I went to listen to a speaker recently. In her remarks she clearly endorsed the traditional views of the family and human sexuality. She backed up her presentation with statistics and personal experiences. Then there was time for questions and answers.

During the Q & A one of the audience members mentioned that it would sure be nice if more people would embrace the views that the speaker was promoting.

The speaker responded that even in her place of work, which was a Christian college, she was not always free to express her beliefs. The college at which she worked had embraced many of the progressive, modern views of things and did not like it when people like her promoted traditional values.

She said she would not recommend anyone sending their children to her college and, even though she would get free tuition, she was not going to be sending her daughter to the college.

As I reflected on the presentation and the question that was asked, I realized it fits in well with the fourth door in our series Doors of the Bible; the narrow door.

One of the greatest sins or weaknesses of American Christianity over the last several decades has been abandoning traditional, Bible-based ways and embracing what is popular. It is truly a form of idolatry.

The reality is our views are never going to be popular in this world.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14 “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. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
re many.

We are to strive to enter through the narrow door. This passage comes from the Sermon on the Mount which contains a lot of “narrowness.” Jesus speaks about things that very few people would be willing to do like turn the other cheek, go the extra mile and love your enemies.

Why would we do this? Why not just embrace the easy way of the world? It leads to destruction, Jesus says.

In Luke’s version of this passage the word for strive is agonize. It refers to actually living out our faith. The world will pretty much leave us alone if we just talk about our faith. They may even say our message of salvation and love sounds good. But this door refers to actually living our faith. That’s when the people of this world give us resistance.

A key thing to remember is that there are a few in every generation who find the narrow door. And when all those from every generation are all combined in heaven, it will form a vast army. There will be no loneliness in heaven.

In addition, knowing that only few will find it does not mean we can sit back. We continue to share the word of Christ with everyone because we don’t know who the few are. We are like the professor I mentioned above. She knew her views were never going to be popular but she kept speaking up to whomever would listen.

The world will leave us alone as long as we live like them. But when we tell them, “No, because of my faith in Jesus, I can’t live like you,” that’s when the door gets very lonely and narrow. But when all of us who have gone the narrow way get to heaven it will be a vast army.