What does putting God first really mean?

Such is the text, and now we come to the exposition. Moses sums up in two brief sentences what the law implies in its first table. First, the unity and immutability of God: "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah" founded upon this, His claim to the undivided allegiance of man, — "Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." If there be but one God, there is none beside to divide the heart with; and Jehovah claims in the most absolute way the whole of it. The words stand for the inner man, with all his affections, and in their full energy. And this is the reasonable claim of the Creator to the full answer of the heart to Him who created him, and in whose service alone all his faculties find their full occupation, rest, and satisfaction. All freedom apart from this is only slavery. All slavery here is only freedom as he knew well who could say, "To me, to live is Christ," and who in his epistle to the Romans signs himself His "bondsman," — "Paul, bondsman of Jesus Christ." (Rom. 1:1, Greek.) Yet none can insist more earnestly that "we have not received the spirit of bondage." (Rom. 8:15.) To live in love, and serve Him who is love, is indeed the opposite.

"How, 0 Israel, The Lord our God is one" (v.4)! This is basic to every department of our lives as it was to Israel's. There is no division in the Godhead: therefore God is the absolute. He is absolute in truth, absolute in supremacy, absolute in authority. Since this is true, it is only right that Israel be told, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (v.5). In Luke 10:25-27 a lawyer who tested the Lord quoted this verse (Deut.6:5) and added from Leviticus 19:18, "and your neighbor as yourself." However, Deuteronomy 5 confines itself to loving God, for this must come first. What a law was this! Who could dare to say that the one absorbing object of his heart and soul is God? -- and that his entire strength is devoted to God's pleasure? This law is a perfectly righteous one, but man in the flesh is totally incapable of obeying it. The Lord Jesus is the only one who has done so.

One of the scribes who was listening perceived this, and he ventured to propound a question that they often debated amongst themselves, concerning the relative importance of the various commandments. The Lord's answer brushed aside all their elaborate arguments and quibbles as to one or other of the ten commandments by going straight to the word contained in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Here was a commandment which brought within its scope all the other commandments. God demanded that He should be absolutely supreme in the affections of His creatures; if only He were so, all other things would fall into their right place. Here is the great master-commandment which governs everything.

You and I never will be worth anything unless we make God's interests first. I do not care who you are; I do not care how little you have to do. You may not be a preacher, you may not be a public worker in God's service; but, my brother, if you make your business more important than God's, if you make your household concerns, family concerns, business concerns — the things of daily life — if you make these things more important than the concerns of God's people, you have no wish to engage in conflict for Him.

The Lord Jesus said, "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." What had He been speaking of just before? Of "what ye shall eat, and put on" — that is the necessary things for our earthly life. Those are necessary things, but, dear brethren, in view of those very necessities, our Lord deliberately says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." Are we hearkening to this word? What is first in our souls?

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" This is the matter of real importance. God's interests in that sphere of subjection to His authority (His kingdom) should hold the greatest attraction for us. "His righteousness" is added to this, for everything in the world is contaminated by man's unrighteousness, and it requires purpose of heart to seek the purity of God's righteousness in such contrary circumstances. This does take time and thought. All of these instructions of the Lord in the sermon on the mount are basic in regard to what God's righteousness really is. They are worthy of diligently applied thought and study.

And yet the most important question is: Do we make our decisions, be they small or great, in dependence upon him, that is praying and waiting upon him, and do we so really let him rule our lives? This is the only way to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The righteousness of God here, different to the one in Romans, is the practical deportment which answers to the authority and rule of God through the person of the Lord Jesus in our lives (see ch. 5:20; 6:1 especially footnote N.Tr.).

This is why the Lord Jesus draws his disciples' attention to the essential thing in the centre verse of this paragraph: 'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' (verse 33)-With this positive invitation he shows the goal at which the disciple should aim first of all. It is the kingdom of God and his righteousness. The Lord Jesus does not say: 'Seek ye only the kingdom of God..., but: Seek ye first the kingdom of God...', for he does not want us to forsake our other duties. Nevertheless he clearly points His disciples to what ought to be first in their lives.

"J." The words which you have quoted are full of practical power: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." We are to make the things of God our grand object, and He assures us that all our wants shall be attended to. But be it noted, we are not to seek "the kingdom of God," etc. in order that "all these things may be added." This would be a fatal mistake indeed. If I give myself to the Lord's work, in order that my temporal wants may be supplied, I shall very speedily make shipwreck. But, on the other hand, if I make the Lord's work my paramount object, my wants shall be perfectly met.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." It is not that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and then these things; but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest will come.

p241 [Dr Glenny] MY DEAR BROTHER, - Your letter was so long delayed by my running about the country and my letters after me (I have been up as far as Aberdeen, and in many places in the north of England) that it is very likely that your decision may have been come to before you receive this. I have been anxious about it. The Lord will take care of you. … The thing that I fear is not seeking FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is not the time only that a similar occupation takes, but its having the prior claim, which is important. It alters the whole tone of the mind. Adding, if we are able, work (like Paul) is an excellent thing, but it only came in for the gospel. If you feel increased practical experience an object, it is all well, and though preaching when I could I should then give it its own place. But your heart should see what place you are putting yourself in; it may be very desirable you should have the advantage of the practice, if so, set about it heartily. But see whether you are going to be a practitioner preaching, or a preacher practising: it may be done, for a time, though this is slippery ground. But I have more confidence in our gracious Lord guiding you than in any counsel I could give. …