The Master has now said everything necessary in order to clear away
popular misapprehensions, and place the truth about His kingdom fairly
before the minds of His hearers. He has explained its nature as inward
and spiritual, setting forth the character of those who belong to it,
the blessedness they will enjoy, and the influence they will exert on
the world around them. He has set forth clearly and fully the
obligations that will rest upon them, as summed up in the
comprehensive requirement of righteousness understood in a larger and
deeper sense than ever before--obligations of such stringency as to
make it apparent that to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness
is no holiday undertaking, that it is no easy thing to be a Christian,
but that it requires self-restraint, self-humbling, self-denial; and
that therefore His kingdom cannot be attractive to the many, but must
appeal to those who are earnest-spirited enough to ask and seek and
knock for admittance.
Now that all has been fully and faithfully set forth--now that there
is no danger of obtaining disciples under misapprehension--the great
invitation is issued: _Enter ye in_. It is the free universal
invitation of the Gospel, as large and liberal as that later one,
"Whosoever will, let him come," though given in such a way as to keep
still prominently before the minds of all comers what they may expect,
and what is expected of them: "Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for
wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and
straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find
it" (R.V.).
The terms of this first invitation are very significant. The motives
of fear and hope are appealed to; but not directly or specially. In
the background lies, on the one hand, the dark doom of "destruction,"
and on the other the glorious hope of "life"; but neither the one nor
the other is made emphatic. The demand for "righteousness" has been
elaborated in full, and warnings against sin have been multiplied and
pressed with intensest earnestness; but Christ does not now, as on
account of the hardness of men's hearts He felt it needful later on to
do, set forth in language that appeals vividly to the imagination the
fate of those who take the broad way of easy self-indulgence; nor does
He endeavour to picture the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor heart conceived, which God hath prepared for them that love
Him; He simply suggests in the briefest manner, by the use of a single
word in each case--and that word characterised not so much by strength
as by suggestiveness what will be the fate of the one, the goal of
the other. Suggestive as both words are in the highest degree, they
are not emphatic, but lie as it were in the background, while the
attention is kept on the present alternative: on the one hand the wide
gate, the broad way, the many thronging it; on the other, the narrow
gate, the straitened way, the few finding it. Our Lord summons not so
much to a choice that will pay, as to a choice that will cost; and in
so doing makes His appeal to all that is noblest and highest and best
in human nature.
Throughout the whole discourse He has been leading up to this point.
He has been setting forth no prospect of happiness "to draw the carnal
eye," but an ideal of blessedness to win the spiritual heart. He has
been unfolding a righteousness, which, while it cannot but be
repulsive to man's natural selfishness, profoundly stirs and satisfies
his conscience; and now, in strict keeping with all that has gone
before, the appeal is made in such a way as shall commend it, not to
the thoughtless, selfish crowd, but to those whose hearts have been
drawn and whose consciences have been touched by His presentation of
the blessedness they may expect and the righteousness expected of
them. From all this there is surely to be learned a most important
lesson, as to the manner in which the Gospel should usually be
presented--not by sensational descriptions of the glories of heaven or
the horrors of hell, nor by the mere reiteration of exhortations to
"come to Jesus," but by such information of the mind, awakening of the
heart, and stirring of the conscience as are found in perfection in
this great discourse of the Master.
It is characteristic of the large view our Lord takes of human life
that He speaks of only two paths. There seem so many, leading off in
all different directions; and so there are on a limited view of life's
horizon; but when eternal issues are in sight, there are but two: the
easy path of self-indulgence leading down to death, and the difficult
path of duty[7] leading up to life.
It is worthy of remark that there is not a trace of asceticism in our
Lord's representation. The straitness referred to is not outward, any
more than the righteousness is; so that there is no encouragement
given to self-imposed restrictions and limitations, as in the monastic
vows of "poverty, chastity, and obedience." The way is strait enough
in itself without any effort of ours to make it straiter. It is enough
that we set ourselves to keep all the commandments; so shall we have a
sufficiency of exercise to toughen our spiritual fibre, to strengthen
our moral energies, to make us men and women instead of slaves of lust
or tools of mammon. For, be it ever remembered, the way we take leads
on naturally and unavoidably to its end. Destruction is no arbitrary
punishment for self-indulgence; nor is life an arbitrary reward for
self-discipline and surrender to the will of God. The path of
self-indulgence "leadeth to destruction," by a law which cannot be
annulled or set aside. But the path of self-restraint and
self-surrender (for these are what make of us men, and not "blind
mouths," as Milton expressively puts it), the path which is entered by
the strait gate, and is continued along the narrow way, is one which
in the course of natural development "leadeth unto life."
