on why seek first His righteousness...

my friend sent me an sms early in the morning after my staff devotions:

"Bro, in Matthew 6:33, why is righteousness mentioned? Why not other attributes of God, such as holiness, glory, love...?"

Basically it was a question in the Bible study program he's in, and guess he wanted to hear  more opinions.

As a good student, I remembered what my teachers said about reading in context. So i went to Biblegateway.com and checked out the passage:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

- Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV). [Italics my own]

Then I also went to Wiki "Righteousness" and got some interesting insights.

So basically, righteousness = perfectness = wholeness = holiness. Yet in this fallen world, not all things display this righteousness of God. To pursue God's righteousness means to seek intimacy and union with the One Perfect God. The fallen world yearns for perfection but does not seek God. So if we want to be perfect, be perfect in Christ Jesus, who is the love and glory of God revealed to us.