This page is a quick overview of Matthew 7 with links to additional detailed material.

To keep the overview concise, the actual Greek words are omitted.

We start with the rules for "Love your God" and "Love your neighbor".

Here are some verses for context.

• First law: "Love your God" (Matthew 6).
• Second law: "Love your neighbor", Golden rule (Matthew 7)

If one of the two laws are absent, issues result.

More: Both love your God and love your neighbor as yourself needed

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 7. Let us search (examine) the scriptures by first looking at the narrow/strait gate and the wide gate.

More: Matthew 7:3-23 A splitting feat of how the swine flew on pearls at a wide gait

We will refer to the narrow/strait gate to life as the narrow gate to heaven. Few find it. By application only.

We will refer to the wide gate to destruction as the wide gate to hell. Many find it. You are pre-approved.

• Everyone chooses or gets selected for one gate.
• No one can avoid the gates.

In terms of the sheep and goats parable, the narrow gate appears to refer to the sheep while the wide gate appears to refer to the goats.

• The word "judge" means "selecting between alternatives" such as innocent or guilty, good or bad, heaven or hell, etc.
• Greek has two words for "not". The word "not" here means subjective within context and not an absolute unqualified "not".
• The two verses are all one thought. The first verse needs the second one for understanding. This means everyone will be "judged" for the "narrow/strait gate" or the "wide gate".

In the context in which Jesus is speaking, the "judge" verses appear to refer to deciding and/or selecting whether someone will go to hell (wide gate to destruction) or heaven (narrow/strait gate leading to life).

More: Matthew 7:1-2 Here comes the judge, but just barley

• The Greek for "pull out" is "cast out", used often for the casting out of demons (twice in the next chapter)
• The Greek for "eye" comes from the words for "hole" and "chamber" - into the "heart" of the person.

This verse has a nice interpretation, heard in many sermons, of hypocrisy. You are seeing things that are not actually there.

On careful analysis, the religious establishment does not appear to be hypocritical when Jesus uses the term "hypocrites" (and that is not what the word meant then). The religious establishment believed what they were doing and saying. However it was not in touch with reality since it ignored the "Love your neighbor"

More: An actor as a hypocrite is not real

Here is a paraphrase of the above in the context of the chapter.

You actors. You pretenders. Get in touch with reality and truth. First remove the demons (as in brood of vipers) from yourself. Then you will be able to remove the demon from your brother. (But, from the earlier verses, who gave you the decision as to who is going to hell and who is going to heaven?)

The truth Jesus talks about is the truth of reality. For more information, see the following.

More: Hebrew truth as reality

More: Greek truth as reality

Then Jesus gives a warning about the religious establishment.

• Giving your spiritual future and decisions (your pearls) to a sheep-dog or a wolf-dog is not a good idea.
• That sheep-dog or wolf-dog may cast your pearls (special gems leading to the narrow gate) to swine.
• Those pearls can become darkened and lead you to the wide gate.
• The Greek for "rend" is "divide" or "burst" as in a "house divided".

For more information, see the following.

Matthew 7:6-12 The hunt for holy hounds
Matthew 13:45-46 Sixth kingdom parable: pearl of great price
Divide and conquer or be conquered

The sequence "ask", "seek" and "knock" appears many times in the GNT (Greek New Testament), both explicitly and implicitly.

• One can ask to seek and knock for the narrow/strait gate.
• One can ask to seek and knock for the wide gate.

If you knock on the wide gate (leading to destruction and hell) it will be opened for you.

• This can be God giving good gifts.
• This can be the (evil) world giving good gifts.
• This can be human organizations giving bad gifts.

The first type of gift appears to fit the "ask" part of "ask", "seek" and "knock".

The second type of gift appears to fit the "seek" part of "ask", "seek" and "knock".

The third type of gift appears to fit the "knock" part of "ask", "seek" and "knock".

Matthew has only the first two. Luke has all three parts.

Luke adds the "knock" (with possible "surprise") part.

More: A scatter-brained approach to the sting of a scorpion

On the surface, these statements appear to lack significant logical meaning.

• Those being evil, Jews, non-Jews, Christians, secular people, etc., give good gifts to their children.
• The Father in heaven does so too, even more. That is nice.

