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We come now to the sixth section of the new King’s decree on the mountain, Matt. 7:1-12.
Apparently, the Lord’s intention in 7:1-12 is to cover the principles according to which the kingdom people deal with others. Actually, His intention here is to encourage us to forget ourselves and to take care of others. In the two previous chapters, the Lord has dug out our temper, our lusts, our inner being, the self, the flesh, and our anxiety. Now He brings us to the point where we must learn to take care of others. When you judge others, you must judge them according to how you want them to judge you. To consider the matter in this way is to take care of others.
The heavenly ruling over the kingdom people requires that they take care of others. Although a number of negative points were touched in chapters five and six, the matter of taking care of others is not covered until chapter seven. In whatever we do, we must think about others. We have a real lack in this area, because in our natural life we do not consider others. From beginning to end, we only consider ourselves. Our thinking and our consideration are wrapped up with ourselves. Therefore, we are always centered around ourselves and never consider others. I would ask you to recall the way you lived in the past. Was it your practice to consider others? If we consider others when we are about to criticize or judge them, we shall neither criticize nor judge. The reason we judge others and criticize them is that we do not care for them. If we cared for others, we would sympathize with them.
In 7:1 the Lord said, “Do not judge, lest you be judged.” The kingdom people, living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, always judge themselves, not others. The Lord’s word about not judging lest we be judged does not seem to be a word about taking care of others. However, when we probe into this word, we see that it actually means to take care of others. When you are about to judge others, instead you must take care of them.
Let us seek to find out the secret of this word about not judging. How can we tell that the real meaning here is to take care of others? Are you afraid of being judged? If you are, then you should realize that others are also afraid of being judged. Do you feel bad about being judged by others? If you do, then you should know that others also feel bad about being judged by you. No one likes to be judged. If you do not like to be judged, then what about others? You need to take care of them. If you do not like to be judged by others, why do you judge other people? If you are afraid of being judged, then you must consider others, who also are afraid of being judged. Always take care of others.
Verse 2 says, “For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you.” Under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, the kingdom people will be judged with what they judge. If they judge others with righteousness, they will be judged by the Lord with righteousness. If they judge others with mercy, they will be judged by the Lord with mercy. Mercy boasts against judgment (James 2:13, Gk.). Do not judge others so much, for you will be judged in the same degree that you judge others. If you take care of others, you will not be judged by them.
Verse 2 says that with what measure we mete, it shall be measured to us. The principle here is the same as with judgment. Apparently, in these verses the Lord does not charge us to take care of others; actually, however, these verses mean that we must take care of others. Are you afraid of being measured by others? If so, then you must take care of others, for they also are afraid of being measured by you. If you take care of others, you will not judge them, criticize them, or measure them.
In the past I knew a certain group of Christians who talked a great deal about spirituality. In a sense, their talk was genuine. However, this group had one weak point: it was the practice of measuring others. It seemed that everyone in this group had a little scale in his pocket. Whenever they invited you to tea, they measured you with their invisible scale. Later they would come together to talk about you. Some would ask, “Have you found out where he is?” This means, “Have you measured him?” I also learned that this group did not care at all for the feelings of others; they cared only for their practice of measuring others. Their measuring was actually their criticizing and their judging. I would take this opportunity to encourage you not to measure others. Do not try to determine how spiritual others are, how much growth they have, or what is their condition in life. If you refrain from measuring others, you will be kept from criticizing them and judging them. This is based on the principle of taking care of others.
Those in the group to which I just referred had a difficult time helping others. The reason they could not help others was that the others were under their measurement, judgment, and criticism. In helping others, we must be blind. If you want to help others in the church life, you need to be blind. If you would be a good husband or wife, be blind in taking care of your spouse. Do not measure, judge, or criticize. Do not have any measurement of others. This is a way of showing mercy toward them. If you show mercy toward others, you will receive mercy. But if you measure others without mercy, then you will also be measured without mercy. With what measurement you mete, it will be measured to you.
