The narrow gate

<p>THE NARROW GATE We are offered a choice in life to go down one of two pathways, the pathway to life or the pathway to destruction or ruin. There are many metaphors of this choice in the Bible, starting in Deuteronomy when God offers Israel a pathway to life or a pathway to death, one of blessing and one of cursing. Paul talks in the epistles about walking in the Spirit or walking in the flesh, and also about the spiritual mind and the natural mind. In the following Scripture Jesus speaks about the narrow gate and the wide gate. The narrow gate leads to a fulfilled life and the wide gate leads to a destroyed or wasted life. We have one lifetime on this earth and it does not have to be wasted. This choice lies before us all the time.</p> <p>Matthew 7:13 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate to destruction (ruin, waste) is wide and the way is easy that leads to it, and many enter in by it. But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the way is hard, and those who find it are few. </p> <p>When we enter through the narrow gate we enter into THE LIFE. When we enter in through the wide gate we can enter into A LIFE. There are two words for life in the New Testament in the Greek language, Zoe and Psyche. Zoe is spiritual life – that means Eternal life. Psyche is the word for soul and that means a soul life or a sense life including the experience of our five physical senses. We can experience both of these lives, because we are spirit, soul and body. Entering into THE LIFE is Eternal life – zoe - we are in the most fulfilling place we can be, within the fulness of God’s life. In this place are able to manage every other aspect of our life because of our hope and expectation of God working with us and within us.</p> <p>When we enter in through the wide gate we can enter into A LIFE (psyche) which we choose and which is short term and where all things pass away (lead to destruction or waste) (apolleia – used about 15 times in the New Testament as ruin, loss or waste, not as hell). We are talking about a here