Matthew 7
Matthew 7:1-29 (NLT)
1 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.
2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?
4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?
5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
6 “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.
7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?
10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!
11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
12 “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.
14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.
15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.
16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
17 A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.
18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
20 Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand.
27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
29 for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law.
Because of humility that placed Him powerfully under the authority and direction of His Father, Jesus freely spoke from a position that sounded and looked so different than those who were merely reciting religious jargon. Exposure to this authority, however, came with the responsibility to receive and respond to the Truth spoken so powerfully. Interestingly, His fulfillment of the law, which many want to claim as an escape from it altogether, came with a commitment to a way of life that requires every part of the heart in full engagement. Jesus said in John 14:15 that loving Him is proven by obeying His commands and not running away from any consideration of compliance to a way of life. It would seem that following Him means taking on a discipline that considers every Word He’s spoken to be a personal directive to be embraced, honored, and adhered to with full, heart-felt compliance. Just saying things like, “Lord, Lord,” and even operating in the gifts of the Spirit will have no merit or effect if the loving way of life He’s laid out is shirked for some notion of spiritual ascendence. This teaching occurred before the work of the cross, but its heart and message were not annulled by it. He wasn’t just showing how impossible it is to ever be like Him, and therefore, that it doesn’t matter. He was revealing what the new creation in Christ would be empowered to look like and the fruit that would be born when the old man would die, and it would only be Him living inside.
There is a walk we’ve been enabled to walk with confidence, boldness, and authority, looking and sounding like the Master. It’s who we are, known by the fruit we bear, and it will look like someone who has ingested Jesus’ words as their bread and water of life. They’ve become what they’ve faithfully consumed.