The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad and easy to travel is the path that leads the way to destruction and eternal loss, and there are many who enter through it.
14 But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads the way to [everlasting] life, and there are few who find it.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+7&version=AMP
The Narrow Way (7:13-14)
Within this chapter, verses 1-12 fit together somewhat loosely, but the paragraphs in verses 13-27 make more sense together. Most first-century Jewish people believed they were saved by virtue of descent from Abraham (3:9). Yet Jesus regards the assumption of salvation as a deception; most of his contemporaries were unsaved (7:13-14). Those who led them showed by their lives that they were not God's true representatives (vv. 15-20); indeed, many professing servants of Jesus will themselves be banished from God's presence in the judgment (vv. 21-23), for only those who truly obeyed his teaching will stand (vv. 24-27). When one compares the great numbers of people today who cavalierly identify themselves as Christians yet never consider the claims of Christ, one shudders to realize how deadly such deception remains. May we present Christ's radical claims boldly so that more professing Christians may reckon with the reality of his lordship.
Jesus' image of the narrow way should have made sense to his hearers (v. 13). Greek, Roman and Jewish writers often employed the image of the two paths in life (for example, Sen. Ep. 8.3; 27.4; Diogenes Ep. 30; Deut 30:15; Ps 1:1; m. 'Abot 2:9), and those particularly concerned with the future judgment especially employed the image of the two ways, the narrow one leading to life and the broad one to destruction (as in 4 Ezra 7:3-16, 60-61; 8:1-3; Test. Ab. 11A; 8B).
Some people's assurance of salvation is a delusion (Mt 7:13-14). To enter the narrow gate of the kingdom we must knock, that is, request that God make us citizens of his kingdom (vv. 7-8). The difficulty of Jesus' way includes embracing by repentance both persecution (5:10-12) and the ethics of the kingdom taught in the Sermon on the Mount.
Most Jewish people in Jesus' day were religious; respecting God and keeping his commandments were an important part of their culture. These would be the many people of whom Jesus' hearers would think when they heard him. Yet Jesus, like a few contemporaries who were particularly scrupulous (4 Ezra 7:45-61; 8:1-3), declared that most people were lost. Jesus intends his words to jar us from complacency, to consider the genuineness of our commitment to him.
One wonders how many members in our churches today assume that they are saved when in fact they treat Jesus' teachings lightly-people who give no thought to their temper, their mental chastity, their integrity and so forth during the week (compare 5:21-48), then pretend to be religious or even spiritually gifted in church. Do we have the courage to communicate Jesus' message as clearly as he meant it to be conveyed, to warn ourselves and others that it is possible for people to assume they are saved and yet be damned? Some texts in the Bible provide assurance to suffering Christians that the kingdom is theirs; this text challenges "cultural Christians," those following only Christian tradition rather than Christ himself, to realize that they need conversion.
My Friend
My friend, I stand in judgment now
And feel that you're to blame somehow
While on this earth I walked with you day by day
And never did you point the way
You knew the Lord in truth and glory...
But never did you tell the story
My knowledge then was very dim
You could have led me safe to him
Though we lived together here on earth
You never told me of your second birth
And now I stand this day condemned
Because you failed to mention him
You taught me many things, that's true
I called you friend and trusted you
But now I learned, now it's too late
You could have kept me from this fate
We walked by day and talked by night
And yet you showed me not the light
You let me live, love and die
And all the while you knew I'd never live on high
Yes, I called you friend in life
And trusted you in joy and strife
Yet in coming to this end
I see you really weren't my friend.
author unknown
I knelt to pray as day began
And prayed, "Oh God, bless every man.
Lift from each weary heart some pain
And let the sick be well again."
And then I rose to meet the day
And thoughtlessly went on my way
I didn't try to dry a tear
Or take the time a grief to hear.
I took no steps to ease a load
Of hard-pressed travelers on the road;
I didn't even go to see
The sick friend who lives next to me
But then again when day was done
I prayed "Oh God bless everyone"
But as I prayed a voice rang clear
Instructing me to think and hear
"Consult your own heart as you pray;
What good have you performed today?
God's choicest blessings are bestowed
On those who help him bear the load."
And then I hid my face and cried,
"Forgive me, Lord, For I have lied.
Let me live another day
And I will live it as I pray."
- Sterling W. Sill
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Disclosure: Much of what is in my posts are things I have compiled through the years and I do not know if they have copyrights. What I do know about origin or website I give credit and have tried to always post a link to the origin. I do not market anything in any way on this blog -- I merely hope it will encourage and inspire others.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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