Matthew 7

Notes

Ver. 1, 2. Never be rash, unmerciful, or severe, in suspecting, judging, or censuring the conduct, designs, and especially the eternal state of others, lest ye provoke them to be as severe against you, and even provoke God to pass judgment without mercy upon you; for in the same manner that ye deal with others in judging them, ye must expect to be dealt with by them, and especially by God in the last judgment. 3-5. And how unreasonable and unrighteous is it for any of you readily to spy every little fault in your neighbour, and aggravate it with severity, while ye take no notice of, or even excuse, extenuate, and indulge much greater crimes in yourselves? or with what face, or to what purpose, would ye offer to condemn, correct, or reprove your brother for lesser sins, while your own heart and life are corrupted, and your judgment blinded, with much more heinous crimes? What is this but the grossest hypocrisy, under a pretence of zeal against sin? If therefore ye would be able with judgment and conscience, with decency, authority, and success, to reprove and reform others, begin with reforming yourselves. 6. And never unseasonably throw away the best counsels and reproofs, any more than the seals of God's word, upon hardened, profane, and incorrigible sinners, who will pour contempt upon them, and outrageously hate and persecute you on account of them. 7, 8. But in order to qualify you for these and all other duties, be much employed in fervent, importunate, and persevering prayer for direction and assistance. Thus shall you receive from God your heavenly Father whatever blessings he has promised. 9-11. For if none of you, however wicked or hard-hearted, would give a needy and importunate child that which is useless or destructive, how is it possible that your infinitely gracious God and Father can withhold what is good and needful from his fervently supplicant children? 12. And if God be so incomparably gracious to you, see that, in all your dealings with men, ye act in the same upright, just, and kind manner, as ye would reasonably wish them to act towards you if they were in your circumstances and you in theirs. 13, 14. And if you would be holy and happy members of my kingdom of grace or glory, ye must enter in at the strait gate of repentance, faith, and regeneration, however self-humbling and self-denying it be; for as the entrance into, or progress in, sin and self-seeking, which leads to everlasting misery, is agreeable to the corrupt inclinations of men, multitudes follow after it to their eternal perdition: but the entrance into my kingdom by the new birth being painful and difficult, and the way of true gospel holiness, which leads to everlasting life, being disagreeable to flesh and sense, and beset with manifold tribulations, there are few that enter into and persevere in it. 15-20. Beware of false teachers, who pretend to lead you by an easy and wide path to everlasting happiness, and who, under a mask of sanctity, meekness, and concern for your welfare, remain under the power of their own lusts, and labour to make a prey of you to their own carnal ends and your everlasting destruction. By the evil tendency and influence of their doctrine, and by the pride, covetousness, or sensuality of their practice, ye may discern them from my faithful servants. For according as men's inward and reigning principles are good or bad, such are, and must be, their designs and actions; and however fair men's professions and appearances be, yet, if their inward principles of action are unsound, their doctrines erroneous, and their lives immoral, they are but plagues to the church, and shall, in the righteous judgment of God, be cut down by death, and cast into everlasting despair. 21-23. It is not even the highest professions of regard to me as their Lord and Master, or a seeming fervency in calling on my name, that can manifest men real subjects in my kingdom of grace, or heirs of my kingdom of glory, but a cordial faith in my person and character, and unfeigned obedience to my heavenly Father's commands. In that awful day in which I will judge the quick and the dead, many who have preached as my ministers, and even wrought miracles in my name, shall have their hypocrisy and wickedness publicly exposed; and shall, as objects of my judgment, be, for their iniquities, banished from my blissful presence into everlasting misery. 24-27. Whoever therefore hears, seriously considers, embraces by faith and love, and acts according to the doctrines which I have been delivering, shall have my unchangeable person and character for his foundation; and whatever temptations and persecutions, doubts, fears, and dangers, may assault him in life or in death, his hope in me shall never make him ashamed. But he that hears them without cordially believing and uprightly practising them, having nothing to support him in a time of temptation, danger, death, or judgment, but his empty hypocritical profession of religion, shall, to his dreadful disappointment, inevitably and miserably perish for ever. 29. He spake with surprising majesty and authority, and with an evidence of truth and importance which could not be contradicted.

Ver. 1. Judge not. The words do not forbid a 'righteous judgment' of men's characters and actions, but a curious and inquisitorial search into men's failings and faults, for the purpose, not of reforming them, or admonishing ourselves, but for the purpose of enabling us to condemn them, and, by the comparison, to magnify ourselves. C.

Ver. 6. This caution is not to encourage either cowardice or reserve in proclaiming the gospel, but that prudence which 'rightly divides the word of truth,' and that godly discipline in the church that distinguishes between the 'clean and the unclean.'—Note, Though things holy may not be given to dogs, nor precious pearls cast before swine, yet mercy will feed the one with crumbs, and the other with husks; and where the faithful church-ruler will not admit the profane to fellowship, he will instruct, exhort, rebuke, with all long-suffering and doctrine; that so be, if the Lord will, he may 'save his own soul and them that hear him.' C.

Ver. 15. Who come to you with all the apparent meekness of sheep, seeking an entrance into the fold, but who are historically known to raven and destroy the moment the entrance has been granted and power obtained.—Note, The history of ancient and modern Popery—first, in pursuit, and then in possession, of temporal power and spiritual supremacy—will form the most apt illustration of the necessity of this warning. C.

Ver. 21. The kingdom of heaven does not necessarily signify the kingdom of glory; for though hypocrites may join themselves visibly to the church, none really enter it except such as are 'born of water and the Spirit,' Jn. 3.5. C.

Ver. 27. The rain, floods, and winds of an eastern monsoon, and the ravages they commit, not merely on humble cottages, but upon the most substantial buildings, seem to have furnished the original from which the picture is so graphically drawn. C.

**Reflections.—**All our religion should begin at home; and instead of being uncharitably severe in censuring others, we should carefully look into our own hearts and ways, observe and condemn what is amiss in ourselves, and, through grace, labour to reform it. Let us then take heed not only how, but also to whom, we give good counsels and reproofs. With earnestness, faith, and resignation, let us always address our heavenly Father for every necessary blessing; and let Jesus' law of honesty and kindness be the constant rule of all our conduct. It is a great blessing to the place where Christianity is duly possessed and practised. But there is an indispensable necessity of heart-renewing grace, and of active principles of holiness, before our practice can be really good. The work of conversion is hard, but necessary. And there is need carefully to try those whom we receive as ambassadors of Christ, both with respect to the nature and tendency of their doctrine. What alarming lengths may men go in the church of Christ, and yet, being destitute of real holiness, eternally perish! We should dread the thoughts of following the multitude, lest we follow them to hell; or of building our hopes of happiness upon insufficient grounds, lest they fail us, to our final and aggravated destruction. Let nothing therefore short of an assured faith on the Son of God, attended with gospel holiness in all manner of conversation, satisfy us.