Down an Unfamiliar Road

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

We’ve just completed our study of the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 7, with some groundbreaking discoveries in what Jesus was really saying.

Jesus explained how giving dogs something that was sacred was a reference to sacrifices meant for the Temple, but did not qualify, were still of some use and should not be fed to the dogs.  And the pearls that must not be thrown to pigs was a reference to words of wisdom that should not be wasted on people who continue to wallow in their own foolishness.

Also that asking seeking and knocking are in the continuous tense, so we should never give up on our quest for more wisdom and understanding of God’s plan for our lives.  There are many walking a broad way to destruction who are not willing to get rid of their long standing attitudes and biases, but there are those who are ready to give God whatever He desires in order to walk on the narrow way to the destiny He has chosen for them.

Then we saw that both the wise builder and foolish builder may have used the same floor plan and architecture, but it was where they laid the foundation for their house that determined whether it would stand or fall when the winds, rains and floods came.

Now in Chapter 8, we will find how Jesus goes from His monologue in preaching to a dialogue in teaching new truths and insights about faith and faithfulness.  I can hardly wait to share with you what has been discovered in examining these scriptures in their contextual setting.

But that will start that study after we take our Christmas/New Year’s break so that you can enjoy this time of year in celebrating the arrival of God’s Son in the form of man on this earth so that He could become our Redeemer, Savior and Lord.

So celebrate this season of joy, and I’ll see you back here on Monday, January  4, 2016.  God bless you for your continued love and reverence for His holy Word. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part V (con’t)

NOTE: Since we’ve had this lengthy narrative on the teachings of Jesus, at this point let’s look at the teachings of Judaism. In general, these represent the beliefs of the disciples before Jesus called them and revealed to them the entire Godhead, and explained to them more fully God’s message to the world brought by His Son. This may help you see where there are similarities and differences by examining the writings of an astute Jewish Scholar:

Now, the Jewish belief contains thirteen articles which are, in short, as they are found in their prayers and prayer books:

1. I believe, with true and perfect belief, that God is creator, governor, and keeper of all creatures; that He has created everything, is still creating, and will create forever.

2. I believe with perfect belief that there is but one God the Creator, and that so such unity may be found elsewhere save in Him, who alone was our God, is still, and will be forever.

3. I believe with perfect belief that God the Creator is not corporeal, nor does He have any corporeal characteristics, and that no corporeal being may be compared to Him.

4. I believe with perfect belief that God the Creator is the first and the last, and that there was nothing before Him, and that He will be the last one to remain forever.

5. I believe with perfect belief that He alone may be prayed to, and that no one beside Him may be prayed to.

6. I believe with perfect belief that everything the prophets have taught and spoken is the absolute truth.

7. I believe with perfect belief that the teaching and prophecy of Moses is true; and that he was father and chief of all wise men who lived in his time, who lived before him, and who will live after him in the future.

8. I believe with perfect belief that the entire Law as we find it in our hands today, was given to Moses by God Himself.

9. I believe with perfect belief that this Law will never be changed, and no other law should be, or will be, given to us by our God.

10. I believe with perfect belief that God knows and understands all the deeds and thoughts of men, as it is written in the Prophet: “He examines all their hearts, and takes notice of all their deeds.”¹

11. I believe with perfect belief that God will repay and reward those who obey His commands and will punish all who transgress His commands.

12. I believe with perfect belief that the Messiah will yet come, and even if he delays for a long time, all the same I will hope and I will listen out for him, and wait every day until he comes.

13. I believe with perfect belief that there will be an awakening of the dead at that time which will please God the Creator, may His name be blessed and highly extolled forever.²

The writer concludes with this: “This is the essence of the thirteen articles of the Jewish belief as they are set forth in their daily prayer books in a short and summary form. In them the poor blind Jews die and waste away wretchedly with great sighing, fear, doubt, and howling.”³

As we can see, everything the Jewish people believe is commensurate with what Christians believe, except for number 12. The Jews are still waiting, the Christians are already rejoicing in knowing and serving the Messiah who came into the world as a son of Israel and the Son of God. Therefore, the belief expressed in number 13 is already in the Christian believer’s possession. The sad thing is that many Jews believe they have to throw away all those beliefs contained in numbers 1 through 11 in order to become a Christian. But the truth is, that all of what God intended through Moses is fulfilled completely in Jesus the Christ.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part V

Verses 24-27: “Whoever hears these teachings of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall because it was built on rock. Whoever hears these teachings of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell with a loud crash.”

One will notice immediately that both men referred to here are building houses; in fact they may be using the same architecture, floor plan and materials. The major difference is where they build their houses; one chooses to erect his on solid rock above the shoreline, while the other builds his down on the beach. Here the choice of furniture, color of the siding and decorum became less important than the location. Jesus wanted His listeners to ask themselves: “Are you planning to build?” Second question, “On what do you plan to build?”

We cannot afford to miss the spiritual implications here in this illustration. While Jesus was talking about a literal house, He was no doubt using it as a metaphor for one’s plans and goals in life. Just like a house is where you plan to live, so your goals and plans for life are where you expect to spend most of your time building your future. It doesn’t take a herculean leap of wisdom to relate this same concept to your spiritual life. In this case, it is easy to see the sand as being man’s perceptions and philosophy of life while the rock is emblematic of the Word of God. The outcome is the same: that which is built upon the Rock will be the house that endures the storm and survives.

Why? Not because the house is so strong, but that the Rock is so solid. King Solomon touched on this same principle when he wrote: “The wise accept instruction, but fools argue and bring trouble on themselves.”¹ Solomon repeats himself in a different way, “Wisdom lets smart people know what they are doing, but stupid people only think they know.”² Some people today have a convoluted perception of wisdom. They think that by refusing help and advice and figuring things out on their own, that is wisdom. When in fact, asking for all the help and advice one can get is truly wise. How much more then, when it involves the spiritual life we are building.

Chrysostom has an interesting comment here. He relates: “In referring to rain, floods and winds Jesus is speaking about all those human circumstances and misfortunes, such as false accusations, plots, bereavements, deaths, loss of family members, insults from others, and all the horrid things in life about which one could speak. Jesus says that a soul that pursues the way of excellence does not give in to any of these potential disasters. And the cause of this is that this soul has been founded upon the rock.”³ Some would say that these storms and elements were directed at this man’s house because he built it on solid rock. But those same things came against the man who built his house on the sand. So there must be another purpose these storms serve in Christ’s teaching what He wanted His listeners to learn.

This seems clear enough in Chrysostom’s mind when he writes: “Now ‘rock’ refers to the reliability of Jesus’ teaching. For His commands are stronger than any rock. They establish a person high above all the human waves of life. For the one who guards these commands with care will excel not only over human beings when treated maliciously but even over the demons themselves in their plots.” In other words, having Jesus in your life and following His teachings and guidance will insure that your “house” or “life” will prove fully able to survive the storms that circumstances in life often bring to bear on everyone.

Ezekiel had an interesting take on this idea of building without the right advice, “Again and again those false prophets lied to my people. They said there would be peace, but there is no peace. The people need to fix the walls and prepare for war. But they only slap a thin coat of plaster over the broken walls. Tell them that I will send hail and a strong rain. The wind will blow hard, and a tornado will come. Then the wall will fall down. When the wall falls down, the people will ask the prophets, ‘What happened to the plaster you put on the wall?’”⁴

Solomon touched on this aspect of why some homes fall and some stand: “A wise woman makes her home what it should be, but the home of a foolish woman is destroyed by her own actions.”⁵ Jeremiah saw how embarrassing it was for those who built their houses on the sand, “You keep saying, ‘We have the Lord’s teachings. We are so smart!’ But this is not true, because the scribes have lied with their pens. These ‘smart people’ refused to listen to the Lord’s teachings. So they are not really smart at all. These ‘smart people’ then felt trapped. They became dismayed and ashamed.”⁶ Someone once said that a wise person is someone who learns from their mistakes. But then another person said that a really wise person is someone who learns from other people’s mistakes so they won’t have to repeat them.

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, a descendant of Ezra the Scribe and a committed scholar of the Mishnah, as well as a contemporary of Jesus, used similar illustrations. He used to say: “What is the man like whose wisdom exceeds his accomplishments? Like a tree whose branches are many, but whose roots are few; and the wind comes and plucks it up, and knocks it over on its face, as it is said, ‘And he will be like a lonely juniper tree in the desert, that cannot take advantage of good opportunities; but will live out its life in parched places in the wilderness, a barren land that’s not inhabited.’⁷ But he whose accomplishments exceed his wisdom, what is he like? To a tree whose branches are few, but whose roots are many, so that though all the winds in the world come and blow on it, they cannot stir it from its place, as it is said, ‘And he shall be as a tree planted by the waters; and that spreads out its roots by the river and will not bothered when heat comes, but his leaf will be green; and will not be damaged in the year of drought, neither will he cease from producing fruit.’⁸”⁹

But the one that comes closest is the Rabbi who said, “One in whom there are good works, who has studied much Torah, to what may he be likened? To a person who builds first with gravel and afterward with bricks: even when much water comes and collects by their side, it does not dislodge them. But one in whom there are no good works, though he studied Torah, to what may he be likened? To a person who builds first with bricks and afterward with gravel, even when a little water gathers, it overthrows them immediately.”¹⁰

Early church theologian Origen, who was also a well-known world traveler had this to say about what one faces in this life as a believer. He says: “For neither death nor life nor angels nor other things can separate us from the love of Christ.¹¹ Neither can the flooding of rivers, as in the lands of Egypt and Assyria, do harm. Only those are harmed who build on sand, who practice the wisdom of the world.” For Origen, the rivers of Egypt and Assyria symbolize the wisdom of the world, an enemy of Christ. The sons of Abraham who build precariously on the sand are the Jews, based on the connection of the sand in Matthew 7:26 to the sand in Genesis 22:17; the descendants of Abraham would be as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.

