"Narrow" Minded

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:13,14

“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:24

Can you imagine someone telling me I’m narrow minded? Yeah, well, I thought may be. I know my blog posts sound very opinionated at times, but my view of the world is wider and broader than it has ever been. My view of truth is much more narrow.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought the past week about why the way to heaven in narrow. I’m not sure I can tell you why, but I do know the key to get through it. If you go back up to the beginning of Luke 13, in verse 5, Jesus said, “…….unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” And then in 2 Corinthians 7:10 it says, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” I like the way Matthew Henry explains true repentance and this verse.

“Sorrow according to the will of God, tending to the glory of God, and wrought by the Spirit of God, (repentance) renders the heart humble, contrite, submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life.”

During our 10 years in Romania, they called us “repenters”. The priest would tell his people that if they repented they would go to hell. What a shame. Repentance is the key that opens that narrow gate that leads to Christ.

So if repentance “renders the heart humble, contrite, submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life”, what is the unrepentant heart like? Prideful, indifferent, rebellious, disposed to sin and to keep on sinning. No wonder the way is broad that leads to destruction, all of these things come so naturally don’t they?