Matthew 7-8
The Voice
7 Jesus: If you judge other people, then you will find that you, too, are being judged. 2 Indeed, you will be judged by the very standards to which you hold other people.
So when someone is tempted to criticize his neighbor because her house isn’t clean enough, she seems ill-tempered, or she is a bit flighty—he should remember those same standards and judgments will come back to him. No one should criticize his neighbor for being short-tempered one morning, when he is snippish and snappish and waspish all the time.
Jesus: 3 Why is it that you see the dust in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but you can’t see what is in your own eye? 4 Don’t ignore the wooden plank in your eye, while you criticize the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eyelashes. 5 That type of criticism and judgment is a sham! Remove the plank from your own eye, and then perhaps you will be able to see clearly how to help your brother flush out his sawdust.
6 Don’t give precious things to dogs. Don’t cast your pearls before swine. If you do, the pigs will trample the pearls with their little pigs’ feet, and then they will turn back and attack you.
Now Jesus returns to prayer, an important and sometimes difficult topic. Here He gives the very essence of prayer.
7 Just ask and it will be given to you; seek after it and you will find. Continue to knock and the door will be opened for you. 8 All who ask receive. Those who seek, find what they seek. And he who knocks, will have the door opened.
9 Think of it this way: if your son asked you for bread, would you give him a stone? Of course not—you would give him a loaf of bread. 10 If your son asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? No, to be sure, you would give him a fish—the best fish you could find. 11 So if you, who are sinful, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more so does your Father in heaven, who is perfect, know how to give great gifts to His children!
12 This is what our Scriptures come to teach: in everything, in every circumstance, do to others as you would have them do to you.
13 There are two paths before you; you may take only one path. One doorway is narrow. And one door is wide. Go through the narrow door. For the wide door leads to a wide path, and the wide path is broad; the wide, broad path is easy, and the wide, broad, easy path has many, many people on it; but the wide, broad, easy, crowded path leads to death. 14 Now then that narrow door leads to a narrow road that in turn leads to life. It is hard to find that road. Not many people manage it.
15 Along the way, watch out for false prophets. They will come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath that quaint and innocent wool, they are hungry wolves. 16 But you will recognize them by their fruits. You don’t find sweet, delicious grapes growing on thorny bushes, do you? You don’t find delectable figs growing in the midst of prickly thistles. 17 People and their lives are like trees. Good trees bear beautiful, tasty fruit, but bad trees bear ugly, bitter fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear ugly, bitter fruit; nor can a bad tree bear fruit that is beautiful and tasty. 19 And what happens to the rotten trees? They are cut down. They are used for firewood. 20 When a prophet comes to you and preaches this or that, look for his fruits: sweet or sour? rotten or ripe?
21 Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Simply calling Me “Lord” will not be enough. Only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will join Me in heaven. 22 At the end of time, on that day of judgment, many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not drive demons out of the possessed in Your name? Did we not perform miracles in Your name?” 23 But I will say to them, “I never knew you. And now, you must get away from Me, you evildoers!”
24 Those people who are listening to Me, those people who hear what I say and live according to My teachings—you are like a wise man who built his house on a rock, on a firm foundation. 25 When storms hit, rain pounded down and waters rose, levies broke and winds beat all the walls of that house. But the house did not fall because it was built upon rock. 26 Those of you who are listening and do not hear—you are like a fool who builds a house on sand. 27 When a storm comes to his house, what will happen? The rain will fall, the waters will rise, the wind will blow, and his house will collapse with a great crash.
28 With that Jesus finished His teaching, and the crowds were amazed by all He had said. 29 But Jesus taught in His own name, on His own authority, not like the scribes.
This teaching is different. Usually rabbis cite generations of rabbis before them when making claims about the meaning of Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus honors the law, but He is clear—the law must be read in a new way.
8 Large crowds followed Jesus when He came down from the mountain. 2 And as Jesus was going along, a leper approached Him and knelt down before Him.
Leper: Lord, if You wish to, please heal me and make me clean!
Jesus (stretching out His hand): 3 Of course I wish to. Be clean.
Immediately the man was healed.
