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!

 True saving, or justifying, faith is the main grounds of Christianity.

Galatians 2:16 says that “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ.” It is through faith that we are saved from damnation. It is by faith that we are declared just or right before God. It is in faith that all the blessings of Christ are given to the unworthy. Yet what is this faith?

There are 4+1 necessary elements of saving faith: hear, agree, turn and trust.

1. HEAR: Hearing the Gospel (Latin. noticia- to note it or hear it). Like responding to any message, we must hear the Gospel message in order to be saved.
   1. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” (Ro 10:17)
2. AGREEING: We must not only hear it but believe it, agree or assent with our minds that it is true (assensus- to assent). We never act on messages we believe to be false.
   1. E.g. “Thus it is written that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.” (Lk 24:46)

 * Here we must pause and observe an important point. This is where many professing Christians stop and confuse belief/agreement/assent with true saving faith. We do not self-realize or feel an interest in the Gospel to be saved. This is where the demons stop! “Even the demons believe in God and shudder,” James 2:19 tells us.
 
   3.     TURN: The Gospel calls us to respond. This response involves turning (repenting) from our             sin, changing our mind, changing direction. We turn from sin and toward Christ.                                 (poenitentiam- to show penance, or sorrow; to change direction; to change one’s mind.                       From the Greek μετάνοια).
                    a.      “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” (Mk 1:15)

1. 4. TRUST. Trust, or faith, is a relational word. Faith is not a noun but a verb. It is to trust in what Jesus has done (life, death and resurrection) and trust in His promise to rescue and give life. It is to actively cry out to Christ for mercy; to rely upon Jesus to save us. (fiducia-confidence, trusting).
   1. See Mk 1:15 above.

 
All of this can of course appear as if it happens in a moment. For example someone could hear the Gospel, assent to it, recognize without convincing their life is on the wrong path turn and trust in an instant. Or one could hear the Gospel many times, wrestle with believing it to be true, wrestle with their sin and finally come to a place where they actually trust in Jesus. Conversion is like an accordion, either all bunched up or discernible over time. Regardless these are the steps the Bible lays out for us to discern saving faith. 

So we must hear, agree, turn and trust in order to be saved and we know someone is saved because they persevere in trusting Christ’s promises and commands. See Paul and James. 

1. 5 WALK: James tells us we prove our faith through our perseverance, through an active and ongoing faith that works, or is obedient. If someone has trusted in Jesus they receive the Spirit who ensures they go on being saved. If someone says they are a Christian but their life doesn’t consistently match their profession there can be little assurance, indeed the very real possibility that on Judgement day they will hear the words, “Depart from me.” (Mt 7:23 ) (opera- our works, literally ‘acting out our faith’ in a real sense).
   1. Speaking of false teachers Jesus gave us a valuable principle, “you shall know them by their fruit.” (Mt 7:20).

*The first step in following Jesus is to be baptized; how we make our private faith public.
This is the test of faith we ought to look for in ourselves and in those who profess to be Christians. 

What a glorious doctrine of the Scriptures is the teaching of the Perseverance of the Saints!

There are two extremes when it comes to the perseverance of a professing Christian, usually cast in one of the following two ways: a) that through my own wilful rebellion I can lose my salvation, and b) “once saved always saved” or "eternal security."

Yet if Christ isn’t capable of saving me to the uttermost (including holding me) then He isn’t the perfect Saviour and is not to be trusted. Likewise, a mere profession of one’s lips, without the fruit of repentance and faith is surely not evidence of a genuine salvation. The former produces a works that can never rest in Christ; the latter rests too easily in false assurance.

The Perseverance of the Saints (POTS), which is an historic belief that Baptists have held, and which we hold as a congregation (FEB, “Salvation” [1953]; MBC “Salvation” [2022]- “divinely preserved”), balances these two extremes. POTS teaches that those who are truly saints, that is those who’ve savingly believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, been converted, and made holy (saints) are also those who will finally persevere, or continue steadfast, to the end. It doesn’t mean they will be perfect but it does mean that even if for a time they grieve the Spirit, their general life trajectory will be persistent righteousness vs. persistent sin (a false professor). Thus, they and we gain final assurance of their salvation by the evidence of the fruit that they bear to the end (Mt 3:8, Mt 7:20, Mt 13:23; Eph 2:10). Not only is this useful pastorally but ecclesiology as we seek to determine who are our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Some key (and unmistakeable) passages are:

• Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:5)
• Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Pet 1:10)
• Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thes 5:23–24)
• Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, (Jude 1:24)
• Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, (1 Jn 3:9)
• My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (Jn 10:27–29)
• Which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. (2 Ti 1:12)
• They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 Jn 2:19)
• And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil 1:6)

What a glorious doctrine, that if I am Christ’s, He will keep me and sanctify me, through faith, for His glory!

Historic Supports
London Baptist Confession, 1644- Section 34 and 27

2nd London Baptist Confession, 1689- Chapter 17

New Hampshire Baptist Confession, 1833- Chapter 11

We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end: that their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors; that a special providence watches over their welfare, and that they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

A Confession of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, 1925

The preservation unto eternal life of the saints;
The necessity and efficacy of the influence of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification.

Southern Baptist Faith and Message (1925, c.f. 2000)
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All real believers endure to the end. Their continuance in well-doing is the mark which distinguishes them from mere professors. A special Providence cares for them, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.