Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge others, so that God will not judge you, 2 for God will judge you in the same way you judge others, and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others.”
This is a verse often taken out of context for unbelievers. Someone might be doing something horrid and you say,”Whoa, you shouldn’t be doing that.” Then they respond,”You shouldn’t judge me.” In the scripture’s context it means you should not want to condemn to hell for their actions, after all you never know when you yourself might have failed. The Good News is clear. We’re to forgive others as we have been forgiven by Jesus. If we do not forgive others, we’re in error.Read more here
Matthew 7:3 Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? 4 How dare you say to your brother, “Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
It is okay to give advice to another person on how to avoid sin even if you haven’t conquered it yourself. It is not okay to look down on them when you do it. It is akin to a form of self-righteous judgment to do this.
What is more critical here is putting logs into other people’s eyes. I know I have a problem treating alcohol as a light topic. Some people drink to get drunk, and they can be triggered at the slightest thing. It is better to not talk about drinking at all than to make it sound alluring to a recovering alcoholic. If Jesus is critical about you helping someone else out of sin, just think how bad it is to lead someone into sin.
Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs – they will only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs – they will only trample them underfoot.
I struggle with this verse and I only have limited wisdom here. It is a difficult thing to know why Jesus says not to judge, then ends with classifying people. Jesus knows what he is talking about, but I only have limited scope into this. I do know if you talk about spiritual things around the wrong group of people, they will mock you or worse. Some people hate Christianity, and would rather stick with a sinful lifestyle that come to Jesus in faith. If you witness to the wrong group of people, they will insult you with profanity and so on.
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who seeks will find, and the door will be opened to those who knock. 9 Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? 10 Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? 11 As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
I once prayed for a kid to not wreck his bicycle. Instantly the kid wrecked. It might be because my prayer wasn’t in the kid’s best interest. Wrecking on your bike teaches you things and gives you experience. My prayer might have been a bad prayer at the time. But for the most part, God isn’t going to do the opposite of what you pray.
Don’t fear God*1 so much that you don’t pray to him. Pray to him on every occasion. Ask for blessings on everyone even people who persecute you. God is a good and loving God. He won’t twist your words around to give you something harmful. God knows exactly what you mean more than what your words define.*2 And God hears you.
Matthew 7:12 “Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.
This is one of the most important things Jesus preached. Jesus wants us to follow the golden rule. We’re called to be good and loving to everyone. This is an allusion to the coming Heaven when everyone follows this rule. We’ll all be good and loving to each other, which is where peace is at. We’ll even be concerned with other’s well being, and make so many friends, that it will be amazing.
Matthew 7:13 “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. 14 But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.
Jesus is telling us to take the straight and narrow path. We should avoid veering off to distractions and things that aren’t in the morally white spectrum. There are lots of activities the unbeliever falls into to give their life meaning, but we’re not to accept idols or a sinful lifestyle. Many things that are morally grey might be acceptable with a lot of love and faith, but we should aim for perfection and not do anything which might lead us off the path of the cross.
Matthew 7:15 “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. 16 You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. 17 A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. 20 So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do.
This is pretty straightforward. We’re called not to judge, but discern. If someone is teaching contrary to the Bible and living a wild lifestyle, then they’re not to be concerned about. The reason you don’t concern yourself with teachers living contrary to what the Bible teaches is that they’re bad fruit and false teachers.
If someone claims to be a prophet, but isn’t right 100% of the time, disregard him. All the prophets sent by God in the Bible have 100% prediction rating. In fact be very much on guard by anyone even claiming to be a prophet as the Bible has everything wrapped up already. I can’t say with full certainty that no prophets will come, but it seems really unlikely. There is no record of any prophet of God existing past John of Revelations back about 2000 years ago.
If someone claims to be a faith healer, and attempts to heal, he should heal 100% of the time. To fail in a healing is to show this person is a fraud and should be disregarded. There are no true, famous, faith healers today or they’d be going from hospital to hospital making everyone’s lives better. The way faith healing is normally done is that people pray to God for the healing, and then God chooses if it is best for his plan to do the healing or not. Don’t seek out faith healers, but petition God. Be at peace if God answers the prayer or not as we’ll end up in Heaven eventually.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. 22 When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God’s message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ 23 Then I will say to them, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’
Jesus is saying you can’t just call yourself a Christian and then not obey Jesus. There are lots of people throughout history who have done evil, but called themselves Christian. This is different than the “No True Scottsman” fallacy. A Scottsman has no code to follow to be a Scottsman. A Christian has a code he has to follow. If a Christian isn’t loving and trying to be good, they’re not acting like a Christian is called to by Jesus. This is a good way of thinking about this verse.*3
Matthew 7:24 “So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, and the wind blew hard against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock. 26 “But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, the wind blew hard against that house, and it fell. And what a terrible fall that was!” 28 When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowd was amazed at the way he taught. 29 He wasn’t like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.
Jesus is the one true foundation on which we build our lives. He is the only rock you can build upon. Anyone who builds their life upon something else than Jesus might build high and wide. A person can look at someone’s house which has no foundation and go,”That’s a great house. That guy has it all together.” But when the wind and the waves come they can shake the house with no foundation leaving it in rubble and the person’s life can be in shambles. So build upon the foundation and cornerstone known as Jesus, and your house will stand when trouble comes and goes.
-Jim Sager
*1 Commentary by Victor Nunez:The fear of God is a reverent, worshipful type of fear. It isn’t the kind of fear that the Bible tells us “do not fear” in regards to. You want to fear God in the sense of respect, but don’t let that get in the way of your open lines of communication with Him.
*2 Commentary by Victor Nunez:In case you cannot find the proper words to convey your position or request to God, remember that God understand our hearts and minds better than we ourselves do. The key is to communicate sincerely and approach him in a state of humility, God will be able to distinguish the silent prayers of your heart and mind. Do not feel intimidated or burdened by your prayer life.
*3 Commentary by Victor Nunez:Believers should feel compelled by the Holy Spirit to bear good fruits. The Bible says that we’ll be able to distinguish believers from non-believers by their fruit.Matthew 12:33 GNT “To have good fruit you must have a healthy tree; if you have a poor tree, you will have bad fruit. A tree is known by the kind of fruit it bears.” Another integral component of the Christian lifestyle is that nobody who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior wants to barely make it to heaven after they’ve been saved. We should feel a desire to repent from our sins and turn to God for a continual source of forgiveness and inspiration to continue fighting the good fight of faith. When the Holy Spirit has led you to embrace the call of Jesus, you’ll most certainty want the outward appearance of your life and habits to reflect that inward change. If nobody notices any differences, this is likely an indicator that there is something wrong.