SOTM 36-Narrow

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/som-36-narrow/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).</strong></p><p><strong>Resistance</strong><br />There's considerable resistance to this teaching:</p><ul><li>Because it’s difficult (today’s devotional)</li><li>Because there are many who will try to talk us out of it (tomorrow’s offering)</li><li>Because there’s no third option—just two ways</li></ul><p><strong>Jesus' words are challenging</strong></p><ul><li>There are only two options.</li><li>The truth is easy to understand, but not necessarily easy to follow.</li><li>(Many stripes and flavors of quasi-Christian faith are actually clever ways to get around the holy demands of Jesus.)_</li><li>The majority of humans prefer the broad road.</li><li>This isn’t a teaching only for non-Christians. It’s for you and me—for all of us who have set out on the way.</li><li>The two roads may be discerned in virtually every book of the Bible. Two choices in the Garden. Two ways in the Psalms (<strong>Psalm 1:1-6</strong>). Two ways in the Prophets—follow the Torah, or ignore its demands. (Follow Yahweh, or spurn him.) Two ways theme—every book of Bible.</li></ul><p><strong>The early church</strong><br />For the first few centuries, most Christians accepted the truth of the two roads. Although they were totally outnumbered, there were many individuals and groups in the following centuries willing to sacrifice to walk the narrow road, even willing to die if their lives were demanded when the world—or worldly Christianity—pushed back.</p><ul><li><i>Didache:</i> “There are two ways: one of life and one of death. But there is a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love G