Mercy does not do any measuring. This means that mercy imposes no requirements. Anything that requires a measurement is not mercy. Mercy does not know mathematics; it does not know how to add or subtract. Mercy is absolutely blind. Why do you treat me so well when I am so pitiful? It is because you are merciful toward me.
Sometimes, by the Lord’s mercy, I have been merciful toward others. Afterwards some of my children, whose eyes were so clear about the situation, said to me, “Daddy, don’t you know how poor this person is? Why were you so good to him?” I was good to him because I was blind. My children, however, were very clear-sighted. But those who are so clear-sighted cannot be merciful. If you would be merciful, you must be like Isaac, who blessed Jacob in a blind way. Likewise, we, the kingdom people, must be blind in dealing with others. If so, we shall be merciful to them and always take care of them. Whenever my children asked me why I was kind to those who did not deserve kindness, I answered, “You don’t know what I am doing. Your eyes are too big and clear. Why did I treat him that way? It was because I was considerate of him.” This is the principle of the kingdom people in dealing with others. For us to deal with others, we must consider them, sympathize with them, and be merciful toward them. The kingdom people must take care of others in their dealings with them.
If you read these verses again and again, you will see that the basic principle hidden here is that we must forget ourselves and take care of others. Do you know why you criticize others and judge them? It is because you think of yourself too much. You neglect the feelings of others and do not care for them. You care only for your feeling. Hence, you judge and criticize others. Therefore, if we would be kept from judging others, we must take care of them. This requires that we forget ourselves and consider others. If we center around ourselves and ignore the feelings of others, we shall criticize them. But if we take care of others, we shall not judge them.
In verse 3 the Lord says, “And why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the log in your own eye?” As the kingdom people, living in a humble spirit under the heavenly ruling of the kingdom, we must consider the log in our own eye whenever we look at the splinter in our brother’s eye. The splinter in our brother’s eye must remind us that we have a log in our own eye.
Verse 4 continues, “Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the splinter from your eye, and behold, the log is in your eye?” The Lord’s word in verses 3 and 4 is very deep. His intention here is not to charge us to take care of ourselves; it is to charge us to take care of others.
Verse 5 says, “Hypocrite, first remove the log from your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” As long as the log remains in our eye, our sight is blurred, and we cannot see clearly. In pointing out a brother’s fault, we must realize that we have a greater fault. Our brother’s fault is likened to a splinter, and ours is likened to a log. Thus, once again, the Lord’s intention is that we take care of others. Whenever you try to point out someone else’s fault, you may care for the fault, but not for the person. When you make someone else’s fault to be as large as a log, it shows you care only for his fault, not for him. If you care for the brother, you will not care only for his fault. Rather, you would say, “His fault is merely a splinter when compared to mine, which is a huge log. Therefore, I am happy to overlook his fault.”
The Lord’s intention in 7:1-12 is that we take care of others. The principle for the kingdom people in dealing with others is that we must take care of others. We should observe this principle in all our dealings with people. Do not simply act according to your feeling, but take care of the other person. This is the basic principle.
Verse 6 says, “Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the hogs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn and tear you.” “That which is holy” must refer to the objective truth that belongs to God, and “your pearls” must refer to the subjective experiences which are ours. Dogs do not have hoofs nor do they chew the cud, and hogs divide the hoofs, but do not chew the cud. Thus, both are unclean (Lev. 11:4, 7). According to what is revealed in 2 Peter 2:12, 19-22, and Philippians 3:2, the dogs and the hogs here refer to people who are religious, but not clean.
Matthew 7:6 is also related to the matter of taking care of others. Many times when you have seen a certain truth, doctrine, or light, you tell others about it with no regard to whether they are “dogs,” “lambs,” or “wolves.” You care only for your feeling of excitement. You may say, “Oh, I have seen the light concerning the church life! The church is glorious and wonderful!” In your excitement, you may share this with the wrong person. This is giving what is holy to the dogs. When you are about to give something holy to others, you must consider those you are speaking to. You should not give the holy things to dogs, nor cast your pearls before hogs. When you talk to others about the holy things, or the truths, and the pearls, or the experiences, you must observe the basic principle of taking care of others. You must determine whether or not people can receive what you intend to share. You must also perceive how much they can receive. In other words, when you talk to others about spiritual things, do not speak according to your feelings or desires; rather, speak to them according to their capacity to receive what you have to say.
