Matthew 7:6 - Dogs and Pigs
The previous 5 verses spoke in the context of believers relating to believers, Jesus here speaks context of believers relating to non-believers. The sacred and the pearls represents God truth and His Kingdom standards. Dogs and pigs were derogatory terms used by the Jews to refer to Gentiles. The passage is stating that we should not be bringing a message of truth regarding proper living in the Messianic Kingdom to the unbeliever, they cannot understand it and will trample and crush what you are giving them. Unbelievers cannot comprehend God's truth without the Holy Spirit to illuminate it for them.
What message should we be putting in front of the unbeliever? The gospel message of Christ's death, burial and resurrection. It is only after they accept Jesus's free gift of eternal life and are born again that they can begin to understand God's truth regarding how to live. We should speak out against evil, however, trying to reform society based on biblical law and kingdom standards is putting pearls and what is sacred before dogs and pigs. Society will never understand it, and will react violently.
Matthew 7:7-11 - Ask and It Will Be Given
Verse 7 - Jesus then moves on to talk briefly about prayer, asking, seeking and knocking.
In this passage we learn the key to answered prayer, sincere persistence. In the Greek language, the words or "ask", "seek" and "knock" are all in the present tense, which conveys continual persistence. Sincere persistence is towards a diligent pursuit of God's way. It is asking plus acting. Our actions are to anticipate and actively pursue the results. Some examples: Accompany the request for wisdom with study of God's word and Accompany the request for health with adoption of healthy eating habits etc. "Knocking" conveys a desire for fellowship with God. The follower of Jesus should be involved with the activities of the Kingdom. Get involved, stay involved.
Verse 8 - As we are told throughout the Bible, our sincere persistence in asking, seeking and knocking will be rewarded.
Verse 9-11 - Jesus provides an illustration to bring what He is saying to life in the comparison between a human father who by natural human nature is evil and Himself who is by nature good. Surely, if a human father brings good to his children, then surely a father who is good by nature will bring good things to His children.
This comparison shows that when we do not receive good things from our heavenly Father, it is not through any fault of our heavenly father. We should evaluate our own behavior to ensure that we are in a continual state of continual persistence (Jas 4:2-3).
Other hindrances to answered prayer include: (Mat 21:22, Jas 5:15-16, 1Pe 3:7, 1Pe 3:12).
Matthew 7:12 - The Golden Rule
Jesus is summarizing all that has been said in the Sermon on the Mount. Rather than following the Mosaic era and handing out many detailed laws, Jesus is reducing them in summary form.
The Law and the Prophets referred to the Mosaic Law, and the Mosaic Law was reduced to the greatest command, love God with all our hearts, and love our neighbor as our selves, and that is reduced down to the Golden Rule, to do to others as we would do to ourselves. If we follow this command, we will fulfill the Law of Christ.
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