There is a statement Jesus made that has caused a great deal of confusion over the years. He said, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by forc.” Matthew 11:12. When we read those words in the King James Version, it can sound as though Jesus is talking about people physically attacking the Kingdom of God and taking it away by force. But that is not the only possible meaning of the Greek text, and when we examine the words, the surrounding verses, and the parallel passage in Luke, we begin to see what Jesus was actually describing.
Jesus was speaking about a great change that had taken place with the arrival of John the Baptist. Just before this statement, Jesus had spoken very highly of John. He said, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” Matthew 11:11. Then Jesus immediately began speaking about the Kingdom of Heaven and what had been happening “from the days of John the Baptist until now.” The timing is important. John was the one who came preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 3:2. Then Jesus came preaching the same Kingdom and demonstrating its power before the people.
John’s preaching had created a tremendous spiritual disturbance. People were being called to repentance. They were being confronted with the fact that God’s Kingdom was no longer something they could simply discuss as a future promise. The King had come. The message had become immediate. The people had to respond.
This is where the word translated “violence” becomes important. The Greek word in Matthew 11:12 is biazetai, from the verb biazō. It can carry the idea of using force, pressing forward, forcing one’s way, or being subjected to force. The difficulty is that the Greek form can be understood in more than one grammatical way, which is why translators and commentators have not all understood the verse in exactly the same manner. The NET Bible, for example, translates the verse, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it,” while also acknowledging the possible rendering, “the kingdom of heaven is forcibly entered and violent people take hold of it.”
That means we should be careful about making the English word “violence” carry more meaning than the Greek text actually requires. Jesus was not giving His followers permission to use physical violence to obtain the Kingdom. The context is about the forceful response surrounding the proclamation of the Kingdom.
Luke gives us an especially important parallel because he records Jesus using the same Greek verb in a closely related statement. Jesus said, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it” Luke 16:16. The Greek verb translated “presseth” in the King James Version is again biazetai, the same verb used in Matthew 11:12.
That is significant because Luke places the statement directly after saying that the Law and the Prophets were “until John.” John marks a dividing point. The prophetic age had reached its appointed point, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of God was now being openly announced. The response was forceful. People were pressing into it.
Look at what happened around John and Jesus. People came out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the surrounding region to hear John. Matthew 3:5 They confessed their sins and were baptized by him in Jordan Matthew 3:6. Later, great multitudes followed Jesus. People crowded around Him. They climbed into houses, crossed lakes, followed Him into wilderness places, and pressed through crowds simply to get close enough to hear Him or receive healing. One woman even pressed through the crowd because she believed that touching the garment of Jesus would make her whole. Mark 5:27-29
This is the kind of urgency that helps us understand the expression.
These people were not sitting comfortably on the sidelines waiting to see what happened. They were pressing forward.
Jesus Himself described this kind of determination in another statement when He said, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate,” Luke 13:24. The word “strive” carries the thought of earnest effort and determined struggle. Jesus was not describing someone casually wandering toward the Kingdom while giving equal attention to everything else. He was describing someone who understands the value of what is before him and is determined to enter.
The Kingdom of God is not obtained by punching, fighting, or physically overpowering someone. The “violence” of Matthew 11:12 is not permission for fleshly aggression. It concerns the intense movement surrounding the coming of the Kingdom and the forceful response of people who are determined to lay hold of it. The Greek wording itself has enough grammatical difficulty that we should not pretend the verse has no interpretive question. The NET Bible notes that the verb may be understood in either a passive or middle sense, and that scholars have proposed both negative and positive understandings.
There is another reason we should not isolate the phrase “the violent take it by force.” Jesus was not talking about people conquering God. God does not have to be overpowered. The Kingdom belongs to God. The point is what happens when the proclamation of that Kingdom comes face-to-face with human beings.
Some resist it.
Some reject it.
Some attack those who proclaim it.
And some hear it, believe it, repent, and press into it with everything they have.
That helps explain why the verse can legitimately be understood in more than one dimension. The Kingdom was encountering opposition, but it was also being forcefully embraced by people who were determined to enter it. The surrounding ministry of John and Jesus shows both the conflict and the urgency. John was imprisoned because he confronted sin. Jesus was opposed by religious leaders who questioned His authority. At the same time, ordinary people were flocking to Him because they recognized something in His message that they desperately needed.
The Kingdom was being violently opposed, and people were violently pressing toward it.
The wording in Matthew 11:12 therefore should not be turned into a doctrine of physical aggression. Jesus was not saying that His followers should force their way into God’s Kingdom by human strength. In fact, the same Jesus who spoke these words also said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,”Matthew 11:28. The Kingdom is not entered by attacking people. It is entered by responding to the King.
And this brings us back to John.
John did not tell people to fight their way into the Kingdom. He told them to repent. Matthew 3:2 He prepared the way for the Messiah. Matthew 3:3 He pointed people away from himself and toward Jesus. John 1:29-30 The forceful response Jesus described was therefore not physical force. It was the urgency created when God’s Kingdom was being proclaimed and people realized they had to decide what they were going to do with the message.
There is a difference between casually admiring the Kingdom and laying hold of it.
There is a difference between hearing the truth and responding to the truth.
There is a difference between saying, “That is interesting,” and saying, “I must have this.”
That is the picture Luke gives us when he says that since the time of John, the Kingdom of God has been preached and people are pressing into it. Luke 16:16 The Greek verb is the same one found in Matthew, which makes Luke an important witness when we are trying to understand Matthew’s difficult statement.
So when Jesus said, “the violent take it by force,” He was describing the powerful, urgent movement surrounding the arrival of God’s Kingdom. John announced it. Jesus proclaimed it. People were confronted by it. Opposition rose against it. And those who truly desired what God was offering pressed forward to lay hold of it.
The Kingdom was no longer merely something spoken about by the prophets as a distant expectation. John had arrived. The Messiah had arrived. The Kingdom was being preached. The King was standing among the people.
And when the King comes, standing still is no longer enough.
The message demands a response.
That is what makes these words of Jesus so strong. He was not telling us to become violent people. He was showing us the kind of determination that appears when a person finally understands the value of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom is worth pressing toward.
It is truly worth laying hold of.
And it is certainly worth refusing to let anything in this world turn us away from it.
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Prayer
Holy Father, we worship You and give You thanks for Who You are and for the greatness of Your Kingdom. We thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to reveal Your Kingdom to us and to show us the way into it. We thank You for Your Word, which gives us understanding when a passage seems difficult and helps us see the truth beyond the words of an English translation.
Father God, help us to understand what Jesus meant when He said that the Kingdom of Heaven was being taken by force. Give us hearts that are determined to press into Your Kingdom, not with the violence of the flesh, but with faith, repentance, obedience, and a hunger for righteousness. Do not let us become comfortable standing at a distance from You. Give us the determination to seek You, to believe Your Word, and to lay hold of the things You have made available to us through Christ.
Help us recognize the urgency of the Kingdom. When Your truth confronts us, give us courage to respond. When opposition comes, give us strength to remain faithful. When distractions try to pull us away, turn our hearts back toward You. Teach us to seek Your Kingdom with the kind of determination that will not easily give up.
We thank You, Holy Father, that Your Kingdom is worth seeking, worth pressing toward, and worth laying hold of. May our lives show that we have heard the message and truly responded to the King.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our King, Amen. ❤️
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Don’t take my word for it. Like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so. Open your Bible, study God’s Word for yourself, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. Don’t simply accept my conclusions. If what I’ve written agrees with Scripture, hold fast to it. If it doesn’t, let God’s Word be your final authority.
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© AMKCH 2026
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