Only-ness, in a cluttered world

Mt. 6:33 ain't for sissies!

One of my professors – a theology professor named Dr. Al Coppedge – held discipleship groups in his home across many years of his tenure at Asbury Seminary.  One evening, as we huddled in his living room, he asked a wide-open question about a verse we had just read in the Gospel of Matthew. 

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you.

The question – “What do you guys think about this verse?”  No one was saying anything and I definitely had an opinion so I said, “I don’t like it.”

“Oh?” said Dr. Coppedge as my friend’s heads swiveled my direction to see what potentially heretical thing I was getting ready to say. 

“Yeah,” I continued.  “It seems to me like using the word ‘first’ leaves it open to put something second, or third, or fourth.”  I had more to say, but since by the looks of the faces my standing in the group seemed to be sinking, I just shut up.  What I would have said if I wanted to continue my commentary would have been this: “The Church is full of people who put God first and prioritize Him with their time, talent and money.  But after that, they do what they want with their business, their leisure time, their habits. Church people generally don’t mind this passage – they feel like they are already living this verse.”  At any rate, the study went on that evening and I felt a bit embarrassed by it all.

About a year later I am in Kansas studying for my doctorate and gathering students in my own living room for a Bible study on…Matthew 6:33.  And, in a year’s time, I still didn’t really like the verse much for the same reason.  Surely there had to have been a better word than “first.”  In fact, I decided before the crowd arrived to go check the voluminous Greek word resource called the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament known in the scholarly world by the name of one of the editors, Kittels. I looked up the word for “first” in the Greek – proton – and started reading the handful of paragraphs Kittel offered to explain proton.  Lo and behold, proton means…first.  In fact, it was so obvious I felt like the paragraphs were screaming back at me from these couple of pages words to the effect of, “Hey dummy, proton means first and, that’s it.  First, one before two, two before three. First.”  I felt in the moment that my friends back at seminary would really be relishing the moment had they been there. 

I was about ready to throw the book back on the shelf but decided before doing so flipping to the last page to see how the article ended up.  And there, on page 870 of the sixth volume of the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament was this gem:

…the sense “above all” occurs elsewhere in the NT only at Mt. 6:33.  The meaning here cannot be that one must first seek after God’s kingdom and then after other things.  “Above all” is the only meaning which corresponds to the central position which orientation to the kingdom of God has in the proclamation of Jesus.  Indeed, proton is so exclusive here that it carries the implication of “only.”[1]

Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book titled “Purity of heart is to will one thing.”[2] The title had it right.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who have cleansed their hearts of other things and have decided the King and His Kingdom is the only priority of their lives.  Seek ye only…  A radical call to purity and exclusivity.  Jesus calls us to divest ourselves of all other people, places and things that compete for attention and settle on Christ, and Christ alone for our salvation, our sanctification, our destiny in Him.

Read the old missionary biographies to get a sense of this “seek ye only-ness.”  They would pile their belonging to be shipped in a casket to be buried in upon death on the mission field.  Theirs would be a one way ticket to sacrificial service.  Emptied of their American dreams, dead to society’s version of prosperity, they would head to serve the Lord not thinking that a return trip would even be an option. 

That great hymn Take my Life by Frances Havergal comes to mind:

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

Notice the emptying:  Take…and let.  Allow yourself, your very life, to be taken by God and let Him do what He will.  And not just a portion of our life, but all of it.  In fact, notice the all-encompassing nature:  my…life, moments, days, hands, feet, voice, lips, silver/gold, intellect, will, heart, love, myself.  Life itself!  All of it!

And then notice the exclusivity:  ceaseless, always, only, filled, no withholding, every power, no longer mine, ever/only/all for thee!  Purity! 

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[1] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Gerhard Kittel, Gerhard Friedrich, ed. translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, proton, article by Wilhelm Michaelis, 870. 

[2] Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing, HarperOne; January 1, 1994.