“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt 7:13-14)
This is another of the paradoxes of the Christian life, that the way which seems the most open, comfortable and spacious is not the path we have to take. Just as a Sat-Nav doesn’t always get it right, so too we can’t always take the obvious paths in life if we want to arrive safely at heaven’s destination. The ‘default setting’ of mankind, corrupted by Adam’s sin, is the popular road that the New Living Version translates as the ‘highway to hell’.
Instead, as the Message version translate these verses, “the way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.” We can’t rely on “sure-fire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practised in your spare time”; rather, we have to understand that the only way to eternal life is to enter by the gate, Christ Himself (John 10:9); He is ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.’ (John 14:6) There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12); there is only one entrance.
In his book, ‘Celebration of Discipline’, RIchard Foster looks at some of the practices which we need to develop if we are to give our full attention to the cost of discipleship.
The inward disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, and study in the Christian life can’t be avoided if we want to grow spiritually. These have to be done in secret and not for public acclamation or affirmation, as Jesus teaches clearly in Matthew 6. In that passage, Jesus shows and teaches us how to do something tangible in an invisible way in order to develop a visible relationship with an invisible God.
Similarly, the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service are key to any believer’s spiritual growth. We have to learn that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain’ (1 Tim 6:6) and whatever our personality type have to foster an attitude that seeks God in solitude and submission, learning to walk by faith, not by sight, learning that ‘this broken road prepares Your will for me’ (‘Walk by Faith’, Jeremy Camp). Service is our outward demonstration of faith (as James said, ‘faith without works is dead’ Js 2:26). We belong to a wider community of faith and serve God in our communities.
The corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration are things that are done together, in community, as a body, as ‘church’. When we confess our sins and failings to each other (see James 5:16), we cut down the pride that tries to make others believe we are better than we are and we put an end to the ‘stained glass masquerade’ (Casting Crowns) that so many of use to hide behind. Worship in a corporate sense is our response to God’s grace and love. Yes, it will often involve singing and celebration, dancing and praise, clapping and shouting, all those expressions of delight in God. But worship can also involve lament, tears, silence and repentance. Our services should be places where we learn more of the story of God and can grow in faith as we listen to His word and His Spirit.
We also should be waiting on God to listen for His guidance. Just as the Israelites were led in the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, so we too need to be led by God. We need to have a teachable spirit and a willingness to go where He commands: as Chris Tomlin puts it in the song ‘I Will Follow’:
“Where You go, I’ll go
Where You stay, I’ll stay
When You move, I’ll move; I will follow.”
The narrow road may not be the easiest to walk down. It may be full of pitfalls and potholes and we stumble along the way. We may have to walk in single file because of the narrowness of the way, but we walk also in community, holding each other’s hands, sure that, by God’s grace, the spacious destination of heaven is awaiting us when we complete the race.