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Matthew

About this book
Chapter 7

1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.⁠ 2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive.⁠ 3 Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own?⁠ 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? 5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.⁠ 6 Do not give what is holy to dogs⁠ or throw your pearls before pigs;⁠ otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.⁠ 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;⁠ knock and the door will be opened for you.⁠ 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.⁠ 9 Is there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!⁠ 12 In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you,⁠ for this fulfills the law and the prophets.⁠ 13 “Enter through the narrow gate because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.⁠ 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it! 15 “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves.⁠ 16 You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?⁠ 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.⁠ 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.⁠ 20 So then, you will recognize them by their fruit. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’⁠ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.⁠ 22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’⁠ 24 “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock.⁠ 25 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation had been laid on rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed—it was utterly destroyed!” 28 When Jesus finished saying these things,⁠ the crowds were amazed by his teaching,⁠ 29 because he taught them like one who had authority, not like their experts in the law.

Texts in conversation

Compare Obadiah 1:15 and Matthew 7:2

Hebrew Bible · New Testament

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Summary

Obadiah declares that the nations will face the same treatment they inflicted on others, warning that their deeds will return to them. In Matthew, Jesus echoes this to teach that people will be judged by the same measure they use to judge others.

Passages

Obadiah 1:15

Hebrew Bible
13 You should not have entered the city of my people when they experienced distress. You should not have joined in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. You should not have looted their wealth when they endured distress. 14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road to slaughter those trying to escape. You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. 15 “For the day of the Lord is approaching for all the nations! Just as you have done, so it will be done to you. You will get exactly what your deeds deserve. 16 For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink, and they will gulp down; they will be as though they had never been. 17 But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, and it will be a holy place once again. The descendants of Jacob will conquer those who had conquered them.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Obadiah

Matthew 7:2

New Testament
1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. 3 Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own?
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

References

"... From theological titans such as Ambrose and Chrysostom, to the humblest Egyptian bishops tabulating church revenues on shattered ceramics, Christian leaders always framed ecclesiastical clerks as sacralized servants of God in much the same fashion as John Lydus decked out Roman magistracies with a preternatural aura. Threats to the operation of the Church represented challenges to providence itself. An injury to the Church’s institutional body or to its administrators was an attack on Christ. And bishops and emperors were particularly keen to remind ecclesiastical administrators that any negligence or abuse in their office could subject them to penance, demotion, or excommunication. As Pope Gregory reminded his bureaucratic clerics who collected rents on church lands, “you will render an account (ratio) of your actions before the judgment of God.” When Gregory learned that one of his minions had forged documents to increase church revenues at the expense of the peasantry, he reminded the notary to recall “the oath and especially what sort of oath” that he had made “before the most sacred body of St. Peter the apostle.” Gregory forced the notarius to use the fraudulently gained money “to buy cows, sheep, and pigs, and to distribute them to all the poorer coloni,” adding a literal dimension to pastoral care. Slightly later, John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria asked chidingly of some work-shy ecclesiastical lawyers, “Are we not legally bound to take on the petitions of our fellow-servants with all care, remembering the words of our Lord, ‘With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again’ (Matthew 7:2), and those of the prophet, ‘As thou hast done, so be it done unto thee!’” (Obadiah 1:15)? ..."
Norman Russell Underwood, The Professionalization of the Clergy in Late Antiquity (University of California, Berkeley, 2018).

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Obadiah 1:15 and Matthew 7:2

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