THE ECONOMIC PRECEPTS OF CHRIST
‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’
To recognise these precepts of the Sermon on the Mount as high and beautiful may in some important degree touch and mould our dispositions. But we fail to make the intended use of them if we do not receive them as authoritative. And yet it is inevitable, perhaps, that in the cold mood in which we come to these precepts, we should ask, Are they commands of universal authority? If we are to accept the authority of what Christ says, that authority must not be identified with the letter of the precept. We must penetrate through the letter to the spirit, to the principle of which the letter is the expression. This is the secret of the teaching of Christ.
I. To whom was Jesus speaking?—The supposed impractical character of the precepts of this discourse has been sometimes explained by the suggestion that they were addressed only to the small company of the followers of Jesus. That might have been so. But it seems certain that, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is addressing a larger audience. The teaching has manifestly a general character. He was addressing, no doubt, His disciples. But by His disciples we are to understand all who were willing to accept Him as their Master.
II. What was implied in discipleship?—Supposing that there were hundreds or thousands willing to receive instruction from Him, what did He desire to make of them? He was always speaking about a kingdom. To instruct men as His disciples was, in the mind of Jesus, to prepare them for the Kingdom of God. He does not define the kingdom, He illustrates it.
III. The kingdom we seek.—There are things which men, by their natural impulses, desire on earth—the things which gratify the senses, the means which enable them to exalt themselves. They who would be disciples of Jesus Christ must not give their minds to these, must not set their affections upon them. They must seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Imagine the two classes of interest set in express competition with each other. On the one hand, the good things of earth; on the other, the things that are invisible. Christ points to the two classes thus competing for man’s affections, and says imperatively to His disciples, ‘Seek not those; seek ye these.’
IV. An imperative command.—Yes, imperatively, and at first without qualification. There can be no question, in the school of Christ, what our aims should be. With whatever consequences, at whatever cost, the Christian is called upon to set his affections upon things above. On every account, and with no misgivings, listen reverently to these precepts of Christ as laying down the law of your Christian life. Do not embarrass yourselves with the syllables of the letter. Suffer Christ to speak paradoxically if He will. Be sure that He knew what sort of address men’s consciences wanted. The community will assuredly be the more prosperous in all that belongs to secure and diffused well-being, for the prevalence of the mind that sets duty above inclination, service above pleasure.
—The Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies, d.d.