Matthew 7:13-14–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

Posted by Seth on Mar 25, 2010 in Bible Study, Daily Devotions |

Matthew 7:13-14–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Matthew 7:13-14 wherein we learn the truth about life’s gates and ways.

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Everyone likes easy in one form or another. Granted, challenges are one of those things that seem to keep us going in life, but we’re familiar with the phrase, “Don’t make things harder on yourself than they need to be” and would ascribe to such a statement as an overall good philosophy. After all, nobody wants to be characterized as inefficient or less productive because they don’t use the right tools, maintain good relationships with others, or hinder the forward progress of the rest of the world. But the need to be section of the aforementioned mantra is up for definition when we’re talking about things of eternal consequence.

One of the things that we understand in Christianity is that Christ has paid the penalty for our sins and that He has made the way for salvation that is available as a gift we merely need to receive by faith. We sometimes though like to carry this blessed truth forward to describe the Christian life as an easy course, a better and more fun experience, instead of the way the gift Giver describes it. There are two different elements that Jesus uses in His illustration of what it looks like to follow Him: gates and ways. There are wide and narrow gates that aren’t necessarily easy or hard to initially walk through. All gates are meant for passage. He simply wanted to emphasize the fact that the gate where He is stationed is one that not everyone sees in the first place and must be aimed at if we’re to enter life on the other side. The second kind of gate is the default one that has no keeper and is wide enough for crowds to go through without even realizing there has been a gate at all. And so, Jesus says, from what we see elsewhere through His teaching in His usage of similar analogies, that He is the only and necessary gate that leads to the way of life.

And then there are the two ways: easy and hard. The common way, the one that follows the wide gate is easy in many ways because the one hiking through it considers any direction fair game, perhaps within bounds that he or she gets to set. Christians need to quit trying to convince people that they’re miserable without Jesus because, quite simply, many of them aren’t. They don’t know the “big picture” of eternal joy that believers have, true enough, but if we simply tell people to come to Jesus to get happy, they may either look at us like we’re freaks of nature or, if they’re currently feeling sad, taste a bit of what it means to actually be a follower of Jesus and then go to look for happiness elsewhere. Jesus told us that His way is a hard one, and so if we never find it to be such, we may need to take a step back and wonder if we’re really taking His way. Now there is one more important distinction that we need to make (or rather observe one that Jesus has made for us). One of the gates and its associated way leads to destruction and the other leads to life. The weights of future destruction verses future life resonates in the soul of everyone, and to come to the saving knowledge that wonderful life is ahead is the reason for Christian blessedness as we hold the guiding hand of Jesus now. Is He directing your life? Though His way is hard in the sense that we die to self and walk by faith often into challenging situations that lead to furthering His kingdom on earth, it is the way of eternal life and the restful soul. Consider and evaluate the link between and ramifications of His gate and His way today.

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