Origen goes on to say: “The winds that blow are like the false prophets. All these, coming together in one place, ‘beat upon’ the house. If it is founded on rock, they do no harm. ‘The way of a snake upon a rock’ is not to be found’.¹² But in the form of temptations and persecutions, which may mount into a flood, they beat upon even the one who seems to be well-founded. The house falls if it does not have Christ as its basis and foundation. But the truly wise person builds one’s house ‘upon a rock.’ This is the way the Lord builds his church—upon the rock, with steadfastness and strength. This is why “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”¹³ All the persecutions that fall upon that house accomplish nothing. The house is founded upon the rock.”¹⁴

Verses 28-29: When Jesus finished speaking, the people were amazed at His teaching. He did not teach like their teachers of the law. He taught like someone who knew what he was talking about.

Christ’s authority in this case was more than simply having been commissioned to speak. He was there when the world was formed; He appeared to the patriarchs; He was present when the Law was written; He stood by the prophets as they spoke. Christ did not speak as the scribes who exhorted about incidents in the past tense, to which they were not eye witnesses. When Jesus spoke of the Word, He spoke of Himself for He is the Word.

I wonder if anyone in the crowd remembers what Moses said about a promise God made to him on behalf of the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will send to you a prophet. This prophet will come from among your own people, and he will be like me. You must listen to him. God will send you this prophet because that is what you asked him to do. When you were gathered together at Mount Horeb, you became frightened and said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God again! Don’t let us see that great fire or we will die!’ The Lord said to me, ‘What they ask for is good. I will send them a prophet like you. This prophet will be one of their own people. I will tell him what he must say, and he will tell the people everything I command. This prophet will speak for Me, and I will punish anyone who refuses to listen to My commands.’”¹⁵

The reason Jesus spoke with such authority can be noted in these words of the Preacher in the Old Testament: “He has the authority to give commands, and no one can tell him what to do. People will be safe if they obey his command.”¹⁶ But what they didn’t know was what Isaiah had to say that also applied to this Teacher, “The Lord God gave me the ability to teach, so now I teach these sad people. Every morning He wakes me and teaches me like a student. The Lord God helps me learn, and I have not turned against Him. I will not stop following Him. I will let those people beat me and pull the hair from my beard. I will not hide my face when they say bad things to me and spit at me. The Lord God will help me, so the bad things they say will not hurt me. I will be strong. I know I will not be disappointed.”¹⁷

No wonder Jesus Himself would open the scroll of Isaiah and read to the crowd in Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord God is on me. The Lord has chosen me to tell good news to the poor and to comfort those who are sad. He sent me to tell the captives and prisoners that they have been set free. He sent me to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness, when our God will also punish evil people. He has sent me to comfort those who are sad, those in Zion who mourn. I will take away the ashes on their head, and I will give them a crown. I will take away their sadness, and I will give them the oil of happiness. I will take away their sorrow, and I will give them celebration clothes.”¹⁸ One unique factor that proved Jesus to be the true Messiah is the fact that when people asked Him to prove His authenticity by providing them with miracles He did not comply, but when people believed in Him as being the Messiah because of His words, He provided miracles on His own accord.

In this parable Chrysostom sees a combination of love and authority. He writes: “Surely it was logical that they were in pain over the heavy weight of what He had said. They were stunned by the soaring level of the requirements that He had made. But now the strength of the one teaching was so great that He seized many of them and threw them into great amazement. Because of their pleasure in what He said, Jesus finally persuaded them not to leave as He finished speaking. For not even after He went down from the mountain did the hearers leave, but even then the whole audience followed Him because of the great love that was shown in what He had said. But most of all they were astounded at His authority. For when He said these things, He did not refer to another, as even the prophet Moses did, but everywhere He showed that He himself was the One who had the authority to decide. For even when He was establishing laws Jesus continually added, ‘But I say to you.’¹⁹ And when He was reminding them of the final day of judgment, He showed that He Himself is the One who will bring justice, both through the punishments and through the honors. This is what caused such a commotion among them.”²⁰

One of the fascinating things about the ministry of Christ is that He drew crowds when they found out He was speaking, and once they came they didn’t want to leave. That is, until He said something that really spoiled their day or tested their loyalty.²¹ I am of the persuasion that the ones who stayed are those who were listening with their hearts, not just their ears. Strange how sometimes when people are speaking to us, we are in constant editing mode, rearranging things that they say so that it fits our way of thinking. But when Jesus spoke, His authority and assertiveness was such that the people who really revered Him hung onto every word and always wanted to hear more.

That was my prayer when I finally accepted God’s call for me to go preach the Gospel. I asked Him to give me such a desire for His word that no matter how often I studied it, I would always reluctantly close its pages because I had to go to work or get some sleep. I wanted to have the desire to read on and on. That same strong desire is still with me today. But it is not a gift from God exclusive to me, it can belong to anyone who diligently seeks to know more about God. Because by becoming more acquainted with the Father, we become more knowledgeable about the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I once read this brain teaser: A farmer has five haystacks in one field and four haystacks in another. How many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in one field? Needless to say, I instantly came up with 9! That’s because of simple math.

But I soon learned that what seemed simple at first, may have tricked my mind because I didn’t think the whole process through. How often that happens to us when we make a quick decision without examining all the facets and variables. That may be because we want quick answers.

How many times have you seen a game on TV where a contestant is asked to use words or pantomime to describe a hidden word, they are shown on a card, to another person so they can guess what the word is? Many times the contestant will see the word and quickly say “Pass,” because nothing immediately comes to mind.

When I first began to study for the ministry, I read many classic books that contained English and Latin words that I was not familiar with. My first instinct was to pass over them and hope that somehow from the context I could discover what the writer was explaining. But I soon learned I was cheating myself out of growing my vocabulary and understanding. So I started writing those words down on a pad, then looking them up in the dictionary and putting down a synonym or short definition. It wasn’t long before I didn’t need to look at my pad any more when I came to those words because they were already part of my vocabulary.

The Psalmist David no doubt had the same idea when it came to God’s Word. In Psalm 1 he says that if a person wants to be significant in this world, let them avoid taking someone else’s advice without first considering the consequences of how it will affect their lives, but to search God’s Word and think about what they’ve read all day long.

Then we have the very smart young man who wrote Psalm 119 describing his life’s story, and how he was often criticized and made fun of because of his unwavering faith. But he says that the one thing that kept him on the right track was that he had studied God’s Word to the point that it became part of his thinking.¹ In other words, he didn’t turn to the Word of God only when he was in trouble, but he made it a daily part of his life.

By the way, if a farmer has five haystacks in one field and four in another and combines them all in one field, he’ll then only have one haystack. By the same token, if we take all the wisdom and knowledge that comes from God’s Word and combine them in our hearts, then we will be of one mind and one accord with the Spirit and with each other. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

Very soon all around the world Christians will gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus. No doubt many classic Christmas carols and hymns will be sung. However, I doubt that this song will be one of them. It is the oldest known Christmas carol written in Latin circa 405 AD by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, born in Spain in 348 AD. Prudentius was trained as a lawyer and rose to high office in the State, “holding the reins of power over famous cities,” serving as a judge. He was later called to the court of Theodosius I.

But he was equally well-known as the writer of Christian poems because of devotion to his faith and love for God. Although he gave so much time to expressing the goodness of Christ, when he reached the age of 57, he was still not satisfied that he had done enough. So he wrote: “Now very close to the end of life, may my soul stop its foolishness; and if by deeds it cannot, yet, at least, by words give praise to God, join day to day by constant hymns, fail not each night in songs to celebrate the Lord.”

Among those many poems he penned a number for the Christmas season. One of them was titled, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” With all the emphasis on various elements of Christmas today that have little if anything to do with our Lord’s sacred birth, let the lyrics of this ancient hymn remind us of how the early Christians commemorated Christ’s birth.

1. Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

2. O that birth forever blessed,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore!

3. This is He Whom seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore!

4. O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
And extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing,
Evermore and evermore!

5. Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

6. Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part IV (con’t)

Verse 21: Not everyone who calls me LORD will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what My Father in heaven wants.

