3. Pressing into the Kingdom (Matthew 6:24, 33; 7:7-8; 11:12)
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
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We are to have an attitude of seeking the Kingdom, knocking, and
asking without ceasing. William Holman Hunt (English
Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1827-1910), detail of "The Importunate
Neighbor" (1895), oil on canvas, 36.4 x 51.7 cm, National
Gallery of Victoria.
Full image. |
We Christians must learn to pass on the Christian
faith to our children and the culture around us. Too often, however, we
pass on a religion rather than a zealous love of Jesus.
Jesus made it clear that entering the Kingdom of
God is not passive. The Kingdom must be deliberately sought, pressed
into, taken hold of. Though many New Testament passages support this
teaching, we'll examine three in this lesson:
-
Seeking first his Kingdom (Matthew 6:24, 33)
-
Asking, seeking, knocking (Matthew 7:7-8)
-
Forcing one's way into the Kingdom (Matthew 11:12 || Luke 16:16)
Each of these passages teaches an active,
will-not-be-denied approach to the Kingdom.
The Sermon on the Mount includes a section (Matthew
6:22-34) that urges us not to lose sight of our chief objective -- the
Kingdom of God -- by the distractions of everyday life. One of these
verses is especially pointed:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he
will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.…" (Matthew
6:24)
This verse speaks about the great tug-of-war
between the two Masters of our Age (and Jesus' age): God and Mammon. The
word "Mammon" (KJV) is transliterated from an Aramaic word. It means
"wealth, property."1 The NIV translates it "Money" -- capitalized, since it seems to be
personified in verse 24 in contrast with God.
When people "put their hope in wealth," they
automatically lessen their dependence upon God who has promised never to
leave us or forsake us. In a way, Money becomes an alternate point of
hope and trust, a substitute god. Jesus put it very boldly:
"No one can serve two masters.... You
cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24)
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Evelyn Pickering de Morgan (1855-1919), "The
Worship of Mammon" (1909).
Larger image. |
What does it mean to serve Money? I'm sure you've
discovered -- perhaps the hard way -- that "no payments until June of next
year" is a seductive way of getting you to purchase what you know you
can't afford now. The frequency with which you get bombarded with offers
of free credit cards is one indication of what a serious problem people
have mortgaging their souls by means of plastic. Of one thing you can be
sure: banks don't offer you credit cards in the hope that you'll pay
them off every month. They want you to charge them up and then pay
exorbitant interest each month on the unpaid balance.
If you are running the rat race of keeping up with
payments on debt, aren't you really serving Money? You serve who owns
your time. If you're in debt, perhaps Money owns your time. In 1955,
singer Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded the hit song "Sixteen Tons,"
written by Merle Travis:
"You load sixteen tons, what do you
get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store."2
You can either "owe your soul" or determine
to get out of a situation where you are doomed to "serve Money." It may
take years and some sound financial advisors to get your financial
affairs in order and under control so you can be free to serve God
again, but it will be worth it.
One of the saddest stories in the gospels is that
of the Rich Young Ruler, who wanted to follow Jesus, but the pull of
material things was just too great -- and Jesus' demands seemed too much
for him. We'll examine it more fully in
Lesson 4, but it fits here too.
"21
Jesus looked at him and loved him. 'One thing you lack,' he said.
'Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'
22 At this the man's face fell.
He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for
the rich to enter the kingdom of God!' 24
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said
again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God.'" (Mark 10:21-25)
Isn't Jesus just being too hard? No. Jesus knows
that if a person is that caught up in his own wealth, he can't be a
disciple. He can't serve both God and Money. No way!
The question, then, becomes, Where is your
heart? What is your real treasure? Has Money become the center of
your existence? Determine today to put God back squarely in first
place. It's where he belongs -- and he will help you do just that if you
ask him.
Now let's look at our key text, verse 33, and the
verses leading up to it.
"31 So do not worry, saying,
'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32 For the pagans run after (epizēteō) all these
things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek (zēteō)
first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be
given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:31-34)
People are always seeking something. In
verses 32-33, two words for "seek, seek after" occur.
The Greek verb zēteō in verse 33 means "to
seek, look for." Here it has the connotation: "to devote serious effort
to realize one's desire or objective, strive for, aim (at), try to
obtain, desire, wish (for), desire to possess (something)."3 NRSV renders it, "But strive first for the kingdom of God...." We see a
word from the same root in verse 32, describing the Gentiles' quest:
"run after" (NIV), "strive" (NRSV), "seek" (KJV), epizēteō, "to
be seriously interested in or have a strong desire for, wish, wish for."4
So what is it that you seek? Pagans or Gentile
unbelievers seek after temporal things -- food, drink, clothing. What's
more, Jesus says, "your heavenly Father knows that you need them." They
aren't bad things. But they can preoccupy our "seeking" so we do not
have time, energy, or interest to seek the Source of those things -- God
himself. Jesus taught:
"The worries of this life and the
deceitfulness of wealth choke [the Word], making it unfruitful."
