Usually we use this saying somewhat negatively, you’re not doing anything and you receive an invite and respond, ‘Sure, I don’t have anything better to do!’ (i.e. if you did you might not go!). However, we could also use it less facetiously and in a positive sense to mean, I’m doing such and such because I really don’t have anything better to do—this is the very best and highest thing I could be doing and so I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

In this latter sense we may use the phrase to speak of the Lord’s Day. Here at MBC we believe it is ‘the divinely appointed day of worship’ by Christ’s command (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:22; c.f. Gen 2:1-4; Ex 20:8–11). As our greatest weekly appointment with the greatest of all Beings we really oughtn’t have anything better to do!

I always remind people that I’m attend worship every Lord’s Day, not because I am the pastor, but because I’m a Christian. This has been the case throughout my life and will always remain so. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.[1] Gathering each Lord’s Day is part of mere Christianity and a basic expression of Christian discipleship.

I love John the apostle for many reasons. One was that he loved Jesus so much that he worshipped the Lord on His Day and in His way (as he wants to be worshipped). John even gave us the term ‘the Lord’s Day.’ It is a possessive phrase, it’s Jesus’ day, and it’s definitive (‘the’)—it is actually a one in seven appointment. What is fascinating is that, like Daniel who though in exile was still thinking on God-time (Dan 9:21), John, though he was exiled in the island of Patmos by Emperor Domitian and physically couldn’t attend worship in Ephesus because of intense persecution, still measured the time of his vision by ‘the Lord’s Day’ and what other believers were doing (Rev 1:10). If he could have been with them he would have been. Does your time revolve around God’s time or pleasure, work, family and friends?

While not in the Bible I love a story of John told by Jerome (AD c.347–420). In John’s extreme old age, he was carried into church so as to be there, such was His love for the Lord’s Day and people![2] I could tell other similar stories of faithfulness by God’s people throughout history and in my own experience, like Muriel who still came to morning and evening worship in her late 90s or Sylvia who came to church as the best place for her soul the day after her husband died. I’ve always sought to be that faithful leading example to God’s people too, evening coming on crutches the day after knee surgery as a teenager.

My prayer is that, like John, we’d all have nothing better to do each and every Lord’s Day.



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[1] Grave illness and great emergencies excepted. When I’m not at my church I’m either preaching or visiting another.

[2] The original says, “The blessed John the Evangelist lived in Ephesus until extreme old age. His disciples could barely carry him to church and he could not muster the voice to speak many words.” (Andrew Cain (translator), ‘Commentary on Galatians 6:10,’ The Fathers of the Church, St. Jerome, Commentary on Galatians. [Catholic University of America, 2010], p. 260). Cain suggests the source of the story was possibly Hegesippus's Memoirs via either Clement of Alexandria or Origen.

These famous words come in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is addressing worry (litt. To be divided between two opinions vs. a singular trust in the Lord). If we trust and seek Him and His Kingdom and righteousness, we’ll have no reason to worry and can trust the promise of the Lord to provide.

When Jesus admonishes to ‘Seek Ye First’ He is commanding us in something foundational, which in my experience, is a lesson that perennially speaks volumes to the non-Christian and Christian alike.

What does it mean to seek? It means to intently strive or search for something with the intent of finding it (picture someone seeking for the perfect house to buy). The world seeks advancement, prestige, material things, wisdom, religious favour, relationships, etc. Jesus calls us to seek something even greater.

What does it mean to seek ye first? Something that is first occupies the first place, is a priority of importance (picture someone with OCD having to have a clean car). Philosophy, politics, empire, family life and certain virtues are all things that people put first, and so seek.

People don’t only seek (and so worry) about food and clothing but all kinds of bigger things in life too.

But what should we seek first? Jesus identified two things: His Kingdom and His Righteousness. This applies differently to unbelievers (crowd- Mt 5:1) and believers (disciples- Mt 5:1).

Unbelievers
Unbelievers are naturally separated from God, His enemies and outside of His Kingdom because of their unrighteousness. They need righteousness and entry into the Kingdom more than anything else. By renouncing the world and repenting of their sin and turning to and trusting in Christ, the unbeliever is counted just or righteous by faith. They are declared legally right with God and given the gift of the Spirit to actually impart righteousness in their daily living. Upon being born anew they are adopted into God’s family, or brought into God’s Kingdom. What a glorious salvation to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of His glorious light! If we seek and obtain these two things, food and clothing will pail in comparison and, by faith, be provided. It is a wonderful irony.

