This passage from Holy Scripture is one that all believers should prayerfully meditate on, as its meaning is a profound command from the One who died for the sins of the world and saved those who have obeyed His Gospel, from the wrath of God to come.
The words are instructions on how we’re to live and it begins with dying. Notice, and always remember, it’s a daily endeavor.
If you are on a guided tour, down a narrow path through a dense jungle, will you not keep your eye on the guide, and make certain to not get separated from the group? The answer is yes if you want to survive the jungle.
This world is an evil jungle, and Christ is our guide. He’s left us everything we need to know and do to survive the journey. We must stay together as a group, and never take our eyes off our guide…our savior.
We must pick up our cross and follow Him to the hilltop of Golgotha, and die. Die to ourselves, to our worldly desires, the lust for the things of the world. Our minds must be changed to agree with God that what He hates, we’ll hate, and what He loves, we’ll love. God’s desire is that all men be saved (1 Timothy 2:4), but He’s not going to force anyone into a relationship with Him through His Son. It must be a choice of free will.
In Matthew 7, Jesus makes it clear that not everyone will survive the journey. He says, only the ones that did our Father’s will, will make it down the narrow path. The path we must walk daily, carrying our cross, dying to self with every breathe, and following Him. Stepping in His footprints on our way to a home in heaven.
“ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” Luke 10:27
