Bible Brief: The Saddest Verses in the Bible
In life, there is the ideal—the way things ought to be—and there is reality—the way things really are. Jesus taught both. He pointed people to the ideal, but admitted the reality.
Here is the ideal: “Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus wants us to be like God. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone was truly sinless, truly loved like God loves? No sin, no wickedness, a perfectly righteous world of obedience to God and service to man. That’s the ideal.
But here is the reality: “Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
Most people are going to hell. That is the reality.
That isn’t what Jesus wants, of course. He died so that all men could avoid that destiny. But He simply spoke the truth, the reality. A warning to mankind. The way to heaven is difficult (“straitened”) and most people don’t want to pay the price to go. There are few more evident facts than that in human history and our world today.
I think Matthew 7:13-14 are the saddest verses in the Bible. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it is. People aren’t lost because God doesn’t love them. People are lost because they don’t love God. And that describes the “many,” not the “few.”
Sad, indeed.