"Enter ye at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:13-14).
We are sometimes charged with being narrow minded. Some will say we will accept you but you won't accept us, so you are too narrow.
Please keep in mind, that I don't have the authority to accept or reject anybody, but God does. Jesus said his way was narrow. He also said "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
Was Jesus narrow minded about salvation? "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3).
Except a man be born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). The word except means there is not other way. The Lord taught one way and only one way, to enter into the kingdom. Is that too narrow minded?
"For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24).
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16). Is Jesus narrow minded when he requires one to believe and be baptized in order to be saved?
"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9).
Was Jesus narrow minded about the one church? Eph. 4:4 says; "there is one body," then Chapter 1:22-23 says the body is the church. I recently heard there were over 3,000 different religious organizations. Jesus said there was only one. Was he narrow minded?
Gal. 3:27 states that we are "baptized into Christ." Now, since baptism puts one into Christ (body), and the body is the church, then baptism is the only way into the church. Was Jesus narrow minded when he provided no other way into the church?
In Acts 2:47 we see the Lord added the saved to the church. Paul said "he (Christ) is the savior of the body" (Eph. 5:23). The body is the church (Col. 1:18). Therefore, all the saved are in the church. Is He narrow minded when he refuses to save those outsided the church?
"Now I beseech you, brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, that there be no divisions among you" (1 Cor. 1:10).
In Eph. 4:4-6, we read there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. Where there is one, there cannot be more than one. We must be as narrow as God's word and as broad as God's word. We have no authority to bind where he has not bound nor to loose where he did not loose.
"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). Christ is our example, we have no choice but to follow if we expect to be saved.
"If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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