Narrow Gate

www.bible.com/1713/mat.7.13-14.csb

Warning here for those who think they’ve got it all together. If you are surrounded by lots of people who agree with you, you may be on the wrong road. If anything, Christianity is counter-cultural. Putting on the Lord Jesus means making few friends in this world. If you truly walked and talked as Jesus did, would you still have a job? Even if a preacher confronted people in the pews with the authentic but challenging love of Jesus, would American Christians tolerate him for long? Would Jesus tolerate the hypocrisy and the Pharisees living in your church, or would they tolerate Him?

Jesus calls us to a narrow gate, one that few find. It is a path of purity and holiness, one in which grace covers all, but much is expected. We cannot expect to land at the doorstep of the pearly gates with sin on our hands. We cannot ignore the call we’ve received to live as we wish, saying “I’m covered by the blood!” Holiness and purity are two words American Christians y’all about but rarely achieve, thinking we can mix a little worldly pleasure and entertainment in with our piety. Over he centuries, many have abandoned the world and went to live in the desert or the wilderness to escape the pleasures of the world for the sake of holiness. If we are to find the narrow gate, we must first turn off the wide path of the world.

I don’t know this means for you. But for me, it has caused me to reevaluate what I consider entertainment. Much of the soft core porn and glamorizing of sin I see flaunted anymore ought to sicken me. To see people abuse themselves who are children of God should turn my stomach. The fact that it doesn’t tells me I’ve gone down that path too far and need to turn back.

It may mean something else for you. I hope you find it. The narrow gate actually isn’t that hard to find when your eyes adjust to the light. I want to encourage your path to holiness and purity. God bless you today in the journey.