Expert: Mel and Guyna Horne - 3/7/2006

Question
But, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33:

What is all these things shall be added unto you?

Answer

You asked:
But, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33:

What is all these things shall be added unto you?


Hi Clark,

There are several ways of looking at this statement.

1.   Literal and strictly formal grammar.
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun usually refers to the preceding noun closest to it.

The word “things” in verse 32 should refer to nouns preceding it.
The closest preceding nouns are the “what (we shall eat)”, the “what (we shall drink)” and the “wherewithal [or what] (with which we shall be clothed)”.

The word “things” in verse 33, could be taken in context to be a repetition of verse 32. Or it could be taken in a greater context to include the nouns “kingdom” and “righteousness” of verse 33.
Because grammar is partially a matter of popular usage and is not a fixed and  exact science, we could argue grammar forever.
It is true that we need the kingdom and his righteousness added to us. In the context of the whole chapter, the needs being discussed are the daily physical needs of food, water and clothing.

Applying the simplest, formal grammatical explanation, God is saying here that if we seek him and his kingdom first, then the basic needs of life: food, water and protection from the elements, shall all be provided for us.

Does that mean that we can all stop doing any work, declare that God is first in our lives and wait for the food, drink and clothing to be delivered to us?

Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days without food or water (Ex.24:18, 34:28, Deu. 9:9, 18; 10:10).

The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years, during which God provided their food and water and preserved their clothing (Deu. 8:4, 29:5).
God provided “manna” as food for the Israelites for 40 years (Ex. 16:35).
“Yes, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.” (Neh. 9:21).

Elijah was given a physical meal of bread and water by an angel, after which he had no food or water for 40 days ( 1 Kings 19:4-8).

Christ fasted for 40 days and nights with no food and no water (Mat. 4:2, Luke 4:2).

We notice that of all these people, none of them were “doing nothing”. They all were doing something. Moses was receiving instructions from God. Elijah was traveling from near Beersheba to Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai) a distance of over 200 miles across the Sinai desert. The Israelites were traveling and camping in rugged country for 40 years. Camping with a large family is a lot of work. It is fun for the first week. After that, the work of maintaining a camp begins to offset the fun. Add livestock and multiply the camp by over 600,000 families (Num.1) and you have work for at least six days out of seven.

Looking at the entire Bible, we see that it is possible to serve God and not have to provide food, water and clothing for oneself, even for a lifetime (all but two of the Israelites that left Egypt died during their 40 years in the wilderness Num. 26:65).

2.   Informal grammar and allegory.
The second way of looking at this statement is the general way most theologians look at it.  To paraphrase them, “Yes, it says that, but it is more about the kingdom and his righteousness (v.33) being added to us, and it is just a generalization that we should not worry excessively about the other stuff.”
This is illustrated by the comments in Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's Commentary on the Whole Bible (the only commentary we recommend, but with the qualification that all commentaries are just commentaries). http://blueletterbible.org/Comm/jfb/Mat/Mat006.html
  In effect, this opinion states that God and Christ made some startling statements if taken at face value, but we shouldn't take them that way.  In effect, they are saying that God and Christ did not mean what they said. This opinion takes us in the direction of “We cannot believe what the Bible says.”, and brings into question the very plan of salvation and the existence of God.

3.   Allegory only.
The third way of looking at Mat. 6:33 is more blunt. Some say that it only an ideal and is not realistic. They say that it has nothing to do with “real life”.
This opinion also leads in the direction that we cannot believe what Christ said.


To do what Moses, Elijah, and Christ did, requires more than a little faith.  Of course Christ said with faith equal to a mustard seed, we could change the shape of the earth (move a mountain, Mat. 17:20) and that if we believe in Christ, we could do the “works” he did and even “greater works than these” (Jn. 14:12).
God and Christ made promises and preserved those promises for our benefit.  We have a choice of whether we accept them or justify ignoring them.  We can choose to believe that they did not mean what they said, or that the Bible has not been preserved to the extent that we can believe it, or we can just blow it off as allegory (fictional symbolism).
Or we can have faith.

Christ asked, “. . . Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Christ's statements (if we believe him) show that how much faith we have is up to each of us. That faith is what allows God to work with us.

We hope this helps to answer your question. If not, feel free to ask again.
Sincerely,
Mel and Guyna