Enter Through the Narrow Gate

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. ¹⁴ “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

-Matthew 7:13–14 (NASB95)

Most of us have either read these verses or heard someone speak them to us at some point. But what do they mean? Many have not truly considered what this teaching means or what it looks like in our own lives. This teaching lets Christians know that when we dedicate our lives to God and to obeying His will, symbolically entering through that narrow gate, we begin fighting a losing battle. The way that leads to life is narrow, difficult to find, and difficult to remain on. Many will never find the narrow way. Many will find the narrow way, but never enter it. Many will find the narrow way, enter it, and then leave it sometime later because of its difficulty.

³⁴ “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ “For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶ and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.

-Matthew 10:34–36 (NASB95)

Your sons or daughters may pass by the narrow way. Your father or mother may pass by the narrow way. The members of your own household may despise and reject you because you have chosen the narrow way and they have passed it by. Most of the people you meet in your lifetime will never enter the narrow way, and will never have a hope for life with God eternally. A few will listen and enter through the narrow gate which leads to life.

When we realize this is what the battle we fight looks like, it is easy to become discouraged. It is easier to be passive and allow those who find the narrow way to find it, and to let all the people who are moving toward the wide gate to continue down that path, since, most likely, they will not enter the narrow gate even if we do reach out to them.

But the easier way is not what we have chosen. Christians have chosen the narrow way, and nothing about the narrow way is easy. We don’t get to have “easy” until we enter eternity with God in heaven, after we have fought and clawed and reached for every soul we can here on earth. We have chosen the harder way. We have chosen the narrow way. Because of that choice, fight for your family. Fight for your family, fight for everyone you see, because we all only have one chance to do things right. Show them the narrow way, show them the way of God, and don’t lay down and let the Devil snatch them away.