Matthew 7

Do Not Judge

¹ Be not judging, that you not be judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you [yourself] will be judged, and with what measure you measure [others], it shall be measured to you. ³ And why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but do not perceive the log in your own eye? ⁴ Or how will you say to your brother: Let me throw the speck out of your eye, and behold the log in your own? ⁵ Hypocrite! First throw the log out of your own eye, and then you will see straight to be throwing the speck out of your brother's eye. ⁶ Do not give holy [things] to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet¹, and having turned, tear you asunder.

Asking, Seeking, Knocking

⁷ Be asking² , and it will be given to you; be seeking, and you will find; be knocking, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone asking² receives, and [everyone] seeking finds, and to [everyone] knocking it is opened. ⁹ Or what man is among you whose son asks² him for bread, he does not give him [a] stone, [does he]?³ ¹⁰ Or asks² for fish, he does not give him [a] snake, [does he]?³ ¹¹ If therefore you being wicked⁴ know good gifts to be giving to your children, how much more your father in the heavens will give good [things] to those asking² him. ¹² Therefore everything that you wish that men be doing to⁵ you, also be doing to⁶ them. For this is the law and the prophets.

The Narrow Gate

¹³ Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road leading to destruction, and many are those entering through it. ¹⁴ And confined is the way leading to zoe-life⁷ , and few are those finding it.

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵ Be giving heed from the false-prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside are ravishing wolves. ¹⁶ From their fruits you will know them. They do not gather grapes from brambles or figs from [a] prickly plant, do [they]? ¹⁷ Thus every good tree bears good fruit, but the rotten tree bears bad⁴ fruit. ¹⁸ [A] good tree is not able to bear bad⁴ fruit, nor [a] rotten tree to bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree not bearing good fruit will be cut down and thrown in [the] fire. ²⁰ Therefore from their fruits you will know them.

Judgment of Pretenders

²¹ Not everyone saying to me: Lord Lord will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the [one] doing the will of my father who [is] in the heavens. ²² Many will say to me in that day: Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and in your name do many powerful [things]? ²³ And then I will profess to them that I never knew them. Be departing from me you working lawlessness.

Hearing and Doing

²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these my words and does them, he will be like a shrewd man, who built his house upon the rock. ²⁵ And the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and they fell against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been built on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone hearing these my words and not doing them is like [a] stupid man, who built his house on sand. ²⁷ And the rain came down and the rivers came and the winds blew and fell against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

²⁸ And it came to pass [that] when Jesus finished these words, the crowd was shocked by his teaching. ²⁹ For he was teaching them as [one] having authority, and not as their scribes.

¹or "in their swill"

²AITEO "ay-TEH-oh" (αιτεω) "request", "demand", "beg" something for oneself. Far from humbly requesting—it's more like 'demanding'. Jesus uses AITEO only of the prayer of others, not of His own (cf. John.16:26)—and not requesting things for Himself, only for others. AITEO seems to suppose a lesser degree of intimacy than EROTAO (ερωταω), hence AITEO is used of the requests of the disciples to God, but EROTAO of the requests of the disciples to Jesus, and of those of Jesus to the Father ( John.14:16). AITEO is demanding/begging/pleading, EROTAO is polite and friendlier. Both AITEO and EROTAO occur in John.16:26.

³Grammar indicates "no" answer expected or expresses uncertainty

⁴PONEROS (πoνηρoς ) here. The Greek word KAKOS (κακoς ) is always translated `evil', PONEROS is usually translated as `wicked' although occasionally as `bad'; it can also mean 'diseased', 'sickly' and is thus translated where appropriate. Like KAKOS, PONEROS also means `evil', but the harm that evil does is more in view, where KAKOS is more `evil as evil'.

⁵or "for"

⁶or "for"

⁷from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.