Straight and Narrow

“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:14, NIV

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Matthew 7:14, KJV

It’s “strait” not “straight”

Straight means:
“Uniform direction without curve or bend”

Strait means:

A narrow passage of water connecting two seas or two other large areas of water.
Used in reference to a situation characterized by a specified degree of trouble or difficulty.
Of limited spatial capacity; narrow or cramped

“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.”
Matthew 7:13-14

Let’s look at each of these contrasts that Jesus makes – gates, paths, and destinations.

2 Gates

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
Matthew 7:13

The gate leading to the easy way is simple and wide. There are no limits or restrictions on what you may bring with you on this journey. Bring all your luggage – bring your selfishness and all your sins. There is even room for your ego, so no need to leave your pride behind.
The gate leading to the hard way by contrast, is narrow. It is small and easy to miss. It is hard to find and enter. On another occasion, Jesus describes it as narrow as a needle’s eye. There is no room in this gate to bring along your pride, selfishness, and unchecked sins. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and die daily. He tells us in another passage that we’ll lose family and friends over our faith. The narrow gate is one of self-denial.
Because the gate to Him is small and narrow and you bring nothing through it – then there is nothing you use to merit your passage through the gate.
By contrast, the wide gate of this world wants you to build your sense of worth and importance on what you own, what you drive, where you live, where you went to school, what you look like, what you can do, what you’ve achieved, what your title is, what your family looks like, how much money you make, the hobbies you can afford, the trips you take.

2 Ways

The Easy Way

The word Jesus uses to describe this way means “broad, spacious, roomy”.
It’s called easy because no effort is needed to practice this lifestyle. It comes “naturally” from our fallen nature.

The Hard Way

Is described as narrow. It has clear boundaries. It has lines and standards that define where you are on this path.

Because as we live in the light on the narrow path through the narrow gate, we don’t deal with the baggage of the wide road, our path is narrow, there is no room for that baggage, you check that at the gate.

The NIV says “narrow the road” while others will say it is “hard, difficult, or compressed” because…

The word translated “narrow” means:

To press (as grapes), press hard upon
A compressed way
- Narrow straitened, contracted
Metaph. to trouble, afflict, distress

It’s like when you go on a roller coaster, you sit in a sit and have a harness that straps you down. It’s a limit on your freedom, but it saves your life.

We’re not still earning our way to God. We’re already in God’s grace and now live it out in a world that at its core is opposed to God, that’s what makes it hard. We’re citizens of Heaven, ambassadors of God’s Kingdom, living in a foreign land that is at war with our true Kingdom. We walk this difficult path as ones who know the outcome.

2 Destinations

The two gates and two paths lead to two distinct destinations. The wide, easy way leads to destruction. The small, narrow path leads to life.

Satan doesn’t want you to be happy, healthy, and care free. He is the great liar and thief. “Happy and Carefree” are carrots he holds out to draw you in and move you away from God.
- The substances of this world lead to addictions that strangle the life out of you.
- Shame reigns on the wide path.
- Hypocrisy is king on the wide path as people put up facades, trying to seem perfectly happy, when they’re far from it.
The wide path is nothing but a numbing agent, turning you into a zombie until the destruction comes.

Wake up and reject the path of darkness. Choose the path that brings life.

“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Ephesians 5:8-14

2 Crowds

Those that choose the wide, easy path of this world.
- Still go with the flow of the world around them – enjoy the nice easy wide path without boundaries, without restrictions – without true meaning and purpose.
Those who choose the narrow, difficult path of Christ.
- Where true meaning and purpose reside.

The gate to life is narrow because there is only one way through it. It’s Jesus.

“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me”
John 14:6

What will you choose today?