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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 Matthew 7:21 and 2 Clement 4:2

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In Matthew 7, Jesus requires obedience to his Father's will for entry to the kingdom. In 2 Clement, the preacher interprets this as doing right to be saved, adapting the saying to his appeal for good deeds rather than just verbal confession.

Passages

Matthew 7:21

New Testament
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!’
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

2 Clement 4:2

Early Christian
1 Let us therefore not only call Him ‘Lord,’ for this will not save us: 2 for He says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,’ shall be saved, but the one who does what is right.” 3 So then, brothers and sisters, let us confess Him by our deeds, by loving one another, by not committing adultery or speaking evil against one another or envying, but by being temperate, merciful, and kind. We ought to have empathy for one another and not be greedy. By these works let us confess Him, and not by the opposite. 4 And we ought not to fear people rather than God.
130–160 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Clement

References

“... A very similar situation may arise in 2 Clem. 4. 2. This is another explicit ‘citation’ of what ‘the Lord’ (= Jesus) ‘says’. The citation is clearly close in substance to Matt. 7. 21 // Luke 6. 46. Further, once again, 2 Clement is much closer to the version in Matthew than to that in Luke [...] Thus, although one cannot point to verbatim agreement with clearly identifiable elements of Matthean redaction, the fact remains that the version in 2 Clement does agree with Matthew in what is (probably) Matthew’s restructuring of the saying from Q 6. 46; and the further points where 2 Clement differs from Matthew (and in so doing avoids the more obviously Matthean terminology) can be adequately explained by the linguistic preferences of ‘Clement’ himself. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 258–259.

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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Matthew 7:21 and 2 Clement 4:2

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