Matthew 6:33 – “Seek first the kingdom of God” — kingdom as God’s reign in the heart, not as institution or substance
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Mt 6:33) is the ethical climax of the Sermon on the Mount’s discourse on anxiety. Read in the Socinian way, the kingdom of God is no metaphysical substance and no ecclesiastical institution, but God’s effective rule in the hearts of those who submit themselves to his will — and righteousness is the lived practice of that obedience, not a forensically imputed alien quality. The “first” (Greek prôton) is not temporal but rank-ordering: all other goods of life are subordinated to the one goal which is God’s will itself.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
Context
Matthew 6:25-34 is a self-contained logion of the Sermon on the Mount on anxiety (Greek merimnan). Jesus contrasts the fearful logic of provision among the Gentiles (v.32) with the trusting logic of his disciples. V.33 is its positive peak: not a denial of need, but a re-ordering of priorities. The “first” separates the essential from the supplementary, without belittling the supplementary.
In the architecture of Matthew’s Gospel, the verse follows immediately upon the Lord’s Prayer (6:9-13) and the teaching about earthly and heavenly treasure (6:19-24). The second petition “Your kingdom come” (v.10) and the ethical conclusion v.33 form a bracket: the petitioner’s prayer for the kingdom becomes the rule of life for the one who acts. The one who prays and the one who seeks are the same person; the prayer of the lips and the seeking of the heart must not fall apart.
In the wider Matthean context, the verse traces a line from 5:6 (“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”) through 5:20 (“your righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees”) to 23:23 (the weightier matters of the law: krisis, eleos, pistis). “Righteousness” in Matthew is throughout ethical-practical and never a merely forensic concept of an alien imputation.
The “will be added” (Greek prostethêsetai) is a divine passive: God himself is the subject of the allotment. The verse is therefore no promise of prosperity, but an assurance of trust in providence. Whoever sets the kingdom in first place in the heart has the anxious power of second place taken from him by God: he need not act out of greed or fear, because his life stands within a higher order.
The Socinian core thesis
In Socinian reading, basileía tou theou — the kingdom of God — is primarily God’s effective rule, not a metaphysical object or an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Sozzini himself spells this out in his treatment of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer: the more frequent meaning of the name “kingdom of God” is “the revelation of the divine will and its acceptance or acknowledgement,” from which it follows “that God himself may reign in our hearts; and if this does not follow, it can hardly be said in the proper sense that God reigns.” To seek the kingdom of God is therefore to seek this reigning God in one’s own heart.
The possessive pronoun autou — “his righteousness” — refers back to God, not to the human person. Righteousness has no measure other than God’s will. Read in the Socinian way, it is neither a Pharisaic work-righteousness nor a forensic imputation of an alien quality, but the faithful reception and doing of what God has commanded through Christ. Whoever seeks it seeks the fabric in which truth, mercy and faithfulness belong together (Mt 23:23).
The “first” (prôton) is an adverb of rank, not of chronology. It does not divide two periods of time but two levels of life. “All the rest” (food, drink, clothing) is not abolished but ordered. For the Socinian, this ordering accords with reason: disordered craving makes wretched; ordered seeking sets free. The verse is a reasonable rule of life, not an ascetic flight from the world.
The kingdom of God and the righteousness of God are not two objects of seeking but two sides of the same seeking. Whoever seeks God’s rule seeks at the same time that God’s will be done; that, however, is righteousness. In Socinian view, faith without such activity is empty (Jas 2:17); and ethics without God is without orientation. Mt 6:33 binds the two inseparably — and makes their union the test of the genuineness of faith.
The kingdom of God is God’s reigning in the hearts of those who obey him; his righteousness is the lived practice of that obedience. “First” subordinates the other goods without negating them. Whoever seeks in this way is freed from the heathen logic of worry and lives in trust upon the Father, who knows all that we need (v.32).
Exegesis: key terms and semantic field
Four key terms decide the interpretation of Mt 6:33:
zêteîte — “seek,” “strive after”
The Greek verb zêteo denotes an enduring, active seeking — not a momentary desire. The present imperative (zêteîte) marks an abiding task: not to decide once, but to direct oneself continually. The English “seek” captures this precisely: seeking is a posture of life, not a single act.
