By contrast the gate that leads to life is narrow and many are put off by this. It is entered by a strait gate, an exacting gate.
There is no earthly honour, no honour from men associated with this gate. Those who go through it are not the great ones of this world; more often they are the offscouring of all things, the weak, the base, the despised, those who are considered nothing in the eyes of the world. This gate is low, so that those who pass through it must stoop to get through. They cannot go through continuing to think of themselves as great people, whom God should be pleased to have in his kingdom. They instead come as those who are ashamed of what they have been and who can only beg for mercy.
Have we ever sought admission to the narrow way? This is not some vague process; it is a conscious decision, an intelligent understanding. I come to God aware that I am lost unless he makes me his own, and I believe there is only one way by which it can be accomplished: I must come to Christ. God himself must come from heaven to save us. The two paths are mutually exclusive. I must leave the route I am on and I must choose the narrow way. Are there some who are trying to stay on both paths at once? They worship with their mouths, but their feet are firmly on another path. If you continue like that then eventually your heart will be hardened and you will be swept away.
Why should the way that leads to life not be more attractive? Of course once we understand that way properly, it is attractive, but when we first see it, it does not appear so. The Lord describes this way as it appears to the outsider, so as not disguise any of the problems the seeker may encounter. The gospel never oversells itself or minimises the hardships which those who follow it will meet with, but is totally straightforward and honest with us.