Digging
This verse has been mystifying me of late: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. " Matthew 6:33
How do you seek the Kingdom? How do you pursue righteousness? If we knew how to do these things, God straight up made a promise to take care of all our needs.
I think that Peter knew how to seek the kingdom of God first, although still caged in broken human form, he was by no means a perfect example.
"28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
(Jesus makes another promise for those who seek His kingdom first!)
Peter left his trade, his family, his friends, his home and EVERYTHING, just to follow after the man that he loved so dearly. He knew the person of Jesus, met with him, talked with him, shared life with him. He counted the cost and abandoned everything to become a fisher of men. All my life I have read that verse I completely missed that the promise is for this age with an added bonus of eternal life in the age to come.
What exactly did Peter do though? How did he seek the Kingdom? It sounds to me like he was just Jesus friend. Plain and simple. Daily walking by his side, praying with him, learning from him, and spending himself on him even when it seemed rediculous or when there were so many other things he could have been doing with his life. I believe the bible says we are the kingdom of God, the church. Peter was the Rock on which God built his kingdom.
So how do we pursue righteousness? "so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Phillipians 1:9-11
*sidenote: our righteousness glorifies and praises God!!! Paul tells us that righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Are we all righteous because of Jesus? I certainly don't feel righteous. Is it even a feeling? Or is it a state? Can we become more righteous? "17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[a] just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:17
So righteousness comes from a faith in Jesus... "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" Romans 6:16
and righteousness comes from obedience. But what do we obey? God I guess.
So to seek righteousness means to have faith in Jesus Christ and to obey God's commands. That can be a daunting task when we don't know what they are... because we as a "modern church" don't. I don't even think that I could list the ten commandments off the top of my head. Something is wrong there. Psalm 119 is devoted to the psalmist's love of the commands of the Lord! Well I'll have some of what he's having.
"20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." 2Peter 2:20-22
Paul tells us that righteousness is our way of life. It is an identity. We are travelling on the way of righteousness, speckeled with much repentance and struggling to remember that the map is right in front of us if we weren't too stubborn to pick it up.
So take what you want, those were just some questions of mine and I had to dig... which generally just leads to more questions.
How do you seek the Kingdom? How do you pursue righteousness? If we knew how to do these things, God straight up made a promise to take care of all our needs.
I think that Peter knew how to seek the kingdom of God first, although still caged in broken human form, he was by no means a perfect example.
"28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."
(Jesus makes another promise for those who seek His kingdom first!)
Peter left his trade, his family, his friends, his home and EVERYTHING, just to follow after the man that he loved so dearly. He knew the person of Jesus, met with him, talked with him, shared life with him. He counted the cost and abandoned everything to become a fisher of men. All my life I have read that verse I completely missed that the promise is for this age with an added bonus of eternal life in the age to come.
What exactly did Peter do though? How did he seek the Kingdom? It sounds to me like he was just Jesus friend. Plain and simple. Daily walking by his side, praying with him, learning from him, and spending himself on him even when it seemed rediculous or when there were so many other things he could have been doing with his life. I believe the bible says we are the kingdom of God, the church. Peter was the Rock on which God built his kingdom.
So how do we pursue righteousness? "so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." Phillipians 1:9-11
*sidenote: our righteousness glorifies and praises God!!! Paul tells us that righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Are we all righteous because of Jesus? I certainly don't feel righteous. Is it even a feeling? Or is it a state? Can we become more righteous? "17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,[a] just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." Romans 1:17
So righteousness comes from a faith in Jesus... "Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?" Romans 6:16
and righteousness comes from obedience. But what do we obey? God I guess.
So to seek righteousness means to have faith in Jesus Christ and to obey God's commands. That can be a daunting task when we don't know what they are... because we as a "modern church" don't. I don't even think that I could list the ten commandments off the top of my head. Something is wrong there. Psalm 119 is devoted to the psalmist's love of the commands of the Lord! Well I'll have some of what he's having.
"20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud." 2Peter 2:20-22
Paul tells us that righteousness is our way of life. It is an identity. We are travelling on the way of righteousness, speckeled with much repentance and struggling to remember that the map is right in front of us if we weren't too stubborn to pick it up.
So take what you want, those were just some questions of mine and I had to dig... which generally just leads to more questions.
posted by Stewart at
3:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home