Many times the young people have gone out to tell others about the church or about certain spiritual things they have experienced. They cared only for their feeling, not for the feelings of the others. Unfortunately, a number of times the others were dogs or hogs, unable to receive anything that was said. Instead, they turned upon the ones sharing, trampled upon the pearls, and tried to bite the brothers. Thus, when we have seen the light concerning certain truths or have experienced certain precious things of the Lord and desire to share them with others, we must take care of those with whom we are sharing. We must ask ourselves, “Can these people receive my testimony? Can they take what I intend to share with them?” If you take care of others, you will not share everything with everybody, and there are some to whom you will not give your testimony. This is the principle of the kingdom people in dealing with others.
Often, we talk to others according to our feelings without taking care of their feelings. Perhaps on a certain day you may be very zealous regarding the church life and the Lord’s recovery. But in your zeal you may offend some “dogs.” At other times, because of some fresh experience of Christ, you may say, “Oh, Christ is wonderful! Christ is the brass, the iron, and the weapons to defeat the enemy.” You are so excited about your experience that you tell everyone about it. But some may turn to attack you, saying, “What! We never heard that Christ is weapons. Where did you learn this? And how can you say that Christ is brass and iron? This is blasphemy!” However, if you take care of others, you may not say a word about your fresh experience of Christ. Rather, you will be wise in dealing with them, considering what the “dogs” can take or what the “hogs” can understand. But if you are excited and care only for yourself and not for others, you will get into trouble or even cause trouble. In the past some of our young people have gone to other meetings, and, caring only for their zeal, they spoke out unwisely. They were on fire, but because they did not care for others, they only caused trouble.
The kingdom people must be the wisest of people. Whenever we contact others, we should know what their temperature is, and we should care for their situation. We should do things in a proper way and not provoke the dogs to bite us or the hogs to attack us. They may turn and tear us.
Verses 7 through 11 present a difficulty because it seems that these verses should not be here. For some years, I skipped over these verses, going from verse 6 to verse 12, because verse 12 matches verses 1 through 6. Verse 12 says, “All things therefore whatever you wish that men would do to you, so also you do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” This verse is the continuation and conclusion of the first six verses. However, between verse 6 and 12, we have verses 7 through 11 as an apparent insertion. What is the significance of this? As we have pointed out, 7:1-12 is concerned with the principles of the kingdom people in dealing with others. We have seen that the kingdom people must mainly observe the principle of taking care of others. In judging others or in speaking about holy things, we must take care of others. Let us now consider how verses 7 through 11 fit in with this matter.
Verses 7 and 8 say, “Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.” It takes experience to understand these verses. By reading these verses again and again in the light of our experience, we can realize that they mean that we must look to the heavenly Father as we are dealing with others. We must ask Him, seek Him, and knock for Him. Many times we have failed to do this. But these verses indicate that at the very time we are contacting people and dealing with them, we must look to the Lord and say, “Lord, tell me how to contact these people. Lord, show me how to deal with them.” Sometimes simply asking will not be adequate. We must seek and even knock. This indicates that contacting people is a serious matter. Never think that it is an insignificant thing. We, the kingdom people, must approach it seriously, never doing it in a light or loose way or merely according to our feeling. Rather, we must do so by taking care of others. We must ask for a way, seek after a way, and even knock at the heavenly door for a way. Thus, we must ask, seek, and knock; then we shall have the proper way to contact people.