Now Jesus segues into explaining why those who claim a relationship with Him will not be successful in fooling Him as they did others. The Greek word used here for “LORD” is kurios. In the Greek Septuagint version, kurios is the most common rendering for the Hebrew YaHWeH. Jesus could have used the term Lord that means “master,” but He chose the term that refers to Yahweh, which many Jewish translations render: “ADONAI.” It is not enough to claim a relationship with Christ in order to enter the kingdom of God. You must be invited. Only God the Father sends out the invitations which are delivered by the Holy Spirit. The invitation is to meet Jesus Christ personally, the only One qualified to vouch for you before the Father as having accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. There is no other way.

God gave the prophet Hosea a chilling warning about those making false claims: “Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning. Be like an eagle over the Lord’s house. The Israelites have broken my agreement. They have not obeyed My law. Yet they yell out at Me, ‘My God, we in Israel know You!’ But Israel refused the good things, so the enemy chases him. The Israelites chose their kings, but they didn’t come to Me for advice. They chose leaders, but they didn’t choose men I knew. The Israelites used their silver and gold to make idols for themselves, so they will be destroyed.”¹ If this was important to God’s people back then, should it not be important to them today?

The prophet Malachi was given the criteria by which God’s own would be identified, “Then the Lord’s followers spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to them. There is a book in front of Him. In that book are the names of His followers. They are the people who honor the Lord’s name. The Lord said, ‘They belong to Me. I will be kind to them. Parents are very kind to their children who obey them. In the same way I will be kind to My followers. You people will come back to Me, and you will learn the difference between good and evil. You will learn the difference between someone who follows God and someone who does not.’”² Israel was also a nation, and therefore it is critical that God’s people be careful in who they choose to lead them as as part of their nation.

The prophet Daniel had a similar scene,³ and we find this scene replicated in John’s Apocalypse.⁴ But this is not a guest book which visitors sign in, they are written there by God’s personal scribe.⁵ The prophet Jeremiah faced a similar situation, and God spoke to him, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing wrong things. I saw them prophesy in the name of the false god Baal. They led the people of Israel away from Me. I have even seen the prophets of Jerusalem doing sinful things. They are committing adultery and living a life of lies. They support their fellow prophets and never stop doing evil. They have become like Sodom; they are all like Gomorrah.”⁶ But it wasn’t that any miracles or signs and wonders were wrong in themselves, but it was the fact that none of them were done according to God’s will and at His command.

Jeremiah goes on to point this out, “Some of the people hate the real messages from the Lord, so the prophets give them a different message. They say, ‘You will have peace.’ Some of the people are very stubborn. They do only what they want to do. So the prophets say,‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’ But none of these prophets has stood in the heavenly council. None of them has seen or heard the message from the Lord. None of them has paid close attention to His message.”⁷ But even more telling, is that God told Jeremiah, “I did not send those prophets, but they ran to tell their messages. I did not speak to them, but they spoke in My name. If they had stood in my heavenly council, then they would have given My messages to the people of Judah. They would have stopped the people from doing bad things. They would have stopped them from doing evil.”⁸

And finally God says, “I am against the false prophets. They use their own words and pretend that it is a message from Me. I am against the false prophets who share false visions. This message is from the Lord. They mislead my people with their lies and false teachings. I did not send them to teach the people. I never commanded them to do anything for Me. They cannot help the people of Judah at all.”⁹ When Jesus spoke of the last days and the sifting out the good from the bad, this was not new to His Jewish listeners. They knew that such a day of reckoning was coming. How much more should we who are getting closer to that day reverence and pay our respects to what God has to say.

Early church preacher Chrysostom points out an interesting fact in this text. He writes: “Jesus said ‘whoever does the will of My Father’ will enter, not whoever does My will. Why? Nothing is insufficient if they do the will of the Father. What He did say was itself a very difficult thing to accept in view of their weakness. He implied that to do His Father’s will is to do His will. There is no other willing of the Son than the will of the Father. This may apply in particular to those who commit themselves in detail to Law yet take little thought for the actual personification of their better intentions. Elsewhere Paul confronts them directly when he says, ‘What about you? You say you are a Jew. You trust in the law and proudly claim to be close to God,’¹⁰ but in all this you derive no benefit as long as the actual fruit of good living is not present.”¹¹ Today God’s will is represented in His Word, therefore anyone who says they are doing the will of Jesus, but that will does not conform to the will of the Father in the Scriptures is deceiving those who listen.

Verse 22: On that last Day many will call me Lord. They will say, ‘Lord, Lord, by the power of Your name we spoke for God. And by Your name we forced out demons and did many miracles.

In the Jewish teaching on the judgment, especially concerning those of the generation of Noah. One Rabbi had an interesting comment about those who refused to enter Noah’s ark. He said: “Moreover, you will be considered a curse for all future generations, as it is written, their portion is a curse on the earth. You did not follow the way of escape provided:’ this teaches that you did not look for a way out. So they said to Him, if a person posses the power to escape, what prevents him for using it?’ — God replied. ‘I have chosen One dear to Me to lead you out.’”¹² Jewish commentators add this about that dear One as being: “One righteous man who must first die, so that he may not end up with your punishment.”¹³ In this we can clearly see a comparison between Noah and Jesus, both of whom God chose to provide an escape from death and annihilation. In Noah’s case it was the flood; in Jesus’ case it is the fire of Gehenna.

Perhaps this Rabbi’s listeners were thinking of someone such as Methuselah, but the Holy Spirit gave this utterance in reference to someone else. Also, in a copy of the earliest version of the verbal traditions we find this interesting discussion about standing trial before the LORD: “Ordinarily someone who knows he is on trial wears black and wraps himself in black and lets his beard grow, since he does not know how his trial will turn out. But that is not how it is with Israel. Rather, on the day of their trial they wear white and wrap themselves in white and shave their bears and eat, drink, and rejoice, for they know that the Holy One blessed be He does miracles for them.”¹⁴ To paraphrase this with New Testament insight, when you show up before the Lord, He will know right away you don’t belong to Him because the robe you wear is still black with sin’s stains, not white like those of the redeemed that have had their robes washed in the cleansing blood of the Lamb.

Verse 23: Jesus then tells His followers that based on this, Then I will tell those people clearly, “Get away from me, you people who do wrong. I never claimed you as being Mine.”

The Aramaic Version reads: “And then I will profess to them that from everlasting I have not known you.” Today we might word it, “I didn’t authorize what you did from the very start.” It is used in this same sense in the Babylonian Talmud where a Rabbis were in dispute over how a person is reprimanded for saying or doing something wrong. So one of the Rabbis told another Rabbi to take it to their leader Rabbi Judah. But this Rabbi was not too happy. He said, “‘And what, may I ask, can Rabbi Judah have to say on this?’ So he went and repeated what he was told to do to his father, but his father did not know what to tell him. So when this Rabbi presented himself before Rabbi Judah, Judah said to him: ‘Shimon son of Kappara, I never knew you!’”¹⁵

Commentators tell us that the literal interpretation of this phrase I never knew you was: “I don’t (want to) know you, stay away from me, or I have never been able to understand your attitude towards me.”¹⁶ This same Rabbi clashed with Rabbis on several occasions. The cause, it seems, was not personal, but rather due to the different schools to which they each belonged. So here, Christ declares, He knew them not; that is, He did not recognize their teachings as His. Therefore, He would not admit them into His presence and kingdom.

How many today claim to be doing the works Christ encouraged them to do, yet they have never gotten to know the Master Himself personally? There is a way of “knowing” Him intellectually simply by being cognizant of His existence. But there is another way of “knowing” Him by a personal and individual encounter, and that is by having Him live in our hearts. Today we would call these people “party crashers.” They are not on the invitation list and they are neither friends or relatives of the host.

Those of you who are interested in European and Near East history know that when one royal family deposed the ruling royal family, they either incarcerated or killed off any remaining children or relatives of the former monarch. I saw a documentary on television about the story of one such deposed family whose only remaining child was a young lad in his teens. He was imprisoned and treated horribly. But then he suddenly disappeared and no one seemed to know where he went. Many years later a man living in Canada claimed to be this young man. He told the story of how he escaped and how he was able to resettle with the help of some supporters. He produced documents and personal accounts that led to his being accepted as the only survivor of this royal family. He even wrote a book on the subject and was accepted everywhere as this exiled prince. But modern science was able to extract some DNA from that royal family, and when his was tested it proved not to be a match. That’s when the man confessed that he made it all up.

Jesus is saying here, that unless His spiritual DNA can be found in those who claim to be His followers, He will expose them and send them off into oblivion. David attested to this when he wrote, “God, you don’t want evil people near You. They cannot stay in Your presence. Fools cannot come near You. You hate those who do evil. You destroy those who tell lies. Lord, you hate those who make secret plans to hurt others.”¹⁷ In case anyone was not getting the point He was making, our Lord will offer another illustration to make it even clearer.

