Luke Chapter 13 verse 24 Holy Bible
Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
read chapter 13 in ASV
Do your best to go in by the narrow door, for I say to you, A number will make the attempt to go in, but will not be able to do so.
read chapter 13 in BBE
Strive with earnestness to enter in through the narrow door, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.
read chapter 13 in DARBY
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
read chapter 13 in KJV
read chapter 13 in WBT
"Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able.
read chapter 13 in WEB
`Be striving to go in through the straight gate, because many, I say to you, will seek to go in, and shall not be able;
read chapter 13 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 24. - Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. The Master, as was frequently his custom, gave no direct answer to his questioner, but his teaching which immediately follows contained the answer to the query. The older authorities, in place of "at the strait gate," read "through the narrow door." The meaning of the image, however, is the same, whichever reading be adopted. The image was not a new one. It had been used before by the Lord, perhaps more than once (see Matthew 7:13, 14), and not improbably had been suggested by some town or fortress hard by the spot where he was teaching - a fort on a hill with a narrow road winding up to a narrow door. In the rabbinical schools he frequented in his youth, he might, too, have heard some adaptation of the beautiful allegory known as the 'Tablet' of Cebes, the disciple of Socrates: "Dost thou not perceive a narrow door, and a pathway before the door, in no way crowded, but few, very few, go in thereat?" The teaching of the Master here is, that the door of salvation is a narrow one, and, to pass through it, the man must strive in real earnest. "See," he seems to say; "if only few are saved, it will not be because the Jews are few and the Gentile nations many, but because, of the Jews and Gentiles, only a few really strive. Something different from race or national privileges will be the test at that narrow door which leads to life. "Many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." The reason for the exclusion of these many is to be sought in themselves. They wished to enter in, but confined themselves to wishes. They made no strong, vigorous efforts. Theirs was no life of stern self-surrender, of painful self-sacrifice. To wish to pass through that narrow door is not enough.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(24) Strive to enter in at the strait gate.--See Notes on Matthew 7:13-14. Another instance of general teaching adapted to a special occasion. We note, however, the variation, "strive to enter in"--i.e., struggle as the wrestler struggles (the word being the same as that in 1Corinthians 9:25; 1Timothy 6:12), instead of the simple "enter ye in," and the compression of the whole illustration.
