QUESTION: “Seek first the Kingdom of God.” How? How do we seek the Kingdom of God? And what is the Kingdom of God? Justine.
RESPONSE: Thank you, and praise God for the question. Seeking the Kingdom of God ought to be priority for all of us Christians.
How we should seek that Kingdom and what that Kingdom is, are questions that all should be asking.
The statement: “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” in Matthew 6:33 was made by Jesus Christ.
First, let us talk about the Kingdom and probably seeking it won’t be a challenge.
The Kingdom of God
The idea of the Kingdom is in the Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament is built around the birth and establishment of the nation of Israel, its promise of the Land and its revelation and experience with its God-Yahweh, as demonstrated in its belief system of the Torah.
Israel began as a theocracy in its original state and God was their exclusive King.
Later, however, the Israelites insisted they wanted to be like other nations which had physical Kings (1Samuel 8).
God was displaced as the King of Israel and now had to reign through the human kings.
The prophetic movement in the Old Testament insisted God was the ultimate King of kings, whose reign transcended the national borders and to whom allegiance ought to be given through human hearts.
After human kings disappointed the people, their anticipation was in the fact that their God, who is the King of kings, was to come and take His throne and reign forever.
The messianic expectations that we see in the Old Testament are built on the Kingdom motif and to the cult of Judaism.
To Christian prophets in the Old Testament like deutro-Isaiah, the anticipation was for God to become incarnate, dwell with us (John 1:1-3, 14) and deliver His own by His death (1 John 2:2) and resurrection (1Peter 1:3-4), to establish a new reign in new geography (Isaiah 65:17).
From this brief background, we can now ably answer the question of what the Kingdom is.
A Kingdom is a people (Israel) in a particular geography (Promised Land) with a defined ruler (Yahweh), whose law or decree (Torah) the subject people (Israelites) faithfully serve and obey.
In return they are blessed by the ruler to whom they pay allegiance (Deuteronomy 27-28).
To rescue the definition of a kingdom from the Jewish cult, we would say: the Kingdom is God’s reign through His people over His land.
The scope of this definition rectifies the New Testament understanding of the Kingdom of God.
God is the only King to His creation, has redemptive authority, and every created being ought to be His subject.
New Testament
So in the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is not the Jewish Kingdom, but an all-believing people who regard God as their Father.
This is why the understanding of the Kingdom of God by John the Baptist is exclusive-only for Israelites and the proselytes (Matthew 3:2).
The teaching of the Kingdom of God by Jesus Christ in His parables is inclusive of all people as long as they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior (Matthew 4:17; 13:44-46; 47-52; Mark 4:26-29; 30-34).
However, John preaches a modified Israel kingdom of God, where the Messianic King who is a God-man takes charge and destroys all Gentile powers; while Jesus preaches an all-in-one Kingdom of God where both the Jews and Gentiles are equal due to believe in the same Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
How to seek the Kingdom
Since the Kingdom of God is the reign of God, seeking it means seeking God and allowing Him to reign in our individual lives, families, marriages, relationships, businesses and our Churches.
The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking all that can be offered by the Kingdom of darkness to lure the saints; it is the righteousness of God abiding with the believers.
“For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17).
We do not seek the Kingdom of God in wealth and health as the prosperity Gospel teaches and neither is it sought in the anxiety of material needs (Matthew 6:19-32).
The Kingdom of God is sought in us relating with Jesus Christ, the King.
It is not just about us knowing the King and doing wonders in His name, but the King knowing us matters most (Matthew 7:21-23).
We are not called to seek the goods of God, we are called to seek the God of goods.
Answered by Pr Isaiah White.
Contact: +256775 822 833
Email: whitemwine@gmail.com
