What does "difficult is the way which leads to life" mean (Matthew 7:14)?

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 Greek word thlipsis (formed from thlibo) is used over and over again to describe the normal path of the Christian through this world. For instance, in John 16:33, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," we have thlipsis used. In Romans 5:3, "We glory in tribulation," we find this word again. In 2 Cor. 4:17, "Our light affliction," it is the same. And the examples might be greatly multiplied. The Bible makes it unmistakeably clear that the "Narrow Way" is a way of tribulation.

1918 22 This is a very searching word, and a word that we need. It shows, as also the verses lower down, that an empty profession will not do; we must remember that we are in a world where everything is against Christ. And I often think people make too light of what christianity means. "If the righteous scarcely (or, with difficulty) be saved" — this alone shows that it is not an easy thing for a christian to go through this world. We know that we are in a different position from what these disciples were, and full provision was made for us, after the Lord died and rose, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But this is the side we need to look at. Not only is it a narrow entrance, but narrow all the way; the path is narrow. There are two paths in the world, one broad which would speak of self-pleasing without reference to God; the other narrow, that of self-denial. "If any man would come after me let him take up his cross daily and follow me." This is not the Lord's cross, but every saint has his own cross in a world like this. In Luke, it is "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," and that would apply to real earnestness. It is where the question was put "Are there few that be saved?" The Lord never answered a curious question, curiously; He always answered morally. So here — you be in real earnest to be right individually. Gate and door have a like significance — that of entrance. A door is generally to a house, a gate gives entrance to a pathway. But the most important part no doubt is the end of the journey. The end of the broad road is destruction; the end of the narrow path, life. Of course it presupposes life if you are to enter, and to pursue it. We commence with eternal life, and the end is eternal life. "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life," that is the starting point; "ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life" — life in all its blessedness at the end of the journey. The broad road pleases the many; but as to the narrow, "few there be that find it." So we ought not to be surprised at the unpopularity of the narrow path of faith and obedience.

'Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' These words of the Lord are bitter for the flesh, but they express in the clearest manner the seriousness of the situation. The decision to be taken has eternal consequences. This is why we must not look for a conflict between these verses and Matthew 11:30: 'For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' The natural, unregenerate man is without strength; he is ungodly, a sinner and an enemy of God (according to Romans 5:6-10). For such a one to follow Christ is an indescribable hardship. This is why he needs the love, grace and mercy of God to draw him. In contrast, it is easy for the born again man to follow his Master. He has received a new nature from God, and this has the sole desire to do His will, although the old nature remains and continues to resist the new one.

The Lord's counsel is: 'Enter ye in at the strait gate.' He says this following the warning about the broad way and on to explain, 'Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.'

We see in this that everybody is invited to enter in at the narrow gate. The way of discipleship, however, is 'narrow' because it is a way of self-denial and surrender, as well as being full of opposition that may even bring persecution. But it is the entrance unto life. The Lord already has said in chapter 5:20, 'Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom heaven.' Later Paul and Barnabas exhorted the believers in Minor Asia 'that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22).

To start with there is a decision. The Lord calls for a decision to enter in at the strait 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 to do so because this leads to destruction! The word used for 'destruction' in this passage signifies eternal damnation.

This leads on now to the Lord's showing the path of such faith to be narrow or confined, not appreciated by the majority. Many choose the wide gate and the broad way because man in the flesh seeks his own advantage and is not concerned with treating others as he desires to be treated. but it leads to destruction following the crowd is popular, but full of danger.

The strait gate is constricted by narrow limits, and not attractive to the flesh. The entire way is narrow too, but it leads to life, in which there is no limiting confinement. In the world the way may seem irksome, but faith can bear this in view of what is infinitely better, even in spite of the added trial of being accused of personal narrowness and bigotry. If only few find it, still it is God's way.

In verses 13 and 14 the Lord evidently looked beyond His disciples to the crowd. Before them there were the alternatives of the broad way and the narrow way, of destruction and life. We cannot say that the grace of God is narrow, for it has come forth for all men; it is the way of self-judgment and repentance which is so narrow. Few find that way, and but few proclaim it. The majority of the preachers prefer to prophesy smoother things.

