"Strive to enter--
fight and wrestle, risk life and limb rather than fall short of heaven"
Genuine readiness
to suffer thins out the number of true Christians from the ranks of professing
believers; it eliminates those whose walk goes no further than a cheap
profession. A person who looks into the crowded sanctuaries of Christendom
today and finds multitudes who flock after the Word might wonder why ministers
say that this company of Christians is such a small one, and he might think
that they who say such things cannot see the forest for the trees. This very
situation made one of the disciples question Christ: "Lord, are there few
that be saved?" (Luke 13:23). At that time Christ
"went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward
Jerusalem" (v. 22). When his followers saw Christ preaching so freely in
every town, and people thronging after Him with expressions of hope, it seemed
almost incredible to think that only a few of them would have been saved.
Now mark how our
Savior solved this riddle: "And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at
the straight gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall
not be able" (v. 24). Christ said His disciples were measuring by a wrong
rule. "If following after sermons and testimonies and excitement were
enough to save, heaven would already be full," He was saying. But do not
sift the pure from the impure by such a coarse sieve. "Strive to enter--
fight and wrestle, risk life and limb rather than fall short of heaven."
"For many shall seek, but shall not be able"-- that is, they are
looking for a cheap religion through an easy profession.
Almost anyone is
willing to walk through heaven's door if he never has to risk his pride in
public or hazard his everyday interests by any inconvenience or opposition of
the world. But "they shall not be able" to enter because their hearts
are not willing to strive even unto blood. If we take the standard to be
striving, not merely seeking, then the number of Christian soldiers will
shrink, like Gideon's army, to a little troop.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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