Matthew 7 explained: Judge Humbly, Ask Boldly, Build Wisely

Speck and plank (vv. 1-5)

Jesus warns against harsh, condemning judgment of others, because the standard you use on people tends to come back on you. His comic picture of someone with a wooden beam in their own eye picking sawdust from a friend's eye shows how absurd that is, though he still expects you to help once you have dealt with yourself.

Pearls before pigs (v. 6)

Dogs and pigs were seen as unclean animals, so this is a sharp picture of offering something precious to people who will only trample it and turn on you. Interpreters are not sure exactly whom Jesus meant; many read it as a balance to the previous verses, a call for good sense about who is open to hearing.

Ask, seek, knock (vv. 7-12)

Jesus urges persistent prayer and pictures God as a parent who would never hand a hungry child a stone or a snake. He then sums up how to treat people: do for others what you would want done for you, which he says captures the heart of the Jewish Scriptures (the Law and the Prophets).

Two gates, two roads (vv. 13-14)

Two gates and two roads picture two ways of living: an easy, crowded one that ends in ruin and a harder, less traveled one that leads to life. It is a stark warning, and Jesus states it plainly without softening it.

Known by their fruit (vv. 15-23)

Jesus warns of teachers who look harmless but are dangerous, and says you tell them apart the way you tell trees apart, by what their lives produce. Even people who call him "Lord" and point to impressive miracles may hear "I never knew you" if they have not actually done what God wants.

Rock or sand (vv. 24-29)

Hearing Jesus's teaching and living by it is like a house on rock that survives the storm, while hearing and ignoring it ends in collapse. The crowds were struck that he spoke on his own authority, unlike the usual teachers of the law, who generally backed their teaching by citing earlier authorities.

Key verse: Matthew 7:12

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether these demands are meant to be fully lived out now as the path of following Jesus, or mainly to show people how far they fall short and need God's grace, and on how actually doing what God wants fits with being saved by faith.

Something to think about

When a flaw in someone else really bothers you, how often is it one you can also find in yourself?