While the main subject of the Lord's discourse on the mount pertains to the kingdom (see Matt. 5:3, 10, 19, 20, etc.), much of it, and indeed all its moral principles, will abide for all time. Thus the "strait gate" and the "broad" way are true of every dispensation — up to the reign of Christ during the thousand years. For man being what he is, alienated from God, is ever in opposition to the truth, to God's testimony however presented. The terrors of the law, as well as the attractions of grace, only serve him for an occasion to find fault with, and to condemn, the messenger. (Luke 7:31-34.) The consequences are twofold; first, the mass travel in the broad road (for all the influences of this world favour the enmity of their own hearts), which leadeth to destruction; and, secondly, the few who are wrought upon by the grace of God, and have their eyes opened to their state and need, find that both the gate, and "the way" which leadeth unto life, are strait and narrow. Repentance and faith constitute the entrance (the gate), and God's will, the Lord Himself indeed, is the way of life. Every Christian should know that the closer he keeps to Christ, the more faithfully he treads in His footsteps, the narrower is his path; whereas the multitude, following only the bent of their own desires and inclinations, roam and wander without restriction. Bearing this in mind, it is easy to interpret the Lord's figurative language.

(5) This section closes with a solemn exhortation to "enter in through the strait gate," as the only way leading to life, and alas, found by few. The many would then (and still will) enter by another and wide gate, and throng a broad way, but a way leading to destruction and not to life. The words are figurative, of course, and the Lord does not further explain them here in any direct way. He leaves them as He does many other things, to awaken thought. There have, in fact, been very different thoughts about them: not, as to what they refer, in the mention of a gate and of a way, for the Lord speaks plainly of the way to life and the way to destruction; and these things are plain enough; but the gate, the way, are not themselves explained. We have but the description, — a "strait" gate and a "narrow" way, with few travelers, set in opposition to a "wide" gate, and a "broad" way, and many crowding them. We are left to ask what is this straitness, and what does it imply? Hard terms and difficult to comply with, with an uncertainty, on this account, of perseverance to the end? Surely not; although many have so taken it. The Lord once uses the first of these expressions in the Gospel of Luke, where He is answering one of those questions with which we so often perplex ourselves: "then said one unto Him, Lord, are there few that be saved?" which the Lord answers with a home-thrust at the questioner himself, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate," to which He adds also that "many would seek to enter in and would not be able" (Luke 13:24). But He bases this upon something else than the straitness of the gate: the difficulty, or rather, the impossibility of entrance is only found "when once the Master of the house is risen up and has shut to the door;" it was a shut gate that was to be dreaded, not a strait one. Thus the exhortation: be urgent to enter in while there is time.

Here in Matthew, there is no exhortation to strive, but simply to enter in there, and by no other gate. "Few there be that find it:" the mass go by a different road. It is not here the door being shut, but men mistaking which it is: the broad way of destruction being taken for God's narrow way of life.

This makes the picture of that broad way exceedingly solemn. Many have, no doubt, the thought of its representing the way of vice and open irreligion as opposed to the way of holiness; but closer consideration 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. Whereas the Lord plainly intimates this to be what the writer of Proverbs speaks of ― "a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). The question is of finding the way of life. Hence the solemn warning to beware of false prophets which follows thereupon, men who would lead those listening to them upon the broad way of death.

"Few there be that find it." The great company of heavenward wayfarers, as they would consider themselves, are thronging another road, congratulating themselves upon the number and respectability of their companions. As they said in the days in which these words were uttered: "Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people who know not the law, are cursed."

1st. The gate, road, or way, is at present open, and it is strait, that is, narrow, the real entrance being faith in Christ, and conversion to God. The striving to enter in does not imply an energy in return for which entrance is granted as a reward, but it is a man's casting himself upon the grace of God in Christ; a man cannot bring anything of himself in by such a gate; all that belongs to that must be left outside for ever.