Bible Study series Matthew 7:13-14. Kingdom citizens enter through the narrow gate and walk on the straight and narrow path
A warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together. I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click on this link:
In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 7:13-14
13 Enter through the narrow gate because wide is the gate and broad is the road leading to destruction, and many are the ones going through it; 14 because the gate is narrow and the road is restrictive leading to life, few are the ones finding it. (Matt. 7:13-14)
Comments:
Turner produces a great table for Matt. 7:13-23 (modified):
| Ethical Dualism in Matt. 7:13-27 | |
| Two Gates / Ways (7:13-14) | |
| Discipleship | Lawlessness |
| Narrow gate | Wide gate |
| Difficult way | Broad way |
| Life | Destruction |
| Few | Many |
| Two Trees / Fruits (7:15-23) | |
| Discipleship | Lawlessness |
| True Prophets (implied) | False Prophets |
| Sheep | Wolves |
| Good fruit (grapes, figs) | Bad trees (thorns, thistles) |
| Life (implied) | Judgment (fire) |
| Doing the Father’s will | Saying, “Lord, Lord!” |
| Two Builders / Foundations (7:24-27) | |
| Discipleship | Lawlessness |
| Wise person | Foolish person |
| Hears / obeys Jesus | Hears / does not obey Jesus |
| House built on rock | House built on sand |
| House stands during flood | House collapses during flood |
Brilliant.
13-14:
Rabbinic statements similarly have two roads, the way of life and the way of death. Also see Jer. 21:8; Ps. 1:6; Deut. 11:26-29 (France, p. 287).
These verses are very sobering and challenging. We must not think that we can just enter the kingdom of God without our having to give up some things, like our past sins and bad old habits. The kingdom improves our life precisely because it demands something from us. If we believe that we have nothing to surrender, then we are deceiving ourselves. Even the newly arrived kingdom citizens who traveled along the strait or narrow or tapered road or path or way and who did not have much of a bad past (no promiscuity or drugs, for example) and entered the narrow gate, still have to give up something, like self-will or stubbornness or self-imposed perfectionism or fear or any number of bad attitudes. The narrow gate and strait or restrictive path will not let you keep them. They get squeezed out of your life. The door is so narrow that only you can fit through it, not your luggage in your hands and under your arms.
Before we leave these two verses, they naturally flow into the next pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section or unit of Scripture. The tree is known by its fruit and then some apparent disciples are asked to leave Christ’s presence, because he never knew them.
“life”: it is the noun zoē (pronounced zoh-ay, and girls are named after it, e.g. Zoey). BDAG, considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, says that it has two senses, depending on the context: a physical life (e.g. life and breath) and a transcendent life. By physical life the editors mean the period from birth to death, human activity, a way or manner of living, a period of usefulness, earning a living. By transcendent life the lexicographers mean these four elements: first, God himself is life and offers us everlasting life. Second, Christ is life, who received life from God, and now we can receive life from Christ. Third, it is new life of holiness and righteousness and grace. God’s life filling us through Christ changes our behavior. Fourth, zoē means life in the age to come, or eschatological life. So our new life now will continue into the next age, which God fully and finally ushers in when Christ returns. We will never experience mere existence or death, but we will be fully and eternally alive in God.
“There may well be the idea of hardship and persecution, as in Acts 14:22, ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.’ The persecution of the saints is a major Matthean motif (5:10-22, 44; 10:16-23; 35-36; 13:21; 23:34-35; 24:9-13, 16:21) and is likely implied here” (Osborne, comment on 7:14).
GrowApp for Matt. 7:13-14
1. What do you have to give up, as you entered through the narrow gate and now travel along the narrow path?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom.
.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 