On Monday, I posted about the difficulties in reading Matthew 7 as a whole. Far easier to read a paragraph in isolation; hard to articulate what the chapter as a whole is about and how each paragraph contributes to that.
Today, I'm going to have a stab at a (provisional) take on Matthew 7:13-27. Tomorrow, I'll do the same for Matthew 7:1-12. Then on Friday I'll be brave, and try and articulate a summary of the whole Sermon on the Mount. At least, that's the plan.
Let's start with Matthew 7:13-27. There are four paragraphs:
- 7:13-14 - Two ways, and their gates
- 7:15-20 - Two trees, and their fruit
- 7:21-23 - Two professions and their reality
- 7:24-27 - Two houses, and their builders
That is only to summarise each paragraph - not to put them together and give a message for the unit as a whole. I'll come to that. First, with indebtedness to Stott and Carson, let me elaborate briefly on each of those:
Matthew 7:13-14 - Two ways and their gates
There are only two ways in life. One is easy (it does not make many demands of us) and the entrance to it is wide (many travel on it). The other is hard (asking us to give things up that we may hold dear), and the entrance is narrow (only a few travel that path). From the beatitudes, we know Jesus is actually claiming that he is the narrow gate himself. Whose who follow him receive life itself, but they do so at the cost of being reviled and persecute "on my account" (Matthew 5:11). Nevertheless, the narrow gate and the hard way are the path to life itself. The alternative is destruction.
Matthew 7:15-20 - Two trees and their fruit
Jesus warns of false prophets - those who claim to speak in God's name but do not do so. This is not his only warning about this - he later warns of the Pharisees as "blind guides", and almost every New Testament letter warns of false teachers, false prophets or false apostles. They are deceptively hard to spot - outwardly looking like a sheep, whilst being wolf-like inside. Yet, as surely as fruit gives a tree away, their behaviour and the content of their teaching means they can be identified. Ultimately, the false prophets' destination is destruction
Matthew 7:21-23 - Two professions and their reality
Jesus pictures two kinds of people, both of whom come up to him on the last day ("that day") and call him "Lord". As well as their private profession, many will have spoken for him and acted on his behalf in public. However, calling Jesus "Lord" is not what counts on that day, but obedience - doing the will of his Father. What matters is not whether someone professes Jesus as Lord, but whether he is their Lord. The destination for those who do not really know Jesus is to be told to depart from him.
Matthew 7:24-27 - Two houses and their builders
Jesus tells a parable of two houses built by two builders. Outwardly they look very similar. But one only has a foundation of sand, while other is built on bedrock. When the storm comes, the reality is seen. In the Bible, storms are often a picture of life's trials or of God's final judgement. One house falls flat; the other stands firm. Jesus explains what these two houses refer to. The builders are people who both heard the teaching of Jesus; only the one built on rock actually put that teaching into practise. The house of one's life needs to be built on the foundation of Jesus' teaching, so it's not enough simply to hear.
Putting it together - the cuckoo in the nest
So what's the story running through this half of Matthew 7?
Carson argues well that 7:12 reflects 5:17-19. Both of those passages attempt to draw "the Law and the Prophets" together. So the body of the Sermon on the Mount is 5:17-7:12. (More on this on Friday). Jesus' conclusion begins at 7:13, as he asks how the hearer will respond.
7:13-14 tells us that there are only two responses: One is to follow Jesus, the other is much easier and is not to follow him. However, only the person who chooses to follow Jesus is on the pathway to life.
7:21-27 then warn us of two ways we could be self-deceived - thinking we are following Jesus, when in fact we are not. 7:21-23 warns us that it's not enough to speak of Jesus, to call him Lord, to act on his behalf in public. He needs to be our Lord. 7:24-27 warns us that it's not enough to hear his teaching, we need to put it into practice.
Which just leaves 7:15-20. It's the cuckoo in the nest. Why does Jesus put his lesson the two prophets and their fruit where he does? It comes in between Jesus urging us to respond rightly to his teaching, and his two warnings against self-deception.
The third warning
Let's think a bit more about those false prophets. They are dangerous because they wish to feed off the sheep. In Matthew, Jesus is the One who speaks on God's behalf. These prophets will not point people to what God has made known through Jesus, but will say other things if it means they benefit.
In short, the false prophets point people away from the narrow gate of verses 13-14. If you listen to them, you won't find that narrow way. If 7:21-27 give us two ways we might miss out from the life Jesus came to bring, 7:15-20 gives us a third one. Following Jesus is not easy, and may cost us a great deal; many miss out on it for this reason. Jesus warns that there will be people who will tell us of him, but paint a less costly way to follow him. If we follow their "Jesus", we will end up on the broad way of the majority, heading for destruction whilst thinking we've been put on the path to life.
The whole section: Matthew 7:13-27
So let's put the whole section together.
Jesus wraps up the body of his Sermon in 7:12. Starting at 7:13, he urges his hearers to respond rightly to what they've just heard.
There are only two responses. We either follow Jesus on the costly path to life, or we take the more popular way towards destruction.
However it would be easy to think we are following Jesus, and heading towards eternal life, whilst deceiving ourselves because we are actually not doing this at all.
- We might have been mis-sold Jesus - offered a tame imitation (7:15-20).
- We might be fooled into thinking that speaking of Jesus, claiming to know him is enough (7:21-23).
- We might be fooled into thinking that listening to Jesus, knowing his teaching, is enough (7:24-27).
Instead, we must take this Sermon on the Mount and base our entire lives on it. It must be the foundation for the whole of life.
Tomorrow, I intend to think through how 7:1-12 functions.
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