MATTHEW 11

Matt 11:12-15: And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! ​

The Kingdom of God will always suffer violence. It has from the beginning and it will til the end. Men will try to break it up, snatch it away, and destroy it. Only the man who is earnest and devoted will defeat the violence of persecution which will enter into it. The religious authorities of Israel snatched away the coming of the kingdom. (Note Matt 23:13.) Though Christ presented Himself as the Messiah, the leaders of Israel rejected Him and thus snatched the promised kingdom away from that generation. 

In Matthew 11:12, the Greek word translated as "suffers violence" (biazo; Strong's #971) is used in only one other place, as we will see. The word rendered as "the violent" (biastes; Strong's #973), a closely related word, is used nowhere else in the Bible. The verse revolves around these words, but their narrow biblical usage limits our technical understanding.
In Luke 16:16 ("the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it"), the Greek word translated as "pressing" in the New King James is the same word translated as "suffers violence" in Matthew 11:12 (biazo). In secular usage, this word means "to use force on; to use power; to behave violently; to assault; to afflict; to oppress; or to constrain." The translation "suffers violence" in Matthew 11:12 springs easily from this meaning, but "pressing into" in Luke 16:16 obscures it. "Pressing" is a weak translation, suggesting a group of people squeezing together to get in the doors of an amusement park. We must keep in mind that it is the same verb translated as "suffers violence."  --David C Grabbe

​He that will take, get possession of the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and spiritual joy, must be in earnest: all hell will oppose him in every step he takes; and if a man be not absolutely determined to give up his sins and evil companions, and have his soul saved at all hazards, and at every expense, he will surely perish everlastingly. This requires a violent earnestness.

​There is a war that rages behind the scene. It is a spiritual war. Only the ones who "press" forward can be victorious. Every kind of war is violent, and there is no exception to this War of wars. Unless we are "violent"-having holy zeal and determination-we will never win it. We have got to strive and press forward every inch in this spiritual battle. If we are hoping to be victorious doing nothing about it, we will be devoured by the roaring lion. We have to strive. The Master Himself said:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. (Luke 13:24)
          We strive and wrestle it out not physically with our fellow humans, but spiritually with the powers of darkness.  --Michael Pedrin 

Matthew 11:28: “Come to me and I will give you rest” ​

But what about the apologetic answers to the Problem of Evil? Is not intellectual peace the gateway to existential peace?
Perhaps that’s sometimes the case, but if our intellect serves what we worship, and we worship anything other than God, then our intellect will fight for a reason to reject Him. That’s why the hope of the Gospel must speak to our entire essence, not just our minds. Yes, some may require more intellectual reasons than others, but the call of Jesus remains the same: “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
He didn’t say: “I will answer your questions so you can live your life with intellectual satisfaction.”
​The writer of Job, likewise, responds to the problem of evil and suffering with God Himself, leaving intellectual questions unanswered for the sake of existential peace:

“I know that you can do all things,
    and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
I have uttered what I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:2-3) --Covert God 

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” Luke 16:16 (NIV)
​
In other words Jesus is saying that to come into the Kingdom of Heaven requires deliberate, purposeful and determined action. There is no contradiction between the two statements as recorded in Luke and Matthew – they simply explore Jesus’ teaching from a different angle. When we take both verses from Matthew and Luke together we understand that the Kingdom of Heaven does advance into this world with conflict.
There are forces of evil which oppose God’s word and His work and we see violent men working against God and His church in this world. But God’s Kingdom is also coming with power and many people are being freed from the power of Satan as they take hold of the good news of Jesus Christ.  --BeaconLight

The kingdom of our God advances powerfully, and no force can successfully thwart that forward progress throughout the world as long as our Lord wills it so. The gospel is being proclaimed, and it will not be stopped. Similarly, those determined to be a part of this marvelous eternal kingdom of God will advance toward it, and enter into it, with a forceful determination that will surmount any obstacle. They too will not be stopped. “The kingdom has come with a holy power and magnificent energy that has been pushing back the frontiers of darkness. The kingdom is making great strides; now is the time for courageous souls, forceful people, to take hold of it. This is no challenge for the timorous or fainthearted” [The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 8, p. 266]. I believe Luke alludes once again to this need for a determined spirit in the face of opposition in Acts 14:21-22 where he says that Paul and Barnabas, “after they had preached the gospel to the city of Derbe and had made many disciples, returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.'” Because of the obstacles that lie ahead, it will take earnest, eager, forceful, determined men and women of great faith to face such opposition and to lay hold of the prize. Paul wrote, “I press on in order that I may lay hold of (seize) that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. … One thing I do — forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” [Philp. 3:12-14]. Paul sought to seize (lay hold of) the prize, just as the men of purpose in Matthew 11:12 were seizing (laying hold of) the kingdom of God.  --Al Maxey

Jesus is addressing an age old problem of forcing God’s agenda according to our liking and this was certainly the problem with the Pharisees. There is little more sinister than assuming responsibilities that belong to God alone based on how we think things should be. Unfortunately, I think this applies to Christians who have a list of activities that they must accomplish to make something happen under the presumption that the “violent take it by force”.  No, only God does that and we submit to his will, rest in his promises and respond by loving Him and neighbor, making disciples and being a witness to God’s redemptive kingdom agenda. Certainly, that includes a host of activity on our part both individually and corporately but not because we are trying to violently take something. The victory is in Christ and we must point to Him.  --Lisa Robinson

and the violent take it by force; meaning either publicans, and harlots, and Gentile sinners; who might be thought to be a sort of intruders: or rather the same persons, as being powerfully wrought upon under the ministry of the Gospel; who were under violent apprehensions of wrath and vengeance, of their lost and undone state and condition by nature; were violently in love with Christ, and eagerly desirous of salvation by him, and communion with him; and had their affections set upon the things of another world: these having the Gospel preached to them, which is a declaration of God's love to sinners, a proclamation of peace and pardon, and a publication of righteousness and life by Christ, they greedily catched at it, and embraced it.