Matthew 6:31-33 vs. “Seek Ye First”
Karen Lafferty · checked 2026-07-25
What we checked
Graded against the standard
Quotation criteria this song presents words as scripture, so these apply
Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard
✓ What's good
- Stanza one follows Matthew 6:33 in the King James wording, with nothing altered or reordered
- The added stanzas, though not by the original author, are each drawn accurately from their own passages, Matthew 7:7 and Matthew 4:4
- The song's purpose is memorisation, and it has worked: this is one of the few verses many believers can quote because they sang it
- Keeps the verse's object intact: seek God's kingdom and righteousness, with the additions following rather than leading
⚠ Cautions
- No translation is named, so the King James wording has to be recognised rather than checked
- Stanzas two and three were written by other, anonymous hands from other chapters, and are sung as if part of the original
- Matthew 6:33 is a conclusion about anxiety. Lifted out, "all these things shall be added" easily becomes a promise about whatever the singer wants, rather than the food and clothing verse 31 names
Verse Proof
Matthew 6:31-33The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”
The Sermon on the Mount, in the middle of Jesus' teaching about anxiety. Verse 33 is a conclusion, not a standalone promise: because your Father already knows what you need, stop chasing what the nations chase, and put His kingdom first. The "all these things" that get added are the food, drink, and clothing named three verses earlier, not whatever the singer happens to want.
WHAT THE SONG SINGS — stanza one is Matthew 6:33 in the King James wording, translation never named
The first stanza is Matthew 6:33, sung as the verse, with alleluias as the refrain. Karen Lafferty wrote it in 1971 after a Bible study on that verse, and Maranatha! Music published it on their first praise album in 1972. The stanzas most congregations sing after it are not hers: stanza two is based on Matthew 7:7 and stanza three on Matthew 4:4, and hymnal records list them as written anonymously.
Nothing shifts in the first stanza. It follows the King James wording of Matthew 6:33, "seek ye first… shall be added unto you," dropping only the connecting "But" at the front, which is the kind of change a first line requires. What did shift over time is the song itself: it grew stanzas by other hands, drawn from other chapters, and they now travel as though they were part of the original.
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Nobody edited this song. It simply accumulated, which is how most scripture songs drift.
Why it matters
This is one of the oldest scripture choruses still in regular use, and it shows a drift that has nothing to do with anyone being careless. Nobody edited Matthew 6:33. The song simply accumulated. Fifty years of hymnals and church use added verses from Matthew 7 and Matthew 4, sung to the same tune by the same congregation, and the result is that a listener has no way to tell which parts came from the woman who wrote it and which arrived later.
The added stanzas are themselves accurate to their own passages, which is why this sits at Faithful rather than lower. The lesson is about how songs travel. A scripture song is a container, and things get put in it over time. The only defence is the same one this site keeps arriving at: name the source, verse by verse, so additions cannot pass as originals.
Is it safe to dwell on?
Sung on repeat, this song fixes your attention on God.
This is a memorisation song and it does that job unusually well: sung a few dozen times, the verse is yours for life, in the King James cadence. What repetition plants is an ordering, kingdom first and the rest after, which is the actual instruction of the passage. The thing to watch is what the tune teaches you to expect from the second half. "All these things shall be added unto you" is sung with the same lift as the first line, and it can settle into a guarantee of supply rather than the reassurance about food and clothing that Jesus is giving to anxious people. Read verses 31 and 32 once and the promise gets smaller and steadier, which is what it was.
Helpful comparison
On the translation question, this song is an interesting edge case. The wording is unmistakably the King James, and a reader who knows the KJV will identify it instantly. That is not the same as naming it. "Translation named" is a criterion about what the listener is told, not about what an expert could infer, and a 1972 chorus with no printed attribution leaves an ordinary singer with nothing to check against. Compare Seeds Kids Worship elsewhere on this site, which puts "ESV" in the track title. Same accuracy, one criterion apart.
Sources
- Hymnary.org — Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God · (Lafferty wrote it in 1971 after a Bible study on Matthew 6:33; Maranatha! Music published it on their first praise album in 1972; later stanzas written anonymously, based on Matthew 7:7 and Matthew 4:4)
- Wikipedia — Seek Ye First · (authorship and the KJV basis of the text)
- Reformed Worship — interview with Karen Lafferty · (the author's own account)
Corrections
No corrections to this proof yet.
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Where the text survives the song
~ FAITHFUL
“Jesus, Strong and Kind”
CityAlight feat. Colin Buchanan
Sing it, including with children. It says what Jesus said without pretending to be quoting him, and the invitation it reports is really his. It just never tells you where to look it up.✓ The song never puts a sentence in Jesus' mouth. Every attribution is reported in the third person, so nothing is offered as a quotation that would then have to be checked against a translation
⚠ No reference and no translation anywhere: not on the recording, not on the official chord chart, and not on CityAlight's own page for the song. Four reports of what Jesus said, and no address for any of them
~ FAITHFUL
“The Lord's Prayer”
JJ Heller
Sing it. It is the Lord's Prayer in King James English, unaltered. The closing line about the kingdom and the power is in the King James and footnoted in most modern Bibles, for reasons older than either.✓ The words are the prayer and only the prayer, with no verses of the songwriter's own attached and nothing inserted between the petitions
⚠ No translation is named on the recording or in its description, so the King James has to be recognised rather than verified
✓ VERIFIED
“Mark 10”
Streetlights
Play it freely. This is Mark 10 itself, read word for word in a named translation. The line about all things being possible arrives as the answer to a question about being saved.✓ The whole chapter, in order, so verse 27 arrives after the rich man’s scene and after the disciples ask who can be saved, instead of standing on its own
⚠ “Word-for-word” here describes the reading, not the translation theory. Streetlights uses it for what is read. Tyndale uses the same phrase for a different thing
More songs like this
~ FAITHFUL
“Jesus, Strong and Kind”
CityAlight feat. Colin Buchanan
Sing it, including with children. It says what Jesus said without pretending to be quoting him, and the invitation it reports is really his. It just never tells you where to look it up.✓ The song never puts a sentence in Jesus' mouth. Every attribution is reported in the third person, so nothing is offered as a quotation that would then have to be checked against a translation
⚠ No reference and no translation anywhere: not on the recording, not on the official chord chart, and not on CityAlight's own page for the song. Four reports of what Jesus said, and no address for any of them
~ FAITHFUL
“The Lord's Prayer”
JJ Heller
Sing it. It is the Lord's Prayer in King James English, unaltered. The closing line about the kingdom and the power is in the King James and footnoted in most modern Bibles, for reasons older than either.✓ The words are the prayer and only the prayer, with no verses of the songwriter's own attached and nothing inserted between the petitions
⚠ No translation is named on the recording or in its description, so the King James has to be recognised rather than verified
✎ DEPARTS
“The Hope That Is In You (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)”
Seeds Kids Worship (Seeds Family Worship)
Sing it. The chart is 1 Peter 3:15 in the ESV, from the command about your heart through to gentleness and respect. Three words are missing. Read the verse beside it once and you have them.✓ Both ends of the verse are printed. The chart opens on the command about the heart and closes on gentleness and respect, where the ESV's verse 15 ends.
⚠ Three of the verse's words are missing from the chart. The ESV sends the defense to anyone who asks you. The chart drops who asks you.