The Early Church apologist from Alexandria in Egypt had something to say about such a dismissal from the presence of Christ. He writes: “There may be some who, in the beginning, believed correctly and diligently labored at moral excellence. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons. And yet later they are found turning aside to evil, to self-assertive deception and desire. Of these Jesus remarks that He “never knew them.” He ranks them as equivalent to those who were never known by Him at all. Even if they at the outset had lived virtuously, they ended up condemned. God knows those whom He loves, and He loves those who single-mindedly believe in Him and do the things that please Him.”¹⁸ If that’s what the Church preached back in 380 AD, they should preach the same today.

While Bishop Cyril gives us the conventional interpretation of what Jesus meant when He said, “I never knew you,” there is another factor that we should consider. First of all, it is incompatible to suggest that the all-knowing Son of God did not recognize them or knew who they were or where they were from. So we must look more closely at the word “knew.” In some cases it certainly reflects the presence of sufficient information to have perceived or to understand. It also allows for the understanding of having been acquainted or familiar with a person, place or thing. On some occasions it is employed as a way of saying that a man was intimate with his wife.

So out of these it appears that Jesus certainly could have been saying, that when such people claim an association with Him in their effort to carry out His will in their ministry, He has the right to say: “I don’t recognize you as one of those whom I authorized or approved as a representative of My Kingdom.” This is why it was so important for our Lord after His ascension in to heaven to request the Father send the Holy Spirit as an insignia upon the soul of every believer who was truly authorized to carry out the mission He left for His church to finish so it would allow Him to return and set up His kingdom here on earth.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part IV

The prophet Micah encountered some false teachers that sound very much like what we have today. He writes: “Some false prophets are telling the LORD’S people lies. This is what the Lord says this about them: ‘These prophets are led by their stomachs. They promise peace for those who give them food, but they promise war to those who do not give them food.”¹ In our modern era it would be easy to substitute food for financial support in order to identify such false prophets today.

Then the prophet Isaiah also points out another problem that plagues the church to this day. “The watchmen are all blind. They don’t know what they are doing. They are like dogs that will not bark. They lie on the ground and sleep.”² Ezekiel had an even more graphic description, “The prophets in Jerusalem are making evil plans. They are like a lion—it roars when it begins to eat the animal it caught.”³ So what does this say to Christians today. If a watch dog doesn’t bark when trouble draws near, it becomes nothing more than a pet. And if a lion roars before it begins to consume its prey, it is their way of showing that they should be feared and not taken lightly.

Also, when the prophet Zephaniah looked around, he saw a similar scene. “Jerusalem’s leaders are like roaring lions. Her judges are like hungry wolves that come in the evening to attack the sheep—and in the morning nothing is left. Her prophets are always making secret plans to get more and more. Her priests have treated holy things as if they were not holy. They have done bad things to God’s teachings.”⁴ In other words, these type of people are only out to destroy, not to build; to tear apart, not to bring together.

It was Jewish historian Josephus who reminded his fellow Jews of these omens when he said: “And who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them – and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God Himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollution.”⁵ This was the scene after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD because of the siege by Roman General Titus.

This made our Lord’s warning in these verses so important to the Early Church, that in their teachings they included this alert: “For in the last days the number of false prophets and corrupt teachers will grow and the sheep will be turned into wolves, and love will be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increases, they will hate and persecute and betray one another, and then will appear the world-deceiver as a Son of God, and will perform signs and wonders, and the earth will be delivered into his hands, and he will do ungodly things which have never been done since the beginning.”⁶

While some preachers and teachers of questionable doctrines may not as futile or fatal as what John saw in his revelation, there is another disturbing factor in our church pulpits today. That is those who misuse and misinterpret the Word of God to make a philosophical point that is not found in the text. For instance, describing the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1 as a group of departed saints who are looking down from heaven much like a crowd in a stadium watching a game, instead of pointing out that the cloud the writer referred to were those in Chapter 11.

Also, Paul’s statement in Romans 8:1 about condemnation being used as a reward for being morally good rather than acknowledging that the word translated as “condemnation” in the original Greek is a judicial phrase that refers to the death sentence all sinners live under until they are redeemed and saved from punishment. As well as the statement by the apostle Paul who said: “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength,”⁷ as a mantra or magical phrase Christians can use in overcoming any problem, rather than noting that Paul was pointing back to all that he’d suffered through and yet survived.

There are other examples of such encouragement when Paul tells the Romans: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,”⁸ as a proclamation of assurance to any believer in any situation, rather than a comment by Paul on life in the Spirit and the suffering that comes from living that life for God.⁹ These may all seem as minor errors in interpretation, but just like a measurement being taken that is one sixteenth of an inch offline at the beginning can end up missing its target by feet and then yards the longer it goes uncorrected.

Verse 16b: People don’t go out to gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from barbed weeds.

Our Lord understood the intellectual level of His audience, so He uses illustrations to help them comprehend the meaning of His teachings. He knew that by pointing out the obvious through a story would help get His point across a lot clearer. This is a longstanding tool speakers and teachers have employed when wanting to prove a point that may not be so easily discerned on the surface. It’s almost like using a level to indicate how off kilter a door post maybe, or a ruler to show how crooked a line is.

For instance, on one occasion Rabbis were discussing when boys become men. They told the story of Abaye and Raba when they were boys and were sitting in the presence of Rabbah bar Avuha, who was asking them some questions. They were so good that Rabbah said that both of them would become Rabbis. So the commentators concluded: “This accords with the popular saying: pumpkins can be identified just from the stalk.”¹⁰ In other words, sometimes you do not need to see the fruit before knowing what will be produced. For most of us, a stalk standing in a field would be enough for us to know that long before it starts producing the ears, it is corn. The same with tomato and grape vines. Knowing the source of one’s fruit is also explored in this discussion.

According to another tradition, Rabbis were talking about when a person should be held responsible for why they misled others. Said Rabbi Judah: “Even if a person went to pick figs but picked grapes, or intended grapes but picked figs, or white grapes but picks black ones, or black and he picked white ones, Rabbi Eliezer declares him liable.”¹¹ In other words, it’s like a Sunday school teacher telling students that they got their information from the Bible when in fact it came from a commentary. Or when preachers hold up their Bibles and say: “Let me tell you what God’s Word says,” and then propagates some personally conceived concept or calculation.

In one case, the Rabbis were comparing the marrying of a priest’s daughter to a scholar, to that of a Priest’s daughter marrying someone who is called an ignoramus. Said the Rabbis: “This may be compared to grafting a grape vine into a thorn bush in order to grow berries, which is a repulsive.”¹² So it was that Jesus did not hesitate telling His listeners whether what He was saying came from the Torah or the prophets, or that it was given to Him by His Father in heaven.

Verses 17-18: Jesus no doubt did this so that by not having to decipher His metaphor, they were then able to add the rest of what He was about to say without a struggle. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

Our Lord now offers more spiritual insight by using another illustration on what happens when a father gives his son a stone instead of bread, when people do not treat others the same way they wish to be treated, and when wolves come disguised as sheep in order to carry them off to their den of false doctrine. As in previous illustrations, Jesus said that we can identify them by watching what they do. This was the method David and the prophets used.¹³ In both cases, it depends on the soil in which they are planted and the nutrition that they receive.

But the prophet Isaiah shares God’s disappointment when trees planted and watered correctly do not bear good fruit, “What more could I do for my vineyard? I did everything I could. I hoped for good grapes to grow, but there were only rotten ones. Why did that happen?”¹⁴ Then the Lord goes on to say what will happen to these producers of rotten grapes, “Now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will pull up the thornbushes that protect it, and I will burn them. I will break down the stone wall and use the stones for a walkway. I will turn My vineyard into useless land. No one will care for the plants or work in the field. Weeds and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”¹⁵

The prophet continues with what Jesus echoes here, “The vines will become dry, and the branches will break off. Women will use them for firewood.”¹⁶ And the prophet Ezekiel gives and even more graphic description, “People will throw such wood into the fire. The ends burn, and the middle is scorched. If you cannot make anything from that wood before it is burned, you surely cannot make anything from that wood after it is burned! So people throw the pieces of wood from a grapevine into the fire. It is just like wood from any other tree in the forest.”¹⁷ Also in one apocryphal Gospel we find a rendering of our text: “Jesus said, ‘Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they yield no fruit. Good persons produce good from what they’ve stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness they’ve stored up in their hearts, and say evil things. For from the overflow of the heart they produce evil’.”¹⁸

One Jewish scholar did a study on the Jewish Commentary of Ruth and found some similarities between it and views expressed in the Gospels. One of those was this: “In this world one who is small can become great and he who is great can become small, but in the world to come one who is small can not become great and he who is great can not become small.”¹⁹ In other words, there is still time to change for the best or the least while here on earth, but one we are ushered into the next world, there will be no change; you will be for eternity what you were when you entered. How much more should this motivate us to be all we can be through Christ here and now, so we can spend eternity worshiping Him as an overcomer.

