Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction, and many are they who enter in through it.
Two gates stand open in front of every person, and the Lord tells His hearers which one to walk through. The words are short. But they raise three big questions: what makes one gate narrow, why the crowd prefers the other, and where each road ends.
The verse opens with a command. It calls for a choice, and it names what is at stake.
The Lord calls for a decision: to enter through the narrow gate and walk in the narrow way of obedience that leads to life. It is much easier to follow the masses through the wide gate, on the broad way of disobedience. But it is disastrous, because this leads to destruction! The word used for "destruction" in this passage signifies eternal damnation.
So who is this gate, and why is it narrow?
The gate (door) and the way is Christ Himself. "I am the door of the sheep... If anyone enters by me, he will be saved" (John 10). "I am the way... No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14). And why then is the gate narrow? The reason is not that there are hard conditions and terms to meet. It is that man does not want to give up his own righteousness. Still clinging to his miserable, filthy rags, he refuses God's way and God's door of salvation, which is Christ and Christ alone.
A narrow gate limits what a person can carry through. So what must someone leave behind?
The gate, road, or way is open at present, and it is narrow. The real entrance is faith in Christ and conversion to God. Striving to enter does not mean effort that earns entrance as a reward. It means a man throwing himself on the grace of God in Christ. A man cannot bring anything of himself through such a gate. All that belongs to self must stay outside for ever.
Why does one gate repel and the other attract?
You refused the narrow gate, because it let in neither self-will nor fleshly lust. You loved the wide gate and the broad way, because you set your heart on what you called liberty, seeking and doing what you liked in defiance of God's will. You found the narrow gate repulsive, because it forced you to stoop to God. Your pride and your passions both resented that. To enter through it, you had to meet God on your own and face Him alone about your sins. If you had been in earnest, you would have seen that He is our Saviour God, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The verse says many go in by the wide gate. Does a crowd make a road safe?
Follow the multitude, as it follows the wise according to the flesh, the mighty, and the noble, and you are lost. Public opinion may be well enough for things of this life; but it is never founded on God's word.
The wide gate attracts because it sets no limits. But where does its road end?
On this way there are no restrictions. For everything is allowed on this way. But it ends in eternal destruction. The inviting, wide entrance blinds and misleads many. They shut their eyes to where they will end up. Most people do not board a train or plane without knowing when and where the journey is meant to end. But when it comes to the most important journey, the journey of life, multitudes never think about the end or their destiny. They lull themselves into a false sense of security.
The gate opens onto a road. What kind of road is it?
The "Narrow Way" begins at the "Strait Gate." (Matt. 7:13-14). The Greek word here for "Narrow" is thlibo, meaning 'compressed.' It is also translated 'afflicted' (2 Cor. 1:6); 'suffer tribulation' (1 Thess. 3:4); 'troubled' (2 Cor. 7:5)… The Bible makes it unmistakeably clear that the "Narrow Way" is a way of tribulation.
What does false teaching do with this gate?
There is a moral connection between the two things. One main mark of what is false is this: it tries to make the gate large and the road broad. It denies the special way in which God calls souls to know Himself.
The danger here is not a closed door. It is a road taken by mistake.
The point here is not that the door is shut. It is that men mistake which road is which: they take the broad way of destruction for God's narrow way of life.
- Decision — The verse is a call to decide, and the destruction it names is eternal.
- Door — The narrow gate is Christ Himself: "I am the door of the sheep."
- Dropped — Nothing of self passes through; all that belongs to it stays outside for ever.
- Deceived — The crowd is the trap, not the proof; public opinion is never founded on God's word.
- Destination — The wide road allows everything and ends in destruction; the narrow road is a way of tribulation that leads to life.
For narrow the gate and straitened the way that leads to life, and they are few who find it.
The verse ends a pair of pictures. One gate is wide, with a crowd streaming through it. The other is narrow, with a hard road behind it and life at the end. The obvious questions are what makes the entrance so tight, and why, if it leads to life, so few ever find it.
Older translations call this the "strait gate" and the "narrow way." One writer traces the word behind "hard" through the rest of the New Testament, where it is the ordinary word for pressure and trouble.
The "Narrow Way" begins at the "Strait Gate" (Matt. 7:13-14). The Greek word here for "Narrow" is thlibo, meaning 'compressed.' It is also translated 'afflicted' (2 Cor. 1:6) and 'troubled' (2 Cor. 7:5). Scripture uses the related word thlipsis over and over again to describe the normal path of the Christian through this world. For instance, thlipsis appears in John 16:33: "In the world you will have tribulation." The Bible makes it unmistakably clear that the "Narrow Way" is a way of tribulation.
The narrowness, though, belongs to the road and not to what waits at its end:
The gate is narrow, hemmed in by tight limits, and it does not appeal to our sinful nature. The whole way is narrow too, but it leads to life, where there is no confinement at all.
One writer names both the gate and the road, and then says what makes the entrance so tight:
The gate (door) and the way is Christ Himself. "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved" (John 10). "I am the way… no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14). And why then is the gate narrow? Not because there are certain conditions and hard terms to meet. It is because man does not want to give up his own righteousness. Still clinging to his miserable, filthy rags, he refuses God's way and God's door of salvation, which is Christ and Christ alone.
Another writer adds that grace could not have offered any other terms:
Self-righteousness must come down. Christ must be the absolute and complete Saviour, which He alone can be. For great numbers of people these terms are too strict to accept… Yet grace itself can make no other terms.
The gate is a moment; the way is a lifetime. One writer sets the two roads side by side and names what divides them:
Not only is it a narrow entrance, but narrow all the way; the path is narrow. There are two paths in the world. The broad one speaks of pleasing yourself with no thought of God. The narrow one is the path of self-denial. "If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me." This is not the Lord's cross, but every believer has his own cross in a world like this.
The natural assumption is that the broad road means open wickedness. One writer rejects that reading.
Many no doubt think the broad way stands for vice and open godlessness, set against the way of holiness. But a closer look will convince us that it is not so. For no one expects, however careless he may be about it, the way of sin to lead heavenward. Instead, the Lord plainly points to this as what the writer of Proverbs speaks of — "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Prov. 14:12). The question is of finding the way of life.
That is why the danger is not a locked door but a mistaken one:
The door is not shut here. The problem is that men mistake which door it is. They take the broad way of destruction for God's narrow way of life.
Following this road costs something in reputation. One writer names that cost and answers it:
In the world the way may seem tiresome, but faith can bear it, in view of what is infinitely better. There is even the added trial of being accused of personal narrowness and bigotry. If only few find it, still it is God's way.
One writer turns it into a direct question:
Reader, how is it with you? Have you entered through the narrow gate of conversion to God? Have you repented toward God and believed on our Lord Jesus Christ? … Do not deceive your own soul, and do not let others deceive you.
- Narrow — the word means compressed. The same root gives the words for affliction and tribulation. The road is hard going.
- Narrow because of Christ — the gate and the way are Christ Himself. The gate is tight not because the terms are hard, but because self-righteousness cannot fit through.
- Narrow all along — the two roads are self-pleasing and self-denial. The narrow one calls for a daily cross, not just a decision at the entrance.
- Few, because the road is mistaken — the broad way is not open vice. It is a way that seems right, so the crowd on it never suspect where it ends.
- Life at the end — the confinement belongs to the road, not to the life it leads to. If only few find it, it is still God's way, entered by repentance and faith.