If everyone does this, what then is the meaning? It can often as important as what is not said as to what is said? Who would not give good gifts but, instead, give the not good gifts? These declarative statements need some verses at the end of the chapter to complete the picture - the houses built on rock and on sand. Those people in the human sand infrastructure are the ones that would not give good gifts to their "children" as in followers, flock, etc. Examples include the Sadducees and Pharisees, and, later, many Christian church infrastructures (throughout the ages) who would rather take advantage of their flock than give them good gifts (or guidance or teaching, etc.).

Who would give bad gifts to their children? Not parents and children, not the Heavenly Father. Who?

Jesus will not "condemn" in his first coming. He does that by stating the truth, or by omission - which must be inferred.

Who would give bad gifts to their children?

A wolf-dog, as part of the religious establishment, would give their "children" bad gifts.

This is the "Love your neighbor" and is the central focus of this chapter and what the religious establishment is missing. They were doing the "Love your God" rule.

Discussion question: What happens if the "Love your neighbor" is observed but not the "Love your God" rule? Might Jesus need to come back again?

What happens when a sheep-dog is really a wolf-dog?

• Dogs and wolves can interbreed.
• A sheep-dog goes around keeping the sheep in line.
• The title and Greek word for "bishop" meant "over seer" or "visitor" as someone who went around keeping the flock (sheep) in line.

Sheep-dogs or wolf-dogs can be in formal or informal positions of authority.

Jesus provides a decision procedure to help determine if a dog is a sheep-dog or a wolf-dog.

There is a surprise waiting.

When one asks, seeks and knocks, there may be some surprises. What is the gate on which you seeking to knock?

The "casting out demons" is in line with the earlier verses on the beam and the mote where the mote is a "demon" and the beam is a greater "demon" (such as Satan).

The Greek word "house" is in the English words "economy" and "ecology".

• The rain, rivers (not floods) and winds beat on the house, not on the foundation.
• The "rock", such as granite, is used many places to refer to Jesus as God.
• Humans are made in the image of God.
• A piece of sand is a "Chip off the old block" is in a small piece of granite made in the image of granite.

The sand appears to be a human infrastructure or hierarchy such as the religious establishment of the day.

Here is a summary diagram of Matthew 7. For more information, see Matthew 7:3-23 A splitting feat of how the swine flew on pearls at a wide gait.

Why were the people "astonished"?

Jesus taught with authority whereas the scribes taught selected parts of the scripture, out of context, using other words and/or definitions, to give their "children" bad gifts to their own benefit while totally ignoring important parts of the law.

The common people knew in their hearts that something was wrong, but they had a hard time identifying that something.

Jesus clearly identified this something using language that the people understood - but whose meaning was somewhat not fully recognized by the religious authorities.

To see this, one must get to the original meanings of the words, as above, and not let those words be obscured or changed by the religious authorities.

What if the religious establishment adhered to the "Love your neighbor" but ignored "Love your God"?

If the religious establishment adhered to the "Love your neighbor" but ignored "Love your God" we might have the following.

• Do not "judge" anyone (in the modern sense) for anything. Anything goes, except insisting that we follow the rules of God.
• Do not concern yourself with gates, we are "better together" even if we all go to the wide gate (to hell).
• Anyone passing away who has been part of the church is described as "in heaven".

• The "Love your neighbor" is the most and only rule. Love is the only way.
• We must be inclusive. The other rules of God are less important than love. Love is god.
• Do not build your house on sand of the world, build it on the rock of the church, as Jesus told Peter. (The church hierarchy is a sand organization).
• Do not be a "hypocrite" (in the modern sense). We will let you know what that means.
• Ask for "anything" and you will get it. That is what it says. Is that right?

Some of Satan's arguments.

• To Eve: Did God really say that?
• To Jesus: You should have wealth (bread, money, etc.).
• To Jesus: You should have health (no pain, hurt).
• To Jesus: You should have power (and control).
• In general: Does the Bible really say that?

Whenever I read about Jesus teaching and the reaction of the religious establishment, I think of the following verses. First, Nicodemus.

Paraphrased, Jesus is saying to a religious leader of his time, "In your position as a teacher of the scriptures, you should know these things".

And I think about Jesus at his staged crucifixion hearing.

These "teachers" would load down the people with many rules and teachings, providing entire volumes of what today would be called "academic garbage" when those rules and teaching could be greatly simplified to just a few basic rules: "Love your God" and the "Love your neighbor".

Those teachings might not even be relevant to the problems or solutions as the words and definitions had been changed so much as to make the relevance not meaningful.