lunatic, a disillusioned person who claims to have some sort of heady assurance.  Hence the tendency to immediately question where such assurance as conveyed in this statement comes from and this leads me to the first headline

Contextual Background

This was the first time Jesus, in his adult ministry, preached in public, on mount olives. The famous beatitudes are also a product of this first public appearance; you only need to read the fifth chapter of Matthew to explore the full extent of the riches contained in these sayings.

In Matthew chapter 6, the theme is very much starting to focus on piety. First few verses are about alms-giving, which was a well accepted practice of piety in the Jewish community, and then he goes on to talk about prayer, and the correct attitude towards Christian service. In the same vein, Jesus begins to explore the crucial elements of everyday human living and the very significant barriers to meaningful and acceptable godliness. Three key issues are outlined, and verse 31 beautifully puts it in perspective 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’. Needless to say these three things are still the crux of every human worry! Much of the civilized world is based on people who are constantly pursuing one end or the other, and in the final analysis it comes to one of these three things: Survival, survival, survival.

Now we are back to where we started, Jesus completely smashing the very basis on which human civilization was built. “Don’t worry! Forget about the pursuit of the basic needs of life!, the one true pursuit that is worth any while is the pursuit of God!”. Jesus says pursue after God first and foremost, and not only will you find him, all those temporal, ephemeral things categorized under the three primal needs, will also be added to you!

I shall attempt to draw out some key lessons in the key words contained in the verse quoted. The two key words I shall consider are “seek” and “first”, as they both describe the crux of everyday human condition

Seek……

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