In the context of the Sermon on the Mount, zêteo stands over against the “worrying” (merimnan) of the Gentiles in v.32. The one is directed striving with a clear priority; the other is restless tossing back and forth. In Socinian view, the verse thereby marks the difference between an ordered and a disordered life. Reason itself suggests that only the former can lead to blessedness.
basileía tou theou — the kingdom of God
Sozzini discusses basileía tou theou at length in connection with the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer. He distinguishes two meanings: first, the outer kingdom as the revelation and proclamation of the divine will; second, the inner kingdom as God’s dwelling in the hearts, so that “God reigns in them and our hearts are wholly subjected to him, dedicated and consecrated to him.” Both meanings belong together: the outer kingdom is means, the inner kingdom is end.
With this every Platonising or ecclesial-institutional narrowing falls away. For the Socinian, the kingdom is no heavenly substance-realm and no visible institution with a monopoly of the sacraments, but God’s rule which acknowledges him as Lord and obeys him. Compare the further entry on Luke 17:20-21: the kingdom is entós hymôn, in the midst of you or within you.
Rom 14:17 confirms Sozzini’s reading from within: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” That is exactly the counterpart to Mt 6:31-33: not outward goods of life, but inner realities constitute the kingdom of God.
dikaiosynê autou — “his righteousness”
The possessive pronoun autou refers back to God (theou). The righteousness here spoken of is not a human achievement, but God’s will as measure. Yet it is also no forensic imputation, but the character in which God’s rule bears fruit in the heart: truth, mercy, faithfulness.
In Matthew, dikaiosynê is throughout ethical: Mt 5:6 (hunger and thirst), 5:10 (persecution), 5:20 (greater than that of the Pharisees), 6:1 (righteousness as almsgiving/prayer/fasting), 21:32 (the way of righteousness). A forensic-Pauline narrowing breaks the Matthean usage. In Socinian view, the righteousness Jesus means is the one named explicitly in Mt 23:23: krisis, eleos, pistis.
prôton — “first”
Prôton here designates rank, not temporal sequence. The verse does not demand that one pray before breakfast and care about the kingdom only after lunch; it demands that the kingdom be the first, ordering priority. All other concerns of life are placed within this order and so receive their proper place.
In Socinian view, this rank-ordering priority is not an ascetic negation but a reasonable reform of desire. Whoever has the “first” can take “the rest” in its right measure. Whoever lacks the “first” is driven by “the rest” and never satisfied. It is the very ordering that liberates.
Comparison of interpretations
Connection to Fausto Sozzini
Sozzini treats Mt 6:33 not as an isolated maxim, but unfolds his understanding of the kingdom of God at length in his exposition of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:10) and in the Racovian Catechism in the section on the royal office of Christ. “Seeking the kingdom” is for him immediately the practice of what is asked for in the Lord’s Prayer. From this his famous double definition results: the outer kingdom is the proclamation and acceptance of the divine will; the inner kingdom is God’s reigning in our hearts.
The more frequent meaning of the name “kingdom of God,” especially as we have said it is used, seems to be that it signifies the revelation of the divine will and its acceptance or acknowledgement. … From this very mode of God’s reigning, however, there follows that which we here chiefly understand, namely that God himself reigns in our hearts; and if this does not follow, it can hardly be said in the proper sense that God reigns.
Fausto Sozzini, Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, section “The second petition: the coming of the kingdom of God” (on Mt 6:10)
Sozzini’s definition strikes the heart of Mt 6:33: whoever seeks the kingdom of God seeks not a distant object, but God’s effective reign within himself. The verse is thereby de-metaphysicised and at the same time deepened: “seeking” is a submitting-oneself, a bringing-home of one’s own heart under the rule of the one God. The petition of the Lord’s Prayer and the rule of life of the Sermon on the Mount are thus two acts of the same faith.
The connection of seeking and lived obedience Sozzini sums up in the same context (third petition: “Your will be done”) by working out the precedence of an active interpretation:
The petitioner is not passive: he asks God for the strength to do himself what he asks for. To seek the kingdom is accordingly no quietistic waiting, but a praying activity.“It seems to us altogether better, in these three petitions, to accept that interpretation from which God’s assistance results, so that the three things that are asked for may be done by us: that he grant us how we may worthily celebrate and glorify his name; and that we may wholly work to give God himself place and standing in our hearts.”
