Matthew 7

 7:1-14.  When I was a child, the one verse nearly everyone knew was John 3:16, because they thought it meant that everyone who had ever heard of Jesus was going to heaven.  Most people don’t know that verse anymore, but they do know a verse.  That verse is Mt. 7:1.  It is a convenient club to use on any Christian who dares to enter the public square with an opinion on a moral issue (and everything is a moral issue).  According to this use of the verse, there are only social constructs, and no moral absolutes that are true for everyone.

     “Jesus’ point is that most people live by a double standard, one for themselves, and another for others.  Self-centeredness leads to absurd distortions of moral vision.”  Bruce Hemphill.

     7:6 (and 16-20) shows that none of this should hamstring the church from calling sin by its name, or sinners by their name, especially if they are leaders in the church.  Cf. these verses on dogs and swine:  Dt. 23:18;  Is. 56:11;  Ps. 22:16, 20;  Gal. 5:15;  Php. 3:2;  2 Pet. 2:22;  Rev. 22:15.

     Jimmy Carter got trampled when he confessed in a Playboy interview (!) that he was guilty of adultery in his heart (Mt. 5:28).  Dogs and swine despise our pearls.  The gospel should not be forced on those who revel in sin.  Pigs don’t desire pearls;  they desire corn (see John 6:26).

     Other references on judging others:  Ro. 2:1 ff;  14:4, 13;  1 Cor. 4:5;  James 4:11 f.  But Cf. 1 Cor. 5.

     7:7-12.  Cf. 6:33.  In v. 11, “what is good” is called “the Holy Spirit” in Luke 11:3.

     7:12.  Key verse.  Whether you are Mother Teresa or the Marquis de Sade, you were created in the image of God, and you know what God’s standard of morality is by this means;  You know how you wish to be treated.  Everyone, no matter how godless or depraved, wants to be treated kindly, fairly, and honestly.  This is all God requires of you.  Do this, and you shall live.

     7:13.  “No triumph of the gospel, however multiplied, shall ever convert the narrow way into a broad and easy one.”  James Ramsey, Revelation, p. 198.

     7:14.  The gate, (cf. John 10:7, 9, Jesus the door of the sheep).  The way, (cf. John 14:6, “I am the way.”).  See Parable of the Narrow Door, Luke 13:24 ff.

     7:15-23.  Warning against false leaders and teachers in the church.  The test is in the fruit, whether grapes and figs, or thorns and thistles.  Good fruit is obedience to the Law of the kingdom as summarized in v.12.  V.23 quotes Ps. 6:8.  Notice that it is Christ who will do the judging, just as in this Psalm it is the Lord’s anointed (David) who speaks, not God the Father.  See John 5:22, 27.

     7:24-27.  In v.24, faith is not a passive hearing, but the active doing of obedience.  The citizen of the kingdom is not immune to the storms of life, but since his life is founded on the rock of Christ’s word, he will be able to stand.

     7:28-29,  The Word himself had come to explain the Scriptures.  He did not depart from the O.T. revelation, but explained and fulfilled it with the authority of the Author, and the obedience of a servant.