Both Matthew 5 and Matthew 6 have a clear structure. Each chapter also has a clear message - Jesus seems to be developing one clear theme in each chapter. This is not the place to go into what the structure and message of each chapter is.
By contrast, Matthew 7 superficially appears more piecemeal. Each short paragraph in the chapter seems to be saying something that makes sense on its own, but the links to what comes before and after are harder to spot. It wouldn't be hard to take any paragraph in the chapter, summarize it, preach on it, live it.
But what's the whole chapter about? How does each paragraph contribute to the message of the chapter as a whole?
I don't know the answer to that at the moment.
Which actually amounts to saying that I probably don't understand any of the individual paragraphs either. Jesus didn't deliver any of those paragraphs in isolation. They were spoken in the context of the rest of Matthew 7, and Matthew has written each paragraph in the setting of the whole chapter. Until the individual paragraphs are understood for the way they contribute to the chapter, they are not understood at all.
I'm planning on trying to answer this question over the coming weeks. Over the Autumn, I'll be preaching on Matthew 7 (with a few breaks for other bits in between).
Has anyone else found any compelling material - unifying themes, links between paragraphs, authorial intent - that makes sense of the whole? Whether you've found it in the literature, or spotted it in your own study - please feel very free to post it below (however partial your thoughts may be).
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