“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
King James Version (KJV)
7:12 #Luke 6:31|.
7:13 The strait gate - The holiness described in the foregoing chapters. And this is the narrow way. Wide is the gate, and many there are that go in through it - They need not seek for this; they come to it of course. Many go in through it, because strait is the other gate - Therefore they do not care for it; they like a wider gate. #Luke 13:24|.
7:15 Beware of false prophets - Who in their preaching describe a broad way to heaven: it is their prophesying, their teaching the broad way, rather than their walking in it themselves, that is here chiefly spoken of. All those are false prophets, who teach any other way than that our Lord hath here marked out. In sheep's clothing - With outside religion and fair professions of love: Wolves - Not feeding, but destroying souls.
7:16 By their fruits ye shall know them - A short, plain, easy rule, whereby to know true from false prophets: and one that may be applied by people of the weakest capacity, who are not accustomed to deep reasoning. True prophets convert sinners to God, or at least confirm and strengthen those that are converted. False prophets do not. They also are false prophets, who though speaking the very truth, yet are not sent by the Spirit of God, but come in their own name, to declare it: their grand mark is, Not turning men from the power of Satan to God. #Luke 6:43,44|.
Mt 7:14 For strait [is] the gate. What is it, Augustine asks, that makes this gate so small to us? It is not that it is "strait", or narrow, in itself, but that we want to take in our pride, our self-will, our darling sins. Few there be that find it. It has been to be sought. The reason that men do not find it is not because it is hard to find, but because they prefer to walk in the broad way.