마태복음 Chapter 7

Translation: ESV

1

Judge not, that you be not judged.

Key Message

God alone is the final judge; adopting the posture of condemning others places one under the same divine judgment one applies to others.

▸The concluding section of the Sermon on the Mount opens with one of Jesus' most quoted — and most misunderstood — commands.

The concluding section of the Sermon on the Mount opens with one of Jesus' most quoted — and most misunderstood — commands. 'Judge' (κρίνω, krinō) carries the sense of rendering a verdict, condemning, or pronouncing sentence on another. Jesus does not forbid all moral discernment (cf. v. 16: 'You will recognize them by their fruits'), but the self-exalting posture of condemning others. The passive 'that you be not judged' implies divine judgment: the one who positions himself as judge usurps the role reserved for God.

Related Verses

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
2

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Key Message

The standards by which we judge others become the standards by which we are judged; this paradox calls for merciful rather than harsh evaluation of others.

▸The principle of reciprocal judgment is stated with elegant precision.

3

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Key Message

The harshest critics of others are often most blind to their own significantly greater failures; self-examination must precede all evaluation of others.

▸Jesus deploys a vivid comic hyperbole: a person with a log (δοκός, dokos — a massive beam) in their own eye attempting to remove a speck (κάρφος, karphos — a tiny chip or splinter) from another's eye.

4

Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?

Key Message

Self-appointed correction of others, unaccompanied by rigorous self-examination, is both irrational and hypocritical — however much it may dress itself as care.

▸The rhetorical question makes the irrationality explicit.

5

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Key Message

Genuine community correction is possible and valuable — but it must flow from self-examined, repentant hearts, not from self-righteous blindness to one's own failures.

▸Critically, Jesus does not forbid helping a brother remove a speck — he defers it to after self-examination.

6

Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Key Message

Disciples must exercise wisdom and discernment without judgmentalism: not all sacred truth is to be shared indiscriminately with those who are violently hostile to it.

▸This enigmatic saying creates necessary tension with the call not to judge.

7

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Key Message

The Father responds to persistent, earnest prayer; the triple command-promise assures disciples that heaven is neither locked nor indifferent to those who seek.

▸The three imperatives — ask, seek, knock — form an ascending scale of persistence and urgency in prayer.

8

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Key Message

The Father's generosity is universal and consistent; the promise of answered prayer encompasses all who persistently seek him.

▸Verse 8 restates the promise of v.

9

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

Key Message

Even imperfect human fathers do not mock or deceive their children's genuine requests; the perfect heavenly Father responds to need with faithful generosity.

▸Jesus grounds the promise of answered prayer in the analogy of human fatherhood.

10

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

Key Message

Human fatherhood at its most basic level refuses to harm children who ask for help; this establishes the a fortiori argument for divine generosity that follows.

▸The second example reinforces the first.

11

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Key Message

The infinite superiority of the Father's goodness over fallen human goodness guarantees that those who ask will receive gifts exceeding anything human generosity can supply.

▸The argument reaches its climax.

12

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Key Message

The Golden Rule in its positive form calls for active, imaginative benevolence toward others based on how one wishes to be treated — the practical summary of all ethical teaching.

▸The Golden Rule provides a practical ethical summary connecting the prayer section (vv.

13

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

Key Message

The easy and popular path is the path to ruin; discipleship requires entering through the narrow gate that most reject.

▸Jesus introduces the image of two gates and two ways.

14

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Key Message

The way of discipleship is genuinely demanding and will be chosen by few; its destination — life with God — infinitely justifies its difficulty.

▸The narrow gate and hard way lead to life (ζωή, zōē) — eschatological life in God's presence.

15

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Key Message

Outward religious appearance does not guarantee true teaching; disciples must exercise discernment, examining the fruit rather than the facade of those who claim prophetic authority.

▸The warning against false prophets flows naturally from the two-ways teaching: false prophets are those who appear to guide people toward life but actually lead them toward destruction.

16

You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Key Message

The reliable test of a prophet's authenticity is not their claims or charisma but the moral and spiritual fruit their ministry produces over time.

▸Jesus provides the criterion for discerning true from false prophets: 'their fruits.

17

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Key Message

The inner character of a person inevitably produces its corresponding outward fruit; there is an organic consistency between what one is and what one produces.

▸The agricultural principle is stated universally: healthy (ἀγαθόν, agathon — literally 'good') trees produce good fruit; diseased (σαπρόν, sapron — rotten, corrupted) trees produce bad fruit.

18

A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

Key Message

False prophets cannot sustainably produce the fruit of genuine kingdom character; their true nature will inevitably reveal itself in the fruits they bear.

▸The 'cannot' (οὐ δύναται, ou dynatai) introduces a note of necessity: the connection between inner nature and outer fruit is not merely statistical but essential.

19

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Key Message

The failure to bear fruit is not religiously neutral; unproductive lives face the same eschatological judgment as actively destructive ones.

▸The eschatological consequence of bearing bad fruit is introduced: the unproductive tree is cut down and burned.

20

Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Key Message

Fruit is the reliable, observable, time-tested criterion for discerning true from false prophets; the community of disciples must learn to apply it.

▸The fruit-test principle of v.

21

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Key Message

Profession of faith in Jesus' lordship without obedient response to his teaching does not qualify one for the kingdom; the test is doing, not merely saying.

▸One of the most sobering statements in the Sermon on the Mount.

22

On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'

Key Message

Religious credentials — even impressive miraculous ones — are not the criterion for the kingdom; the question is genuine personal relationship with and obedience to Jesus.

▸'That day' refers to the day of final judgment.

23

And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

Key Message

The final criterion of the kingdom is whether Jesus knows the individual in intimate relationship; religious activity without genuine personal union with him is, paradoxically, lawlessness.

▸Jesus' response is devastating in its finality: 'I never knew you.

24

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Key Message

A life built on hearing and obeying Jesus' words stands on bedrock that survives any crisis; the test of the foundation is not fair weather but the storm.

▸The Sermon on the Mount concludes with the famous parable of the two builders.

25

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

Key Message

The obedient disciple does not escape the storm but stands through it; the foundation determines survival, not the absence of trial.

▸The storm's intensity is described in triple force: rain, floods, winds — all beating on the house.

26

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Key Message

Hearing Jesus' teaching without obeying it is the definitive moral foolishness — building what appears to be a life of faith on a foundation that cannot survive ultimate testing.

▸The contrast: 'does not do them' is the defining characteristic of the foolish builder.

27

And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

Key Message

The final collapse of a life built on hearing without doing will be catastrophic; the greatness of the fall reflects the greatness of the opportunity squandered.

▸The identical storm destroys the second house entirely.

28

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,

Key Message

The Sermon on the Mount produced astonishment even in those who did not fully follow Jesus; its claims and demands exceeded anything previously encountered in religious teaching.

▸Matthew's standard formula for concluding a major discourse block appears here for the first time: 'when Jesus finished these sayings' (ὅτε ἐτέλεσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τοὺς λόγους τούτους, hote etelesen ho Iēsous tous logous toutous).

29

for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Key Message

Jesus' self-referential authority — teaching in his own name rather than by citation — distinguished him from all previous teachers and constituted an implicit claim to divine authority that demanded a response of acceptance or rejection.

▸The ground of the crowds' astonishment is Jesus' authority (ἐξουσία, exousia).