BibleProject | How to Seek First the KingdomSample

The Choice of How to Live Secure Lives

In Genesis 1 and 2, the biblical authors invite us to see a life-and-death choice that humans have to make. Will we live freely and forever in God’s abundant world (represented by the garden of Eden) by joining his own way of ruling the world according to his wisdom? Or will we try to rule according to our own wisdom?

In Genesis 3:1-15, the humans trust their own perspective on how the world should work more than they trust God’s wisdom. They eat from the tree that God specifically told them to avoid, and they immediately experience fear. They end up outside the good garden, suffering in a world of injury, loss, and death—a place where deadbolts and weapons make sense because life is dangerous and eventually returns to dust.

The biblical story tells us that humanity will be tempted to secure life in ways that might make sense from certain (limited) perspectives, but when those ways disregard God’s instruction, humans always end up bringing harm to creation and one another.

Jesus weaves this thread from Genesis 3 right to the heart of his teaching. He speaks directly to the deep human instinct for survival. What do I need to own, or whom must I defeat, in order to live another day? His electrifying response to this question sums up the essence of his Sermon on the Mount: “But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

Notice how Matthew 6:33 begins with the contrasting conjunction “but,” telling us that he’s helping us see a contrast with what came before. Earlier in Matthew 6, he describes two worlds: one where humans anxiously secure their lives according to their preferences and personal perspectives, and one where humans freely live according to God's wisdom and provision—a world where every person trusts that God ultimately gives people everything they need for life.

Surrounded by poverty, crime, and threats of violence, we rightly sense danger everywhere. Working to protect “me and mine” at any cost, even if it includes neglecting or harming others, has become normal, even “virtuous” in popular culture. We’ve got our own problems to deal with, and doing what it takes to generously love each of our neighbors sounds nice but feels unrealistic. So when we hear Jesus say, “Seek first the Kingdom of God,” it sounds idealistic and impractical if not impossible.

But Jesus resists the temptation to depend on violence of any kind to preserve himself. He rejects every selfish way of gaining personal security, and he becomes the clearest example of what it looks like to live in this new way of life.