In Matthew, the proper way to contact people is according to the principle of the kingdom. In verse 11, after using the examples of a son asking for a loaf and a fish in verses 9 and 10, the Lord says, “If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father Who is in the heavens give good things to those who ask Him?” Because Matthew is a book on the kingdom, no doubt the “good things” in verse 11 are the things of the kingdom. However, Luke 11:13, the sister verse of Matthew 7:11, says, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the Father who is from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” In Luke 11:13 the “good things” are changed to “the Holy Spirit.” If we put these two verses together, we see that the best way for the kingdom people to contact others is according to the kingdom and according to the Holy Spirit. Both the kingdom and the Holy Spirit are the way to contact others. The wisdom we need in properly contacting others is of the kingdom and of the Spirit. As we deal with others, we must ask, seek, and knock. Eventually, we shall receive the guidance to deal with people according to the kingdom and according to the Spirit. Thus, the controlling principle for our contact with others is the kingdom and the Spirit. If our contact with others is based upon this principle, we shall not make mistakes.
If we consider the past, we shall have to admit that we have made mistakes in contacting people. Some of those contacts were not profitable to anyone. But now we are being trained by the kingdom. We are not loose believers, but serious and strict kingdom people. Our contact with others is according to the principle of the kingdom and the principle of the Holy Spirit. We receive the guidance we need in contacting others by asking, seeking, and knocking. If we ask, we shall receive; if we seek, we shall find; and if we knock, the door will be opened.
According to our human thought, we first take the way and then arrive at the door. But the divine concept in the Bible is exactly the opposite. First we pass through the door, and then we walk along the way. The Lord said, “Knock and it shall be opened to you.” This means that the door will be opened to us and then we shall be on the way. If we ask, seek, and knock, the door will be opened to us, and the way will be set before us. Then we shall know how to contact others. In order to contact people, we need an open door and a straight way as our guidance. We can have this open door and straight way only by asking, seeking, and knocking. How much we all need to find a proper and profitable way to contact others, whether unbelievers, saints, or the churches.
We all must learn to take care of others and to pray, “Lord, show me the way.” First you need to ask. If the way does not open up, then you must seek. If the way still does not open up, then you must knock. To knock means to come close to the One whom you are seeking. When you ask, there may still be a distance, but when you knock, there is no distance. Rather, you are directly in front of the One you are seeking. Thus, you need to spend time to seek the Lord. In contacting others, we need the asking, the seeking, and the knocking. Then the door will be opened, a straight way will be given to contact people, our contact will be profitable, and we shall be saved from making mistakes. We shall also know to beware of the dogs and the hogs. This is the significance of the insertion of verses 7 through 11 between verses 6 and 12.
Before we consider verse 12, we need to add a further word about asking, seeking, and knocking. To ask is to pray in a common way, to seek is to supplicate in a specific way, and to knock is to reach the door in the closest way. The matter of asking and receiving in verse 8 is good for the kingdom people’s prayer concerning their keeping of the new law of the kingdom. They ask for it and they will receive it. The matter of seeking and finding is good for 6:33. The kingdom people seek the Father’s kingdom and His righteousness and will find them. The matter of knocking and having the door opened is good for 7:14. The narrow gate will open to the kingdom people by their knocking.
Verse 11 contains a great promise. This promise affirms that the kingdom people are under the care and supply of the Father who is in the heavens. Thus, they are well able to fulfill the new law of the kingdom and live in its reality that they may enter into its manifestation.
In verses 9 and 10, the loaf and fish which are requested indicate the need of the one asking. When we ask, seek, and knock, we always have a need. Our heavenly Father knows our need and will give us what we need. No human father would give his children a stone for a loaf or a serpent for a fish, but would always give them good gifts. How much more will our heavenly Father give us things which He considers good. Even in our seeking for a way to contact others, He will give us the best way, the way that we need.
Now we come to verse 12, the conclusion to the section on the principles of the kingdom people in dealing with others. This verse says, “All things therefore whatever you wish that men would do to you, so also you do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” The new law of the kingdom does not contradict the law and the prophets; rather, it fulfills them and even complements them.
