The Apostle Paul asked, “. . . [D]o you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” Which Gate/Which Place Are You Seeking to Enter? Heaven or Hell?

The "Eye of the Needle Gate" in ancient Jerusalem's Wall. Recalling what Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the 'eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom.'"

A Devotional Reading for May 7, 2025

From the Pen of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress

The Straitness of the Gate [1]

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”

I Corinthians 6: 9a.

The straitness of this gate is not to be understood carnally, but mystically. You are not to understand it, as if the entrance into heaven was some little pinching wicket. No, the straitness of this gate is quite another thing. This gate is wide enough for all them that are the truly gracious and sincere lovers of Jesus Christ. But so strait as that not one of the other [kind] can by any means enter in: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter” (Psalm 118: 19-20). By this word Christ Jesus has showed unto us that without due qualifications there is no possibility of entering into heaven; the strait gate will keep all others out. When Christ spoke this parable, he had doubtless his eye upon some passage or passages of the Old Testament with which the Jews were well acquainted. I will mention . . . [one].

The place by which God turned Adam and his wife out of paradise. Possibly our Lord might have his eye upon that. For though that was wide enough for them to come out at yet it was too strait for them to go in at. But what should be the reason for that? Why, they had sinned; and therefore God “placed at the east of that garden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3: 24). “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6: 9-10).

[1] “Straitness” is defined as distress; difficulty; pressure from narrowness of circumstances or necessity of any kind, particularly from poverty; want; scarcity. Bunyan’s spelling retained here for emphasis.