(Matthew 13:22)
"But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
(Matthew 6:33)
The difference, then, between the disciple and
others is that the disciple seeks God first. He or she gives priority to
God first. We are not to seek our welfare and God with equal intensity.
The great quest for God must be first and foremost, not relegated to
religion or Sunday practice, "... so that he might come to have first
place in everything." (Colossians 1:18b, NRSV).
The object of our seeking is to be two-fold,
according to Jesus.
First, we are to seek God's kingdom or God's reign
in our lives and in this world. In the Lord's Prayer we are taught to
pray,
"Your kingdom come, your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10).
We are not only to pray for it, but seek for it to
come about. While I agree that the Kingdom will not come completely
until Christ rules literally on the earth (Revelation 20:4), I believe
that we Christians are to seek God's Kingdom in the here and now and not
be satisfied with the reign of evil. We are to be salt and light in the
earth (Matthew 5:13-14). We are to be leaven in the loaf (Matthew
13:33). We are to be agents of change -- faith-filled followers of the
Miracle Worker from Galilee who left changed lives in his wake. We are
to seek the Kingdom of God.5
Second, we are to seek God's righteousness. Much of
Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount compares the Pharisaic
understanding of legalistic righteousness with Jesus' heart
righteousness, which is the spirit of the Law. Jesus said, "Unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the
law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20).
This kind of heart righteousness is not the stuff
of religious observance alone. Nor ritual. Nor even righteous deeds. It
comes from a persistent, insistent, thirsty seeking after God. It comes
from a dissatisfaction with our own imperfections until we let him break
our hardness of heart and then mold us more fully into his image. A
simple song expresses this heart quest:
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh
on me.
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me!
Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me.6
Ultimately, it is not a self-produced righteousness
that we seek. It is a righteousness that he works in us, that is,
the personal righteousness that is the fruit of Christ's righteousness
imputed to us by faith (Philippians 3:9).
For so long we have sought everything else -- food,
shelter, advancement. Seek Him first, says the Discipler. "Seek first
God's Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you" (6:33).
We disciples must set our eyes towards one and only
one great quest: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness."
But with it comes a wonderful Kingdom promise: "and all these things
will be given to you as well."
The word translated "be added" (KJV, NASB), "be
given" (NIV, NRSV) is the future passive of Greek prostithēmi,
"add, put to," here with the connotation, "to add as a benefit, provide,
give, grant, do."7 He will add to our Kingdom-seeking the other things that we need. He
will fulfill spiritual hunger and our natural hunger as well.
Ultimately, this quest is a faith-quest that sorts
out priorities and settles upon the one great goal of seeking God first.
God takes care of the rest and will not disappoint us, if our heart is
rightly placed. Just as he feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, he
will meet all our needs, as well.
The second passage in this lesson reinforces the
point that seeking the Kingdom is a constant, active quest. Jesus
instructed us in the Sermon on the Mount:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door
will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8)
Jesus gives us three word pairs. The first in each
pair is the action, the second is the result. The first word in each
pair is in the Greek present tense that can carry the idea of "action in
progress in present time," the "Progressive Present."8 Jesus' command here has the effect of saying, "Do this (and keep on
doing it)." The second word in each pair is in the future tense, the
expectation, the promise.
The Greek words used in Jesus' command are common.
Greek aiteō means "ask, ask for, demand."9 In the case of a superior speaking to an inferior it can carry the idea
"demand," as in an accounting. But here the idea is "to ask for,
petition." The promise is Greek didōmi, the common word for
"give." "Ask and it will be given to you."
"Seek" is zēteō, which we just examined,
"seek, look for" in order to find. It can be used literally, as the
woman seeking for a lost coin (Luke 15:8), or figuratively "try to
obtain, desire to possess something ... strive for, aim (at), desire,
wish."10 The corresponding result is expressed by Greek euriskō. It means
literally "find, discover, come upon," and can also refer figuratively
to "intellectual discovery based upon reflection, observation,
examination, or investigation."11 "Seek and you will find."
The third pair of words expresses the figure of
seeking by knocking on a door until it is opened.12
This kind of bold, relentless seeking is taught in
two of Jesus' parables:
- Parable of the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11:5-8), where
continued, not-to-be-denied knocking is encouraged.
- Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8), where the
lesson is to always pray and not give up.
The writer of Hebrews urges us:
"Let us then approach the throne of grace
with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us
in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)
The word translated "confidence" (NIV) or
"boldness" (KJV) is Greek parrēsia, "outspokenness, frankness,
plainness" of speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing. It
can also carry the ideas of "courage, confidence, boldness,
fearlessness,' especially in the presence of persons of high rank."13
We aren't to pray with a whimper or a whine or a
whisper. No. We are to come with a confident, bold, persistent asking,
seeking, and knocking. God our Father desires to hear our petitions and
we are to be entirely open with him. Prayer is not a time to hide what
is going on inside us, but to share it openly -- warts and all -- with our
Father who, as we know, loves us and understands us and seeks good for
us. We can trust him, even though we might misunderstand an issue, or
ask for the wrong thing.
