Seek First His Kingdom

After the flood, God sets the world in order again: blood is not cheap, nations are named and scattered, and man is taught to live under heaven with reverence. Then the Lord Christ teaches how such reverence appears—not in proud display, but in hidden obedience. The same God who requires an account for blood also sees the secret deed, the shut door, the private fast, the guarded tongue. He who numbers nations is not ignorant of a single servant praying in secret.

Men are eager to make a name for themselves among the families of the earth; yet the Lord forbids us to practice righteousness for human praise. The table of nations shows how wide the earth has been divided and filled, but Christ gathers His people into a truer order: not those ruled by appetite and anxious striving, but those who call on the Father, forgive debts, and seek first His kingdom. As Julius Africanus says, “Heber, when 134 years old, begets Phalec in the year 2661, so called because the earth was divided in his days.” The earth is divided; the heart must not be. Let it be single toward God.

So do not live like the nations, heaping up worry over food, drink, and clothing. Tatian says, “Matthew 6:32 all these things the nations of the world seek; and your Father which is in heaven knows 11 your need of all these things.” Therefore give alms without trumpet, pray without performance, fast without gloom, and forgive without delay. Since God will require an account of life, let us spend life soberly: with mercy toward men, purity before God, and freedom from the vanity that hungers to be seen.