Matthew 7:1–29

¹“Stop judging that ​YOU​ may not be judged;²for with what judgment ​YOU​ are judging, ​YOU​ will be judged; and with the measure that ​YOU​ are measuring out, they will measure out to ​YOU.³Why, then, do you look at the straw in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the rafter in your own eye?⁴Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Allow me to extract the straw from your eye’; when, look! a rafter is in your own eye?⁵Hypocrite! First extract the rafter from your own eye, and then you will see clearly how to extract the straw from your brother’s eye.

⁶“Do not give what is holy to dogs, neither throw ​YOUR​ pearls before swine, that they may never trample them under their feet and turn around and rip ​YOU​ open.

⁷“Keep on asking, and it will be given ​YOU; keep on seeking, and ​YOU​ will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to ​YOU.⁸For everyone asking receives, and everyone seeking finds, and to everyone knocking it will be opened.⁹Indeed, who is the man among ​YOU​ whom his son asks for bread—he will not hand him a stone, will he?¹⁰Or, perhaps, he will ask for a fish—he will not hand him a serpent, will he?¹¹Therefore, if ​YOU, although being wicked, know how to give good gifts to ​YOUR​ children, how much more so will ​YOUR​ Father who is in the heavens give good things to those asking him?

¹²“All things, therefore, that ​YOU​ want men to do to ​YOU, ​YOU​ also must likewise do to them; this, in fact, is what the Law and the Prophets mean.

¹³“Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it;¹⁴whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.

¹⁵“Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to ​YOU​ in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.¹⁶By their fruits ​YOU​ will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they?¹⁷Likewise every good tree produces fine fruit, but every rotten tree produces worthless fruit;¹⁸a good tree cannot bear worthless fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit.¹⁹Every tree not producing fine fruit gets cut down and thrown into the fire.²⁰Really, then, by their fruits ​YOU​ will recognize those [men].

²¹“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.²²Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’²³And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew ​YOU! Get away from me, ​YOU​ workers of lawlessness.

²⁴“Therefore everyone that hears these sayings of mine and does them will be likened to a discreet man, who built his house upon the rock‐mass.²⁵And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and lashed against that house, but it did not cave in, for it had been founded upon the rock‐mass.²⁶Furthermore, everyone hearing these sayings of mine and not doing them will be likened to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.²⁷And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and struck against that house and it caved in, and its collapse was great.”

²⁸Now when Jesus finished these sayings, the effect was that the crowds were astounded at his way of teaching;²⁹for he was teaching them as a person having authority, and not as their scribes.