Only 2 ways

There are according to Jesus only 2 ways, hard and easy (there is no middle way), entered by two gates, broad and narrow (there is no other gate) trodden by two crowds, large and small (there is no neutral group), ending in two destinations, destruction and life (there is no third alternative). It is hardly necessary to comment that such talk is extremely unfashionable today. People like to be uncommitted. Every opinion poll allows not only for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, but for a convenient ‘don’t know’. Men are lovers of Aristotle and of his golden mean. The most popular path is the *via media*. To deviate from the middle way is to risk being dubbed an ‘extremist’ or a ‘fanatic’. Everybody resents being faced with the necessity of a choice. But Jesus will not allow us to escape it!

From the ‘Message of the Sermon on the Mount’ (The Bible Speaks Today Series: Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1978), p. 196. Excerpted from ‘Authentic Christianity’ by John Stott, p. 192, by permission of IVP.