“Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matt. 6:26) “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” (Matt. 6:31)
Who was Jesus speaking to here, all mankind, or only those who would call upon Him for salvation. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
From just these three verses, it sounds as if the Lord will provide for all mankind, at least in the sense that we are one unit, as a whole, but now consider this verse, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33)
If some do not seek His kingdom and righteousness, and yet they are provided their daily needs by the Almighty, what is the purpose of that verse of seeking first, what gain is there, in context, to seeking the Lord? Will those who do so be granted extras in this life, the beggar Lazarus at the rich man’s gate would beg to differ with you, if you said yes.
“Will be added unto you” are the key words, and I do not believe that they infer the accumulation of materialistic items, but they might, “wealth and prosperity” are mentioned in Proverbs 8:18, when one begins to seek after wisdom, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” (Prov. 4:7) And so with wisdom comes much that is added to us. “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7) Is added unto those who will seek first the things of God, a peace that gives no thought for tomorrow, and no wearisome contemplation to today. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
This is not for the wicked, the wrath of God abides upon them, (John 3:36) their names will rot, (Prov. 10:7) but for those who are seeking first the righteousness of God, goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their lives. (Psalm 23:6)
In perhaps the most ridiculous manner we can imagine this in this way, if you have a fish tank with ten fish in it, and for whatever reason you do not like one of those particular fish very much, unless you remove it from the tank every time that you feed them, that fish is going to eat with the rest of them.
“What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” (Romans 9:22) “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” (Luke 3:17)
When the Lord was speaking about those birds that get fed, He was talking about a lot more than food and raiment, and He was speaking to the lost and the saved, He was offering all of them more, but only those who would determine to seek the kingdom of God first would have the additional items “added unto them.”
No man turns down a sumptuous seven course meal for a piece of bread and a sip of water, but the Lord is not going to add anything to anyone who does not first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, they will be fed, but only with the crumbs from the table.
In part, this is the answer to Psalm 2:1, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” They want what God is offering them, but they do not want to serve Him as Lord and Master to get it. And so, they seek first to serve themselves, and many excel at it, whether it be in the riches of this world in materialistic items, power over people, the desire to be recognized and adored by millions, and they find what they want without God, without having to call Jesus Christ Lord, at least in this life.
You can have anything in this world that you want, at almost any time, all you need to do is either work diligently for it or steal it, you can have it all. Unless you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness first though, it will all be temporary, nothing of any eternal value will be added unto you.
