Matthew 7
7
A Simple Guide for Behavior
1-5“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
6“Don’t be flip with the sacred. Banter and silliness give no honor to God. Don’t reduce holy mysteries to slogans. In trying to be relevant, you’re only being cute and inviting sacrilege.
7-11“Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This isn’t a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?
12“Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. Add up God’s Law and Prophets and this is what you get.
Being and Doing
13-14“Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.
15-20“Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practiced sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don’t be impressed with charisma; look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook. These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned.
21-23“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our super-spiritual projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
24-25“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26-27“But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
28-29When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.
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Matthew 7: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Matthew 7
7
Judging Others
Lk 6:37–38, 41–42
1#Lk 6:37; Jas 4:11–12#“Judge not, that you be not judged. 2#Mk 4:24; Lk 6:38For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured again for you.
3#Jn 8:7–9“And why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank that is in your own eye? 4Or how will you say to your brother, ‘Let me pull the speck out of your eye,’ when a log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6#Mt 15:26; Pr 9:7–8“Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn around and attack you.
Ask, Seek, Knock
Lk 11:9–13
7#Mt 21:22; Mk 11:24“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
9“What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? 11#Ge 6:5; 8:21If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! 12#Lk 6:31; Ro 13:8–10; Lev 19:18Therefore, everything you would like men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
The Narrow Gate
Lk 13:24
13“Enter at the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who are going through it, 14because small is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
A Tree and Its Fruit
Lk 6:43–44
15#1Jn 4:1; Mt 24:11; Col 2:8“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16#Mt 12:33; Jas 3:12You will know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17#Mt 12:33–35Even so, every good tree bears good fruit. But a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit. 19#Mt 3:10; Lk 3:9Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20#Mt 7:16Therefore, by their fruit you will know them.
I Never Knew You
Lk 13:25–27
21#Mt 25:11–12; Lk 6:46“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22#Nu 24:4; Mal 3:17–18Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonderful works in Your name?’ 23#Ps 6:8; Mt 25:41But then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practice evil.’#Ps 6:8.
The Two Housebuilders
Lk 6:47–49
24#Lk 6:47–49“Whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. 25And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall, for it was founded a rock. 26And every one who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them will be likened to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it fell. And its fall was great.”
28#Mk 1:22; 6:2When Jesus finished these sayings, the people were astonished at His teaching, 29for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
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