Diligence Is Needed

Thank God for technology! Tasks that used to take days, weeks and hours to perform have been reduced to minutes, moments and nano seconds. Things that took months of preparation and concentrated forethought are now done without thinking. As a result, society as a whole has become impatient, unthoughtful, callous, inconsiderate and most of all irreverent.

It is our irreverence that is so deadly for it has caused us to do away with diligence. To be irreverent is to be profane; it is the state of having no regard or respect for that which is holy, sacred and divine. Society has reflected its’ irreverence in all strata of life from entertainment to the arts to the education and governmental system. Even the church, God’s called out chosen and baptized believers, have generally become an irreverent caste. Therefore, due diligence has not been given.

Diligence is earnest, persistent, steady effort with full concentration and carefulness. Thus, it is in total opposition to mankind’s and society’s goal to make everything as effortless as possible.

Let’s visit the text of Matthew 7:14:

“Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Here we find Jesus giving illustrative instruction concerning the way to life. He uses for concrete example the city gates of Jerusalem. The gates were varied in name, size and location.

Jerusalem was the site of many pilgrimages and was under Roman occupation at the time. Hence, there were always many people from many different places, in the city, coming and going at all times. As the throngs entered the city they would simply flow toward and through the easiest point of egress which would be one of the wider gates.