Bible Verse of the Day Sunday December 18th, 2022

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

In the days of antiquity in the land of Palestine, most cities had walls only accessible through gates. Jesus was comparing and contrasting two symbolic towns, one with wide and broad gates easily accessible and one could enter effortlessly. The other gate spoken of by our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus was narrow and difficult to locate. There are untold numbers that find the wide gate, and when they discover it, they see no difficulties going through. There were no restrictions on the wide gate, indicating it matters not what one believes.

Jesus did not refer to the narrow gate as the entrance to eternal life but as the beginning of a pathway that will lead to everlasting life. However, this gate that will lead all to eternal life with Christ Jesus is at the end of an exceedingly difficult course. Therefore, Jesus told His followers to choose the more difficult path that leads to life instead of the more appealing worldly way that ends in death.

Both gates are avenues leading to a specific location. The narrow gate that is the pathway to eternal life can only be accessed through our faith and trust in Christ Jesus as the world's savior. One can only walk the narrow path in and by faith in the substitutionary work of Christ Jesus on the Cross of Calvary, on our behalf. The Wide Gate is much less challenging, and no limits exist on what one believes, no matter how false, deceitful, and satanically based the false doctrine becomes.

To find the entrance gate to the narrow path that leads to Christ Jesus and life eternal, we must turn away from the natural and comfortable currents of the ways of this world. Satan will attempt to convince people that if we turn away from the majority's ideas, we will be shunned and left behind. We will not be ignored and left behind, but we will be freed and allowed to enter the narrow gate that accesses the path to eternal life.

When Jesus was on earth, He encountered opposition from the current leadership of the Jewish people. Consequently, the masses, that were afraid of what the Jewish religious leaders could do to them, decided to follow the easy path with no tribulation. Jesus offered the world a sometimes challenging way that led to life, but the majority preferred the easy path, even though it led to destruction. 

We are faced with that same choice today. Do we go along with the majority because of the possibility and danger of being shunned and avoided? The smooth and comfortable wide gate and the broad path are only temporary, and all the fame and fortune it offers is only an allusion from Satan. The small gate and narrow road that Christ Jesus offers us might have the occasional rocky and rough patches. Still, it is without an end because it leads to a magnificent and glorious place of life eternal with our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, who is the small gate and narrow road (John 10:7-10; 14:6).