The Narrow and Wide Gates: Matthew 7:13-14
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This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
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Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
“And only a few find it.” Hmmm. That’s not the encouraging verse of the day. Only a few? This article is brief and provides some good insight for the definition of narrow and few: GotQuestions.
The road that leads to temptation is wide and easy to travel. That which leads to righteousness is narrow and difficult. We don’t have much debate about the former, temptation these days, especially with the internet, is quite easy to fall into. It seems that Satan uses this amazing resource to misdirect us all the time. Whether we’re spending too much time checking in on Facebook or reading news stories, the temptation to squander time or follow a path that has no good outcome is great.
More than resist, we must retrain ourselves to move along a different path. “Resistance is futile.” Funny, that quote is apparently from a Star Trek: The Next Generation series that I never saw, yet I know the quote. The line from the show includes: “Strength is irrelevant.” Very interesting words and seemingly quite appropriate for us to discuss this morning. Our strength is irrelevant. We cannot do anything to enter heaven except through Christ. I’ll have to watch the Star Trek episodes to see how they resolve this, but I do know how Christ resolves the dilemma: He is the only way to eternal life with God.
Now that’s narrow! Some would say narrow-minded, exclusive, even worse adjectives, but it is simple and narrow and most will not follow Christ. Most will succumb to the easy ways of the world, they will give into the futility of resistance because they don’t have the strength of Christ to fight with.
In a culture that glorifies individuals and earthly achievement, we are hard-pressed to have this message heard today, yet this is exactly what we must teach. Christians do achieve many things on earth, but that is not our focus–that cannot be our focus. Whatever gains we have during our transitory life on earth is minuscule compared to that of eternal life. Stuff doesn’t matter–people do. Yet without anything, it is difficult to reach those in need. If we use our resources wisely, stay on the narrow path, we will enjoy the bounteous reunion with Christ and the multitudes as spoken about in Revelation 7. There will always be tension here.
Lord, teach us the ways of the narrow road and help us to show others the light of Christ.