Matthew 6:24-34 - "Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God"

Matthew 6:24-34

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

In Matthew chapter 6, our LORD’s Sermon on the Mount teaches His disciples how to live in this world as children of God, bought by His precious blood. We need the LORD’s teaching because this world is a very dangerous place. The whole world lies in wickedness, and even more so in our flesh. Yet the Grace of God rules over all. As God’s children, these teachings of Christ are very needful for us as we live out our lives in this world.

Consider what it is to seek first the Kingdom of God. Where there is a kingdom, there is a king, and Christ is that King. He is the One we serve. We don’t serve men; we serve Christ the King. “No man can serve two masters… Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (v.24). The LORD speaks of a master and a slave. We were slaves in a slave market, bound by sin and condemnation of the law, and the LORD Jesus Christ purchased us. “Ye are not your own… For ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). That master does not share that slave with anybody else. Those He has purchased have but one Master, the LORD Jesus Christ Himself.

Mammon is personal wealth, the things we possess or would like to possess. It is not wrong to possess material things, for we have to live and work. It is not money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10). Many give lip service to loving Christ and yet spend their time pursuing things of this world. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). This is a heart matter. Whether rich or poor, men may serve mammon, either protecting what they have or pursuing what they don’t have.

So the LORD says, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink… Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (v.25). We can be so tangled up with earthly, temporal things that we forget Whose we are. Three things tend to pick up our mind: what we shall eat, what we shall drink, and what we shall put on. Yet if we are to be concerned, let us be concerned about our own souls and our standing before the Holy God.

Our LORD gives arguments against worry. “Behold the fowls of the air… your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (v.26). The birds rise early, chanting and singing, praising their Father. He provides for them; will He not take care of you? We can look back from birth till now and say He has led all the way. God’s eye is upon those sinners He chose before the foundation of the world and gave to His Son, for whom Christ paid the sin debt. Are you not of much more value than birds? “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” (v.27). Worry cannot add one inch. Stress only harms us. Our bodies were made by God’s Grace to rest in Him, but our sin nature frets. So we consider the lilies. “Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (v.29). If God clothes the grass, will He not clothe you?

“Therefore… Take no thought… For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (v.31,32). We are not to be like the world but to have our attention on God and His Kingdom. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (v.33). The LORD Jesus is the Righteousness of God because He alone earned and established that perfect Righteousness in His Holy, obedient earthly life. As the incarnate Son, He fulfilled every demand of God’s law, loving the Father perfectly and walking without sin. Having completed this flawless obedience, He then paid the full price of sin at the cross, satisfying Divine justice by His Substitutionary death. In doing so, He obtained that Righteousness as the Surety of His people, so that God, in sovereign Grace, did impute it freely to the spiritual account of every elect sinner when Christ finished the work and accomplished it at the cross.

Therefore, having all we need and all we want in the Person and work of the LORD Jesus we “Take therefore no thought for the morrow… Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (v.34). We have no control over tomorrow. The LORD uses evil and affliction to wean us from this world and draw us closer to Himself. Today the LORD has given us this day, and we live and move and have our being in Him. Let us lift our eyes to Christ alone, Who is seated on the Throne, and there He ever lives to intercede for His own.