Believers
However, believers ought to seek first God’s Kingdom and righteousness but in a different sense. We ought to pursue personal righteousness by taking hold of the means of grace (prayer, ordinances, Lord’s Day, Scripture, fellowship and service, etc) and reliance upon the Spirit. This is how we grow in righteousness and become more like Christ. We ought also to seek His Kingdom, not entrance into it but its expansion. We do this through the means of course but more overtly through fulfilling the Great Commission, being members and serving in the local church’s ministries, personal evangelism, supporting foreign missionaries, etc. If we seek these two things as believer’s the Lord we can be assured that the Lord will take care of our other concerns. We don’t simply seek salvation from the penalty of sin and then stop seeking after our conversion. We go on seeking!
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Seek ye first can be helpfully demonstrated in this illustration:

​May this be a lesson to us, seek ye first the Kingdom of God!

A recent Church of England Synod, UK (the flagship of the worldwide Anglican communion), debated whether to bless same sex unions. Advocates said this was not a change to church doctrine, which upholds marriage as between a man and a woman. Many evangelical/conservative/traditional Anglicans raised an alarm, including a lay leader by the name of Benjamin John (who also works for the UK Christian legal ministry Christian Concern). His short speech is a brilliant example of Peter and John boldness we’ve been reading about in Acts:

Subsequently the Synod tragically, though not astonishingly, voted in favour of blessing same-sex unions. There has been Anglican drift for decades. They have exchanged orthodoxy for cultural compromise. Numerous Anglican bloggers and Youtubers have expressed their grave concern. Many individuals and congregations will leave, some joining groups like the Free Anglican Church (The Anglican Network was similarly formed in Canada out of the Anglican Church in Canada). The worldwide Anglican communion, which has given Christianity so much good, is fracturing along biblical lines. Those who naively and foolishly remain will, almost inevitably, drift toward further compromise. As one Anglican commentator put it, you can’t say you’re a vegan and eat sausages. You cannot say church teaching is that marriage is heterosexual and bless same-sex unions. The Lord is patient with the bride He is sanctifying but when it so openly apostatizes (departs from the faith), well, He denies those who deny Him (2 Ti 2:12b). Church history is full of such examples.

Ichabod- Hebrew for the glory of the Lord has departed (1 Sam 4:22).
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May the faithful take heed and remain true to the Lord in faith and practice.

Christians have always been a people devoted to the noble principles of God’s Word. As such they have been a principled people. Through their commitment to missions they’ve also tended to be a pragmatic people as well. So Christians have sought to balance two critical values: principles and pragmatism.
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Principled
One does not have to search far to see this. Here are three examples:

• You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. (Lev 19:2b)
• But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. ( 1 Pet 2:9)
• that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, (Phil 2:15)
• he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (Col 1:22)
• Etc and etc!

Christians have always valued holiness, being lights and living a life above reproach.

Pragmatism
At the same time, because Jesus has given us a mission, we’ve been a pragmatic people. Here are a couple of examples:

• And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:18–20) [The pragmatism has come in fleshing out how best to accomplish this task of making disciples].
• I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. (1 Cor 9:22)
• Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. (Acts 16:3)

Yet in these two great values there is also a tension—how to be in the world (pragmatism) yet not of the world (principled) (c.f. Jn 15 and 17). In some instances, like Timothy’s pragmatic circumcision it is easy to see how morality was not compromised. In others, such as not allowing the KKK to use your church premises, it is easy to see how holiness cannot be compromised. What shall we do when these collide, that is, when we want to be “missional” and seek to reach the lost, but this runs the risk of reproach? Which value should come out on top?

Enter 1 Peter 4:4: With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

The New Testament era church did not engage in a host of activities, explicit or perceived, because it would compromise them on the subject of idolatry and holiness. Historian Nick Needham[1] said this of the early Church period:


[1] Nick Needham, 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers. (Scotland: Christian Focus, 2016), 81–2. 

This is a helpful glimpse into early Christians, living in an ungodly age, who lived out 1 Peter 4:4. To not join in or even to not give the impression of joining in, is a vital value. Greater than missional pragmatism, but interesting still missional.

In contemporary post-Christian Canada there are many past practices, residue of cultural Christianity, that we’d do well to rethink (e.g. Halloween). Likewise, as the Church faces new realities there are areas we ought not to rush into for the sake of missional relevance until we’ve seriously thought them through.

Of the latter attending a same-sex wedding is a prime example. The value to be missionally pragmatic would say to attend for the sake of loving them and building relationships. The value of principle demands no (you can read more here), for while there are many acceptable ways to minister to our homosexual friends and neighbours, to attend a wedding (which celebrates) is to take part in celebrating something which God calls evil. While we wouldn’t necessarily become unholy by attending, the act of condoning (even by perception) would go against the command in 1 Pet 4 “do not join them.”

You see, sometimes to be principled, while not being pragmatic, does actually better serve the cause of the Gospel and our mission better. For when we are seen to be humbly different, even if they malign us, we will bear a greater witness that God will use more effectively for His glorious purposes:
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Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Pe 2:12).