The Path of Life

A strategic Christian follows God’s righteous path in the land of the living. The Bible tells us that the path of life is not an easy one, as we know all too well in today’s culture, but God promises “to smooth the path for the righteous” (Isaiah 26:7). Those who stay the course will be blessed!

A Christian’s Journey

John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, first published in 1678, represents the Christian life quite well. It tells the story of a man’s journey from the city of Destruction to the Celestial City, through many trials and temptations. At the start of the pilgrimage, Evangelist tells the main character, Christian, to stick with the path that leads to the narrow gate and he will find everlasting life. Jesus describes two different gates in His “sermon on the mount”:

“Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, CJB)

In another passage, Jesus tells us that He alone is the gate that gives abundant life. “I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe…The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure” (John 10:9-10). In contrast to the thief (who is our adversary the Devil), our Savior is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).

Staying On Course

Another character that Christian encounters in Bunyan’s story is Worldly Wiseman, who offers him a shorter and easier path that promises to be less burdensome. Christian learns a hard lesson when he sees that this wicked man almost led him to destruction. Thankfully, Evangelist intervenes and turns Christian back from the “forbidden paths”.

Likewise, we have a choice to make when life-stealing temptations of this world entice us. God’s wisdom, found in Proverbs 3:5-6, tells us to:

Trust in Adonai with all your heart; do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him; then He will level your paths.

God levels our paths for our own good but also for the sake of His name (see Psalm 23:1-4). And it is the Holy Spirit who guides us to level ground (Psalm 143:10). The psalmist David prayed, “Make me know Your ways, Adonai, teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth, and teach me; for you are the God who saves me, my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).

The Holy Scriptures are “a light for our path” (Psalm 119:105) that always leads us to the way of truth. We are to carefully stay on course, neither deviating to the right or the left, which means obeying God’s instruction and keeping our feet from evil.

Therefore you are to be careful to do as Adonai your God has ordered you; you are not to deviate either to the right or the left. You are to follow the entire way which Adonai your God has ordered you; so that you will live, things will go well with you, and you will live long in the land you are about to possess. (Deuteronomy 5:29-30, CJB)

Similarly Proverbs 4:25-27 reads:

Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze on what lies in front of you. Level the path for your feet, let all your ways be properly prepared; then deviate neither right nor left; and keep your foot far from evil.

Rest for Our Souls

Until we reach our final eternal destination, we are like pilgrims on a journey in a foreign land. The character Christian reached the Celestial City with a fellow traveler and brother-in-Christ named Hopeful. At the gate of the heavenly city, there was written in gold letters, “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Bunyan, page 279). Other travelers, who did not follow God’s commands and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, were turned away at the gate.

We read in Jeremiah 6:16 that when we stand at the crossroads of various paths that life has to offer, we must chose the Good Way. When we take it, we “will find rest for our souls”. Now is the time to harken this message and chose the Path of Life!

All Scripture taken from the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB). Photo credit: Lightstock.com.

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