Matthew 7:1-5
The Sermon on the Mount is God’s description of His character, His kingdom and His requirements for our hearts. “Surpassing righteousness” is not about curbing our behavior it is about opening our hearts to the conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit who always glorifies Jesus and leads us in the Way to the Father. Chapter 6 of Matthew was about worship, Jesus taught us what worship is, that it is always established by God, presented to God for the purpose of God; worship cannot be about me or else it is not worship at all. The heathen worshiped to get what they wanted, Pharisees worshiped to build their reputation; neither of them received the reward of God’s presence because neither of them had made God’s presence the purpose of their worship. As chapter 6 continued we learned that we are all attacked by the enemy of anxiety. Anxiety asks us questions that we cannot answer in an effort to distract and divert our worship; it desires to get us to take responsibility for things that God is responsible for so that our worship will be infected and our hearts will become overwhelmed. Jesus taught that the key to the battle with anxiety is being confident that we have a Father in heaven that cares for us and using that confidence to stay focused on the one thing we are responsible for, what our hearts long for. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you” is a command with a promise; it is Jesus showing us not how to get the stuff we want but how to keep our hearts in check. We were created to be whole-hearted lovers of God, sin has cluttered our hearts; as much as we talk about sin’s effects on the world, nothing has been more effected by sin than our hearts. Seeking first the kingdom of God restores our hearts to their intended purpose, to be filled with the love of God and love for God, to trust Him at all times and in all things and to choose to seek Him as children seek out their Father. “Seek first the kingdom of God” is the truest definition of worship and it is the key weapon in the battle with anxiety.
Chapter 7 seems to change directions in some ways but I think that if we look closely we will find that it is a continuation far more than it is a change. Anxiety desires to cripple our hearts by questioning God’s character and demeaning our value to God. Anxious hearts often become judgmental hearts. Jesus knows that if we are not seeking first God’s kingdom we will very quickly become those that question the actions and motives of everyone around us. What does anxiety do? It asks questions that we can’t answer in an effort to diminish the truth that we are sure of. Ultimately, the judgment that Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 7 is when we are driven by questions we can’t answer in our own hearts to questioning the actions and motives of the hearts of others; it is literally when we have been so wrapped in anxiety that we become agents of anxiety to the people around us. “Judge not that you be not judged.” Is an important command, not only because it was spoken by Jesus and inspired by the Holy Spirit but also because it again leads us to deal with the only thing in life that we have true control over and responsibility for, our hearts.