This Is How the ‘Narrow Road That Leads to Life’ Looks Like According to Franklin Graham

Nov 01, 2016 11:02 AM EDT

Evangelist Franklin Graham tackles one of the most popular verses in the Bible describing the road that leads to destruction and the road that leads to life.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus gave a narrative about two different gates with two different destinations: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

Graham, president of the Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said he used to think of these as two separate roads, with one looking like a wide highway and the other looking like a small dirt road.

“I’ve always thought of the wide road as a large, broad interstate-type highway running through a valley,” he wrote on a Facebook post. “And I pictured the narrow road as a tiny, winding, rough road—kind of like some of the ones we have in the mountains where I live.”

However, his understanding changed when he heard a wise interpretation of these verses from his mother, the late Ruth Bell Graham.

According to Graham, his mother said she only saw one big road, and the narrow road was right in the middle of that big road. The people in the narrow road went in the opposite direction as everyone else.

This description, said Graham, was “right on target.”

“When you think about it, that’s a pretty good description isn’t it?” he wrote. “The world is heading full speed down the wide road toward destruction. But those who follow Jesus Christ in obedience and faith are going in the opposite direction.”

He said those who follow Christ and risk going against popular opinion will be hated by the world as they choose to live by the standards of God’s Word. They will be viewed as weird and, sadly, will not belong to the majority of voices that the world listens to.

“We face difficulties and obstacles—we will be ridiculed, mocked, and even hated. And we’re going to be in the minority, living as a ‘peculiar’ people and operating by a different set of standards that are found in God’s Holy Word,” he said.

Graham said the message of the verses is a “sobering thought.”

He ended his post with a question: “Which road are you on today?”