Chapter 7
The Sermon on the Mount continues here. Matthew's version is by far the most extensive and detailed on this teaching. It may be that only Matthew records it and the one in Luke is at a different time and place...we are not sure. Starts with "Judge not, that you be not judged." The way we view the failures of others will determine how God views our failures. This doesn't say we should never notice the sin in other's lives. Not that at all. But if we abandon others because of their sin, then God will do likewise with us. If we want Him to forgive us, we must first forgive others. This fits with the next verses about cleaning up our own sins before we get harsh with others. If we behave like "hanging judges" to others, when we have even worse sins in our own lives, then we cannot expect God to give us a light sentence. This goes right along with all those lists of sins in the epistles that are followed with "And so were some of you..." or something similar. I think the point is that we are to be far more "judgemental" of ourselves than others, we should spend far more time finding our own faults and pointing them out than we do finding faults in others. Because...the quicker and more harshly we judge others reflects how we will be judged. So ... who is this part of the message for, the saved or the unsaved? I'm sure both were in the audience. If addressed to the unsaved, then it means a harsher/hotter place in hell. If to the saved, then a much diminished reward in heaven if harsh judgement and little forgiveness characterize our lives. I can't help but think of all the "Her dress is too short", or "I hate the bells" or the "they only come for Sunday morning preaching" comments I've heard - and made - over the years. We could make an argument that he's talking to either one or both...We know he spoke in parables later in order to lessen the punishment of those who rejected his message, so it could be to them. And we know that the saved will also be judged for what they did with the resources and opportunities they had. So probably both. One of those sections that has a wide range of possible expositions.
Then this verse:
6 "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. [Mat 7:6 ESV]
What in the world is this about? Why is it here, after the judging stuff? How does this fit with the first five verses? MSB note is unsatisfactory. Says this verse is about how we handle the gospel in the face of those who hate the truth. MSB says this is why Jesus didn't do miracles for unbelievers. But he did! He healed EVERYONE that came to him. Especially he healed the lame man at Bethesda, who later turned him over to the Pharisees! So MSB note doesn't really help at all. Maybe I'll understand it next time. (Maybe the dogs and the swine are those who continually reject our goodwill toward them? Dogs are not very discriminating. They will eat tainted meat, "unholy" food, if they are hungry. They don't even have to be starving. Pigs eat as long as you feed them. Pure gluttons, pure takers. All about their own bellies. Hmm...this seems to be on the right track.....?)
2020 - No, not a lot better this year either. It starts with not judging, but then focuses on not judging others more harshly than we judge ourselves. It doesn't really emphasize not judging at all, but directs us to judge ourselves first, and more harshly, than we judge others. Because the way we judge others in comparison to ourselves is the standard God will use to judge us. Definitely NOT saying we shouldn't judge AT ALL. (vs 16 of this chapter in fact REQUIRES that we judge others). Then...dogs and pigs???? Hmmm...after this section, there is a change of direction, from accountability for our thought life to our prayer life, and eternity, and the basis for living our lives. So the dogs and pigs are in fact part of what came before, not the introduction to what comes after. Could this be about ALL that came before? Could it mean don't turn the other cheek to those who can never appreciate it? Don't give your cloak to those who will never be satisfied, never stop asking? Is it saying that we must use judgement - but the same judgement we apply to ourselves - in applying the principles just laid out for us? Is this the "You are not a doormat" section? The warning that some are so callous and dark and sinful that even our witness of not reciprocating their evil won't get through to them? Hmm...maybe. The verses do imply that being generous/kind/forgiving to dogs or pigs is a waste of time, and is likely to just incite the worst in them instead of inspiring change. Maybe that's what it means. Or maybe, it will finally clear up next year.
