Part 4: Seek First
The Simplest Command
We’ve come a long way together in this series. We started in a garden with two trees and two rivers. We watched self-righteousness flood the earth and pervert the Law. We saw Jesus blow the doors open with grace and truth. And we looked honestly at how that grace and truth are being twisted in our own time.
Now I want to bring it home. Because all of this — every word, every verse, every warning — comes down to one thing. And Jesus said it Himself.
He was standing in front of regular people. Not priests. Not scholars. People worried about where their next meal was coming from. People worried about clothes and bills and what tomorrow might bring. People just like you and me.
And He said:
“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33).
Seek first. Two words that change everything.
The Order Matters
Notice what Jesus didn’t say. He didn’t say, “Get your life together and then seek God.” He didn’t say, “Figure out your finances, fix your relationships, sort out your problems, and when you’ve got some time left over, give God a look.”
He said first. Before all of it. Seek the kingdom. Seek His righteousness. And then watch what happens with the rest.
That’s the opposite of how the world works. The world says secure yourself first. Build your own foundation. Trust in your own strength. Then maybe, if you’re the religious type, add God on top.
But Jesus turns the whole thing upside down. Or maybe right side up, because we’ve been living upside down since the garden.
Remember what Moses told Israel?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest, and He quoted Moses word for word — and then added to it:
“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:39-40).
Everything hangs on this. Every law. Every prophecy. Every page of Scripture. Love God first. Love people second. That’s the whole river. That’s the Tree of Life bearing fruit in your daily life.
His Righteousness, Not Yours
I want to make sure you hear this clearly, because it’s the heartbeat of everything we’ve talked about in this series.
When Jesus says, “seek His righteousness,” He’s not asking you to manufacture something. He’s asking you to receive something. There’s a world of difference.
Self-righteousness says, “Look what I’ve done for God.” God’s righteousness says, “Look what God has done for me.”
Self-righteousness keeps score. God’s righteousness keeps no record of wrongs.
Self-righteousness performs for an audience. God’s righteousness flows from a relationship.
Paul understood this better than anyone. He’d spent his whole life building his own righteousness — and he was better at it than most. But after he met Jesus, he saw it for what it was:
“Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9).
The righteousness from God. That’s the living water. That’s what you’re seeking when you seek first. Not a to-do list. Not a performance review. A person. Jesus Christ.
Abide
So what does this look like on a Tuesday morning when the baby’s crying and the bills are late and the world feels like it’s unraveling?
It looks like abiding.
Jesus used that word with His disciples the night before He went to the cross. He knew what was coming. He knew they’d be shaken. And He gave them — and us — the simplest instruction for staying in the right river:
“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 15:4-5).
Apart from me you can do nothing. That’s not a threat. That’s a relief. You were never meant to do this alone. You were never meant to carry it. You were never designed to be your own source of righteousness.
You’re a branch. He’s the vine. Stay connected, and the fruit comes. The peace comes. The righteousness comes. Not because you worked it up, but because His life is flowing through you.
That’s the power of righteousness. It was never yours to begin with. It’s His. And He gives it freely to anyone who will come, drink, and stay.
Two Rivers, One Choice
We’re at the end now, but really, we’re at the beginning. Your beginning, if you’ll let it be.
Two rivers are still flowing. They’ve been flowing since the garden, and they’ll keep flowing until Jesus comes back. One is wide and polluted with the pride of man. The other is narrow and crystal clear, fed by the living water of God’s righteousness.
The wide river is loud. It’s popular. A lot of people are on it. But it ends in the same place it’s always ended.
The narrow river is quiet. It’s not flashy. Sometimes it’s lonely. But it leads to life. Real life. The kind that doesn’t end.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote,
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green” (Jeremiah 17:7-8).
A tree planted by water. Roots in the stream. Green leaves in the heat. That’s not a man striving. That’s a man abiding. That’s a life rooted in God’s righteousness.
And the book of Revelation, the very last chapter of the Bible, shows us where this river goes:
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river, the tree of life” (Revelation 22:1-2).
The river of Life that started in Genesis ends in Revelation — flowing from the throne of God. And the Tree of Life is still there. Still bearing fruit. Still offering what it offered in the beginning.
It never stopped flowing. It never will.
Come
If you’ve read this whole series and something in you is pulling — follow it. That’s not coincidence. That’s the Holy Spirit doing what He does. Drawing you. Calling you. Leading you to the water.
You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to clean yourself up first. You don’t need to understand everything. You just need to come.
“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).
Without price. It’s already been paid. Jesus paid it all.
Come and drink.
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A Moment Before You Go
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” But what feels like dying — letting go of your self-righteousness, your control, your own way — is really the doorway into the only life worth living.
Seek first His kingdom. Seek first His righteousness. Everything else will follow.
i-CH