Judging Others
7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you
judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be
measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay
no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother,
‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in
your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and
then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If
you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to
pieces.
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and
the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who
seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10
Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you
are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do
to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the
Prophets.
The Narrow and Wide Gates
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the
road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the
gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
True and False Prophets
15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit, you will recognize
them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.
True and False Disciples
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of
heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many
will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and
in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then
I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
The Wise and Foolish Builders
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into
practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came
down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it
did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who
hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish
man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and
the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed
at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as
their teachers of the law.
NOTES:
NOTES:
7:1–12 In Mt 7:1 Matthew returns to the basic traditional
material of the sermon (Lk 6:37–38, 41–42). The governing thought is the
correspondence between conduct toward one’s fellows and God’s conduct toward
the one so acting.
7:1 This is not a prohibition against recognizing the faults
of others, which would be hardly compatible with Mt 7:5, 6 but against passing
judgment in a spirit of arrogance, forgetful of one’s own faults.
7:5 Hypocrite: the designation previously given to the
scribes and Pharisees is here given to the Christian disciple who is concerned
with the faults of another and ignores his own more serious offenses.
7:6 Dogs and swine were Jewish terms of contempt for
Gentiles. This saying may originally have derived from a Jewish Christian community
opposed to preaching the gospel (what is holy, pearls) to Gentiles. In the
light of Mt 28:19 that can hardly be Matthew’s meaning. He may have taken the
saying as applying to a Christian dealing with an obstinately impenitent fellow
Christian (Mt 18:17).
7:9–10 There is a resemblance between a stone and a round
loaf of bread and between a serpent and the scaleless fish called barbut.
7:12 See Lk 6:31. This saying, known since the eighteenth
century as the “Golden Rule,” is found in both positive and negative form in
pagan and Jewish sources, both earlier and later than the gospel. This is the
law and the prophets is an addition probably due to the evangelist.
7:13–28 The final section of the discourse is composed of a
series of antitheses, contrasting two kinds of life within the Christian
community, that of those who obey the words of Jesus and that of those who do
not. Most of the sayings are from Q and are found also in Luke.
7:13–14 The metaphor of the “two ways” was common in pagan
philosophy and in the Old Testament. In Christian literature it is found also
in the Didache (1–6) and the Epistle of Barnabas (18–20).
7:15–20 Christian disciples who claimed to speak in the name
of God are called prophets (Mt 7:15) in Mt 10:41; Mt 23:34. They were presumably
an important group within the church of Matthew. As in the case of the Old
Testament prophets, there were both true and false ones, and for Matthew the
difference could be recognized by the quality of their deeds, the fruits (Mt
7:16). The mention of fruits leads to the comparison with trees, some producing
good fruit, others bad.
7:21–23 The attack on the false prophets is continued, but
is broadened to include those disciples who perform works of healing and
exorcism in the name of Jesus (Lord) but live evil lives. Entrance into the
kingdom is only for those who do the will of the Father. On the day of judgment
(on that day) the morally corrupt prophets and miracle workers will be rejected
by Jesus.
7:23 I never knew you: cf. Mt 10:33. Depart from me, you
evildoers: cf. Ps 6:9.
7:24–27 The conclusion of the discourse (cf. Lk 6:47–49).
Here the relation is not between saying and doing as in Mt 7:15–23 but between
hearing and doing, and the words of Jesus are applied to every Christian
(everyone who listens).
7:28–29 When Jesus finished these words: this or a similar
formula is used by Matthew to conclude each of the five great discourses of
Jesus (cf. Mt 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1).
7:29 Not as their scribes: scribal instruction was a
faithful handing down of the traditions of earlier teachers; Jesus’ teaching is
based on his own authority. Their scribes: for the implications of their, see
note on Mt 4:23.
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