Bible Study series: Matthew 7:7-12. Prayer must be persistent. And we must do good to people. There is a connection.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Matthew 7:7-12
7 Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, to the one knocking it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, whose son will ask for bread, will give him a stone? No one. 10 Or he asks for a fish, and he will give him a serpent? No one. 11 If therefore you being evil know to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask! 12 Therefore, everything that you want people to do to you, in the same way you also do to them. For this is the law and the prophets. (Matt. 7:7-12)
Comments
7:
All these commands are in the present tense. So an expanded translation can read as follows: “Continually ask, and it shall be given to you. Continually seek, and you shall find. Continually knock on the door, and it shall be opened to you.” Further, each verb of answer is passive future. So many scholars call this the divine passive, meaning God is behind scenes giving, finding for you and opening the door (Turner).
Sometimes God answers prayers swiftly, and on other occasions and circumstances, it takes time. In the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8), she bothered the unjust judge so often that he gave in. So how much more will God answer swiftly, for he is not like the unjust judge. The finale of the parable: “Won’t God give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Indeed, he is waiting patiently for them to do this! I tell you that he will give justice to them quickly!” (Luke 18:7-8). God is waiting patiently for his people to cry out to him day and night. “But will the Son of Man find faith on the earth?” (v. 8). In other words, will people cry out to him day and night, or will they give up and quit?
Consider Jer. 29:13-14: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, (Jer. 29:13-14, NIV)
8:
This verse is a great promise for those who ask, seek, and knock according to God’s will, because they are in right relationship with him. They are kingdom citizens.
Let’s go over to John’s writings and see his promises about prayer. In these next verses, the context is being connected to the vine. Then your asking will not be selfish, but centered on him:
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:16-17, ESV).
In the next verses, we better ask for the purpose of joy:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:23-24, ESV)
In right relationship with the Father through the Son, our hearts will not condemn us, so now we can ask with confidence:
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:14-15)
James teaches us how to pray to God in our life with him:
You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:3, ESV)
Prayer is all about relationship with our loving Father. He is not a Cosmic Butler or Vending Machine who is there to serve our whimsical desires or even our serious desires. We must talk with him daily. Yes, God will answer prayers when you ask with pure motives, so please ensure that your requests come from the heart of God first; then he will answer them gladly, according to his will.
9-10:
Jesus uses surprising imagery to get his point across. It is a form of hyperbole (pronounced hy-PER-boh-lee), for no earthly father really gives those things to his kids.
11:
The main point is revealed in v. 11. You, being evil or bad, know how to give good gifts to your children. Once again Jesus uses a startling image, which he often does in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere in his teaching. No father literally does those things, and the point is once again a “how much more” argument. How much more will your Father not do those things. How much more will your Father give you good things? Even though we have a sin nature, even we can understand the basics of goodness and appropriateness. God is so awesome and omniscient that he knows what you need and will graciously grant you. He is your loving Father.
I like this verse from Luke 12:32, which expands on the “good things” in v. 11 to include the entire kingdom: “Don’t fear, little flock, because your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).
12:
Here is the famous Golden Rule. How is it connected to the previous verse about the Father giving good things to us? Be like the Father! Be good to people! How? The Golden Rule will guide you.
I like how Olmstead translates it: “Therefore, all things—whatever you wish people to do to you—do also the same to them; for this is the law and prophets” (p. 145). His translation and mine add up to the same principle.
Rabbi Hillel, who lived just before Jesus ministered (AD 20), is reported to have been challenged to summarize the whole Torah standing on one leg. He said: “Do not do to your neighbor what is hateful to you.” One shortcoming to this negative phrasing (the word “not” is the negative) is that the goats in Matt. 25:31-34 could live comfortably and be acquitted at final judgment, with Hillel’s version. Recall that the goats did nothing to help their neighbors in need. Hillel’s version is too passive, while Jesus’s wording is active. The goats would not be acquitted by Jesus’s version. Look for ways to help people (Carson 223-24).
People say God wants only a relationship with us, and we don’t need to bother with rules. It is true that relationship takes priority over rules, but kingdom citizens can get confused without them.
Kingdom citizens need guidelines or parameters between which they must remain. This Golden Rule acts as guardrails between which we must drive our cars. When we scrape against the guardrails, we get out and look at the damage and say, “Well, that was dumb!” Then we get our cars fixed. We pay the price for it, too. The Golden Rule is just one rule among many others moral laws in the NT.
Further, it is naïve to think that we don’t need rules. We need them. But the church today is filled with confusing, contradictory, naïve teaching. The hyper-grace teachers are guilty of spreading this bad teaching. So, who can blame the churchgoer if he is confused? These teachers need to repent.
Unlawful Sexual Relations in Leviticus 18 from a NT Perspective
Moral and Other Laws in Leviticus 19 from a NT Perspective
The Law Teaches Virtue and Restrains Vice
What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?
Jesus boils down the law here:
37 And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ [Deut. 6:5] 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 The second is like it. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Lev. 19:18] 40 On these two commandments the whole law and prophets depend.” (Matt. 22:37-40)
Paul expresses the same idea when he writes that love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8-10). He also says that the whole law is fulfilled in this one saying: “You are to love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14). James singles out the love of neighbor as the “royal law” (Jas. 2:8). John writes that if we say that we love God but hate our brother, then we are liars; the love of God is not in us. Whoever loves God must love his brother (1 John 4:20-21).
But we still need moral law, found in both the OT and NT, for guidance and the parameters.
GrowApp for Matt. 7:7-12
1. In your prayer life, have you persevered (hung in there) and finally received an answer to prayer? Or have you quit? Do you have any long-term “prayer projects”?
2. How might the Golden Rule (v. 12) influence your life for the better?
RELATED
9. Authoritative Testimony in Matthew’s Gospel
1. Church Fathers and Matthew’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom.
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 