Matthew Chapter 7

            ¹ “Don’t criticize and you^pl won’t get criticized. ² The criticism you^pl criticize with, you’ll^pl be criticized by; the measure you^pl measure with, you’ll^pl be measured by. ³ Why look^sg at a speck of sawdust in somebody else’s eye, and not see the log in your^sg own? ⁴ How can you^sg say, ‘Let me get the piece of sawdust out of your^sg eye,’ when there’s a log in yours!? ⁵ You foolish people, get^sg the log out of your own eye so you^sg can see to get the speck of sawdust out of theirs.

            ⁶ “Don’t give sacred things to dogs or throw your pearls in front of pigs. They’ll trample them under their feet and turn on you and tear you apart.

⁷ “Ask and you’ll get, seek and you’ll find, knock and it’ll open for you. ⁸ People that ask get, people that seek find, and people that knock it opens for. ⁹ If your boy asked for a loaf of bread, you wouldn’t give him a rock, would you? ¹⁰ If he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, who are sinful, know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to people that ask him? ¹² Treat other people the way you want them to treat you. That covers the Law and the Prophets.                                                                                                    

Mt 7:1-12

            ¹³ “Go through the narrow gate. It’s a broad road and a wide gate that leads to destruction, and many go through it. ¹⁴ How narrow the path is and tight the gate that leads to life! Not many find it. 

            ¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets that come to you in wool, but inside they’re wolves. ¹⁶ You can recognize them by what they produce. People don’t gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? ^17-18 Good trees bear good fruit; bad trees bear bad fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that doesn’t bear good fruit gets chopped down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ So, you can recognize them by what they produce.

²¹ “Not everybody that says to me ‘Lord’ is going to get into the kingdom of heaven. It’s the ones that do the will of my Father in heaven. ²² A lot of people will try to say to me in that day, ‘Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do lots of miracles in your name?’ ²³ I’ll tell them, ‘I never knew you. Go away, sinners.’      

Mt 7:13-23

            ²⁴ “Everybody that hears what I’m saying and does it, is like a wise man that built his house on bedrock. ²⁵ Rain fell, floods came, winds blew and beat on it; but it didn’t collapse. He’d built it on bedrock.

            ²⁶ “Everybody that hears what I’m saying and doesn’t do it, is like a foolish man that built his house on sand. ²⁷ Rain fell, floods came, winds blew and beat on it, and it collapsed—a total loss.”

²⁸ When Jesus finished, the crowd was amazed at his teaching. ²⁹ He taught them like somebody that had authority, not like their scribes.                                                                                                                                           Mt 7:24:29