Matthew 7:13-14
¹³Enter through the narrow gate;
for the gate is wide and the way is broad
that leads to destruction,
and there are many who enter through it.
¹⁴For the gate is small and the way is narrow
that leads to life,
and there are few who find it.
Or in other words:
Go in by the narrow door; for wide is the door and open is the way which goes to destruction (hell), and great numbers go in by it. For narrow is the door and hard the road to eternal life, and only a small number of people discover this.
Choice
First these verses show us that there is a choice to be made. It is one or the other. You cannot have something of both.
There are two ways to enter
▪︎ The choice between a wide inviting gate, and a small gate which is hard to find.
There are two ways you can follow
▪︎ The choice between a broad way which is easy to go, and offers all kinds of entertainment, and a narrow road, which is hard to go.
There are two destinations
▪︎ The choice between two destinations, destruction (hell), or eternal life.
The Bible shows us reasons for entering into one of the two ways.
Life or death / blessing or curse
Deuteronomy 30:15-18
¹⁵See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸I declare to you today that you shall surely perish.
1 Kings 18:21
Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word.
2 Peter 2:2,15
²Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; ¹⁵forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness
See also the two destinations here, and in:
Matthew 25:46
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
John 5:28-29
²⁸Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, ²⁹and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
Galatians 6:7-8
⁷Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
⁸For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Upto the moment you are physically dead, or the moment the Lord returns, you have the opportunity, to have your destruction cancelled by repenting and following Jesus.
Repentance is necessary
Luke 13:1-5
¹Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ²And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? ³I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
⁴Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? ⁵I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
John 3:16-21
¹⁶For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
¹⁸He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” John’s Last Testimony
Acts 3:19
Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It is also true that upto the moment you are physically dead, or the moment the Lord returns life can be canceled by sin.
Genesis 2:17
From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.
Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
Romans 8:12-13
¹²So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, ¹³for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Today I have shown you from the Bible the importance to choose, and to make the right choice. But I cannot, and I will not force you to follow Jesus. It is your free choice. At least you know now what the consequences are of the choice you make. And which risks you are taking by delaying your choice.
I can only urge you to repent from any sin that may be in your life, and follow Jesus on the narrow way to His eternal Kingdom.
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