Seeking God

This is the follow-up of my previous posting of "Who Seeks God?"

We have seen that the unbeliever or non-christian will not seek God. The natural pattern for man is to run from Him and to hide from Him. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). He is the Seeker and the natural man is the one who is running. In man's sinful state he may look for answers to life's puzzles, but he does not seek God.

The seeking of God begins at conversion. The irony is this - once we have "found" Christ (more accurately to say, found by Christ) it is not the end of our seeking, but the beginning. The christian life begins at conversion; it does not end where it begins. It grows, it moves from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from strength to strength, from day to day. The movement of the christian growth is the product of continual seeking after God. If a christian does not grow, he backslides.

Jesus said to His disciples, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33, NKJV).

Notice that "all these things" are things that unsaved Gentiles seek after (verses 31 and 32). Notice also that, Jesus said His disciples must seek after two things, the Kingdom of God and Righteousness of God. But, the Gentiles would not seek God and Righteousness. Seek the Kingdom of God, seek righteousness are the priorities of the Christian life. These are the things we seek first in our christian walk. The promise is that when we seek these two things, even what the Gentiles seek after will be given to us!

Seeking the Kingdom of God

I believe to seek God's kingdom is to fulfill the last command of Jesus - "... you shall be witnesses to Me ..." (Acts 1:8). We are called to seek the Kingdom by bearing witness to the Kingdom. If a believer fails to seek for himself the Kingdom of God first, how is it possible for him to bear witness to the Kingdom?

Seeking the Kingdom of God is the crucial petition of the Lord' Prayer: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:8). In other words, Jesus links the coming the kingdom with the doing of the will of God. The kingdom comes on earth where God's will is done on earth.

Seeking Righteousness of God

The futile "righteousness" of the unsaved is made clear by the following verses of Scripture.

"But we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6).

Paul said, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3).

Believers receive the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). In fact, believers are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). But, the questions is, if we truely have faith in Christ we possess His righteousness and so why do we still have to seek after the rigthteousness of God?

I believe we are actually called to seek after the fruit of righteousness.

Jesus said to His disciples, "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:20).

In other words, the fruit of our righteousness must exceed the pretense of righteousness displayed by the scribes and Pharisees. If we do not seek the righteousness of God there is no way our righteousness can exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.

True righteousness is doing what is right in the sight of God. The demands of true righteousness are so great and so many that none of us ever in this world achieves it perfectly. It involves following the whole counsel of God.

An example of true righteousness of God can be found in the Book of Micah, a much neglected Book of the Old Testament.

"He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

The fruit of righteousness demanded by God is justice, kindness and humility.

Another example of true righteousness, this time from Jesus is, "And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise (Luke 6:31). This is called the "Golden Rule" by some Bible teachers.

In conclusion, if a believer constantly seeks to obey all other commands of Christ he will bear the fruit of righteousness of God.