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.