John the Baptist's ministry is the watershed
between the two eras: (1) the age of the law and the prophets, and (2)
the kingdom age. John straddles them. He is proclaiming the new era:
"The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the
good news!" (Mark 1:15). But in some way John is the last of the Old
Testament prophets, for Jesus says, "Among those born of women there is
no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God
is greater than he" (Luke 7:28). As Moses sees the Promised Land but
never enters it himself, so John proclaims the Kingdom but is not quite
a part of it, as Jesus begins to reveal it.
In this context, we find one of the hardest
passages in the New Testament to interpret with confidence, but one of
the most powerful. The key words are the verb biazō and its
related noun biastēs.
"From the days of John the Baptist until
now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing (Greek biazō,
middle or passive), and forceful men (biastēs) lay hold (harpazō)
of it." (Matthew 11:12)
"Since that time, the good news of the
kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way (Greek
biazō, middle or passive) into it." (Luke 16:16b)
"In Greek literature biazō is most often
used in the unfavorable sense of attack or forcible restraint." However,
the most recent Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament gives
four possible definitions of biazō in these two verses: (1) "to
inflict violence on, dominate, constrain," (2) "to gain an objective by
force, use force," (3) "to go after something with enthusiasm, seek
fervently, try hard," or (4) "constrain (warmly)."14 The noun used in Matthew, biastēs, is used in other literature in
a negative or pejorative sense, "violent, impetuous person."15
"Lay hold" (NIV), "take by force" (NRSV, NASB, KJV)
in Matthew 11:12 is harpazō. The basic meaning is "'snatch,
seize,' that is, take suddenly and vehemently."16 Its exact meaning here depends upon your interpretation of the verse,
perhaps, "to seize on, claim for oneself eagerly."17
There are many interpretations of these parallel
passages, but I'll mention just two:
1. Servants of the Kingdom are mistreated
One of the most popular interpretations sees
biazō as passive and takes the saying as meaning that the Kingdom
suffers violence as its servants (e.g., John the Baptist and Jesus) are
maltreated by the enemies of the Kingdom. While it is true that John the
Baptist, Jesus, and Jesus' disciples are maltreated, I don't think
that's the force of this verse.
2. The Kingdom is entered forcefully
Rather, I believe Jesus is saying that people must
actively, aggressively, and forcibly seek entrance into the Kingdom.18 Here we take biazō as the middle voice instead of the passive
voice (the forms here are exactly the same) with the second definition
above, "to gain an objective by force." This interpretation fits the
context and is supported by Jesus' teachings elsewhere. In the Luke
passage, then, Jesus is saying:
- "Everyone," Greek pas, that is, everyone who
becomes part of the Kingdom...
- "is forcing his way," pushing through the door,
seeking to enter while it still possible, making every effort...
- "into it," eis, that is, into the Kingdom.
Jesus often stresses both by parable and by
hyperbole the necessity of actively seeking the Kingdom:
- Birth (John 3:3, 7). If you've ever given birth or been
present at a birth, then you know firsthand that birth is a violent,
radical event, "natural" though it may be.19
- Cutting off your hand, plucking out your eye that causes
you to sin (Mark 9:47).
- Hating your family (Luke 14:26).
- Bringing not peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).
- Giving up everything for the treasure hidden in the field
and for the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46).
- Radical action required of the rich young ruler (Mark
10:21).
- Counting the cost of building a tower or waging war (Luke
14:28-33).
- Entering by the narrow door (Luke 13:24).
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Q4. (Matthew
11:12; Luke 16:16) Admittedly, this is a hard passage to
interpret. However, if you take the "forceful" or "violent"
people as seekers who are doing whatever it takes to press into
the Kingdom, then what is Jesus teaching us here about the
nature of the Kingdom?
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Too often we want the blessings of the Kingdom, but
are not willing to do whatever it takes to follow Jesus. We are "rice
Christians," "fair-weather Christians" who aren't following Jesus the
Master but adopting a religion. When you take Jesus' teachings seriously
and look at them fairly, it's pretty obvious that he is asking for
everything that we have -- our heart, our allegiance, our obedience, our
willingness to risk all to follow. Jesus doesn't mention any comfortable
middle ground, though the timid part of us earnestly would like to find
it.
And so we're told to:
- Seek first his Kingdom (Matthew 6:24, 33)
- Ask, seek, knock (Matthew 7:7-8)
- Force our way into the Kingdom (Matthew 11:12 || Luke 16:16)
How about you, dear friend? Are you seeking the
Kingdom first, with all your heart? That's the attitude of heart that
Jesus our Master is seeking to inculcate in us.
Prayer
Father, put an earnestness in my soul that will not
be denied your best, your will, your Kingdom! Forgive me for my
passivity in the face of your call. Help me to seek your Kingdom first
of all in my life. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Key Verses
"But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
(Matthew 6:33, NIV)
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone
who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door
will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8, NIV)
"From the days of John the Baptist until
now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful
men lay hold of it." (Matthew 11:12, NIV)
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