November 19 Daily Devotional

The two gates

[Jesus] tells us that the first thing we must do after we have read this Sermon is to look at the type and kind of life to which He calls us, and realize what it is.... What would we say is its outstanding characteristic? ... He answers His own question by saying that the outstanding characteristic of the life to which He calls us is ‘narrowness’.... He puts it dramatically before us by saying, ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate’. The gate is narrow; and we must also walk along a narrow way.

His illustration is a very useful and practical one. He puts it in a dramatic form and the scene is immediately conjured up in our mind’s eye. Here we are, walking along, and suddenly we find two gates confronting us. There is one on the left which is very wide and broad, and a great crowd of people are entering in. On the other hand there is a very narrow gate which takes only one person at a time. We see as we look through the wide gate that it leads to a broad way and that a great crowd is surging along it. But the other way is not only narrow at the beginning, it continues to be narrow, and there are but few to be seen walking along it. We can see the picture quite clearly. That, says our Lord ... is what I have been talking about. That narrow road is the way along which I want you to walk. ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate. Come on to this narrow way where you will find Me walking before you.’ At once we are reminded of some of the outstanding characteristics of this Christian life to which our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ calls us.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, p. 220