The preacher Chrysostom had this to say: “Even though Jesus seems to make virtually the same point a second time, it is hardly redundant. For in the second time around he prevents anyone from concluding, ‘The evil tree bears evil fruit, but it also bears good fruit, so as to make it difficult to recognize an evil tree, because the crop is of two kinds.’ No. Jesus says, ‘This is not so. For the evil tree bears only evil fruits and would never bear good fruits. So also it is the same way with the opposite kind of tree.’ What then? Is there no such thing as a good person who becomes corrupt? Or a corrupt person who becomes good? Isn’t life full of many examples of such reversals? But the Messiah is not saying that the evil person is incapable of changing or that the good person will never fail in anything. But he is saying that so long as a person is living in a degenerate way, he will not be able to generate good fruit. For he may indeed change to virtue, being evil, but while continuing in wickedness, he will not bear good fruit.”²⁰

Chrysostom goes on: “What then? Did not David, even though good, bear evil fruit? No, because he did not bear evil fruit while remaining good but while being changed. For if indeed he had remained continually good as he had been, he would not have produced the bad fruit. For it surely was not while abiding in the habits of excellence that he had the audacity to do the very things that he had the audacity to do. Jesus also said these things to shut the mouths of those who say nothing but slander and to reign in the lips of those who speak maliciously. For many are suspicious of good people because so many others are evil, but Jesus by this saying has deprived them of all excuse. For on this premise one would not even be able to say, ‘I am deceived and was misled.’ For he has provided you a rule by which accurately to identify the frauds by their deeds. He has also commanded you to proceed on the basis of practices and not to mix up all cases at random.”²¹

Verses 19-20: Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You will know these false people by the fruit they produce.

At this point, it would be good to untangle the literal meaning Jesus intended here about throwing this useless wood into the fire, and the spiritual meaning often applied of saying that such people will end up in hell. It is true that Jesus was comparing these people who pretend to be part of a congregation of believers but become known for the false doctrines they spread and the disharmony they bring, first as wolves camouflaged by sheep’s wool, and second to trees or vines that instead of bearing the good fruit like all those around them, produce inedible fruit that cannot be used. As wolves they are quickly identified and told to leave because they have no place in that body of believers. And as trees or vines, they are rooted up and hauled out of the field or orchard, and used for fire wood.

In the case of the wolves, their end is to be exposed so that they may either repent, return and reconcile with the congregation and become strong supporters of the church’s mission and faithful servants to the church’s cause. But as trees, there is no regret, no restitution, and no rescue. They are to be used for some other cause in the secular sector of society. So in a way, Jesus was saying that while the way of the impostors is correctable, the way of the bitter fruit tree has no redeeming value for the body of Christ. The judgment will be held for those who completely and unequivocally denounce and deny Jesus Christ as the Savior and will have nothing to do with Him. But people whose actions and attitudes are at odds with the mission of any person or group of believers, will be judged on a different criteria. It you want a good example, just look at Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. What he did to the church and against Christianity in the beginning was more like the bitter fruit tree, not the masked wolf. Yet Jesus was able to turn him around and use him in a marvelous way. Jesus will get to those who deserve nothing but hell fire.

Some of the most tragic ending to those who’ve been led astray by false prophets are those of Jim Jones that began in 1956 in Indianapolis, Indiana and ended in mass suicide in Jamestown, Guyana in 1978, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas who willingly allowed themselves to be burned to death in 1993, and a group known as Heaven’s Gate founded by Marshall Herff Applewhite in California and their mass suicide in 1997. The sad part were those who were led astray and suffered so enormously because they had been deceived. Threat of punishment does not seem to work on such deceivers. Only the truth can set their captives free, and there is but one Truth and His name is Jesus.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part III (con’t)

Verse 14: But our Lord wanted them to know what was at the end of this narrow path. “But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people comprehend its true meaning.”

Here Jesus draws a line between why God’s people live and act the way they do, and how selfish people live and respond the way they do. Those who adhere to the teachings of Jesus are on the right path. He defines that opening to this path as having a narrow gate, while the gate to the road uncaring people travel is wide. This is a metaphor for identifying the number of those who actually go through these gates. One reason for the confined space on the pathway and the narrow gate at the end may also be figures of speech to infer that when one is giving and caring, they tend to carry far fewer things with them through life, while those who have no time for others are weighed down with all the things they’ve accumulated and do not want to share it with anyone.

Years ago I attended a personal evangelism seminar in Amsterdam, Holland where an American leader of Christian outreach on college campuses calculated how to win the world for Christ with this formula: If each one of us present were to win two new converts to Christ, and then those two were to each win two more, for a total of four, and then those four each won two etc., etc., that we could win accomplish that goal before the year was over. I found that out-of-line not only with what Jesus says here, but the fact that no one is led to Christ and converted unless the Father chooses them and Jesus accepts them. The only thing we are responsible for is spreading the good news, then God through the Holy Spirit will take care of the rest when it comes to how many respond.

In the Scriptures we hear Wisdom say: “Leave your old, foolish ways and live! Advance along the path of understanding.”¹ Isaiah also sent out a call: “Evil people should stop living evil lives. They should stop thinking bad thoughts. They should come to the Lord again, and He will comfort them. They should come to our God because He will freely forgive them.”² Of course, the prophet was appealing mainly to those within Israel who had strayed from the true path.³ We also see a similar passage alluded to in the case of the soothsayer Balaam: “The angel of Adonai moved ahead and stood in a place so tight that there was no room to turn either right or left.”⁴ This of course was to signify that a decision had to be made of either going ahead or going back.

Even in David’s day he was forced to declare, “But everyone has gone the wrong way. Everyone has turned bad. No one does anything good. No, not one person!”⁵ And the prophet Isaiah points to God’s grace and mercy, “If the Lord All-Powerful had not allowed a few people to live, we would have been destroyed completely like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And that almost happened!”⁶ Solomon likens God’s path to “Wisdom”, and the world’s path to “Waywardness”. So he says that those who follow the world’s path, “Is a road to it leads straight to the grave.”⁷ This prompts him to further say: “There is a way that seems right to people, but that way leads only to death.”⁸

We find that Jesus’ teaching about this narrow way certainly echoes what Solomon said elsewhere: “Keep your eyes on the path, and look straight ahead. Make sure you are going the right way, and nothing will make you fall. Don’t go to the right or to the left, and you will stay away from evil.”⁹ But we don’t walk this narrow way alone, Isaiah tells us, “If you wander from the right path, either to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘You should go this way. Here is the right way.”¹⁰ The prophet explains later what this narrow way is called, “There will be a road there. This highway will be called ‘The Holy Road.’ Evil people will not be allowed to walk on that road. No fools will walk on it. Only good people will walk there.”¹¹

This led God to speak through the prophet Jeremiah, “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask where the old road is. Ask where the good road is, and walk on that road. If you do, you will find rest for yourselves.”¹² In one discussion between Rabbis concerning the wisdom of their fellow Rabbis, one noted Rabbi said: “Go forth and see which is the good way to which a man should adhere…and which is the evil way which a man should shun.”¹³ Of course, this echoes what was said through Jeremiah: “And here is what you are to tell this people: ‘Adonai says: ‘Look! I am presenting you with the way of life and the way of death’.”¹⁴

The emphasis here was not necessarily just on the two ways, but the exercise of man’s will to do God’s will. In fact, in one apocryphal writing we find: “For there are two ways of good and evil, and with these are the two inclinations in our hearts discriminating them.”¹⁵ But now Jesus warns His listeners that not all voices will be encouraging them to follow the correct path. Even among the dedicated Jews there was the concept that the ways of Zion were followed by a thin line of true believers who were few in number. In a copy of Jewish verbal traditions one Rabbi asked: “What is the meaning of the verse, ‘When it concerns the scorners, He scorns them, but as to the humble He gives grace?¹⁶ Said Resh Lakish, “If a man comes to purify himself, they assist him; but if he comes to defile himself, they open the door for him. Because the Holy One, blessed be He, says, If a man repents I will set a crown upon him, because when it comes to the righteous, there are very few.”¹⁷ This shows that just as those among His listeners knew what the thinking was about those covered by the first covenant, so He wanted them to know the thinking about those covered by the new covenant. And since finding the narrow path was hard, our Lord sent out a warning.

Verse 15: “Be careful of false prophets. They come to you disguised as sheep. But underneath they are really dangerous wolves.”

