7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? 10 Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? 11 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him. In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:7-12.
Jesus turns to prayer to encourage His disciples to ask, to seek, and to knock with the expectation that God will respond (7:7). Here we have a teaching about confidence in prayer. More than anything, Jesus wants to convince us of the generosity of the Father (7:8). The promise is that everyone who petitions God in prayer will find a favorable response. But this sounds rather grandiose, as though the Father will give us virtually anything we ask for, regardless of what is best for us. But we must consider the context. Only a few verses earlier Jesus linked the idea of seeking with our pursuit of the kingdom of heaven (6:33). Presumably the same object is implied here. The Father wants to give all who will ask, seek, and knock the blessings that enable His will to be realized on earth as it is in heaven
(6:10 & 7:9–11]
In order to expand our vision of the Father’s goodness, Jesus uses the example of a son asking his father for a loaf of bread or a fish. One could hardly conceive of a father, despite his human faults, giving his hungry son a useless stone or a harmful snake. Just imagine, then, what a truly good father, Our Father in Heaven, one who is totally untouched by evil, would be willing to do for his children (7:3). That is the kind of Father we have in heaven. He is bursting with a more-than-human love and a more-than-human willingness to give good things to those who ask him.
Verse 12 marks the end of the Sermon proper. Not only does this “golden rule” encapsulate all of Christian morality into a single statement, but it stands as one of two bookends that hold together the main body of Jesus’ speech. The Golden Rule is a summary of biblical morality that found similar expression in the Old Testament and ancient Judaism. Jesus formulates it in the widest possible terms: Do to others whatever you would have them do to you (7:12). Notice that Jesus places no restriction on the scope of this rule. Nor should we!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” Galatians 5:14.
“Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing” 1 Peter 3:9.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” Ephesians 4:31-32.
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