Fausto Sozzini, Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, § on the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer (on Mt 6:10)
The ethical contrast which Mt 6:33 opens up with “worrying” is also expressed by the Racovian Catechism with sober sharpness as a direction of the mind away from worldly goods:
The three drives named are exactly the background forces of the heathen “worrying” in Mt 6:31-32; v.33 is their positive counter-movement.“That we should not direct our mind to this present age and the goods which are to be found in it — namely, in such a way that we strive after and enjoy them beyond what is necessary. … Its ways, however, are: the desire of the flesh …, the desire of the eyes … and above all the avarice that heaps up gold and riches …, finally the pride of life.”
Racovian Catechism, § on the direction of the mind away from worldly goods (exposition of the first commandment)
Finally, the Racovian Catechism connects the seeking of the kingdom with the royal authority of Christ: God has, “after he was raised from the dead and taken up into the heavens, set him at his right hand and given him all authority in heaven and on earth …, so that he may most freely rule, protect and keep his faithful for ever” (Racovian Catechism, section “The royal office of Christ”). Whoever seeks the kingdom of God places himself under this actual rule of Christ: he acknowledges the risen Lord as the authorised deputy of the Father and makes his life a willing subjection.
Overview of Sozzini’s writings
Logical arguments
From Mt 6:33 and its Matthean context the following arguments for the Socinian reading emerge:
- Argument from the inner definition of the kingdom. Sozzini’s exegetical core thesis — the kingdom of God as God’s reigning in the hearts — is directly supported by Rom 14:17: “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Precisely this contrast structures Mt 6:25-34 as well. The kingdom is an inner reality; the “seeking” is directed toward it, not toward outward provision.
- Argument from the Matthean usage of righteousness. Dikaiosynê in Matthew is nowhere used forensically-imputatively, but throughout ethically-practically (5:6.10.20; 6:1; 21:32). A Pauline-Protestant narrowing in 6:33 breaks the Evangelist’s own linguistic horizon. In Socinian view, to seek righteousness is the endeavour to live as God’s will shows.
- Argument from the rank-adverb prôton. “First” is in context a mark of priority, not a temporal adverb. It does not demand renunciation of the rest, but its ordering. That is a reasonable rule of life: disordered goods destroy life; ordered ones constitute its riches. The verse is therefore ethically not radically-ascetic, but radically-reasonable.
- Argument from the divine passive. “Will be added to you” (prostethêsetai hymîn) has God as its implicit subject. V.33b is therefore no automatic mechanism of provision, but an assurance of trust in the Father’s providence (v.32: “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things”). In Socinian view, this abolishes any prosperity reading: God provides, but he does not guarantee wealth, only enough.
- Argument from the connection with the Lord’s Prayer. V.10 prays “your kingdom come,” v.33 demands “seek first the kingdom.” Whoever prays the one without doing the other is inwardly divided. Sozzini formulates exactly this tension in his exposition of the first three petitions: nothing is asked for that must not at the same time be taken up and done by us. Faith without seeking is dead.
- Argument from the monotheistic centre. It is the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Christ, that is here first to be sought. Mt 6:33 confirms biblical monotheism: Christ himself teaches that God (the Father) is the one supreme point of reference (cf. Mt 23:9; Mk 12:29). Compare the related verses Mark 12:29 and John 17:3.
- Argument from the royal office of Christ. The Racovian Catechism binds together the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ: Christ reigns as authorised deputy of the Father and will hand over the kingdom to the Father at the end (1 Cor 15:24-28). Whoever seeks the kingdom of God thereby acknowledges Christ’s present reign, without making him a co-equal God. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:24.
Biblical cross-references
The following passages are essential for the right understanding of Mt 6:33:
Matthew 6:10 — “Your kingdom come”
The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer and Mt 6:33 are systematically connected: what is asked for is what is to be sought. Sozzini treats both in one breath. Whoever says the one must do the other. The petition for the kingdom without seeking it is lip-work; the seeking of the kingdom without praying for it is self-work. Compare Matthew 6:10.
