Matthew 11:12 and Luke 16:16 use a single Greek word translated in Matthew as violence and in Luke as force. The Master’s reference teaches spiritual truth Christians often overlook.
First, however, while the texts offer difficulty, it’s minimized by interpreting them in the context of Christ’s over-all ministry, particularly in those men and women God used to establish Christianity in history. Remember the rule of interpretation: obscure or difficult passages should be studied by clear-meaning ones. Joseph, step-father of, and Mary, mother of Jesus, modeled spiritual force. John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles embodied it, initiating, directing and empowering the church. John fierce-force; Jesus spiritual grace-force; the Apostles, once Baptized in the Holy Spirit, Christ’s Vicar-force, like elephants trampling opposition, like tree-trunk shredders, chewing up and spitting out in little pieces any satanic obstruction faced. Consider others in that first-generation of leaders and the force they expressed:
And on and on. Hardened by confronting life-circumstances; softened by experiencing God’s Grace; quickened by following the Holy Spirit’s leading, they blazed the spiritual trail we follow today. But who now would claim to rival their Spiritual Force? Let alone equal it? Let alone surpass it? At our best, we dim lights can only study Bible passages to some depth, hoping to cast SOME scriptural illumination to those listening. In the next blogs, great truths surfaced in the words violent and force.
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