A Study of the commands from our Lord, Jesus the Christ

Week 36, August 1st

This week's Tour Stop is “Enter Through the Narrow Gate”

This command can be found in the Gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB)) and the Gospel of Luke Luke 13:24 (NASB).

The command in the Luke is a different than the command in Matthew. In Matthew, the command is to " 'ENTER' through the Narrow Gate". In Luke, the command is to " 'STRIVE' to Enter"

Although similiar, these commands are different. Both commands have the ultimate goal of "the narrow gate". The Matthew command beckons us to "Enter" into the kingdom of GOD by way of the "narrow" gate. The Luke passage calls for us to "Strive to Enter". The Greek word of strive is 'agōnizomai'.

Jesus is calling us, his disciples, "to endeavour with strenuous zeal, strive: to obtain something". That something is entrance into the "narrow" gate.

I was told once that if you want to study the Bible always look 7 verses before the verse and 7 verses after. This way you will understand the context of the verse you are trying to study. The context of these passages are different. Therefore, I am going to take two sessions to discuss them.

This week's stop will take on the Matthew passage and week 37 will look at the Luke passage.

The Matthew passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount. The 7 verses before the command to "enter through the narrow gate" and gives us the commands to ask, seek and knock (see Week 13) and the command to "treat people the same way you want them to treat you" (see Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB)).

The 7 verses after the command warns us about false prophets. The verses tell us to inspect their fruit. We will know them by the "fruit" they produce. We will cover that aspect next week.

Our focus now is how we, Jesus' disciples, enter the "narrow gate". Jesus is showing us the way. The "ask, seek, and knock" command helps us to enter; as does the treat others as you want them to treat you.

The take away for this week's tour stop is: you enter the "narrow" gate with actions. Those actions are prompted by our focus on the LORD (ask, seek, and knock) and the results of our actions are experienced by the people around us.

We are the light of this world (see Matthew 5:14 (NASB)); get out there and share the light of Christ and by doing so "ENTER" that gate.

If you have any other questions for me please send me an email.

If this link does not work for you my email address is 'burtonmark@cox.net' with the subject line of 'Week 36'. I would love to hear from you.

The tour continues next week but I am not at all sure which of the commands of our LORD I will be sharing.

Return to:
"and teaching them to obey... Main"

"Weekly Entries - Table of Contents"

"Top of Page"

Return to: "and teaching them to obey"