Romans 14:17 — “not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”
Paul draws the line from Mt 6:33 explicitly: the kingdom of God is a spiritual reality, not a matter of provision. Both texts share the same contrast: outward goods of life versus inner righteousness. Sozzini expressly cites Rom 14:17 as a key warrant for his definition of the kingdom.
Luke 17:20-21 — “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”
The inner localisation of the kingdom (entós hymôn) coincides with Sozzini’s definition: God’s reigning in the hearts. Whoever seeks it outside (signs, place, time) misses it. Compare Luke 17:20-21.
Mark 1:15 — “the kingdom of God is at hand”
Jesus’s programmatic opening proclamation knows two responses: metanoeîte (turn around) and pisteúete (believe). Mt 6:33 unfolds both ethically: the turned life seeks first the kingdom; the converted faith is lived obedience. Compare Mark 1:15.
Matthew 23:23 — “the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness”
If Mt 6:33 means to seek “righteousness,” then Mt 23:23 makes its content concrete: krisis, eleos, pistis. In Socinian view, exactly this is the righteousness of God — no forensically imputed alien quality, but an ethical shape of life.
James 2:15-17 — dead faith without works
James formulates the ethical consequence of Mt 6:33 explicitly: a faith that does not become active is dead. In Socinian view this coincides with Sozzini’s exposition: the three Lord’s Prayer petitions are no passive waiting, but a praying-active co-working in the kingdom.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 — “godliness with contentment is great gain”
The exhortation against greed and for autarkeia is the Pauline-pastoral application of Mt 6:33. Whoever sets the kingdom in first place is given the supplementary in its measure. That is exactly the Racovian finding on “not directing the mind to this present age.”
1 Corinthians 15:24-28 — the kingdom is at the end handed over to the Father
The salvation-historical end-order confirms the “first” in Mt 6:33 monotheistically: the kingdom of God means in the end God’s undivided rule (“that God may be all in all”). Christ reigns as deputy, not as co-ruler. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:24.
Objections and Socinian answers
Objection 1: “This is unrealistic in modern working life.”
Whoever bears family, profession and responsibility cannot first care about God’s kingdom. The verse may fit wandering charismatics of the first century, but not present-day life.
The objection overlooks that “first” is a rank-order, not a temporal exclusivity. It is not about neglecting work and family, but about acting in both according to God’s will. Work becomes vocation when it stands under the kingdom; family becomes a house-church when it seeks the kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount is no programme for hermits, but for people in the midst of the world (Mt 5:13-16: salt and light).
Moreover, experience shows: precisely the mixing of the essential and the unessential makes everyday life difficult. Whoever has no measure by which to weigh what is truly important drifts from worry to worry. Mt 6:33 gives this measure. It is not unrealistic to apply it — it is unrealistic to live without it.
Sozzini himself stresses against monastic narrowing that the kingdom of God is God’s reigning in the hearts. This determination of the heart is not bound to outward forms of life. The craftsman, the mother, the official can seek the kingdom in their activity, if they do so in the spirit which knows God’s will and loves it.
Objection 2: “Righteousness” means the forensically imputed iustitia aliena of Christ.
In Reformation terms, dikaiosynê theou is the righteousness which God imputes to the believer; it is not a doing but a receiving. Mt 6:33 is therefore not an ethical commandment but a summons to faith.
The forensic reading has its right with Paul (Rom 3-4) — but not with Matthew. The Matthean usage of dikaiosynê is throughout ethical (5:6.10.20; 6:1; 21:32; 23:23). To import a Pauline definition into Mt 6:33 is anachronistic and breaks the Evangelist’s linguistic horizon.
The immediate context also contradicts the forensic interpretation. Mt 6:1 begins the chapter with the words: “Beware of practising your righteousness before men, in order to be seen by them.” There follow almsgiving, prayer, fasting — lived practice. If v.33 belongs to the same series — and it does — then the righteousness to be sought is the same lived practice.
Sozzini himself shows in the Racovian Catechism that Scripture uses “righteousness of God” chiefly where God forgives and does not punish (1 Jn 1:9; Rom 3:25-26). That is covenant-faithfulness, not penal book-keeping. The righteousness we are to seek is the corresponding covenant-faithfulness on our side: truth, mercy, faithfulness (Mt 23:23). Compare Romans 3:25-26.