There is no reason to think that Jesus was referring to non-Jewish or pagan prophets, but those who came in the name of Yeshua. Jesus had already had run-ins with them and disputed over the path to salvation through the Law and the road to salvation through grace. They are much like the cult leaders that have led so many astray down through the centuries. Moses warned of the same false prophets, “Don’t listen to them, because the Lord your God is testing you. He wants to know if you love Him with all your heart and all your soul. You must follow the Lord your God. Respect Him. Obey His commands and do what He tells you. Serve the Lord your God, and never leave Him.”¹⁸

Isaiah found the same problem in his day, “Their guides are leading them the wrong way, so those who follow them will be destroyed.”¹⁹ The prophet Jeremiah also had to put up with such misleading teachers, so the Lord sent him this word, “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Jeremiah, those prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or command them or speak to them. Their prophecies came from false visions, worthless magic, and their own wishful thinking. So this is what I, the Lord, say about the prophets who are speaking in my name. I did not send them.”²⁰ Also, when commenting on the Scripture that says: “When that day comes, each one of the prophets will be shamed by his vision when he prophesies. He will stop wearing a cloak made of camel’s hair in order to deceive people;” a highly respected Rashi noted: “So is the custom of those who entice or draw away the people, to wrap themselves with mantles as though they are righteous men in order that their lies be accepted.”²¹

So this practice of wearing a cloak of deception was already a phenomenon in Israel, used by false prophets when their visions did not come to pass as they prophesied. As one well-read Rabbi says: “There are some men who appear to be humble, and fear God in a deceitful and hypocritical way, but inwardly lay wait: this humility our wise men call , ‘wolfish humility’.”²² Over the years there have been many who came along as Christian teachers and leaders claiming to have a new light or revelation of God’s Word. Unfortunately, many people in the pew are so unfamiliar with God’s Word that anyone who seems to have a greater knowledge is accepted as being real, and they are unable to dispute anything they say. Jeremiah had to confront one of these prophets and told him, “Hananiah! The Lord did not send you.’”²³

Chrysostom may not only have had those whom Jesus warned against in His day in mind, but also some who were operation in his own era. We must keep in mind that this was Jesus’ teaching on how we should refrain from being judge and jury when critiquing our fellowman concerning their faults and failures; that we need to ask, seek and knock in order to find the wisdom and guidance necessary to deal with such issues. Our search will lead us to a narrow way contrasted by a broadway, and we should choose the narrow way because it leads to life everlasting. Walking the narrow way often requires that the seeker of wisdom and knowledge must put aside some things they brought with them in order to take hold of what they find.

Now Jesus warns that although we are on the narrow way, we may encounter those who try to persuade us differently than what He has told us about serving God in the beauty of divine righteousness and holiness. Chrysostom writes: “Behold, together with the dogs and swine another kind of ambush and conspiracy far more grievous than that will be encountered. For those [the dogs and swine] are recognized and easily spotted, but these are hidden in the shade. That is why, when He told His listeners to confront those who do their haranguing and harassing out in the open, but for this kind He charged them to watch out for with precise care, accepting the fact that they may not be see at first sight. That’s why when He said, “beware;” He intended to make us even more careful and alert as we watch out for them.”²⁴

Of course, this brings us then to acknowledgment that not all our opponents will be those who disagree with our teachings and doctrines to the point that they are willing to try and rip us apart or treat what we are saying as nothing more than the mud they are trampling in. In their minds, what we have to say deserves nothing more than to be treated with disrespect, leaving open the possibility and opportunity to try and tear down our character and reputation since they cannot destroy the word we deliver.

It is a warning that there will be some who come in like spies, planted among the brethren as lookouts and operatives to scout us out and make plans to bring us down. Not being any open and direct attack, but trying to redirect us to an exit off the path we are on, claiming it is a quicker route to our destiny. Also letting us know that we are carrying excess baggage that will not be needed on the road they will show us, while all the while claiming that this new direction leads to exactly the same destiny as the path we were following.

Not only are these wolves harder to spot, but we often seem less enthused and motivated to take them on for fear that we may ourselves be in the wrong, or that others in the fold may become discouraged because they don’t feel as threatened as we do with the false teachings they are bringing into the pen where the sheep gather. They can be compared to the worm-like larvae of the predatory ground beetle called, Epomis. These larvae entice amphibians, like frogs and toads, and then latch onto parts of their bodies. The larvae refuses to let go, feeding off the animal until it dies.

Or like the North American short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda, that secretes venom from salivary glands in its lower jaw to paralyze prey. But the point of the paralysis is not to kill the prey, but to keep it alive for an extended period of time to allow for prolonged feeding. A tiny shrew can infect a mouse, for example, and then graze on it for days and days until it eventually succumbs to its physical injuries. They’ve also been observed to munch on immobilized meal-worms for up to 15 days. Shrews can eat their own body weight in earthworms, insects, nuts, and mice on a daily basis.

As such, Jesus is warning us about those who are not out to kill us or even for cancellation of our ministry, but to hang around until there is a weak moment of doubt, discouragement or despondency and then pounce when we are at our weakest point. That’s why we need to be observant and informed not only about our doctrine, but also about theirs.

Verse 16a: “You will know these people by the fruit they produce.”

Chrysostom has his view on what he sees as fruit produced by these counterfeit Christians. He writes: “By the metaphor here of “false prophets,” I think He is not speaking of those we call heretics, but it is a reference to those who live a corrupt life, while wearing a mask of virtue; whom the most people are prone to describe as impostors. That’s why Jesus states further: By their fruit ye shall know them. For amongst heretics one may often actually find goodness, but not among those I was just talking about, none at all. What can be said then, especially if we are told that even among heretics there are those who are as counterfeit as the others? I disagree, for such will be easily detected, since this is the way it works. For the way in which Christ commanded believers to walk, can be painful and irksome; but the hypocrite will not choose to deal with such pain, but do it for show only. As such, he is easily spotted. That’s why, inasmuch as Jesus said, ‘there will be few who find this narrow way,’ He thereby gets rid of those who claim they have found the way, yet are all the time pretending they did, and this is because He also told us to ignore those who only wear the masks, and only concentrate on those who in reality do find and pursue it.”²⁵

One more important fact to remember, is that we are not alone in this task. The Holy Spirit was also given to us for discernment. And such decisions need not be made alone. Certainly there are others in the congregation who have detected a foreign spirit and can agree to establish a group approach in ferreting out these disguised wolves. I encountered such an individual while conducting meetings for a pastor who invited me to be the evangelist at his church in central Germany. After the second night, a stranger came into the auditorium and sat towards the front. It appeared from the handshakes and greetings that he was known by many of the people attending. At the end of my sermon, just before I was to give an invitation to those who felt convicted by the Holy Spirit to come and receive forgiveness, suddenly this individual stood up and gave a message in tongues, and then immediately gave the interpretation. My spirit was not at peace with what happened, because the interpretation gave no confirmation to the message that had just been preached, and it clearly caused the spirit of repentance to evaporate.

I resisted saying anything, however, because I needed to find out if anyone else felt the way I did. The next night this same individual repeated the same thing. This time my spirit was more troubled than before. So after the service I spoke with the Pastor and told him of my reservations. The pastor agreed with me that he did not sense any harmony between his spirit and what this man did. The third night, it happened again. But this time I stopped the individual as he began his interpretation, and asked him to let the Holy Spirit use someone else to give the interpretation. He was shocked, but submitted to my request. There was no one who gave the interpretation. That’s when I told him the if his message in tongues was genuine, then I had enough confidence in the Holy Spirit that if He wanted us to hear what He said, He would have given someone else the interpretation. So then I rebuked the man in Jesus’ name and warned him not to do so again until we could all come to an agreement.

Needless to say, the man did not come back for any of the remaining service. And when the meetings were over and I was preparing to leave to go back home in Switzerland, I asked the Pastor if he expected to see this individual again. He smiled and said he didn’t think so, because the very next night after I confronted him, someone went to visit him to see if he was hurt by what I had said, and lo and behold they found him living with a woman who was not his wife. So that news spread very quickly and as far as the churches in that area were concerned, he had been exposed for who he was. So it is vital now for us to follow what our Lord has to say, so that we too can be better watchmen for the wolves in sheep’s clothing.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part III

Verse 12a: Do for others what you would want them to do for you.

Jesus now extrapolates from how fathers should treat their sons, to how neighbors should treat their fellow man. The idea that we should treat others as we would like them to treat us is known as the Theory of Reciprocity, or The Golden Rule, an ethic that emerged and continued through what German philosopher Karl Jaspers described as the Axial Age (c. 800-200 BC). We see this in the writings of all the major religions of that period:

Egypt: 1970-1640 B.C. in a manuscript titled The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant we find “Do for one what you might cause him to do for you.” And since Moses lived in Egypt amost half of his life, he certainly could have become familar with this axiom.

Judaism: 1280 B.C. as Moses wrote down what he believed God was inspiriting him to write, he penned, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18). And in the Seven Rules of Hillel (60 BC to 20 AD), he too wrote down what had been passed on to him from time immortal: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor that is the whole Torah.” (Babylonian Talmud, Masekhet Shabbath, folio 31a).

Persia: 700 B.C. Zoroastrianism teaches “That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self.”

China: 500 B.C. In Daoism (or Taoism) the Sage says, “Make the self of the people yourself.”

China: 500 B.C. Confucius taught, “Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.” And in another writing “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

India: 500 B.C. Buddha taught, “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

India: 500 B.C. In Jainism it was taught, “Therefore, neither does he cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.”

Greece: 384-322 B.C. To the question how we should behave to friends, Aristotle answered, “As we should wish them to behave to us.”

India: 150 B.C. In the great epic Mahabharata we read, “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.”

