Chapter 7

¹“Pass no more judgments upon other people, so that you may not have judgment passed upon you. ²For you will be judged by the standard you judge by, and men will pay you back with the same measure you have used with them. ³Why do you keep looking at the speck in your brother’s eye, and pay no attention to the beam that is in your own? ⁴How can you say to your brother, ‘Just let me get that speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a beam in your own? ⁵You hypocrite! First get the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see to get the speck out of your brother’s eye.

⁶“Do not give what is sacred to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. ⁷Ask, and what you ask will be given you. Search, and you will find what you search for. Knock, and the door will open to you. ⁸For it is always the one who asks who receives, and the one who searches who finds, and the one who knocks to whom the door opens. ⁹Which of you men when his son asks him for some bread will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake? ¹¹So if you, bad as you are, know enough to give your children what is good, how much more surely will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask him for it! ¹²Therefore, you must always treat other people as you would like to have them treat you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

¹³“Go in at the narrow gate. For the road that leads to destruction is broad and spacious, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴But the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few that find it.

¹⁵“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you disguised as sheep but are ravenous wolves underneath. ¹⁶You can tell them by their fruit. Do people pick grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles? ¹⁷Just so any sound tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸No sound tree can bear bad fruit, and no poor tree can bear good fruit. ¹⁹Any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and burned. ²⁰So you can tell them by their fruit. ²¹It is not everyone who says to me ‘Lord! Lord!’ who will get into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven. ²²Many will say to me on that Day, ‘Lord! Lord! Was it not in your name that we prophesied, and by your name that we drove out demons, and by your name that we did many mighty acts?’ ²³Then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you! Go away from me, you who do wrong!’

²⁴“Everyone, therefore, who listens to this teaching of mine and acts upon it, will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. ²⁵And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew, and beat about that house, and it did not go down, for its foundations were on rock. ²⁶And anyone who listens to this teaching of mine and does not act upon it, will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and beat about that house, and it went down, and its downfall was complete.”

²⁸When Jesus had finished this discourse, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, ²⁹for he taught them like one who had authority and not like their scribes.