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chapter 7
1. “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.
2. For the way you judge others is how you will be judged — the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you.
3. Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but not notice the log in your own eye?
4. How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when you have the log in your own eye?
5. You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you can remove the splinter from your brother’s eye!
6. “Don’t give to dogs what is holy, and don’t throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, then turn and attack you.
7. “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
8. For everyone who keeps asking receives; he who keeps seeking finds; and to him who keeps knocking, the door will be opened.
9. Is there anyone here who, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone?
10. or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11. So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will your Father in heaven keep giving good things to those who keep asking him!
12. “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.
The Golden Rule can be found in Jewish writings as early as the Apocryphal book of Tobit (third century B.C.E.), "What you hate, do to no one" (Tobit 4:15); similar sayings are attributed to Isocrates, Aristotle and Confucius. Rabbi Hillel expressed it in the generation before Yeshua; a famous passage in the Talmud comparing Hillel with his contemporary, Shammai, tells the story:

"A pagan came came before Shammai and said to him, 'Make me a proselyte, but on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I am standing on one foot!' Shammai drove him off with the builder's measuring rod which he had in his hand. When he appeared before Hillel, the latter told him, 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it!'"(Shabbat 31a)

The Golden Rule paraphrases Leviticus 19:18, "You are to love your neighbor as yourself," which Yeshua called the second-greatest commandment (Mk 12:28-31). Some apologists for Judaism see superiority in Hillel's "negative form" of the Golden Rule ("do not do to others...") as over against Yeshua's "positive form" ("do unto others..."). One was the well-known Jewish writer, Achad Ha'Am (see discussion and reference in Abba Hillel Silver, Where Judaism Differed, New York: The Macmillan Company (1956), paperback edition 1972, pp. 125-126). The point seems to be that others may not react as you do, so that it is unkind and possibly unjust to treat them as you would yourself. But one could take the opposite tack: the goal is to treat people as they want to be treated, and this is better stated as a positive command. Logically there is no substantive difference between the forms, and the spirit of the Golden Rule can emerge from either, likewise, its spirit can be quenched by tedious and tendentious arguments.

13. “Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it;
14. but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
15. “Beware of the false prophets! They come to you wearing sheep’s clothing, but underneath they are hungry wolves!
16. You will recognize them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
17. Likewise, every healthy tree produces good fruit, but a poor tree produces bad fruit.
18. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree good fruit.
19. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire!
20. So you will recognize them by their fruit.
21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.
Lord. Greek kttrios, which can have four possible meanings (see 1:20N). In the present verse, Yeshua seems to say that a day will come when people will address him as the divine Lord — more than human but not necessarily YHVH; however, see Pp 2:9-11&N. In the Septuagint "Icurios" is the most common rendering of "YHVH." In Paul's writings and in the General Letters "kurios" sometimes refers to Yeshua. Only those who do what my Father in heaven wants, only those who obey the Torah as 1 have expounded it in this sermon, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (see 3:2N).

22. On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’
That Day is the Day of Judgment (Hebrew Yom-haDin); see Rv 20:11-15&N.

23. Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!' (Tekhelim - Psalm 6:9(8))
Lawlessness, Greek anomia, "absence of law, absence of Torah'' Hence you workers of lawlessness means "you who act as if there were no Torch,"; it confirms Yeshua's teaching on the permanence of the Torah (5:17-20&NN). The Greek word "anomia" can be rendered "wickedness," but doing so here skirts the Jewish context.

24. “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on bedrock.
25. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on rock.
26. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand.
27. The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed — and its collapse was horrendous!”
28. When Yeshua had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at the way he taught,
29. for he was not instructing them like their Torah-teachers but as one who had authority himself.
On Torah-teachers, their authority and why the crowds were amazed, see 2:4N 21:23&N, Mk 1:22N.