Matthewchapter 7
29 verses · BSBMatthew book hub →
Speaks with:Luke 6×8Luke 13×4James 1×3Galatians 5×3Luke 11×3Romans 2×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The Sermon on the Mount concludes. Judge not; ask, seek, knock; the narrow gate; false prophets known by their fruits; not every one that saith 'Lord, Lord'; the two houses built on rock and on sand. Matthew closes with the crowds astonished. Jesus taught as one having authority, not as the scribes.
Context
Gospel · Matthew — Matthew overview
- A. 1–6 Judge Not: the Beam in Your Own Eye
- B. 7–12 Ask, Seek, Knock; Good Gifts From a Father
- C. 13–20 Two Gates, Two Trees, and False Prophets
- D. 21–29 Two Builders and the Foundations They Chose
The outline
A.Judge Not: the Beam in Your Own Eyevv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.Ask, Seek, Knock; Good Gifts From a Fathervv. 7 to 12
Read vv. 7 to 12 →C.Two Gates, Two Trees, and False Prophetsvv. 13 to 20
Read vv. 13 to 20 →D.Two Builders and the Foundations They Chosevv. 21 to 29
Read vv. 21 to 29 →
The world behind this chapter
Matthew 7The history
Dogs and pigs in that world were not pets. Dogs ran in scavenging packs outside the towns, and pigs were unclean animals kept by Gentiles. Both were bywords for what was filthy and dangerous.
The rule about doing to others what you want done to you had a well-known cousin. Rabbi Hillel, a generation earlier, had summed up the Law as not doing to your neighbour what you hate. Jesus turns it around into something active, which costs a great deal more.
The closing picture is a builder's warning, and Galilee makes it vivid. Many valleys there are wadis — dry, sandy channels that are pleasant flat building ground for eleven months and become torrents within minutes of a winter storm. Digging down to bedrock was slower, harder work, and it was the only thing that mattered when the water came.
Fruit inspection was ordinary sense in an agricultural village. Thornbushes and thistles grow in the same ground as vines and figs, and from a distance the tangle can look similar. You wait for the harvest.
What it meant to them
The crowd's reaction is the historical detail that matters most: he taught as one having authority, and not as their scribes. A scribe argued by citing the chain of teachers behind him. This man cited no one.
For Matthew's readers, the warning about those who prophesy and cast out demons in his name and are still unknown to him was pointed. Membership in the movement was not the test. Doing the Father's will was.
Sources cited
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Matthew 7. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 12 · Bookends: the same words open and close
PERICOPE/BOOK. 'The Law and the Prophets' brackets the body of the Sermon on the Mount (5:17 'to fulfil the law and the prophets'; 7:12 'this is the law and the prophets'), naming its subject. Verbatim catchphrase.
Matthew 5:17→Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
ASV/WEB text; Wikipedia Matthew 7:12; Theopolis 'Structure of the Sermon'
v. 17 · Judged by its fruit
'Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit' (G2590 + dendron G1186): the 'known by its fruit' sayings make the vine discourse's demand; the fruit of the Spirit is how the good tree is known.
Galatians 5:22→But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
(Matt 3:10 -> 7:17 -> John 15:2 fruit-test chain)
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.