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Luke 13:24
ESV “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
NIV Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
NASB Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
CSB "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won't be able
NLT Work hard to enter the narrow door to God’s Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.
KJV Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

What does Luke 13:24 mean?

Jesus is traveling and teaching (Luke 13:22). Most of His lessons have to do with the kingdom of God: what it is and how people should enter it. A man has just asked him, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" (Luke 13:23). He may be thinking of the many times Jesus proved that the Pharisees and scribes—the Jewish religious leaders—do not live out God's expectations for His people (Luke 11:14–23, 29–32, 37–54; 13:10–17). If the Pharisees can't get in, who can (Matthew 5:20)?

Jesus turns the question around to show the more important facet. The crucial point isn't knowing the number of people in heaven. It's knowing how to get to heaven. It's not the size of the crowd that matters but the size of the door. And the door is very narrow.

The door is God's grace through faith: that God is faithful and will fulfill what He promises. For Noah, it meant building the ark (Hebrews 11:7). For Abraham, it meant leaving his home and trusting that God would give him an heir (Hebrews 11:8–12, 17–19). For Jacob and Joseph, it was that their descendants would inherit the land God promised to Abraham (Hebrews 11:21–22).

For the Israelites, faith was a little more complicated. They needed to believe that YHWH is their God and they are His people, but they needed to express their faith through obedience (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28). Even then, however, their salvation was based on the grace of God that willingly forgave all who repented of their sin (Luke 13:5). What the door doesn't entail is any attempt to earn God's favor by following the Mosaic law or even the extra-biblical rules the scribes added, as the Pharisees do (Luke 11:37–52; 13:14).

Jesus' death and resurrection clarified the door's boundaries. Salvation is by grace through faith in God's promise that those who accept Jesus as their Savior will be saved (Ephesians 2:8–9). But the door is also narrow in that it will not be open for long. First, because our lives are fleeting and we may die at any moment (Luke 13:1–5). Second, because Jesus may return at any moment and effectively shut the door (Luke 13:25).

What does the door lead to? The house of the master and the table of God (Luke 13:25, 29). The Jews would understand this as the great feast in God's presence in the afterlife: the epitome of deep fellowship (Matthew 7:7–8, 13; 22:1–14; 25:1–13; Luke 12:37; 14:15–24).

"Strive" infers a fight or struggle. It is from the same Greek root word from which we get "agony." It doesn't mean we need to put intense effort into an attempt to earn salvation. Rather, this counters the lazy rejection of those who "seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand" (Matthew 13:13). These same people can predict the weather by observing basic natural phenomena but refuse to contemplate the significance of Jesus' miraculous works (Luke 10:13–15; 12:54–56).
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