The call to enter is followed by words of solemn warning against
certain dangers which might beset even those who wish to enter. First,
the danger of false guidance: "Beware of false prophets." The danger
lies in the future. Hitherto, while speaking throughout of present
duty, there have been backward glances over the past, as our Lord has
made it evident, point after point, that the righteousness of His
kingdom was not the destruction but the fulfilment of the law and the
prophets. Now, however, He anticipates the time when there will be
those claiming to speak in the name of God, or in His own name, whose
doctrines will not be a fulfilment but a destruction of the Truth, and
a constant danger to those who may be exposed to their wolf-like
ravages. There is manifestly no reference to such differences of
opinion as divide real Christians from each other in these days. The
doctrine throughout this manifesto is not speculative, but practical;
it nowhere brings into prominence matters of opinion, or what are
called theological tenets, but everywhere lays stress on that which
immediately and powerfully affects the life. So it is here also, as is
evident from the criterion suggested for the detection of false
teachers: "By their fruits ye shall know them." Besides, the
connection in which the caution occurs makes it evident that our Lord
had specially in view those teachers who would lead their disciples
astray as to the way of life, especially those who would dare to make
that easy which he had shown to be "strait," who would set before
their hearers or readers a broad path instead of the narrow one which
alone leadeth unto life. This is a danger which besets us in these
days. There is so strong a sentiment abroad in favour of
liberality--and liberality properly so called is so admirable, and
has been so much a stranger in times past--that we are in danger of
accepting in its name easy-going representations of the Christian life
which amount to a total abolition of the strait gate and the narrow
way. Let us by all means be liberal enough to acknowledge all who have
entered by the strait gate of genuine repentance, and are walking in
the narrow way of faith and obedience, however much they may differ
from us in matters of opinion, forms of worship, or modes of work; but
let us beware how we give even the smallest encouragement to any on
the broad road to imagine that they can continue as they are, and find
it all right in the end. So to tamper with truth in the guise of
liberality is to play the wolf in sheep's clothing.
The test our Lord gives for "discerning the spirits" is one which
requires time for its application, but it is the only sure one; and
when we remember that the Master is now looking forward into the
future history of His kingdom, we can see why He should lay stress on
a test whose operation, though slow, was sure. It is of course assumed
that the first criterion is the Word of the Lord Himself. This is the
law of the kingdom; but, knowing well what was in man, the Lord could
not but foresee that there would be those who could so twist any words
that might be spoken on those great subjects as to lay snares for the
unwary; and therefore, besides the obvious appeal "to the law and to
the testimony," He supplied a practical test which, though less speedy
in its application, was perfectly sure in its results.
The announcement of so important a test leads to the development of
the general principle on which its validity depends--viz., the vital
connection between essential doctrine and life. In the long run the
one is always the outcome of the other. In the spiritual as in the
natural world every species brings forth fruit "after its kind." "Do
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil
fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." The law being so absolute,
making it certain, on the one hand, that where there is truth in the
inward parts there will be good fruit in the outward life, and on the
other, that where there is corrupt fruit in the outward life there
must be that which is corrupt in the hidden man of the heart, it
follows that the criterion is so sure as to be without appeal: "Every
tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire" (ver. 19), and therefore may well determine the question as
to who are trustworthy teachers in the Church: "Wherefore by their
fruits ye shall know them."
In the development of the principle the Master's thought has been
enlarged so as to include not teachers only, but all His disciples;
and His range of view has been extended so as to embrace the last
things. The great day of Judgment is before him. He sees the
multitudes gathered around the throne. He foresees that there will be
many on that great day who will discover, when it is too late, that
they have allowed themselves to be deceived, that they have not been
careful enough to test their spiritual guides, that they have not been
careful enough to try themselves and make sure that their fruits were
such that the Lord of the vineyard could recognise them as His own. He
is filled with sympathy and sorrow at the prospect; so He lifts up His
voice in earnest warning, that, if possible, none of those to whom the
words will ever come may allow themselves to fall into so fatal an
error: "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which
is in heaven."
