Enter the Narrow Gate

   “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matt 7: 14)

    How are we to find the narrow gate of which Jesus speaks?  He tells us that there will be few who find it and enter through it.  How do we ensure that we are among that blessed few?

   First, we must remember what Jesus told the Sadducee who asked Him which was the great commandment in the law.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matt 22: 37 – 40).

   We must follow these commandments if we are to find and enter the narrow gate.  It doesn’t matter what I have accomplished on earth; what ministries I may have served in; if I am a nice guy or not.  It matters only that I love God with everything I am and love my neighbor as myself.  I must submit my entire will to Him.

   I can be successful in all aspects of my earthly life but that won’t get me there.  My wife, children and friends can be the best one could ever hope for, but they can’t show me the narrow gate.  They can help me in my search for the gate, but only I can find it and pass through it by having the love of God and neighbor foremost in my heart.

   How do we find the narrow gate?  How do we ensure that we are among the blessed who may enter?  There is only one way.

“Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me’.”