Matthew 7:13

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIT GATE - as if hardly wide enough to admit one at all This expresses the difficulty of the first right step in religion, involving as it does, a triumph over all our natural inclinations. Hence, the still stronger expression in Luke (Luke 13:24), "Strive [ agoonizesthe (G75)] to enter in at the strait gate." FOR WIDE IS THE GATE (EASILY ENTERED) AND BROAD IS THE WAY (EASILY TRODDEN) THAT LEADETH TO DESTRUCTION, AND (THUS LURED) MANY THERE BE WHICH GO IN THEREAT:...

13._Enter in by the strait gate _As nothing is more opposed to the flesh than the doctrine of Christ, no man will ever make great proficiency in it who has not learned to confine his senses and feelings, so as to keep them within those boundaries, which our heavenly Teacher prescribes for curbing our wantonness. As men willingly flatter themselves, and live in gaiety and dissipation, Christ here reminds his disciples, that they must prepare to walk, as it were, along a _narrow _and thorny _road _But as it is difficult to restrain our desires from wicked licentiousness and disorder, he soothes this bitterness by a joyful remuneration, when he tells us, that _the narrow gate, and the narrow road, lead to life _Lest we should be captivated, on the other hand, by the allurements of a licentious and dissolute life, and wander as the lust of the flesh draws us, (469) he declares that they rush...

12-14 Christ came to teach us, not only what we are to know and believe, but what we are to do; not only toward God, but toward men; not only toward those of our party and persuasion, but toward men in general, all with whom we have to do. We must do that to our neighbour which we ourselves acknowledge to be fit and reasonable. We must, in our dealings with men, suppose ourselves in the same case and circumstances with those we have to do with, and act accordingly. There are but two ways right and wrong, good and evil; the way to heaven and the way to hell; in the one or other of these all are walking: there is no middle place hereafter, no middle way now. All the children of men are saints or sinners, godly or ungodly. See concerning the way of sin and sinners, that the gate is wide, and stands open. You may go in at this gate with all your lusts about you; it gives no check to appetit...

Verse Matthew 7:13. _ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIT GATE_] Our Saviour seems to allude here to the distinction between the public and private ways mentioned by the Jewish lawyers. The public roads were allowed to be sixteen cubits broad, the private ways only _four_. The words in the original are very emphatic: Enter in (to the kingdom of heaven) through THIS strait gate, δια της στενης πυλης, i.e. of _doing to every one as you would he should do unto you_; for this alone seems to be the _strait gate_ which our Lord alludes to. _FOR WIDE IS THE GATE_] _And_ very _broad_, ευρυχωρος, from ευρυς, _broad_, and χωρος, _a place_, a spacious roomy place, that leadeth forward, απαγουσα, into THAT destruction, εις την απωλειαν, meaning eternal misery; intimating, that it is much more congenial, to the revengeful, covetous heart of fal

ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIT GATE - Christ here compares the way to life to an entrance through a gate. The words “straight” and “strait” have very different meanings. The former means “not crooked;” the latter, “pent up, narrow, difficult to be entered.” This is the word used here, and it means that the way to heaven is “pent up, narrow, close,” and not obviously entered. The way to death is open, broad, and thronged. The Saviour here referred probably to ancient cities. They were surrounded with walls and entered through gates. Some of those, connected with the great avenues to the city, were broad and admitted a throng; others, for more private purposes, were narrow, and few would be seen entering them. So, says Christ, is the path to heaven. It is narrow. It is not “the great highway” that people tread. Few go there. Here and there one may be seen - traveling in solitude and singularity...

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 7:1 (2) As anxiety about the things of this life hinders us Godwards (Matthew 6:19), so does censoriousness manwards (Matthew 7:1), our Lord thus tacitly opposing two typically Jewish faults. Censoriousness—the personal danger of having it (Matthew 7:1, Matthew 7:2), its seriousness as a sign of ignorance and as a hindrance to spiritual vision (Matthew 7:3), even though there must be a r

ENTER YE IN AT THE STRAIT GATE,.... By the "strait gate" is meant Christ himself; who elsewhere calls himself "the door", John 10:7 as he is into the church below, and into all the ordinances and privileges of it; as also to the Father, by whom we have access unto him, and are let into communion with him, and a participation of all the blessings of grace; yea, he is the gate of heaven, through which we have boldness to enter into the holiest of all by faith and hope now; as there will be hereafter an abundant entrance into the kingdom and glory of God, through his blood and righteousness. This is called "strait"; because faith in Christ, a profession of it, and a life and conversation agreeable to it, are attended with many afflictions, temptations, reproaches, and persecutions. "Entering" in at it is by faith, and making a profession of it: hence it follows, that faith is not the gate

While we are reading, let us also be adoring at the same time, for the. words of Christ have a gracious divinity about them; they are infinite; they are omnipotent. There is a kind of life in them; a life which communicates itself to those who hear them. Our Saviour did not preach sermons: he preached texts; all his sermons are full of golden sentences, not hammered gold leaf, like those of men, but they are ingots of solid gold, and the gold of that land is good, the most fine gold; there is none like it. Thus he preaches in the seventh chapter of Matthew. Matthew 7:1. _Judge not that ye be not judged._ Set not up for critics, especially in the act of worship. Probably there. is no greater destroyer of profit in the hearing of the word than is the spirit of carping criticism. Mat

MATTHEW 7:13 platei/a h` pu,lh {B} The words h` pu,lh are absent (in ver. Matthew 7:13) from a* 1646 ita, b, c, h, k and many patristic quotations of the saying, and (in ver. Matthew 7:14) from 113 182* 482 544 ita, h, k and many patristic quotations. Although some have argued that the word was originally present in ver. Matthew 7:14, and has been introduced into most witnesses in ver....

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Judgment of Righteousness.(Matthew 7:1 .) 2. Warning against False Prophets.(Matthew 7:15 .) 3. Warning against False Professors. (Matthew 7:21 .)_ The chapter which follows contains the last words of the great discourse of our Lord. The contents of this chapter are very instructive and form a most fitting end of the declaration of the King. The first few verses contain a warning against judging. We have in the beginning of the chapter something which is altogether different from the last section of the sixth chapter. There we saw the heir of the Kingdom in the midst of the world, how he is to trust in and depend on the Father and seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, h