When I was in Oklahoma City a few weeks ago, I went to church on a Sunday where John Ortberg was the guest speaker. He has, for years, been one of my favorite authors and speakers. His insight into the things of God, and his ability to frame those thoughts in accessible and easy to understand ways, has not only captivated but been a source of inspiration to me. It was with a fair amount of anticipation that I went to church that day.
Ortberg anchored his remarks in Matthew 7:13-14 … the passage from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and only a few find it” (NIV). But he made some observations and shared some points that have set me to thinking in recent weeks.
When people hear these words, it sounds like Christianity is a very exclusive belief system. And certainly Jesus said some outrageously exclusionary things … perhaps the most scandalous of which is “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NIV). This certainly stands in stark opposition to the “many paths to the top of the mountain myth” that is so popular in our day. We Christ-followers have the audacity to call certain beliefs wrong and label certain behaviors immoral. Jesus didn’t present His teachings as optional suggestions for a better life. He claimed that what He said was true and that this truth mattered more than anything else in the world. As a result, we believe we know absolute truth and people who disagree with us aren’t merely wrong but also stand condemned before God.
The gospel, while it is very inclusive and open to anyone, is very exclusive in what it affirms. To say that certain things are true means that other things which stand in opposition to those assertions are “not true.” And in a day where relativism is widely embraced, people don’t receive this very well. They tend to believe that a narrow gate and a narrow way leads to a narrow mind. Many people outside the faith see Christianity as something that restricts human freedom because, in their minds, we tell people what they’re supposed to think and how they’re supposed to live. We’re labeled as fractious … intolerant … bigoted.
Many people think humility means we must give up any claim to know absolute truth … that our mental limitations and cultural embeddedness prevent us from being able to grasp absolute truth. If we acknowledge that we can’t really know what’s true, then you can have your truth and I can have my truth—a realization that should lead to mutual tolerance and acceptance. If we believe in absolute truth, we’re considered arrogant, unthinking conformists who practice intolerant bigotry. And unfortunately, many who embrace the gospel and profess allegiance to Jesus have behaved in ways that reinforce this narrative. We have related to those around us who think or believe differently than we do in disrespectful and exclusionary ways. We have deservedly acquired that label of being hateful and narrowminded because of some of the things we’ve done.
However, if you carefully examine the life of Jesus, something very interesting stands out. While he made a number of statements that were outrageously exclusive, when He was with people He pursued relationships that were scandalously and shockingly inclusive—lepers … prostitutes … tax collectors … Samaritans. The longest recorded conversation in Scripture Jesus had with anyone was with a pagan, Samaritan, five times married lady who was shacking up with a guy that wasn’t her husband. No rabbi would have ever gone near such a person, but Jesus did—He routinely associated with those that were considered disreputable and dishonorable. In fact, the nature of some of the people He associated with stoked the ire of the religious leaders and gave rise to His death. That was a big part of what irritated them about him—how inclusive and all-embracing He was in who He chose to spend time with.
With Jesus it was as if the more narrow He was in His beliefs about how one could be rightly related to God, the more broad He was in his love of people. The more committed He was to the exclusive message and truth of the gospel, the more gracious and generous He was in relating to those who didn’t embrace that truth—a reality a lot of us seem to miss. Those of us who say we follow one of the most relationally inclusive people in history are viewed as some of the most hateful and exclusive people on the planet. In a world that is increasingly fractured and splintered, we followers of Jesus need to be more in tune with His approach. We need to intentionally and graciously relate to those who think or believe differently than we do … whose lifestyle doesn’t align with ours and whose worldview is not the least bit harmonious.
What’s amazing to me is that people who were far from God and not remotely on the same page as Jesus spiritually enjoyed His company. Was it because He was tolerant as our society promotes tolerance? No! Nowhere in Scripture did Jesus ever advocate or encourage tolerance, for tolerance has a minimalistic quality to it. To tolerate something is to endure or put up with it, often begrudgingly and resentfully. When Angie and I spoke our wedding vows to each other almost 42 years ago, we didn’t pledge to tolerate each other in sickness and in health till death do us part. The vow we made to each other was something far different—to love … completely … thoroughly … in every respect.
Here’s the deal: We can tolerate someone without loving them, but we cannot love them and be intolerant or uncharitable. When Jesus invites us to be a part of His Kingdom, He calls us to be part of a realm where the central law is love—for our neighbor … for our enemies … for everyone … even those who disagree with us or whose beliefs run counter to ours. Love by necessity includes the virtue of tolerance, for if we believe that every person bears the indisputable stamp of God’s image and is loved by Him—and if we approach life with the kind of humility that Jesus demonstrated rather than the distorted and false humility our world advocates … the kind that results in intellectual uncertainty—then we will manifest a compelling and winsome tolerance in our interactions with people who live differently, think differently, and believe differently than we do.
When you think about it, the idea that people have value and worth to where we should be humane and tolerant toward them is a notion that flows out of what Jesus taught. This is a sentiment that emerges from the exclusive and restrictive message He proclaimed. It is also a belief … a moral and spiritual idea—a statement of absolute truth. To proclaim that people are equal in dignity and deserve tolerance is an idea that stems from the foundation of the gospel that Jesus made known. I find that incredibly ironic. The sentiment of our day that urges respect and open-mindedness is built upon the foundation of the restrictive, exclusionary truth that Jesus proclaimed.
The “narrow gate” of which Jesus spoke is not being narrowminded. The “narrow gate” is not doctrinal correctness. The “narrow gate” is not a mindset that leads to staunch intolerance or mean-spirited dogmatism. The narrow gate is doing what Jesus said to do—to love everyone the way He loved us … relentlessly … authentically … passionately. And the role of the church is not primarily to instill in us the minimum beliefs we need to embrace in order for God to let us into heaven when we die. The role of the church is to refine our character and help us arrange our lives so we can live out the priorities and values He did—so we can love everyone we meet with the same intensity and fervor as He did, whether they believe what we believe or not … whether their lifestyle is congruent with ours or not … whether their philosophy of life or political opinions are agreeable to us or not. This is the “narrow way.”
You can tell what someone values by what they go ballistic about when it gets damaged or dinged. When professing Christ-followers go around denting and dinging people that are different than us by disrespecting or being discriminatory towards them, I believe God, while He doesn’t go ballistic and lose His temper with us, I do believe He’s greatly grieved and deeply hurt. For he said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt 25:40, NIV). This statement doesn’t just refer to the kind and gracious things we do for others, but also the unkind and ungracious things we do as well. When we are hateful and/or exclusionary towards those believe or think differently than us, God is so identified with that person to where He thinks, “You did that to me.”
The world doesn’t need more narrowminded, dogmatic, exclusive, judgmental, our-side-versus-their-side Christians. It needs people who are willing to follow the narrow way of Jesus and be radically inclusive in the way they love others regardless of how they look or what they believe. For at the end of the day, that is the gauge people will use to determine whether the message of Jesus that they initially perceive as being restrictive and exclusive has any merit or not. That is the measure they will employ to determine whether they want to consider responding to its all-encompassing and radically inclusive invitation.