2021 - Nope. Still don't understand this verse. How can it go from "don't be too judgmental" to "judge some so harshly that you abandon/avoid them, because they will be forever takers". Yet...that seems the most "accurate" interpretation. This way of looking at it would tie in with the fundamental truth that some will never accept. It implies that these are those we know well, and that even when given all the "slack" in the world, still turn against us. I can't help but think of how Kiley treated Wil, how Bekah treated Wil, how Kristy treated Wil. He cut them all a ton of slack, and overlooked some very serious problems. And like dogs, they all chose to eat their own turds instead of try for something better. Ultimately, I think we do have to judge, and the patience we exercise before "turning away" is the patience we also will receive. AND, that means this part of the sermon is directed to BOTH the saved and the unsaved. So it took three years...but I think maybe I'm finally getting it.
2022 - This is the relevant part of the definition - actually of the usage - of this word in the NT: metaphorically (in various (but always reproachful) senses; often so even in Homer) a man of impure mind, an impudent man (cf. Lightfoot on Phil. l. s.): Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2; Revelation 22:15. Always reproachful. Don't be like a dog. Dogs are always bad. Impure of mind, impudent in attitude. Impudent means marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others. Dogs look after themselves. The biggest dog gets the most food. One dog will gladly happily let another dog starve before it will go without food for itself. Dogs don't care. This is so confusing Right after saying do not judge, we are told to judge - to recognize - dogs and pigs and not lavish good things on them. Dogs don't get what is holy - because dogs clearly will not benefit from anything but discipline, and will only accept that if it means more to eat. Don't throw pearls to pigs, who won't use the pearls to make themselves more attractive, to clothe themselves in better behavior, but will instead squash the pearls into the mud in their zeal to reach the slop. The valuable pearls are valueless to pigs, who prefer more food instead. This does not say to abandon dogs and pigs, nor does it say they ought to be eliminated from the earth. But don't go beyond basic kindness. Don't let the dogs starve, but don't give them royal robes on which to sleep.
But still...Judge not, but don't give pearls to the rabble? How is that not a complete contradiction?
Ahhh....Maybe we are right back to what was said in 5:17-48! Stop looking at the nutritional information on the box and look instead at what you're eating! These verses are contradictory ON PURPOSE! They are supposed to confuse us into deeper study to unravel how they can possibly go together with each other! YES! Why would we treat these verses as "separate" from the overriding theme of this whole sermon! Don't judge, but be prudent in how you allocate the resources available to distribute. Spend your time where it will do the most good!
Now back up a bit..Judge not that you be not judged...Stop applying the "instructions" and think about the implications of the instructions. We are all going to be judged by God. This verse is not God reserving all judgment to Himself. Does God not want us to correct our own children? Are the epistles not full of judging and correction of false teaching and false teachers? Of course they are. This is not about judging, but about having some discretion in doing so - some sense of the intent of the Law. This is about not looking down your nose at those who make mistakes, about not condemning forever those who get off the track. This is about understanding that the purpose of the Law was to contrast the best that we could possibly ever do with God's standard, which is so much higher than that! The Law was to show us how far we are from holiness, but never ever was it meant to be a baseball bat with which to beat those who were less holy than ourselves! Use the bat on others, and you can expect God to judge you the same way. This verse is about HOW we judge, not about whether we should judge.
Wow. Four years it took to finally arrive at this understanding - not only of this confusing little passage, but to develop a "lens" through which to view the entire sermon on the mount. More than that, a lens through which we can finally discern a great portion of the message that Jesus brought to the world. A message NEVER BEFORE HEARD. Do what is RIGHT, even if it clashes with what is written, with tradition, with expectation, with culture. How to know what is right? From the Word and the Holy Spirit within that guides us in understanding.
