About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman

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Seeking God's Kingdom  

Jesus spoke a lot about the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of heaven as Matthew termed it for those reading his gospel account.  Matthew 6:33 reads:

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

The Kingdom of God has both a present and a future component to it.  The present component is spiritual and became present on earth when the Spirit of Jesus the King entered the lives of His disciples as recorded in Acts 2.  I believe this to be the historic case because Jesus said that some of His disciples would be alive when the Kingdom of God came in power, as Jesus also predicted, as seen in Acts 1:8.  Mark 9:1 reads:     

"And he said to them, 'Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.""

The future component is physical and will come to earth at the end of this age when Jesus the King returns in physical form.  Revelation 11:15 reads:

"The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.'"

One thing I learn from what Jesus taught about God's Kingdom is that He is not interested in any kind of political merger between a human kingdom and God's Kingdom.  The kingdoms of men and the Kingdom of God , in their essence, are light years apart and cannot form a political alliance.  Paul implies this when he wrote that light and darkness, righteousness and wickedness, have nothing in common (2 Corinthians 6:14).  They cannot cohabitate.  The Biblical fact is that Jesus will destroy the kingdoms of men (Revelation 17 and 18) and then replace them with the physical Kingdom of God . 

When Jesus told us to seek His kingdom first, He was telling us to make all that His kingdom implies priority number one in our lives.  From my observation, many who call themselves Christians have placed the things pertaining to God's kingdom pretty far down on their list of priorities.  Where do you place the Kingdom of God on your list of life's priorities, especially since our nations are in a destabilizing state of disarray?  Where should we be investing our attention, our time, our money, and really, our lives?  As the nations of the world struggle to survive today's culturally chaotic mess, maybe you will agree with me that our God-appointed mandate of Mathew 6:33 really should be priority number one. 

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