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
Measuring Your Measure
1“Stop judging, so that you may not be judged.
2For with the judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye?
4Or how will you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, the beam is in your own eye?
5Hypocrite, first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
6“Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet, then turn and rip you to shreds.
7“Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
8For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened.
9“For what man among you, when his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
10Or when he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
12So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you—for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
13“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.
14How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Judging the Fruit
15“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes aren’t gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, are they?
17Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the rotten tree produces bad fruit.
18A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit.
19Every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
20So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’
23Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”
Building on a Firm Foundation
24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and yet it did not fall, for its foundation had been built on the rock.
26Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
27And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
28Now when Yeshua had finished these words, the crowds were astounded at His teaching,
29for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as their Torah scholars.
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