2023 - The verse before pigs and dogs is about how, once we have "improved our own vision" to a great extent, we can "take the speck out" of our brother's eye. Once we have gained so much understanding, we ought to recognize those who will benefit from what we've learned. We would see that some people have a long way to go before they appreciate the pearls - just as we had to come a long way. Meet people where they are, advance them a bit, but you cannot teach wisdom to a person wallowing in the mud. First you need to show him he's in the mud and needs to go take a shower. Then get some nice clothes on him. And eventually, maybe, he can wear pearls. If we go all the way back to vs 1 with this, then we are to be discerning in our judgment, and realize that we too started from wallowing in the mud and eating our own poop, if we have come to a better place, we ought to be understanding of others, so that God, in like manner, will be understanding of us. 7:1 doesn't mean we are not to judge at all, but that we are to apply judgment "judiciously", according to circumstances. God sees OUR best as filthy rags, and yet chooses to save some.
As an aside, 2021, look at how these other translations deal with such a difficult verse:
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. [Mat 7:6 NLT] Dogs are cut out, but pigs stay in? And actually...the rest of them are pretty synced up with ESV and KJV.
2021 - Next, we get this:
7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [Mat 7:7-8 ESV] The fact that verse 8 sort of reiterates each of the three verbs - ask, seek, knock - makes me wonder if Jesus had a different "circumstance" in mind for each of them, and the point is to seek God's help in all circumstances. or if it is in fact more specific about how to pray, depending on whether it is "I wish I had a...", to "I really need a..." to "I am outside, let me in..."? Or is it merely a rhetorical device, easy to memorize, to remind us to pray? Oh my....I went and looked at the Greek for these two verses. The Greek rhymes. I wish I spoke Greek! It is obviously an easy to memorize passage in Greek. That is the point of the way it's organized, and then the way it is repeated. I really want to "hear" this in Greek! I want to memorize it in Greek! So what this really is is a little poem about praying, followed by a sort of "hammering home" of why you should do it, and how God, being superior to earthly fathers, truly really sincerely WANTS to answer, and wants to have prayers that He CAN answer. Tell Him all that you desire, need, want. He wants to oblige in a perfect way!
2022 - I looked again at the Greek construction of vs 7. Truly "memorizable". I looked how I might write it out here, but it doesn't really work well. Just get a BLB and look at the real words. It isn't that hard to do. And one other thing I notice here. Some action on our part always precedes action on God's part. I don't think that means we have to "earn" everything from him. We know from the previous chapter that he provides for our basic needs anyway - as he does the needs of sparrow and lily. But if we want more than that, we are to request it, we are to get out and seek it - work for it, pursue it - and if we reach an impassable obstacle, knock on the door. Surely for those things we desire, we are expected and required to do our part. To be part of the process, to put our own effort into it. We are likely to have to find our way though the maze of possibilities - to constantly work at finding the RIGHT way to the goal, and we can also expect to run up against closed doors. God can open them, when we come to them, but we are unlikely to find them standing open. We should expect all good things to require effort. If everything in life is easy, then we are coasting. We should seek out a higher goal, a more difficult end...life without struggle, life without effort to overcome, is meaningless.
Possible FB post...To ask is easy. Very little effort. To seek is more difficult - a quest, a journey with an end in mind. Knock is what you do when the door is closed, the way is blocked, you need outside help to get in. Surely there is a lot to this sequence. A hard post to do, but maybe very worthwhile.
2024 - Finally figured out how to show it in Greek. This is the TR, with the line breaks my own.
7:7
αἰτεῖτε καὶ δοθήσεται ὑμῖν
ζητεῖτε καὶ εὑρήσετεκ
ρούετε καὶ ἀνοιγήσεται ὑμῖν
So...Kinda rhymes...kinda doesn't.
2021 - Sooo much learned already this morning. But over an hour on 11 verses. I have to move on, and the two chapters in Genesis are going to get a very "quick" reading.
vss 7-11 show that God is as willing and ready to "spoil" His children as an earthly father does his. Doesn't mean to the point of ingratitude, but surely all earthly fathers want the best, not just the adequate, for their children. God is the same.
The Golden rule...
