Two ways, two trees, two builders: the Sermon on the Mount closes

Matthew 7 is the last chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, the first of the five long discourses that Matthew places in his Gospel. (The class on Matthew 1 sets out the debates over his identity, date and sources.) The sermon began with blessings on the poor in spirit and the persecuted (5:3-12), explained the relation of Jesus to the Law and the Prophets (5:17-48) and described righteousness before the Father in giving, prayer and trust (chapter 6). Chapter 7 gathers several sayings on how disciples are to treat others, how they are to pray, and how they are to choose and build their lives.

Much of this chapter has parallels in Luke, who has them in the shorter Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:37-49) and in other places in his Gospel (Luke 11:9-13; 13:23-27). Scholars explain the overlap by a shared source of Jesus' sayings, often called Q, or by Jesus' repeating his teaching. The order and wording differ in places. Luke, for example, ends the builders' parable with a man who dug deep and laid his foundation on rock (Luke 6:48), and where Matthew promises that the Father will give 'good things' to those who ask (7:11), Luke says he will give the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).

The setting is Galilee in the time of Roman rule and Herod Antipas. The audience is the disciples with the crowds listening (5:1; 7:28). Many of the images come from rural Palestine: dry stream beds that fill suddenly in the winter rains, a narrow track against a broad road, sheep and wolves, thorn bushes and fig trees. Jewish teaching of the time often described life as a choice between two ways, as in Psalm 1 and Deuteronomy 30:19, and the earliest Christian teaching manual, the Didache, opens with a section on the two ways.

Matthew 7 is a series of short teachings in the manner of Jewish wisdom, not a chain of argument. Individual sayings were meant to be memorised and applied, and each must be read for its main point. The images are strong and the contrasts are sharp, with no middle ground. This is a way of forcing a decision, and the closing four contrasts (two gates, two trees, two professions, two houses) all do it.

Three principles help.

• First, read sayings in their neighbourhood. The command 'Do not judge' (7:1) cannot mean that disciples must never distinguish right from wrong, because the same chapter tells them not to give what is holy to dogs, to beware of false prophets and to recognise them by their fruit. The command is against a condemning, self-excusing kind of judgment, and the example of the beam and the speck shows it: the problem is judging another while ignoring one's own fault.
• Second, read the promises on prayer in their setting. 'Ask, and it will be given to you' stands within an argument about a good Father, and it is not a promise that every request will be granted in the form asked.
• Third, notice that the sermon ends where it began, with a connection to the Law and the Prophets. Verse 12 repeats the phrase from 5:17 and so closes the main body of the sermon.

The chapter should also be read as the end of a discourse. Matthew uses the same formula, 'When Jesus had finished', to close each of the five discourses (7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1; 26:1), and in each he shifts back to narrative.

Verses 1–5

'Do not judge, or you will be judged.' The Greek verb krino can mean to evaluate, to condemn or to sentence, and here it means to pass final judgment on another. The reason is reciprocal: God judges by the standard we apply to others. The picture of a beam in one's own eye and a speck in a brother's is deliberately exaggerated. A person with a plank cannot see clearly enough to help. Jesus calls such a person a 'hypocrite', a play-actor, and the cure is self-examination first: 'First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly.'

Verse 6

'Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine.' Dogs and swine were unclean animals to Jews. The saying is difficult and its first meaning is not certain. It is generally taken to say that the message of the kingdom should not be pressed on those who have shown contempt for it. The Didache later applied the saying to the Eucharist. The verse balances the previous one: refusing to condemn does not mean refusing to discern.

Verses 7–11

The three commands, ask, seek, knock, are in the Greek present tense and imply continued asking. The promise rests on a comparison. Even earthly fathers who are 'evil' give bread and fish, not stones and snakes. 'How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!' The argument runs from the lesser to the greater, as in chapter 6. The Father is generous.

