Matthew 6:33
ESV:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
1 Cor 13
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 6:33 sits inside a passage about anxiety over food, clothes, and tomorrow. Jesus’ answer is not “try harder to relax.” It is: put the King’s rule and the King’s righteousness first, and the Father who already knows what you need will add what is required.
Seeking the Kingdom is not first a program. It is allegiance. It is asking, in ordinary decisions: Who is actually on the throne here — Jesus, or my fear, my appetite, my reputation, my timeline?
That is why the parables of the Kingdom sound so costly: hidden treasure, pearl of great price, a man who sells everything (Matthew 13:44–46). The King is not an accessory to a life we already planned.
A tightened definition
The Kingdom of God is the present and coming reign of Jesus Christ — wherever His will is done, His righteousness is loved, and His authority is confessed — beginning in the heart of the believer, extending through His people, and ending in the renewal of all things.
Wherever Jesus is on the throne, that is Kingdom ground. The invitation of the gospel is to come under that throne now, and to live as if the rest of creation will one day do the same.
Another Feast of Trumpets has come and gone without the Lord showing up unexpectedly for His Church. That does not mean He cannot show up today however...That's the difference between the once per year coming out of the woodwork "this year the star alignments, and the day counts and all the rest of my garbage calculations say He comes back" and living every day as if the Lord can come back.
We have a job to do while we are here, each and every day. That job, starts and ends with love, His Love, agape love, decision based love. Not feelings based, but decision based love. Read, and re-read 1 Cor13, and 1 John 4 until you really, really, deeply "get it." Nothing else matters. 1 Cor 13 tells us clearly you can be doing all the religious stuff in the world, you can look like a Christian rockstar, and yet without love its all a stinking pile of garbage, utterly worthless.
He Loved us, that is how this story started. He died for us, in Love. We are to be living out that love story now by both loving Him and each other and even our enemies. That is our "job" or "ministry" or whatever other words you want to use for what we are doing here on earth. What about "leveling up" into the best version of ourselves? That's still front and center as well. In love and obedience we are employing all of our talents, skills and abilities at higher and higher levels in order to fulfill the high calling each of us has in Christ. We are centered in His Will, each and every day. Every day, we are seeking the Kingdom of God. Every day in Love we put Him first in our lives. He sits on the throne within us. Not our hopes, dreams, fears or diagnosis, none of that gets to sit where He sits.
One of the most encouraging things this servant can share with you today is that we live in the middle of a great big love story. Yes, it might feel a lot different for those who reject the Kingdom of God, but this is all a love story. Nobody gets into heaven without love. He did what He did in Love, we do what we do in reciprocal love. Not because we loved Him but He loved us first.
The way we cut through the darkness in the days ahead is with His Love and His light. We are salt and light in this world. We are also love, as we are in Him. God is Love. God=Love is the same statement. We are "in Christ" one with Christ who is one with the Father:
John 14:10–11
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”
John 14:20
“In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
John 15:4–5
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 17:21–23 (the heart of what you asked)
“that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Related verses that say the same thing in other words:
1 John 4:13, 15–16
“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. … Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
Colossians 3:3
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
Romans 8:9–10
“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. … If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
The pattern is: the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, the Son in us, we in Him — one life, not three separate rooms. John 17 is the place Jesus prays that this oneness would be visible.
As we proceed down the road ahead of us let us remember to put first things first. His Kingdom comes first. He is on the throne. Faith, hope and love remain but the greatest of these is love. We are salt and light in this world. Let us "love in" to the Kingdom those who can be saved with the time the Lord God has given us.
We must never go back to "business as usual" that was the life before the scamdemic. Taking things for granted, taking time for granted was and is a great sin. Let us do what we can today with what the Lord has given us to move forward His Kingdom and His Righteousness. And we will do this in, with and through Love.
You are dearly loved children. Keep the faith.
Please join with your brother in praying over the prayer targets today.
Glory to God
grace and peace
