OK so I can't help myself compare to the KJV and see it does get some things similar sometimes! Note the theme here though people! Even of those who have found the Way there will be few selected even though many were appointed! Why is that and what is the difference you wonder? This is not regarding salvation! That is your first hint! It is about the purification, the making white, the preparing of a Bride to which many who think they belong do not actually belong! Yeshua is of Yehudah and Yehudah is of Israel and as such according to His commandments must take a wife of Israel. Now we know God fulfilled His promise to Avraham and Yitzchak and Yacov and filled the earth with His descendants, 7 billion or so! But what did Yeshua say? He said, not all Israel is Israel.(Romans 9:6) Yeshua brought the promise of the new covenant(Yeremiyahu 31:31) with which came the promise of a new priesthood, a royal priesthood loyal only to God! Not of the flesh but of the Spirit. The marks of which are faith, hope and love. Any of these appointed people who do not conform to the Word of God will forfeit their selection as kings and priests. Just as the Cohanim(the Levite priesthood) had hygiene laws, purity laws so this new royal priesthood must be pure and it is God Himself Who has purified these people and it is only those who are called the Ekklesia(the called out ones) called out of the tribes of Israel to serve God in this new function that Yeshua brought into being among Israel. There are many appointed, called but few have answered that call just as Yeshua had foretold. Many who sit in "churches", man made organisations who seek to quench the Holy Spirit at every turn by preferring their man made programs over the leading of the Holy Spirit. They quench the Spirit and then claim to know His will and claim to hear Him when clearly they do NOT. He will never force His will upon mankind, the choice is freely up to the individual. There is a time coming and it is coming soon when things will turn around though and He will rule this world with an iron staff for a thousand years and things will be very different. Evil will no longer be tolerated in any shape or form. That includes the love of self which permeates today's society. People who invent their own gods in their heads claiming he is the one from the Bible when clearly their god does not conform to the One in the Bible, the True God, Yeshua! These people, whether they claim to be christians or whatever are idolaters and face the punishment of idolatry given in God's Word, the punishment is death! Yeshua did not come to do away with the law but to fulfil it. Only by being born again in Truth and by the Holy Spirit hearing His voice and obeying do we find ourselves in God's will and avoid that death penalty. Yeshua therefore warns the complacent, the lukewarm, the ones who have lost their first love(Him) that if they do not repent(rethink) soon they will have their lampstand removed meaning the Holy Spirit so the false doctrine of once saved always saved is not biblical. Even to the adulteress who was about to be stoned He said go and sin no more, meaning live in obedience to Me said Yeshua! Ignoring His warnings comes with dire results! Make sure you have ears to hear people! Get out of the world and into God's Kingdom and obey His Word and Spirit.
Textus Receptus Greek:
Matthew 7:14 οτι στενη η πυλη και τεθλιμμενη η οδος η απαγουσα εις την ζωην και ολιγοι εισιν οι ευρισκοντες αυτην
KJV version:
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Literal translation of the Greek:
Matthew 7:14 because narrow is the gate and crowded(afflicted, distressed)the way leading unto life and few are they that find it.
Textus Receptus Greek:
Mat 20:16 ουτως εσονται οι εσχατοι πρωτοι και οι πρωτοι εσχατοι πολλοι γαρ εισιν κλητοι ολιγοι δε εκλεκτοι
KJV version:
Mat 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Literal translation of the Greek:
Matthew 20:16 so they are the last, first and the first, last. For many are appointed but few selected
Textus Receptus Greek:
Mat 22:14 πολλοι γαρ εισιν κλητοι ολιγοι δε εκλεκτοι
KJV version:
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Literal translation of the Greek:
Matthew 22 :14 because many are appointed but few selected