Daily Devotional For Thursday, September 25, 2025
Good day Southside! Jesus said this in Matthew 7:13-14, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. (14) But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it” (NLT). The idea of two gates was nothing new. The Old Testament talks about this also in different ways. See Deuteronomy 30:19, Psalm 1:1-2 and Jeremiah 21:8.
Jesus commanded His followers to enter through the narrow gate. Emphasis narrow. This refers to a confined place with little room. Meaning one doesn’t just fly through this. Implied is that one needs careful and great directions to get through the narrow gate. This narrow gate is one of discipleship that is hard, difficult and even may include persecution. Whereas the wide gate is one you can easily navigate your way in and through, but it leads to hell.
One gate is narrow not because it is hard to become a Christian. It is narrow because there is only one way in it and because of that few choose it. Jesus is the only way into it. That is Jesus’ point in John 14:6. The narrow road is hard because it requires sacrifice and service. We live in a culture that is anti-God and anti-Christian. The broad gate is appealing because it accommodates to each person’s personal and subjective view of who God is, how salvation is obtained and the role of Jesus as the Messiah. Following this path leads to death, destruction and deliverance into eternal separation from the Lord.
Jesus said this in John 10:9, “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through Me will be saved” (NLT). One of the things that stands out to me here in this quote by Jesus is that people find this gate. He or she is standing right in front of Him. In the Matthew 7:13-14 passage, Jesus says there are two gates, each with its own way. People take the broad way but they can find the narrow way.
We live in a culture that adheres to pluralism. This is the lie from the devil that all religions contain some truths and there are many paths to God. In other words, it is the belief that Christians follow the Christian way; Buddhists follow the Buddhist way; and Muslims follow the Islamic way. But in the end, each way takes you to God. Jesus said just the opposite. Former atheist and now Christian apologist C.S. Lewis writing on his own path and way, wrote this:
“I was soon (in the famous words) ‘altering'I believe” to “one does feel.” ’ And oh, the relief of it!… From the tyrannous noon of revelation I passed into the cool evening twilight of Higher Thought, where there was nothing to be obeyed, and nothing to be believed except what was either comforting or exciting” (Source: C.S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, p. 72).
So, what is Lewis’ point? “Birds of a feather flock together.” People who are sophists (people who have an inflated view of themselves)/ intellectuals, prefer intellectuals and wide gates as to narrow gates and conservative theology. They find such narrow gates as ridiculous, infantile, juvenile, and closed-minded. But Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:13-14 affirm the truth of Proverbs 14:12. The Apostle Paul, writing to his young protegee and mentee, Timothy, said the same thing, but in a different way in 1 Timothy 2:5.
At this point in the Sermon on the Mound, Jesus wants His listeners to take Him seriously. He knows that admiration without action is dead. Jesus knows that conviction void of commitment is useless. So, as Jesus is wrapping up His sermon, He was telling all who had heard Him from Matthew 5-6 and up to this point, that all of this points to a narrow gate. For Jesus to say that small or narrow is the gate seems rather unfair and unloving.
Even in our culture, we hear people condemn others who do not agree with them or who hold a different opinion from them as being “narrow-minded, closed-minded.” Some even say, “Call me vain. Call me mean. Call me proud, but do not call me narrow.” Most of us do not like to be called or labeled as being narrow-minded. It is offensive to us. C.E. Jefferson wrote this words about this text in 1908:
“We often hear [narrow] used in a sinister and condemning sense, we sometimes use it ourselves. We say, “Oh, yes, he is narrow,” meaning that one side of his nature has been blighted, blasted. His mind is not full-orbed. His heart is not full grown. He is a dwarfed and stunted man, cramped by a defective education or squeezed out of shape by a narrowing environment” (Source: C.E. Jefferson, The Character of Jesus, p. 107).
We certainly do not want to be narrow-minded, legalistic, ritualistic and dogmatic as the religious leaders were in Jesus’ day, especially in issues the Scriptures do not address. For example, in 1870 a Christian bishop visited a college and heard the president of that college state that maybe one day we will fly like the birds. Upon hearing that, he denounced that president. He said, “Flight is strictly reserved for the angels and I beg you not to repeat your suggestion lest you be guilty of blasphemy!” Well, what is interesting is that 33 years later his sons, Orville and Wilbur, proved their father wrong.
So, where does that leave us? It means we must embrace both the exclusive and inclusive nature of the Gospel. Jesus is the only way, truth and life. Jesus is the only gate and door. Being good is not good enough (Romans 3:12) .
Assignment: When it comes to this teaching by Jesus, how strong and public are you about it? When someone says something just the opposite, do you hold your tongue and say nothing? This week, get into a conversation with someone you know is lost. Ask them about what they think of heaven and how you get there. Listen carefully to what they say. Then present them the truth from Jesus and see what happens.
Scripture To Meditate On: Isaiah 35:8, “And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Lord, please forgive me when I have been silent about the path to salvation and heaven. Please convict me to publicly share how one gets to God, heaven and salvation. Please bring lost people into my path to engage with about their belief of salvation and heaven. I love You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!’
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly