< Matthew 7 >
1 Do not judge, that you may not be judged.
2 For, just as you judge others, you will yourselves be judged, and the measure that you mete will be meted out to you.
3 And why do you look at the straw in your brother’s eye, while you pay no attention at all to the beam in yours?
4 How will you say to your brother ‘Let me take out the straw from your eye,’ when all the time there is a beam in your own?
5 Hypocrite! Take out the beam from your own eye first, and then you will see clearly how to take out the straw from your brother’s.
6 Do not give what is sacred to dogs; nor yet throw your pearls before pigs, lest they should trample them under their feet, and then turn and attack you.
7 Ask, and your prayer shall be granted; search, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you.
8 For he that asks receives, he that searches finds, and to him that knocks the door shall be opened.
9 Who among you, when his son asks him for a loaf, will give him a stone,
10 or when he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, wicked though you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in Heaven give what is good to those that ask him!
12 Do to others whatever you would wish them to do to you; for that is the teaching of both the Law and the Prophets.
13 Go in by the small gate. Broad and spacious is the road that leads to destruction, and those that go in by it are many;
14 for small is the gate, and narrow the road, that leads to Life, and those that find it are few.
15 Beware of false Teachers — men who come to you in the guise of sheep, but at heart they are ravenous wolves.
16 By the fruit of their lives you will know them. Do people gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
17 So, too, every sound tree bears good fruit, while a worthless tree bears bad fruit.
18 A sound tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a worthless tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that fails to bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Hence it is by the fruit of their lives that you will know such men.
21 Not every one who says to me ‘Master! Master!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.
22 On ‘That Day’ many will say to me ‘Master, Master, was not it in your name that we taught, and in your name that we drove out demons, and in your name that we did many miracles?’
23 And then I shall say to them plainly ‘I never knew you. Go from my presence, you who live in sin.’
24 Everyone, therefore, that listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it may be compared to a prudent man, who built his house upon the rock.
25 The rain poured down, the rivers rose, the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, for its foundations were upon the rock.
26 And every one that listens to this teaching of mine and does not act upon it may be compared to a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.
27 The rain poured down, the rivers rose, the winds blew and struck against that house, and it fell; and great was its downfall.”
28 By the time that Jesus had finished speaking, the crowd was filled with amazement at his teaching.
29 For he taught them like one who had authority, and not like their Teachers of the Law.