2020 - I have previously left out the narrow gate. I think this is an extremely important part of this. Jesus says that it will not be easy at all to live according to what he has just laid out. He knows that living a life that contrasts so openly with what the world expects will be a hard thing to do - a constant struggle. Are these verses about salvation, as we've always heard? Or are they about finding the right choices in life, about working through the trash the world piles up atop that one right way? And is it saying that for the most part, we will miss, we will come up short, we will get it wrong, but just occasionally, we'll find the way that Jesus would have done it? It could be this way, but it could also be about both. About salvation and about how we live the rest of our lives.
2022 - Or...do these verses reiterate the conclusion above from vss 7-11 that purpose, that the meaning of life, is found only by effort and struggle, and does not just fall in one's lap? Look for the gate. Pilgrim's Progress makes much of this concept, and of vs 14.
vss 15-20 are about good trees bearing only good fruit. I had a problem here when I read it in NKJV. ESV translates it differently. ESV says that healthy trees bear good fruit, whereas "sick" trees bear bad fruit. This surely is a better translation. If we are habitually ignoring God's will for us, then we aren't going to do many good things, if any. (2023 - We're not going to find the narrow gate!). But if we are in His will, we will get it right a lot more often. I don't think these verses are about total corruption or total perfection - those terms apply to almost no one. But throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to be discerning. There is that Proverb that says even a child's character is shown by his behavior. Remember too that in context, these verses are about false prophets. These verses are about religious leaders - or those who presume to lead by pretense of religion. I think they apply universally...but always remember the context. 2020 - They are about judging our teachers, judging those who would tell us how to live. These verses are not about how we judge ourselves at all, but about how to progress, how to know who we should learn from, ask advice from, and so on. We are STILL talking about judging.
2024 - Or looking back to Ez 18-20, where the lost, no matter the good deeds they do, are not credited for any good. And if saved, the bad does not count against us. Maybe Jesus was looking back at this?
vss 21-23 are some of the scariest in the Bible. How can someone successfully cast out a demon in Jesus' name, and not be a saved person? A house divided against itself! How can we know???? MSB is a big help here...It says that those who "say" Lord Lord, and then present as their credentials the works that they did and not the faith that they have, are resting on their works as their ticket to heaven. In their minds, they say "I did so much good, He has to let me in." Their faith is therefore in themselves, not in God. Lot less scary now...
2022 - This is a reference to the sheep and goat judgment, I believe, though it could apply generically to the GWT. I sort of hear the "When did we not offer you food and water..." complaint against judgment. That phrase, if taken literally, means they NEVER denied a cup of water to Jesus. That is, they NEVER disobeyed the LETTER of the Law. But they did not apply the intent, they did not extend its meaning to all they encountered, they did not ignore Jesus himself, but they ignored the hungry, the lame, the prisoners, the weak, the widows and the orphans. They got the letter right, but completely missed the meaning. Surely this is what Sheep and Goats is about, and surely what these verses in the Sermon on the Mount are about.
2025 - Think about Balaam. We know he is not in heaven, yet he believed in God. Balaam, though thoroughly consumed by greed, was used by God to bless all Israel. There are many Bible stories where God uses less than perfect people to do good for his own. Remember Jesus saying that those who are not against him are for him. Why would God hesitate at doing good for his own if that meant letting someone NOT his own be the conduit, the vessel, the "miracle-worker". Balaam blessed Israel but Balaam's heart was not aligned with God's will. We shouldn't wonder that sometimes a faith healer actually heals someone. Not as proof that the healer is genuine but so God can heal one of his own. These verses ought not be scary to us. Instead, they should explain much to us.
2025 - The proof that the 2025 comment above on 21-23 is right there, following along, in vss 24-27. It is not the size or beauty of the house we build - the works we do - that determines how we live in eternity. What matters is the foundation on which we choose to build. God does not NEED our hearts to be right before using us to do His will. But if they are not right, we will not have the good works we do credited to our account. Ezekiel 18-20 makes this abundantly clear!
Jesus concludes by saying that His words, if taken to heart, practiced, and performed, will build a house that weathers any storm. Confidence in ANY other foundation but His words, THE WORD, will lead to collapse.