21 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will go into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the pleasure of my Father in heaven.
But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas.
For it is not the hearers of the law who will be judged as having righteousness before God, but only the doers:
But he said, More happy are they who give hearing to the word of God and keep it.
After that the other virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, let us in. But he made answer and said, Truly I say to you, I have no knowledge of you.
Jesus said in answer, Truly, I say to you, If a man's birth is not from water and from the Spirit, it is not possible for him to go into the kingdom of God.
Do you not see, O foolish man, that faith without works is of no use? Was not the righteousness of Abraham our father judged by his works, when he made an offering of Isaac his son on the altar? You see that his faith was helping his works and was made complete by them; And the holy Writings were put into effect which said, And Abraham had faith in God and it was put to his account as righteousness; and he was named the friend of God. You see that a man's righteousness is judged by his works and not by his faith only. And in the same way, was not the righteousness of Rahab, the loose woman, judged by her works, when she took into her house those who were sent and let them go out by another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without works is dead.
They say that they have knowledge of God, while by their acts they are turning their backs on him; they are hated by all, hard-hearted, and judged to be without value for any good work.
For whoever does the pleasure of my Father in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.
To everyone, then, who gives witness to me before men, I will give witness before my Father in heaven. But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before my Father in heaven.
And said, Truly, I say to you, If you do not have a change of heart and become like little children, you will not go into the kingdom of heaven.
His lord said to him, Well done, good and true servant: you have been true in a small thing, I will give you control over great things: take your part in the joy of your lord.
He who overcomes will be dressed in white, and I will not take his name from the book of life, and I will give witness to his name before my Father, and before his angels.
And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.
My loved ones, if our heart does not say that we have done wrong, we have no fear before him; And he gives us all our requests, because we keep his laws and do the things which are pleasing in his eyes. And this is his law, that we have faith in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love for one another, even as he said to us. He who keeps his laws is in God and God is in him. And the Spirit which he gave us is our witness that he is in us.
Because it is God's pleasure that foolish and narrow-minded men may be put to shame by your good behaviour:
In everything give praise: for this is the purpose of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his love, ever taking thought for you in his prayers, that you may be complete and fully certain of all the purpose of God.
Not only under your master's eye, as pleasers of men; but as servants of Christ, doing the pleasure of God from the heart;
That which my Father has given to me has more value than all; and no one is able to take anything out of the Father's hand. I and my Father are one.
It is simpler for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a man who has much money to come into the kingdom of God.
When the master of the house has got up, and the door has been shut, and you, still outside, give blows on the door, saying, Lord, let us in; he will make answer and say, I have no knowledge of where you come from.
And he said in answer, I will not: but later, changing his decision, he went. And he came to the second and said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not. Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going into the kingdom of God before you.
And Jesus made answer and said to him, A blessing on you, Simon Bar-jonah: because this knowledge has not come to you from flesh and blood, but from my Father in heaven.
Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith. For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name.
And Jesus, looking round about, said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have wealth to come into the kingdom of God! And the disciples were full of wonder at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how hard it is for those who put faith in wealth to come into the kingdom of God!
And he will be ruling them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of the potter they will be broken, even as I have power from my Father:
But some of the Jews who went from place to place driving out evil spirits, took it on themselves to make use of the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I give you orders, by Jesus, whom Paul is preaching. And there were seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jew and a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit, answering, said to them, I have knowledge of Jesus, and of Paul, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, jumping on them, was stronger than the two of them, and overcame them, so that they went running from that house, wounded and without their clothing. And this came to the ears of all those, Jews and Greeks, who were living at Ephesus; and fear came on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was made great. And a number of those who had faith came and made a public statement of their sins and all their acts. And a great number of those who were experts in strange arts took their books and put them on the fire in front of everyone: and when the books were valued they came to fifty thousand bits of silver. So the word of the Lord was increased very greatly and was full of power.
But his answer was: My Father is still working even now, and so I am working.
So will my Father in heaven do to you, if you do not everyone, from your hearts, give forgiveness to his brother.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Matthew 7
Commentary on Matthew 7 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 7
This chapter continues and concludes Christ's sermon on the mount, which is purely practical, directing us to order our conversation aright, both toward God and man; for the design of the Christian religion is to make men good, every way good. We have,
Mat 7:1-6
Our Saviour is here directing us how to conduct ourselves in reference to the faults of others; and his expressions seem intended as a reproof to the scribes and Pharisees, who were very rigid and severe, very magisterial and supercilious, in condemning all about them, as those commonly are, that are proud and conceited in justifying themselves. We have here,
Mat 7:7-11
Our Saviour, in the foregoing chapter, had spoken of prayer as a commanded duty, by which God is honoured, and which, if done aright, shall be rewarded; here he speaks of it as the appointed means of obtaining what we need, especially grace to obey the precepts he had given, some of which are so displeasing to flesh and blood.
Mat 7:12-14
Our Lord Jesus here presses upon us that righteousness towards men which is an essential branch of true religion, and that religion towards God which is an essential branch of universal righteousness.
Here is,
Mat 7:15-20
We have here a caution against false prophets, to take heed that we be not deceived and imposed upon by them. Prophets are properly such as foretel things to come; there are some mentioned in the Old Testament, who pretended to that without warrant, and the event disproved their pretensions, as Zedekiah, 1 Ki. 22:11, and another Zedekiah, Jer. 29:21. But prophets did also teach the people their duty, so that false prophets here are false teachers. Christ being a Prophet and a Teacher come from God, and designing to send abroad teachers under him, gives warning to all to take heed of counterfeits, who, instead of healing souls with wholesome doctrine, as they pretend, would poison them.
They are false teachers and false prophets,
Mat 7:21-29
We have here the conclusion of this long and excellent sermon, the scope of which is to show the indispensable necessity of obedience to the commands of Christ; this is designed to clench the nail, that it might fix in a sure place: he speaks this to his disciples, that sat at his feet whenever he preached, and followed him wherever he went. Had he sought his own praise among men, he would have said, that was enough; but the religion he came to establish is in power, not in word only (1 Co. 4:20), and therefore something more is necessary.
Now,