Objection 3: “The promise of v.33b is a cheap prosperity theology.”
If I first seek God’s kingdom, all the rest will be added to me — does this not sound like a barter? Faith as a means to material provision?
The prosperity reading founders on the context. V.32 says immediately beforehand: “After all these things the Gentiles seek.” Whoever reads v.33 as a promise of prosperity makes Jesus do exactly what he has just reproached the Gentiles for — only in pious wrapping. That is textually untenable.
“Will be added” is a divine passive: God is the silent subject of the allotment. He knows what we need (v.32), and he gives it in his measure. That is no promise of riches, but an assurance of providence. Sozzini puts it plainly: God wills that we pray for our needs and at the same time remember that not our skill but God’s goodness keeps us alive.
In practice the verse works exactly opposite to prosperity theology: it frees from worry and greed, because it shifts the existential weight from the field of provision onto God. Whoever trusts in God need no longer secure everything himself; whoever directs himself to the kingdom can let go of the rest. That is liberation, not reward-mechanics.
Objection 4: “The kingdom of God is an apocalyptic future event — it cannot be sought now at all.”
In the sense of Albert Schweitzer’s consistent eschatology, the kingdom of God is a future event that comes through God’s irruption. “Seeking” would here be really expecting and enduring, not ethical striving.
Mt 6:33 demands active seeking, not passive expectation. The present imperative zêteîte cannot linguistically denote a mere waiting, but requires an ongoing search. That fits Matthean kingdom-theology as a whole: the kingdom is at once already come near (3:2; 4:17) and still coming (6:10) — it has a present shape into which one must even now enter.
Sozzini’s double definition (the outer kingdom of proclamation and the inner kingdom of the heart’s rule) resolves the tension systematically: the kingdom is already there as proclamation; as completed rule it is still to come. Whoever acknowledges it in the heart stands in relation to both aspects.
Schweitzer’s consistent eschatology also misses the ethical centre of the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12) promise the kingdom to those who already live the kingdom-posture — the poor in spirit, the merciful, the peacemakers. To seek and to receive the kingdom are no failure of eschatology, but its execution.
Theological consequences
Related verses
The following passages support, deepen or contrast the interpretation presented here:
- Matthew 6:10 — The second petition of the Lord’s Prayer and Mt 6:33 are systematically connected: what is prayed for and what is lived belong together.
- Mark 1:15 — Programme of the kingdom-proclamation: metanoia and faith — ethically unfolded in Mt 6:33.
- Luke 17:20-21 — Inner localisation of the kingdom (entós hymôn) — coincides with Sozzini’s determination of the heart.
- 1 Corinthians 15:24 — Salvation-historical end-order: the kingdom is at the end handed over to the Father — monotheistic bracket.
- Mark 12:29 — The one Lord of our seeking: Mt 6:33 is the lived Shema Israel.
- John 17:3 — Eternal life is knowledge of the one true God — identical in substance with the seeking of his kingdom.
Summary
Matthew 6:33 is the ethical peak of Jesus’s great discourse on worry. In Socinian view, the kingdom of God is God’s effective rule, chiefly in the heart of the believer, and the righteousness of God is the lived practice of that obedience: truth, mercy, faithfulness. The “first” subordinates the other goods of life without negating them.
Sozzini himself worked out this double determination of the kingdom in his exposition of the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer: the outer kingdom is the revelation and acceptance of the divine will; the inner kingdom is God’s reigning in our hearts. Whoever seeks the kingdom partakes in both realities. The Racovian Catechism connects this seeking of the kingdom with the direction of the mind away from the heathen drives of worry (desire of the flesh, of the eyes, pride of life) and with the acknowledgement of the royal office of Christ.
The added supplement (v.33b) is an assurance of providence, not a mechanism of prosperity. Whoever seeks the kingdom is freed from the worrying logic of the Gentiles (v.32) and trusts the Father, who knows what we need. Mt 6:33 is therefore no other-worldly idealism, but a reasonable, liberating order of life — the very order in which human life can succeed.