The Narrow Way

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

Why do so many people believe that religion is a matter of personal preference? How are views held that suggest it doesn’t matter what you believe? Are we really all going to heaven?

I have often been asked why I am so “narrow” in my beliefs. Actually, I am only as narrow as the Bible requires me to be. In those things which are not Biblical, I show great leniency. But am I really that narrow? Am I any more narrow that anyone else in all of society?

When I pick up the phone to call someone here in town, I am required to dial seven digits. “Well, I’m free to dial any numbers I want!” True, but don’t expect to get the right person. They have to be the right seven numbers—in the right order—or I will not reach my party. Sounds to me like the phone company’s pretty narrow!

Consider those narrow scientists. If you want a drink of water, it will require two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (H2O). “But I’m free to pick and choose the elements I want!” That’s fine, but if you choose to use two parts hydrogen and two parts oxygen (H2O2), you’ll be drinking hydrogen peroxide.

If exactness is required in basics like math and chemistry, why is it such a shock that exactness would be expected from the God who created those things? Jesus did not say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6) in order to exclude people … He said it so that people would know exactly how to be included. The narrow way is there for our benefit!

So the question is: Do you want to be included in the family of God? There is a way provided. Yes, it IS a narrow way … but praise God He revealed that way!