How naturally, and as it were unconsciously and inevitably, He has
passed from the Teacher to the Judge! Not as a personal claim. In His
earliest teaching He kept personal claims as much in the background as
possible. But now it is impossible to avoid some disclosure of His
divine authority. He must speak of the Judgment; and He cannot speak
of it without making it appear that He is Judge. The force of this is
all the greater that He is, as it were, surprised into it; for He is
evidently not thinking of Himself at all, but only of those who then
were or would afterwards be in danger of making a most fatal mistake,
leading to consequences awful and irreparable. We can well imagine
that from this point on to the end there must have been a light on His
face, a fire in His eye, a solemnity in His tone, a grandeur in His
very attitude, which struck the multitude with amazement, especially
at the _authority_ (ver. 29) with which He spoke: "Many will say
to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by
Thy name cast out devils, and by Thy name do many mighty works? And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye
that work iniquity" (R.V.).
Again, observe the form the warning takes, revealing the consciousness
that to depart from Him was _doom_--one of the many tokens
throughout this discourse that none else than the Lord of life and
glory could possibly have spoken it. Yet how many vainly think that
they can accept it without acknowledging Him!
The same solemn and regal tone is kept up throughout the impressive
passage which closes all, and presses home the great warning against
trusting to any experience short of the surrender of the life to do
the will of God as set forth in the words of Christ His Son. The two
classes He has now in view are not the two great classes who walk, the
one in the broad and the other in the narrow way. They are two classes
of _hearers_. Most of those that throng the broad way are not
hearers at all; they have no desire or intention of seeking any other
than the broad way--they would as little think of going up into a
mountain and listening to a discourse on righteousness, as they would
of wearing a hair shirt or doing any other kind of penance; but those
our Lord has now in view all have the idea of seeking the right way:
their very attitude as hearers shows it--they are all of the
church-going class, to translate into modern phrase; and what He fears
is that some of them may deceive themselves by imagining that because
they hear with interest and attention, perhaps admiration, therefore
they are in the narrow way. Accordingly He solemnly warns them that
all this may amount to nothing: there may be attention, interest,
admiration, full assent to all; but if the hearing is not followed by
doing, all is in vain.
It may almost go without saying that, after what our Lord has just
been teaching as to the vital connection between the faith of the
heart and the "fruits" of the life (vv. 15-23), there is no "legalism"
here. In fact, the doing is not outward; it is a doing of the heart.
The righteousness He has been expounding has, as we have seen, been a
righteousness of the heart, and the doing of it, as a matter of
course, is a heart-work, having its root in faith, which is the
beginning of the doing in every case, according to His own word in
another place: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom
He hath sent."
The illustration with which He presses home the warning is in the
highest degree appropriate and forcible. The man who not only hears,
but does, makes thorough work, digs deep (as St. Luke puts it in his
record), and founds the house he is building for time and eternity
upon solid rock; while the man who hears but does not, is one who
takes no care as to his foundation, but erects his house just where he
happens to be, on loose sand or earth, which the first storm will
dislodge and sweep away. Meanwhile testing times are coming--rains,
floods, winds--the searching trials of life culminating in the final
judgment in the life to come. These all test the work of the builder,
and render apparent the wisdom of the man who provided against the
coming storm by choosing the rock foundation, for his house abides
through all; and the folly of the other, who without a foundation
carelessly risked all, for his house gives way before the storm, and
great is the fall of it.
Alas for many hearers of the Word! Alas for many admirers of the
"Sermon on the Mount"! Where will they be when everything turns on the
question "Wert thou a doer of it?"
[5] It is true that under the head of oaths comes the duty of
reverence, which scarcely seems to fall under this head; but it will
be remembered that this point comes in by way of a very natural
suggestion in dealing with falsehood and the regulation of
conversation, which evidently belongs to righteousness as between man
and man.
[6] This complete change of meaning, amounting in fact to the
destruction and almost to the inversion of the sense, is one of many
illustrations of the absolute need of revision from time to time of
translations, not only to make them more correct, but even to keep
them as correct as they were at first.
[7] Duty of course in its largest sense--to God and man and
self--including all "righteousness" in the Master's sense of the word.