One of the doctrines drilled into us from the day we come to Christ is that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength should be numero-uno on our to-do list. I have spent considerable time in this work trying to convince you seeking first His kingdom should sit in that seat. So, which is it? Many times Jesus says, \u201cYou have heard it said\u2026but I tell you\u201d when He is referring to the way it was under the law and what He is changing that to under His new reign\u2014a kingdom which did not even exist prior to His coming. Would He actually change the priority of something as sacred as the Great Commandment we have all come to revere so? If not, it would seem the statement, \u201cBut seek first His kingdom,\u201d would be a contradiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Matthew 2, Jesus is answering a lawyer who asks what the greatest command under the law<\/em> is, and Jesus answers correctly, \u201cYOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets<\/em>\u201d (Matt. 22). But then in Luke 16 He says, \u201cThe Law and the Prophets<\/em> were proclaimed until John but since that time the gospel of the kingdom <\/em>of God has been preached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark 12 puts a bit different spin on this account, where Jesus asks the lawyer what he thinks the greatest commandment under the law is. When he responds correctly, Jesus says something critical to this discussion, \u201cYou are not far from the kingdom of God.\u201d So, the lawyer got the answer right, but Jesus said He needed to take it a step further. He needed to find that thing he was not far from and get there! In other words, the former greatest command was lesser than the new greatest command, which was \u201cseek first His kingdom!\u201d Loving the Lord and others is certainly a good and necessary thing, but as part of the former covenant\u2014as the \u201cgreatest\u201d part of the former covenant, it did not work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The book of Hebrews tells us what went wrong with the former covenant and what resulted from that. God says the external covenant where He \u201ctook men by the hand\u201d didn\u2019t work because they couldn\u2019t keep His commandments under the law, which resulted in Him not caring for them. The law didn\u2019t work. Hebrews 8 describes it as an obsolete covenant ready to disappear. A new thing had to happen in the form of Jesus coming, paying the price for the sin that had separated God and man, and then sending the Holy Spirit to make the former, external, covenant the new, internal one. And it worked! But Jesus wasn\u2019t introduced to the world with even that message, rather with the nine words that changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Further evidence of this is the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus appears with Moses [the lawgiver] and Elijah [the prophet]. Both of them end up disappearing<\/em> and God says, \u201cThis is My beloved Son\u2026from now on You are to listen to Him!\u201d Once again here, the law and the prophets are represented in the form of Moses and Elijah. God specifically includes them in this trinity with Jesus and then removes them so there is no doubt as to the message. Just like the covenant they represented, they disappeared, and the new covenant represented by Jesus was all that remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going back to Matthew 22, Jesus says before the time of John the Baptist, who came proclaiming, \u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d the law and the prophets were what was preached. But now there was a new Sherriff in town with a new message and a new greatest command: the gospel\u2014the message\u2014of the kingdom! This does not mean the law is abolished. What it means, as Jesus proclaimed, is \u201cHe came not to abolish, but to fulfill\u201d (Matt. 5)! Loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving others will forever be a good thing, but now even that falls under the umbrella of the new greatest<\/em> thing: the kingdom of heaven coming to earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a new command to honor first because it\u2019s the \u201cnew thing\u201d the Mediator of the new and better covenant said to \u201cseek first,\u201d and it will not fail nor pass away. \u201cThy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d Yes, from now on, hear that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the doctrines drilled into us from the day we come to Christ is that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength should be numero-uno on our to-do list. I have spent considerable time in this work trying to convince you seeking first His kingdom should sit in that seat. 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