The injunction "seek ye first" means at least three things. First, seeking God's kingdom and righteousness must be our first business in point of time: we must allow nothing else to take precedence before it. Second, we must regard nothing as of greater importance, or of equal importance, than seeking God's kingdom. Third, "seek ye first" implies that Christianity is to be the great business of our future life. The Christian faith is always to be considered as of the first importance to be attended to, and to be the first concern of life.

God's Kingdom Must Be Sought First

Until we seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, nothing else we do can be acceptable to God. As long as we neglect this great salvation, as long as we have not secured our justification by faith in Christ, as long as we are not interest- ed in the kingdom of God by actually embracing it and receiving its laws into our heart, we can do nothing acceptable to God. Until we have done this, we cannot fulfill any requirement of God and He cannot accept anything else we do--for "whatever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). Whatever does not imply faith in us is sin; therefore, if we neglect salvation in Christ as of primary importance, nothing that we do can be acceptable to God.

People may have all the outward forms of morality and goodness, but if they have neglected the kingdom of God and His righteousness, whatever else they do, God will not accept them. He will not and cannot accept us if we are putting last what He has put first, and that first which He has put last.

If we secure an interest in the kingdom of God, if we become subjects of His government, whatever else we fail to secure is unimportant. Whatever else we fail to secure we shall hardly regret in the future. But if we do not secure this, whatever else we secure will only increase our responsibility and our guilt. People ought to understand this: nothing is of any real importance to us unless it is connected with God's kingdom, and shall enable us to obey more effectually His command.

Now, if we regard anything as more important than our relationship with God in His kingdom, we entirely pervert things. God's kingdom is most important to ourselves and to our families; most important to all who stand in any relation to us and have any claims upon us. The real and best interests of his family require that he should pay his first and chief attention to this great re- quirement of God. By neglecting to put Christ first and make Christian faith his first duty, who can tell how much the family may have to suffer from his negligence? Putting God's kingdom first is most important to a person's creditors. If a man owes me money, and that man tries to obey and please God, I have reason to believe that he will be enabled to pay me sooner than if he did not regard the commands of God at all. Therefore, even if I were a selfish man, I should say to my debtor, "Whatever else you do, don't neglect to obey God--don't neglect your duty to Him." Putting God's righteousness first is important to our neighbors, friends, connections, the world at large, the Church of God, and all with whom we are surrounded. Who can doubt this? No person can doubt it, who believes in the reality of the Christian faith!

It is extremely dangerous to neglect this business and concern. It is more dangerous to neglect this than anything else. Why, suppose we did neglect everything else, what then? Why, it would be an evil in some sense, but, in comparison, it would be no evil at all. Who does not believe that it is infi- nitely dangerous for a man to neglect his eternal salvation? And if he does not assign this the first place, he may never attend to it at all. He is in danger every moment of dying or being given up by the Spirit of Christ! Suppose he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul, of what value would the whole world be to him? All other dangers are as nothing in comparison with this! If we will neglect the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we must inevitably lose our souls. "How shall we escape," says the apostle, "if we neglect so great salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3). Let them be good wives, good husbands, good parents, good children, good citizens, say prayers, go to meeting, and give money to send the Gospel to the heathen. Let them do anything else in the world but what God requires as of first importance, and they are sure to lose their souls.

People make a great mistake on this subject, or else the Bible is not true. They make a great mistake on this subject, or else our own natures contradict us. Our own natures affirm that sin is an evil from which we ought to escape; and the Bible tells us to run for our lives, to "so run that ye may obtain," to "so fight that ye may obtain," to "gird up your loins,".

Sadly, The great mass of those who claim to be Christians are not making this the great business of their lives! It seems as if they attended to it just enough to entertain a hope that they shall be saved, but they never attend to it in such a sense as to manifest much solemn earnestness about it. The fact is, such people know nothing at all of Jesus Christ, and the natural result will be that they will lose their souls! They never get rid of their sins, they never become sanctified, and they are not fit for heaven. Really, many persons seem to suppose that they can live in sin till death, and then all at once they will become sanctified and prepared for heaven. Now, we never read in the Bible that, death will sanctify us or that we will go to heaven if we are not sanctified in this world by the renewing of the Holy Spirit through our belief in the Gospel! Many who claim to have gospel faith, "the kingdom of God and His righteousness," understand it very little. They regard the righteousness of God as imputed(bestowed), not imparted(worked for), righteousness. They imagine that somehow or other the righteousness of Christ can be accounted to them without their being personally holy. God's government has no dominion over them! How, then, do they expect to get to heaven? What can they understand by the kingdom of God and His righteous- ness; which they are required to make it the business of their lives to seek?

Nothing is to take prece- dence over this. When one said to Jesus, "Let me first go and bury my father," he said to him, "Let the dead bury their dead" (Matthew 8:22). Your own father, and the duties you owe to him in that relation, must not stand in the way of your seeking eternal life.

"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous- ness:" NOTHING should be allowed to have precedence over this.

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Peace out & GB. (Hope it wasn't too wordy for ya'll).