Matthew 7 - Introduction

CHAPTER 7.

THE SERMON CONTINUED AND CLOSED.

The contents of this chapter are less closely connected and more miscellaneous than in the two preceding. In Matthew 7:1-12 the polemic against Pharisaism seems to be continued and concluded. Matthew 7:6-11 Weiss regards as an interpolation foreign to the connection. It seems best not to be too anxious about discovering connections, but to take the weighty moral sentences of the chapter as they stand, as embodying thoughts of Christ at whatever time uttered, on the hill or elsewhere, or in whatever connection. Section 1 5 certainly deals with a Pharisaic vice, that of exalting ourselves by disparaging others, a very cheap way of attaining moral superiority. Jesus would have His disciples rise above Pagans, publicans, Sadducees, Pharisees, but not by the method of detraction.