Verse 12

'In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.' Similar sayings existed in negative form in Jewish and other ancient writings, and a story is told in the Talmud of the rabbi Hillel summing up the Law in this negative way. Jesus states it positively, which asks for action and not only restraint. It sums up the Law because the Law and the Prophets are about loving God and neighbour (22:37-40).

Verses 13–14

The narrow gate and the broad way present two paths: one 'leads to destruction' and many enter; the other 'leads to life' and few find it. The images echo Deuteronomy 30:19 and Jeremiah 21:8. The narrowness is not a claim that few can be saved by God's mercy, but a statement that the way of discipleship is demanding and that the common road is easier.

Verses 15–20

False prophets come in 'sheep's clothing', but inwardly are 'ravenous wolves'. Deuteronomy 13 and 18 already warned about false prophets in Israel. The test is the fruit: grapes do not grow on thorn bushes. The test is a person's life and teaching over time, not first impressions. A tree that bears bad fruit is cut down and burned, an image that recalls John the Baptist's words in 3:10.

Verses 21–23

This is the most searching passage in the chapter. 'Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father.' On 'that day' some will plead their prophesying, exorcisms and miracles done in his name. His answer is 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!' The words echo Psalm 6:8. The issue is not whether the works were real but whether there was a relationship of knowing. Jesus places himself as the one who speaks the final word.

Verses 24–27

Two builders hear the same words. The one who acts on them builds on rock, and the house stands against rain, floods and wind. The one who does not act builds on sand, and the house falls and its collapse is great. The storm in a Galilean winter, when a dry wadi can become a torrent, makes the picture concrete. Both builders hear, so the difference is not hearing but doing.

Verses 28–29

The crowds are astonished because he taught 'as one who had authority, and not as their scribes'. Scribes taught by reference to earlier teachers and traditions. Jesus speaks in his own name.

The chapter teaches that the Father is good and generous. Prayer rests on his character: if people who are sinful know how to give good gifts, he gives better. The Old Testament is full of the same trust (Psalm 84:11; 103:13), and Jesus teaches it as the ground of prayer.

It teaches the seriousness of judgment. Disciples are not to take God's place as judge, since they will be judged by the standard they use, but the Gospel is clear that there is a coming day on which Jesus himself will speak the verdict. The contrast between two ways, two trees and two houses runs through the Bible, from Psalm 1 to Revelation 22, and in this chapter it is tied to hearing and doing the words of Jesus.

It also teaches the relation of faith and works. The works of the people in 7:22 are impressive, yet Jesus does not accept them as evidence of relationship. The will of the Father is what counts. Other parts of the New Testament state the same truth in other words: James 2:14-26 says faith without works is dead, and Paul says that faith works through love (Galatians 5:6). These writers do not teach that works earn salvation. They teach that a faith which does not change life is not what Jesus means by knowing him.

The chapter finally teaches that Scripture is a unity. The Golden Rule sums up the Law and the Prophets, as love does for Paul (Romans 13:8-10).

The connection is direct and strong. Jesus names himself as the one whom people will call 'Lord, Lord' on 'that day' (7:22), the one who will say 'I never knew you' and 'depart from Me' (7:23). He assumes the role of final judge, and in the Old Testament that role belongs to God. The echo of Psalm 6:8, where the psalmist tells evildoers to depart from him, puts the psalmist's words of dismissal on the lips of Jesus. Jesus also identifies obedience to his own words with building on the rock (7:24). In the Old Testament, God is the Rock (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:2), and Paul says that the foundation of the church is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). This is an echo, offered with care: Matthew does not say that Jesus is the rock, but he does say that his words are the foundation that survives the storm.

The crowds' reaction in 7:28-29 states what the sermon has shown. Jesus teaches with his own authority, and it is not borrowed from earlier teachers. In 5:17 he said he had come to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and in 7:12 he says that the Golden Rule sums them up. In Romans 13:8-10 and John 13:34, love, shown fully in his own life and death, is the fulfilment of the Law. The Teacher whose words are the foundation is also the one who fulfils them.