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

The words of Christ are full of significance. He had just counseled against preoccupation with the temporal things of life—"What shall we eat? or What shall we drink, or Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" (Matt. 6:31).

The Christian does not work for money alone, or measure his achievement by it. The appeal of Christ to us is "Don't make things the most important factor in life."

To unite with Christ in concern and compassion for people takes precedence over affluence and status. I knew a man who refused a large salary, many times more than the church could pay him. He took a position that offered the opportunity to serve people and lead them to Christ.

We cannot afford to make a mistake here. To end up the richest man in the cemetery is no accomplishment. If a man has nothing that he can take with him beyond the grave he is poor indeed. Bacon said, "It is reserved only for God and the angels to be lookers-on." But they are not merely spectators. The angels are ministering spirits sent to those who should be heirs of salvation (see Heb. 1:14). We are invited to unite with them in this service.

But this is man's folly: to turn to his wealth, to his sports and his amusements, then to count them the principal thing worthy of his time, his energy, and his thought. We ought to listen to Jesus Christ with the utmost earnestness. We ought to consider the carrying of the gospel to men as having absolute priority. There is no quicker way to spiritual disaster than to treat the spread of His kingdom and the triumph of His righteousness as simply a matter of personal convenience. That we should consider these life-and-death concerns casual, as objects of passing interest in a world that is hastening to its final destiny with God, is unthinkable. There seems no mood so tragic as a bland tolerance of God, an easy indifference to His cause for which He died, a bored disdain for eternal realities.

On the other hand, nothing is so satisfying as to bring God's transforming grace to lost men and women.