What does it mean to seek first the kingdom of God when you don’t want to get back into performance or legalism? That’s a question I’ve been pondering a lot recently. Jesus says to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness in Matthew 6, but as with so many things in Scripture, we’ve taken this to mean that we have to generate the Kingdom ourselves and our performance is graded to see how well we are seeking.

The context of the verse is in relation to pursuing or being obsessed with provision—food, clothes, etc. Jesus says instead of being fixated on what you might need or think you need, to run after His reality. This isn’t just in heaven, as in Luke 17:20-21, Jesus says the Kingdom of God is already expanding among some of those around Him. And Romans 14:17-18 says that the Kingdom isn’t a bunch of rules about eating and drinking, but rather the realm of the Holy Spirit. And serving Jesus by walking in the kingdom realities was pleasing to God.