---
title: Matthew 7:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-7-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/matthew-7-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Matthew 7:14
testament: NT
section: Gospels
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Matthew 7:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are finding it."

## JW Usage

Matthew 7:14 is one of the JW responses to growth-as-blessing arguments: "few are finding it" supports the relative smallness of the Watchtower in a world of eight billion people. The verse is also invoked to soften the impact of low retention rates and declining baptisms in developed countries — small numbers are what Jesus predicted, and shrinkage can be reframed as the faithful remnant becoming distinct from a falling-away Christendom.

## Protestant Usage

Read v. 14 with v. 13 as a single paragraph and v. 15-20 as the immediately following warning about false prophets known by their fruits. The "narrow gate" is not a population statistic; it is a description of the costliness of discipleship. And the irony of invoking Matthew 7:14 to defend the 8.7-million JW membership is sharp: 8.7 million is too many to be the "few." You cannot use the small-numbers verse to defend a large number, and you cannot use it to defend a shrinking number while also pointing to global growth as evidence of Jehovah's blessing. Pair Matthew 7:14 with Matthew 7:16-20 (fruit test) — the growth/smallness lever proves nothing without examining what the tree actually produces.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [9 Million Publishers — What the Number Does and Does Not Prove](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jw-8-million-membership.md) — Growth is evidence only if growth is the criterion [Epistemology]