Finding the Narrow Path: Part 2

NARROW IS RISKY

Venturing onto the narrow path is risky business. Since most people will continue to walk in the other direction, leaving this big path means that you will be leaving a lot behind. In some cases, you’ll be leaving your entire family behind. In other cases, it is leaving your material possessions, your friends, your false beliefs, your comfort, your ability to be cool. This is all done with the kind of faith that says that the narrow path will eventually lead to bigger and better things.

Here are some ways to help you measure whether or not you’ve actually left the wide road and entered onto the narrow risky road of faith:

1) What comes out your mouth? Is it the same type of things that come out of everybody else’s mouth? Slander, gossip, complaining, etc.?

2) Do you know God? Not, do you know about God. But do you know who he is, what he wants, what he likes/dislikes? Are you merely hearing God through other people, or are you hearing from him yourself?

3) What do you give your money to? Jesus says that where your money is, that is where your heart is also. I’m not talking about just giving money to your pastor. What about the injustices in your city or in the world? Paying a pastor or missionary is great, but is that all God cares about?

If you are a little nervous after reading this short list, then you might be tempted to go out and do these things. But, I have bad news. The list is much longer than this. Trying to complete the checklist is a futile pursuit.

The goal isn’t to go out and do more things for God, it is to become the type of person who desires to do these things.

And that desire can only come from God.

People on the narrow path aren’t the ones with the biggest resumes, but they are the ones who know God intimately, not intellectually - and their lives bear much fruit because of it.

They fully realize what God has done for them in Christ and therefore have unlimited access to resurrection power - the only power that will bear spiritual fruit.

Finding the Narrow Path: Part 1

Have you ever been hiking on a trail or road and then noticed a side trail shooting off of the main one? Doesn’t that peak your curiosity? I mean, who doesn’t want to abandon the big dirt road that everyone else is on to venture out onto the mysterious side trail adventure? You already know where the big path leads, but where does the small one go?

Jesus says something mysterious using this type of analogy in the Scriptures. He tells those that want to enter into his Kingdom community that they have to go through the “narrow gate.” He then goes on to say that those who head toward the “wide gate” are walking right into disaster.

One big question that pops into my mind after reading a passage like this is:

Who is heading toward the “narrow gate” and who is heading toward the “wide gate?”

IMPARTING INFORMATION

Most of us like categories and labels and checklists. What will it take to get onto the narrow path? What do I have to do? What do I have to know or accept?

Dallas Willard says, “The narrow gate is not, as so often assumed, doctrinal correctness.” Note: Doctrinal correctness is just a fancy way of saying that you know all the right stuff.

Willard goes on to say, “… The aim of the popular teacher in Jesus’ time was not to impart information, but to make a significant change in the lives of the hearers. Of course that may require an information transfer, but it is a particularly modern notion that the aim of teaching is to bring people to know things that may have no effect at all on their lives. The teacher must get the information into them. We then ‘test’ the patients to see if they ‘got it’ by checking whether they can reproduce it in language rather than watching how they live.”

So, do not be surprised when you see a lot of “Christians” who scored high on their theology test walking with everybody else toward the wide gate.