Also, we read where one Rabbi was speaking about the customs and manners of the Karaite Jews who lived among the Mongolian tribal confederation, that this golden rule could be found in their saying; “All things that a man would not take to himself, it is not fit to do them to his brethren.”¹ Then, the wise seer Rabbi Abraham Saba commented: “Not only must one not harbor negative feelings against one’s fellow, but (as a general rule) one must strive to love one’s peers in a manner that sows one considers his peer’s personal interests as just as dear to one as he does himself”.² Not only that, but talked about all the positive commandments of Rabbinic origin such as visiting the sick, comforting mourners, preparing a bride, going to a funeral, etc. But he summarizes by saying: “Although all these commandments are of Rabbinic origin, they are included in the Scriptural commandment: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’³ That charge implies that whatever you would like other people to do for you, you should do for your comrade in the Torah and mitzvot.”⁴

Jewish wiseman Maimonides also sees this rule played out where he says: “When a person harvests his field, he should not harvest the entire field. Instead, he should leave a small portion of the standing grain at the end of his field⁵.”⁶ One scholar offers this explanation: “Ideally, the law of sharing is fulfilled by leaving a portion of one’s field unharvested and allow the poor to harvest it.”⁷ We also read that a non-Jew came to a Rabbi and asked to be made a proselyte, but only on the condition that the Rabbi teach him the whole Torah while the non-Jew stood on one foot. This upset the Rabbi who threw a builder’s measuring rod at him. So he went to the great Rabbi Hillel and made the same request. The venerable teacher said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.”⁸

We also learn that the heathen Roman Emperor Alexander Severus was so impressed with the Golden Rule, that he either learned from Christians in Rome or from the Babylonian Talmud,⁹ that it says: “…he adopted it as his motto, instilling it in his subjects whenever they were about to inflict a wrong on any one. He caused this maxim to be inscribed also upon his palace and upon public buildings In his private chapel where he was accustomed to pray every morning, he had, besides the images of Apollonius, Orpheus, and Jesus, also an effigy of Abraham.”¹⁰ The question here is not whether Jesus was quoting any one of these sources, but that He was reiterating what was already known as an axiom.

Chrysostom speaks on this saying in a unique way. He writes that after Jesus explained how we can petition God for those things we need in order to know Him better and be able to carry out His will is by asking, seeking and knocking, he now goes on to explore how we should determine our expections when we deal with our fellowman. It is simple: Whatever it is that you want people to do to you, do the same to them. Chrysostom adds: “Do you see how He has shown that together with prayer we need to regulate our behavior. Also, He did not say, ‘Whatever things you want God to do for you, do the same for your neighbor.’ That way you cannot find an excuse by saying, ‘that is not possible. He is God, and I’m a human being.’ Instead, He said ‘Make sure that whatever you do to your fellow man, is the same thing you would want them to do to you.’ Now, what is so hard about that? What can be any fairer than this? Then the recognition you will receive before your reward is received will be exceedingly great. For this is what the law and the prophets said.¹¹ Wherefore, this is abundantly clear, that virtue is defined by our attitude; that we all know within ourselves what our duties are; and that it is not possible for us ever to claim innocence due to ignorance of the law.”¹²

Verse 12b: Then He ties it to a source that He knew all of those who heard Him respected: This is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

This is a reference to the Scripture that says: “Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don’t try to get even. Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”¹³ Israel lived by this guideline as taught to them: “Learn to do good. Treat people fairly. Punish those who hurt others. Speak up for the widows and orphans. Argue their cases for them in court.”¹⁴ Jeremiah made sure to repeat this statue: “You must be fair to each other. You must be fair to strangers. You must help widows and orphans.”¹⁵ The prophet Ezekiel also touches on this,¹⁶ and Micah also adds his point of view: “Be fair to other people. Love kindness and loyalty.”¹⁷ So there would have been no reason for Jesus’ listeners to find this statement as odd or new. So what Jesus says next, is contingent upon those who have found the right path to follow.

Augustine gives us his undersanding of this exegesis by Jesus out of the Torah. He writes: “Moreover, this precept seems to refer to the love of our neighbour, and not to the love of God, seeing that in another passage He says that there are two precepts on which hang all the law and the prophets. For if He had said, All things whatever you want done to you, do likewise; in this one sentence He would have embraced both those precepts: for it would soon be said that every one wishes that he himself should be loved both by God and by men; and so, when this precept was given to him, that what he wished done to himself he should himself do, that certainly would be equivalent to the precept that he should love God and men. But when it is said more expressly of men, nothing else seems to be meant than, ‘You should love your neighbor as yourself.’”¹⁸ In other words, there is no reason to include God, because what can we do for God that He has not already done for us?

Augustine continues: “But we must carefully make note of what He adds here: ‘for this is the law and the prophets.’ Now, in the case of these two precepts, He does not merely say, ‘The law and the prophets depend on them;’ but He has also added, “the whole law and all the prophets,”¹⁹ which is the sum of prophecy. Also, by not including the word ‘whole’ here, He has kept a place for the other precept, which refers to loving God. Nonetheless, Here He is expounding on the precepts with respect to those with a single heart. But there should be great concern for anyone dealing with people who have a divided heart, because their real motives may be hidden. For there is almost no one that would wish that anyone with a divided heart would have dealings with them. It is highly unlikely that anyone with a single heart will try to do something for their fellowman unless they do so without any intention of taking advantage of them.”²⁰

Verse 13: You may enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to destruction is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way.

The theme that our Lord introduces here has been interpreted by many to be a comparison between the narrow way to heaven and the broadway to hell. But when looking at the context in which this is said, we see that He has just been talking about not being critical of others while seeking to improve one’s own life, and being fair and just in all we do to and for others. In other words, how to experience and practice true living, instead of just existing for the sake of existing. So how do we get there? The Master says, it’s not all that easy. You have to ask about it, take time to look for it, and when you arrive at the gate, knock so you can get in. Then he compares this to how easy it is to develop a lifestyle that leads to a meaningless and unproductive life.

Later He will talk more about this gate and what it signifies in relationship to Him as the good Shepherd. In the Babylonian Talmud we find a discussion on roads and paths, both public and private. The discourse finally comes down to what constitutes the width of a road meant for many and the path mean for a few. We are told that the private path should be no more than four cubits (6 feet) wide, while the public road must be at least sixteen cubits (12 feet) wide.²¹ And we also find these private roads and public roads are spoken of as dividing lines for sowing seeds.²² So when Jesus referred to narrow paths and wide roads, He was not referring to alleyways and backstreets where the homeless and vagabonds congregate. His listeners certainly understood how they were used and for whom they were intended.

Augustine sees a connection here between the narrow path leading to a single gate and the taking of His yoke upon themselves, that Jesus will speak about later.²³ He first goes back to where Jesus started with His instructions to those who desire more wisdom and guidance to ask, seek and knock. This then will lead them to a narrow path that leads to a single gate. The narrowness of this way is taken by him and other scholars of his day to represent the self-denial and hardships that will come when they deal with others the same way they wish to be dealt with themselves, and the possible persecution and trials that will ensue.

In that context, this is the price of being righteous and faithful to the calling and mission believers receive. Jesus describes the yoke of grace as being comfortable and light, not rough and heavy like the Law. But it is yielding to His guidance and going where He leads that can bring on dark nights and tempestuous seas that must be navigated with His help. Thus, there are fewer that follow that narrow path than those who turn away from the invitation of the yoke that leads to abundant life, and chooses instead the independent way that leads to living for nothing and having all we do being destroyed as of no value.²⁴

Preacher Chrysostom has a similar view that ties this together with how believers should pray with more than just themselves in mind; how they should continue to ask, seek and knock until they gain the wisdom and leading necessary in order to deal with their calling and mission and how it affects others; which leads them to always keep in mind that any decisions made in the process are the same kind as they would wish to receive from others for the same reasons. Thus He is mapping out the path on which the journey will be taken when yoked together with Him, a path that is narrow and leads to a gate that is constricted, and one that only He can open. The motivation, of course of following this more narrow way is that all those things on the broadway are temporal and lead to nothing being gained at the end, while those things on the narrow way are meant for eternity and will be waiting for the believer on the other end as a reward for being faithful. Both ways can be unpleasant and painful at times, as well as pleasant and enjoyable. However, the broadway experience is for losers, while the narrow way is for winners.²⁵

Chrysostom concludes: “And not only does the journey along the way prove to be worthwhile, but by the time we reach the end it becomes worth everything. For it is not just enduring sweat and tears, but also the anticipation that the things to come when we reach our wonderful destination will be sufficient to encourage every traveler to keep going. For this narrow road leads to life everlasting. And the result is that both the temporary toils and labor along with the eternal nature of the victor’s crown, combined with the fact that these toils may come first but the victor’s crown will come at the end, should be enough to give every fighter encouragement and hope for the future²⁶.”²⁷

This leaves us with another thought to consider. Most people will tell you that when they go hunting for an item that is rare and very valuable, they don’t go down to the local dime store. It can often only be found in small antique shops, sometimes in back alleys or bazaars in far away places. So it is that Jesus was telling His followers that not all of life’s answers are found easily because they are on open display, sometimes it requires asking, searching, and pounding on doors before a gem of wisdom is found. That’s why I’ve always consider the Bible to be the place I search most often, digging deep into the meaning of its words, looking in every chapter and under every verse for some nugget of wisdom I can learn from and share with others. It certainly can become a joyful labor of love.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part II (con’t)

Now let’s read this warning sent out by the prophet Isaiah: “So you should look for the Lord before it is too late. You should call to Him now, while He is near.”¹ Isaiah was not saying that God is never available, He is always present. But when faced with difficulties, trials, and temptations, call on Him before you get caught up in them, not after you’ve fallen into them and begin to sink. Jeremiah spoke of the same urgency, “This message is from the Lord. ‘I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future. When that takes place you will call My name. You will come to me and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will search for Me, and when you search for me with all your heart, you will find Me. I will let you find Me.’”² Is this not what Jesus is saying here in verse 7?

