The narrow way

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14. (KJV)

Walk on the narrow way to life

Those who do not find the narrow way do not find the way to life. Everyone wants to have life, but there is a way to life, and we must walk on it in order to receive life. What is life? “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil …” Deuteronomy 30:15,19. Life is the virtues of Christ—the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22.) Death is the works of the flesh—the vices.

There is a difference between the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Speaking in tongues, interpretation, the gift of healing, etc., are gifts you can receive, and the Corinthians lacked none of them. (1 Corinthians 1:5-7.) However, we cannot just receive the fruits of the Spirit; we must walk in the Spirit in order to receive them. We must walk on the narrow way, for the Spirit resists the flesh. In order to follow Jesus on the narrow way, we have to take up our cross daily and deny ourselves. Only the few find this way.

“Not My will, but Yours, be done”

No one wants to argue. Marriage partners do not desire their relationship to become cold, but it grows cold anyway—they argue. Why do they argue even if they don’t want to? It is because they have not found the way to life. Impatience, anger, malice, jealousy, etc., separate. That is death. On the other hand, patience, goodness, generosity, etc., gather. This is life.

You think you should correct the other person by saying something that can change him, so he can become as you think he should be—but that is not the way to life. The way to life is to deny yourself. Then the Spirit gains authority and power over the flesh. This is what it means to walk in the Spirit so we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16.) This will produce fruit—you partake of life, the virtues that unite. They cannot just be given to us. We can receive the Holy Spirit as a gift, but we must obey the Spirit and hate our own life according to the flesh in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

This is the way which only a few people find! More people do not find it because they do not see themselves and their own corruption. They are totally engrossed with what they don’t like in the others! This is accompanied by demands and death—the evil. Egotism is at the core of it all.

Jesus taught us to be servants and forgive and prays as follows: “Not My will, but Yours, be done!” The married couples that find this way will discover that life becomes more and more glorious. Believers who walk on this way become one as the Father and the Son are one. The life that was with the Father—that eternal life—grows and develops, and joy increases. (1 John 1:2) This is the experience of all those who have found the narrow way to life and who walk on it. Those who do not have this experience are not walking on the narrow way.