Jesus: 4 Don’t tell anyone what just happened. Rather, go to the priest, show yourself to him, and give a wave offering as Moses commanded. Your actions will tell the story of what happened here today.
5 Eventually Jesus came to the little town of Capernaum. In Capernaum a military officer came to Him and asked Him for help.
Officer: 6 Lord, I have a servant who is lying at home in agony, paralyzed.
Jesus: 7 I will come to your house, and I will heal him.
Officer: 8 Lord, I don’t deserve to have You in my house. And, in truth, I know You don’t need to be with my servant to heal him. Just say the word, and he will be healed. 9 That, after all, is how authority works. My troops obey me whether I am next to them or not—similarly, this sickness will obey You.
10 Jesus was stunned by the depth of the officer’s faith.
Jesus (to His followers): This is the plain truth: I have not met a single person in Israel with as much faith as this officer. 11 It will not be just the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who celebrate at their heavenly banquet at the end of time. No, people will come from the East and the West—and those who recognize Me, regardless of their lineage, will sit with Me at that feast. 12 But those who have feigned their faith will be cast out into outer darkness where people weep and grind their teeth.
13 Then Jesus turned to the Centurion.[a]
Jesus: You may go home. For it is as you say it is; it is as you believe.
And the officer’s servant was healed, right then.
What happens next seems to embody the officer’s wise opinion about authority: over and over Jesus shows just what His authority means.
14 Jesus went to Peter’s house, and there He saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed, sick and burning up with a fever. 15 Jesus touched her hand, and then she was healed—the fever vanished. She got up from bed and began to wait on Him.
16 Toward nighttime many people who were possessed by demons were brought to Jesus, and He said one word of command and drove the demons out, healing everyone who was sick. 17 These miraculous healings fulfilled what the prophet Isaiah had predicted:
He took our infirmities upon Himself,
and He bore our diseases.[b]
18 Jesus saw that a crowd had gathered around Him, and He gave orders to go to the other side of the sea. 19 A scribe came up to Him.
Scribe: Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.
Jesus: 20 Foxes have dens in which to sleep, and the birds have nests. But the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.
Disciple: 21 Jesus, before I do the things You’ve asked me to do, I must first bury my father.
Jesus: 22 Follow Me! And let the dead bury their own dead.
Does Jesus say, “Fair enough, you must of course bury your father. Just catch up with Me when you are done”? No. This is one of the strange and radical things Jesus brings about—our families are no longer our families. Our deepest bonds are not those of blood. Our family now is found in the bonds of fellowship made possible by this Jesus.
23 And then Jesus got into a boat, and His disciples followed Him. 24 Out of nowhere, a vicious storm blew over the sea. Waves were lapping up over the boat, threatening to overtake it! Yet Jesus was asleep. 25 Frightened (not to mention confused—how could anyone sleep through this?), the disciples woke Him up.
Disciples: Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!
Jesus: 26 Please! What are you so afraid of, you of little faith?
Jesus got up, told the wind and the waves to calm down, and they did. The sea became still and calm once again. 27 The disciples were astonished.
Disciples: Who is this? What sort of man is He, that the sea and the winds listen to Him?
28 Eventually Jesus came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gadarenes. There, two men who lived near the tombs and were possessed by demons came out to the seaside and met Jesus. They were flailing about, so violent that they obstructed the path of anyone who came their way.
Demons (screaming at Jesus): 29 Why are You here? Have You come to torture us even before the judgment day, O Son of God?
30 A ways off, though still visible, was a large herd of pigs, eating.
Demons: 31 If You cast us out of the bodies of these two men, do send us into that herd of pigs!
Jesus: 32 Very well then, go!
And the demons flew out of the bodies of the two flailing men, they set upon the pigs, and every last pig rushed over a steep bank into the sea and drowned. 33 The pig herders (totally undone, as you can imagine) took off; they headed straight for town, where they told everyone what they’d just seen—even about the demon-possessed men. 34 And so the whole town came out to see Jesus for themselves. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their area.
Footnotes
- 8:13 A Roman military officer in charge of about 100 foot soldiers
- 8:17 Isaiah 53:4
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