But we must not overlook that God’s promise is contingent upon seeking Him with all our heart. In those circumstances, pretending and insincerity have no place in helping us move forward toward our destiny. The Psalmist puts it this way, “The wicked are too proud to ask God for help. He does not fit into their plans.”³ But He is the author and architect of our plans. That’s why we need to know what His plans for us are. That’s why King David confessed, “My heart told me to come to You, Lord, so I am coming to ask for Your help.”⁴

Sometimes believers become so self-reliant and sure of themselves that they are reluctant to ask their fellow believers or God for help. That’s why the Psalmist said, “Be proud that it’s Him you call on. You followers of the Lord, be happy! Depend on the Lord for strength. Always go to Him for help.”⁵ This is why Solomon shares the sentiment of Divine Wisdom, “I love those who love me, and those who look for me will find me.”⁶ But it’s not enough to love it, we must seek after it. That’s why the prophet Amos told Israel, “The Lord says this to the nation of Israel: ‘Come looking for Me and live.’”⁷ No wonder Asaph penned these words of encouragement to God’s people, “I will give the best wheat to My people. I will give them the purest honey, until they are satisfied.”⁸ But asking and seeking is still not enough, once the resource is found, it must be appropriated and used. Jesus employed the idea of “knocking” in order for the door you asked about and sought so fervently to be opened.

No doubt our Lord encouraged this because of what Solomon quoted Wisdom as saying: “I love those who love me; and those who seek me will find me.”⁹ And using the term “knocking” in connection with prayer, was also part of Jewish tradition. In Jewish tradition we read a teacher who uses names to teach this precept which was found in Mordecai, the hero we read about in the book of Esther: “..ben Jair means, the son who enlightened [he’ir] Israel with his prayer. Ben Shimei means, the son whose prayer God listened to [shama]. Ben Kish indicates that he knocked [hikkish] at the gates of mercy and they were opened to him.”¹⁰ So in this we can clearly see Jesus’ “ask, seek, and find.”

Verses 9-11: “Do any of you have a son? If he asked for bread, would you give him a stone? Or if he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not! You people are so carnal, but you still know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him.”

Our Lord’s reference here to the carnality of mankind was not only indicative of their being human rather than divine, but also to their nature: attitude, thinking, impulses and desires. The Jews viewed people with such mindsets as being more animal than human. We see this in how a certain class of people were viewed in the Old Testament, where it says: “The Lord saw that the people on the earth were very evil. He saw that they thought only about evil things all the time”.¹¹ A Jewish rendering of this reads: “And the LORD saw that the evil of the human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil.”¹² One Jewish commentator paraphrases this Scripture to read: “When HaShem¹³ saw that the wickedness of man on earth had become so widespread that all the urgings of his heart were concentrated on devising means to be wicked all day long.” He then comments: “Normally, even wicked people do entertain some worthwhile thoughts on occasion and plan to carry them out, even if they may get sidetracked. The Torah testifies that the people of the generation of the deluge did not even entertain worthwhile thoughts at all…The people of the deluge never even entertained the thought of acting righteously.”¹⁴

By this time Jesus was aware that maybe His followers were not comprehending or assimilating everything He was saying. These teachings are very elementary, but people fail to perceive their meaning when complicated interpretations are superimposed on them. This does not advocate the elimination of exegesis, but merely pointing out that Christ’s Gospel should be understood by all. All parables and similes contain spiritual implications, but they can be lost when we focus too sharply on how does a loaf relate to a stone; or a fish to a snake; or grapes to figs. So our Lord decides to give an illustration to make His point clearer and more identifiable.

The first question that comes to many people’s mind is: “What does a rock have to do with bread, and what does a snake have to do with fish?” Some scholars suggest that flat stones sometimes do resemble the flat bread made during Jesus’ time, and an eel looks very much like a snake, even though it is a fish. Others point to the devil’s temptation of Jesus in the desert by challenging him to make bread out of the stones laying around. These explanations all point out the concept of deception. A Greek playwright used to compare a benefit bestowed by a harsh man in an offensive manner to a gritty loaf of bread, which a hungry man is obliged to receive, but which is painful to eat.¹⁵

Even the earliest believer, Job, was told by his friend Eliphaz, “People cannot really be pure. They cannot be more right than God! God does not even trust His angels. He does not even think heaven is all that pure. People are even worse. They are disgusting and dirty. They drink up evil like water.”¹⁶ Jesus did not want His disciples being accused of propagating make-believe stories just to compete with already existing teachings and beliefs. Such would be the case if they presented His gospel as nothing more than competition for the world’s philosophy. So His followers should make sure they had the real bread and genuine fish to offer the unbeliever. In Christianity, this is how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25^th. It was substituted as a Christian holiday for an already existing pagan festival.

By Jeremiah’s time, the prophet confessed, “Nothing can hide its evil as well as the human mind. It can be very sick, and no one really understands it.”¹⁷ So the only thing that can confront and succeed against such a debased mindset is the pure, unadulterated Word of God shared unapologetically with the world. So, says Jesus, if people with carnal minds can know that you should not try to fool a child with something it is not, how much more will God be kind, gently and understanding to His own children by giving them the real thing to share with others.

When God passed before Moses on Mt. Sinai, He told him, “Yahweh, the Lord, is a kind and merciful God. He is slow to become angry. He is full of great love. He can be trusted. He shows his faithful love to thousands of people.”¹⁸ When speaking of His people, God said, “Can a woman forget her baby? Can she forget the child who came from her body? Even if she can forget her children, I cannot forget you.”¹⁹ This led the Lord to tell His people, “My thoughts are not like yours. Your ways are not like Mine. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.”²⁰

Too often, believers feel compelled to make the plan of salvation so simple that anyone in the world can figure it out with their logic. But it doesn’t make any sense for the Prince of Glory to die for a hell-bent sinner but they never meet, or to give His life to pay for the penalty on their sins without them even asking that it be paid. If salvation is not accepted by understanding in faith there is no other way, then it cannot be the true message of salvation. This led the prophet Micah to declare, “There is no God like you. You take away people’s guilt. God will forgive His people who persevere. He will not stay angry with them forever, because He enjoys being kind.”²¹ Imagine that! A God that loves forgiving wrongs done against Him without exacting a price or penalty from the guilty party! This led to a member of Korah’s family to write: “The Lord freely gives every good thing to those who do the right thing.”²² This led to another member of Korah’s family to inscribe: “God’s love will come together with His faithful people. Goodness and peace will greet them with a kiss.”²³

Augustine put it this way: “Moreover, great hope has been given, and is given, by Him who does not deceive when He promises: for He says, “Every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened.” Therefore there is need of perseverance, in order that we may receive what we ask, and find what we seek, and that what we knock at may be opened.” To this Augustine adds that these are the conditions of an effective prayer, in that they should be made in the name of Christ,²⁴ with faith, and according to God’s will.²⁵ Yet we must not forget that Jesus has already made it clear, that when we ask, seek and knock, we should know exactly what we are asking, seeking and knocking for, and this is to know more about God and how to do His will in our lives.

Augustine continues: “Now, He has called those evil who are as yet the lovers of this world and sinners. And, in fact, the good things are to be called good according to their feeling, because they reckon these to be good things. Although in the nature of things also such things are good, but temporal, and pertaining to this feeble life: and whoever that is evil gives them, does not give of his own; for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof,²⁶ who made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.²⁷ How much reason, therefore, there is for the hope that God will give us good things when we ask Him, and that we cannot be deceived, so that we should get one thing instead of another, when we ask Him; since even we, although we are evil, know how to give that for which we are asked? For we do not deceive our children; and whatever good things we give are not given of our own, but of what is His.”²⁸ In Augustine’s mind, the principle involved here by what Jesus said, can be carried over into everyday living and that it is intended to promote honesty and genuine generosity.

But in order to do that, we must understand the full impact of what Jesus is saying here about God’s generosity, we must see it in the context of what He just said about asking, seeking, and knocking. In other words, when we go to God for understanding, wisdom, or even our daily needs, if we do not try to fool our own children with substitutes for the real thing, how much more will the Father in heaven not deceive His children with things that are of no value or with the intent of making them think they received one thing when in fact they were given another. This should therefore teach us that no matter what we receive from God as an answer to our prayer, cherish it because it is the right thing for the right time. By grasping this, we will be able to then proceed with what our Lord is about to teach those who follow Him.