The Narrow Gate Runs Through the Grocery Line
I’ve been a professing Christian for 20 years, and I feel like I’m just now learning what it looks like to live out the two greatest commands. I feel like much of my life has been centered around religion. Namely, “doing stuff.” It’s easy to get caught up in just doing a bunch of liturgy and rituals. Why is that? I think one reason is that those things are way easier than loving people through sacrificial service.
The Greatest Commands
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Loving people often involves dying to self. This can involve numerous selfless decisions, like setting aside your own comforts and preferences, throwing your daily schedule out the window, and sacrificing your time, energy, and money. Let’s face it, if I’m being honest, I’d much rather lead a Bible discussion for an hour or sing during worship at church than spend time mowing an old widow’s lawn, sit in the hospital for hours with someone, or watch a couple’s kids for a few hours so that they can have a much-needed date night.
What I’m not saying: That you shouldn’t lead or attend Bible discussions or spend time in worship at church with God’s people or that such activities aren’t important.
What I am saying: Following Jesus involves much more than just going to Bible discussions and singing during worship sets at church.
What Is True Religion?
James 1:27
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
God has always desired more than just our religious duties. He wants our hearts. He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to love other people and treat them the way we wish to be treated (the Golden Rule). In the context of the Greatest Commandment and the Golden Rule during Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he mentions entering through the narrow gate:
Matthew 7:12-14
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 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.”
Part of entering through the narrow gate involves living out the two greatest commands, one of which is loving our neighbors as ourselves.
And it’s no coincidence that Jesus says this just a few verses later:
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Again, doing religious acts is not the end-all be-all of Christianity. We can do all of those things (go to church, worship, pray, prophesy, cast out demons, heal people, etc.) and still not be known by Jesus or fulfill what he cares about most. This is why the gate is so narrow, and few find it. As Christians, I think this is so important for us to understand. We actually make it more complicated than it needs to be. What Jesus has been showing me:
Doing his will looks like this: Acknowledging the marginalized, the weak, the helpless, and those who society has passed over.
Matthew 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
When we pass the homeless on the street, do we look them in the eyes, acknowledge them, and treat them with dignity and compassion as human beings who are created in the image of God? Do we enter into the sufferings of widows and the fatherless? Do we empathize with them and seek to comfort them and care for them?
This is an area that I want to grow in! I’m preaching to myself and holding myself accountable here as well. Lord, give me a heart for the brokenhearted, the poor in spirit, the marginalized, and the forgotten! Beyond just caring for the widows and the fatherless, how do we talk to our servers when we go out to eat after church, where we just got done praising God and listening to his Bible being preached? When the gas station clerk is ringing us up, and we notice through their body language that they look like they’re having a rough day, do we say something encouraging to them or say something funny to make them smile and brighten their day?
I promise you, these are the interactions and the things Jesus cares about most. Let’s not miss this. Christianity is much simpler than we make it out to be. Again, I’m not saying the other stuff isn’t important. What I am saying is if we do all of the other stuff but fail to love ALL people and treat them with kindness, compassion, dignity, and respect, we will miss it altogether. Like the Apostle Paul said about love:
1 Corinthians 13:1-12
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”