(with Luke 16:16)
The Virtue of Violence.
We shall try to draw the character of the βιαστής, or man of violence, as Christ here introduces him, in two or three of his relations to the kingdom of grace.
I. The "royal" life, or it would not be such, is a life, in part, of renunciation. It has to make sacrifices. The violent man, determined to take the kingdom by force, goes to war with his sins, makes no excuse for them, never pretends to say that they are venial, or to say that they are natural. He must be rid of them, and he knows it, or he cannot enter heaven. Therefore he brings the fire and sword of the new kingdom into their encampments and into their fastnesses, burns and slays without mercy, as though they were his enemies, counts nothing worth keeping if it involves truce, treaty, or compromise with them.
II. Every one knows, most men have felt, at some period of their lives, that the royal life is not easy in what it demands of the reason. In the most difficult, most delicate, most critical matter of believing there is a timidity which is no prudence, and there is a vehemence which is no presumption. The man of violence must have his answer; and when he has it he will embrace, he will avow, he will live it. This one thing I do: I follow after till I know, and then I follow after till I attain.
III. The life into which man finds entrance through faith is a life of two chief activities: there is an activity Godward and there is an activity manward. The one is devotion, the other is work. There is a force necessary, as well as a sweetness, to the perfection of the Christian character. All the great works have been done by it. There has always been an outspokenness, an independence, a willingness to stand alone, to go forth without the gate and the camp of the conventional and the traditional, in the men who have told upon their times, in the men who have made history, in the men who have set forward on its march the cause of good. This is the violence of which the text tells in its positive activity.
C. J. Vaughan, Cambridge Review,May 5th, 1886.
I. Let us look in a large way at this important truth. Everything great on earth has to be achieved by long, earnest, persistent toil. If you seek to become master of any art, any literature, any science, any accomplishment, you do not sit down and say, "God is the Giver of all good, and I shall not be so arrogant as to strive for that which He alone can bestow." You know very well it can only be had by meeting every obstacle and conquering it. The very value of a thing is estimated often by the straining endeavour, the unconquerable zeal, and the ceaseless labour which are requisite to its attainment. One might go through the whole range of human experience and culture, and everywhere the kingdom that you want to become master of has been taken by force. The door is opened to the persistent knocking. The bread is given to the unwearied demand. The treasure is found by the one who has been seeking.
II. Now we come to the highest life of all, to the culture of that part of our nature which transcends all else. Is it not this principle which pervades all the physical and mental world, and which is to be found in the grander life of the immortal soul? Surely it is, and we ignore the teaching of Christ and His apostles if we regard Christ's religion as merely a means by which we are to be saved from all trouble and responsibility about the future. Side by side with the fullest statements of God's free grace, what do we find in the life and writings of St. Paul? All through those Epistles which are so full of the Gospel of the grace of God, and where Christ and Him crucified is the central fact of the Christian faith, the apostle, in words which thrill with the living power of deep personal experience, speaks of the Christian life as a ceaseless, protracted, fearful struggle. He exhausts things sacred and profane to find imagery to depict and to impress this truth. The Christian life is a race for which no previous preparation is too careful, in which every nerve is to be strained, and in which all our force is to be concentrated, that we may "obtain the prize." It is not a mere isolated battle, but a fierce, protracted warfare, for which is provided alike offensive and defensive armour, and into which he dare not enter unless completely equipped. Such was St. Paul's conception of the Christian life; such, he tells us, was his experience of what it was "to live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
T. T. Shore, Some Difficulties of Belief,p. 165.
References: Matthew 11:12. R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons,vol. ii., p. 238; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 1,905; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. v., No. 252; Homiletic Magazine,vol. ix., p. 79; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 8; S. Cox, Expositor,1st series, vol. iii., p. 252; D. Rhys Jenkins, The Eternal Life,p. 318. Matthew 11:12; Matthew 11:13. A. B. Bruce, Expositor,1st series, vol. v., p. 197. Matthew 11:14. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., pp. 337, 505.Matthew 11:14-17. Ibid.,p. 470; J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 81.Matthew 11:15. J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew,p. 184; S. Cox, Expository Essays and Discourses,p. 159. Matthew 11:16; Matthew 11:17. S. Cox, The Bird's Nest,p. 33.