Bible Soap

Scripture:

Matt 11:12 – From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. 

Observation:

The first thing that I thought when trying to pick a verse for this entry was, “Wow! The words of Jesus in these chapters are full of gold, and so powerful – what do I pick?” Anyway, this verse has lots of different interpretations when you look in different versions, some of which involve the Kingdom of God being attacked by the violent men. I have always taken the ‘forceful men’ to mean men of the kingdom, people who understand what the Kingdom is, going after what they can see because they want to see the Kingdom advance, or they want more of it on the earth. Maybe I shall have to do some more digging around to find out what the Greek might be getting at.

Application:

I’m not convinced there is much in the way of forcefulness in me, in the way that I think Jesus means it here. I can’t claim to be regularly thinking about how to advance the Kingdom of Heaven where I am, though I do want to see it take more ground, obviously, and am delighted when I hear about people becoming Christians or being healed or delivered. I think it’s probably a valid question to ask oneself every now and again, “Is what I’m doing for the Kingdom of God helping it to advance forcefully? Or am I just rolling long with it? Or, even worse, am I hindering its work?”

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, please show me where I can be more forceful / violent / daring / opportunistic in bringing the Kingdom of God to those around me. Never let me be someone who just goes along for the ride.