Kingdom Pursuit (2)

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matthew 11.12

Turf war
Christians are called to seek the Kingdom of God as their highest calling and primary pursuit in life. “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of heaven” are interchangeable terms, focusing, respectively, on the source (God) and orientation (heaven) believers must look to if they are to fulfill their calling in this life.

But seeking the Kingdom is not an easy road; Jesus did not exaggerate when He used the term, “violence” to describe the progress of the Kingdom in this world. Like the Sharks and the Jets in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, the citizens of the Kingdom of God are engaged in a turf war of cosmic proportions with the citizens of this world and the dark forces that shape their worldview and way of life.

So if we want to seek the Kingdom, we’d better get ready to rumble.

An ongoing struggle
Why is this? Why should believers have to struggle so hard to realize Kingdom progress here and now? Particularly when, as Jesus promised, “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12.32)?

It pleases God to give us His Kingdom, but it pleases Him also that we should have to strive to obtain it. Shortly after making so wonderful a promise, Jesus said that it is necessary for us to “force” or to “press” our way into the Kingdom of God (Lk. 16.16). And the reason for this is that the resistance to Kingdom progress is so constant and, yes, so violent.

There are at least four reasons why advancing the Kingdom is a struggle.

To discover the first, we need only look within ourselves, where the law of sin continues to mess with our minds, corrupt our affections, and confuse our priorities in this world (Rom. 7.21-23). Our “natural” inclination is to avoid discomfort and turmoil. A voice within us whispers, “Following Jesus is sweet; following Jesus is an easy road; you shouldn’t have to struggle to know more of the grace of God.” Whenever we hear that voice, encouraging us to deny the struggle and warfare which come with seeking the Kingdom, we can know the receiver dial of our souls is tuned to the father of lies, and not the King of Heaven.

Second, we are engaged in an aggressive spiritual warfare with spiritual powers of wickedness in high places. The devil and his minions will do anything to distract and dissuade us from taking seriously Christ’s call to seek His Kingdom. They’ll even allow us to indulge what we believe to be good in the Christian life, as long as we don’t take seriously the pursuit of what is best.

Third, the course of this world runs contrary to the Kingdom agenda of Christ. The believers in Thessalonica were rightly accused of standing against the spirit of their age by insisting that Jesus alone is King and must be followed and obeyed above all earthly protocols and priorities (Acts 17.1-9). The world of work, diversions, even family responsibilities, and worldly wisdom will try by every means to keep us from seeking the Kingdom of God in every aspect of our lives. And each of these can throw up stiff resistance as we come, seeking the Kingdom, on that particular bit of turf.

Finally, even in the Church there will be those who will try to temper our zeal, dissuade us from becoming “fanatical” in our walk with the Lord, and assure us that Jesus loves us just as we are. For the sake of a comfortable faith, many “believers” today are denying their Kingdom citizenship, and they will not hesitate to urge us to walk with them along their path of false assurance and easy-believism.

Forcing our way in
If seeking the Kingdom is to become the first priority in every area of your life, then you need to get ready for some hard knocks and bitter struggles.

Jesus said we’ll have to force our way into the Kingdom, to exert a kind of spiritual violence in order to gain that which the Father wants earnestly to give us. If you aren’t ready for a struggle in taking up pursuit of the Kingdom of God, then you need to consider whether you have actually made the Kingdom turn, and are really in the same Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and brought near.

But if you are ready for such a struggle, and you anticipate having to engage it every day of your life, well, you won’t be disappointed.
Next steps: Try to identify the points in your life where you expect you’ll have to struggle most to make progress in the Kingdom of God. Share these with a Christian friend, and ask him or her to pray for you.

T. M. Moore
Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Pursuit, is the fifth of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.