Meditation of the Scripture - 20 August 2021

[EpicScore]

Reading: Matthew 5-7
Verse of the day: "But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." (v. 6:33)

Observations

• "But" - the preceding verse talks about the "idolaters" and their concerns for food, clothing and personal satisfaction/fulfillment. This peroposition challenges Jesus's disciples (to whom the Sermon of the mount is preached) to be different. We are called to be the salt and light of the world, and "be Holy, as the Father is Holy" (1 Peter 1:16)
  
  
• "seek" - this is an instruction to get out of our usual zone and search out the hidden for we do not seek things that are already plainly obvious in our eyes. While God has revealed His majesty in such a way that people are without excuse for their unbelief (Romans 1:20), He keeps many parts of Himself concealed, and He is inviting us to search those things out (Proverbs 25:2). We cannot gain a deeper understanding of God and His ways by passively waiting for His revelations to fall into our laps.
  
  
• "first" - we have to orient our priorities in its proper order. As St. Augustine remarks, sin is a disordered love. He believed that our problem isn’t necessarily that we love the wrong things. It’s that we often love the right things in the wrong order. And having wrong priorities is often what leads us into error and sin.
  
  
• "the Kingdom" - God cares for His people individually, but He puts a greater priority on the well-being of the community/society more than personal satisfaction. We see many examples in the Bible where one man's sin hurts the larger whole (e.g. Adam's fall, the sin of Achan). There are many believers who thinks that being saved from sin and hell and finding worth and validation in Jesus is all there is to the religion, but Jesus is calling us for much greater things than that. We are to partake in the work of the Kingdom and eventually share its glory when its fullness is finally revealed.
  
  
• "of God" - as we commit our service, we must keep our focus fixed on God. We should not be people-pleasers, and our work are of no ultimate value if they are not consecrated to God, even if they benefit our neighbours.
  
  
• "and His righteousness" - we are called to walk in the narrow path of God's righteousness from beginning to end. There is no such as thing as "the end justifies the means" mindset in the Kingdom. This is why we must continually ask - even beg - for God's grace and providence so that we don't stumble, because we don't have the strength of Spirit to walk against the current of the world so dead-set on moving away from God on our own (Matthew 5:3).
  
  
• "all these things" - Jesus came to give His people an abundant life (John 10:10b). Now this is not to mean that He would lavish us with material blessings, even though some had been blessed in such a manner. C.S. Lewis once wrote that "those who has God and everything else does not have more than those who only has God".
  
  
  
• "will be added unto You" - God is always ready to bless His children with good gifts (Matthew 7:11), but at the same time He wouldn't give more to them than what they can be responsible with, which is why in the parable of the talents, He assigned portions to his servants "according to their abilities" (Matthew 25:15). It is only when we've learnt to enjoy God before His gifts can we learn to fully enjoy these things. After all, a man who has plenty doesn't necessarily have more joy, or find more enjoyment in their many things, than those who only have a few.

Questions and reflections

• Have I sought out God's Kingdom and righteousness?
• How important is pursuing righteousness in my life?
• What is God calling me to do? In what capacity does He want me to work for His kingdom?