I got a lot of time to read scripture over the holiday season. I had six vacation days to use, and so I used them. We had time with family near and far, got some rest, road-tripped (which is about my favorite thing ever,) and just enjoyed some downtime. It was what I needed, and I thank God for it.
I got to read some books and also got to read plenty of scripture! It is always such a joy to have unstructured and plentiful time in God’s Word. I read a lot in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that are old favorites of mine. I also read 2 Corinthians which is a new and current favorite! However, I was struck by Matthew 7. One of the passages that changed me the most when I was a teen was Mathew 7:21-23 which says:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
I thought I knew God but learned in that verse that thinking I knew him did not matter. It mattered if He knew me! The only way for God to know us and for us to know Him, is by entering into a saving relationship with God by trusting Jesus to pay the debt of our sins through His death on the cross. Believing that He died for our sins, was buried, and then rose from the dead on the 3rd day so that we can defeat death and live with Him forever is the only way to have a relationship with God.
When I am able to read God’s word in an unstructured time, my mind often goes back to old classics like that or goes to find new favorites as I did in 2nd Corinthians. However, what struck me when I went to Matthew 7 was the entirety of that chapter.
Headings that describe a paragraph or chapter in your Bible are not part of the God-written (inspired) and mistake-free (inerrant) parts of the Bible. That being said, when they represent the passage well, they can help organize our thoughts and remind us what the main point of that section is. They can, in a small way, help as we interpret, meditate, or explain scripture. Not to the same degree that scripture itself declares its truth, but in this instance, I knew the passage well but did not know the headings. It struck me that Matthew 7 contains some of the most foundational sections of scripture for how the church operates. It contains some of the most misguided or ignored teachings of the Bible that create wounds in peoples' lives when they interact with churches or church members who are not following Jesus well!
That is why my title is Foundations and Fiery Arrows. When Matthew 7 informs us how we do church, our churches will have a lot of health. When we don’t use it well or when we ignore it, then our enemy has a wonderful time shooting fiery arrows at God’s people and wounding them right and left!
Here is a list of the headings in my Bible. I will give a short explanation of why each is foundational and how it is misused or ignored to become a wounding projectile in people’s lives. You should read each section of scripture yourself, and I think you will see the foundational truths and feel the sting of would-be arrows.
Judging Others- Matthew 7:1-6
As a good stone in God’s foundation, this passage reminds us to not judge each other in our pride! There are stern warnings against being a hypocrite and we all know being true to who we say we are makes huge strides for health in a church.
On the flip side, people judging others and then being a hypocrite on that issue, is one of the most common complaints people have about “church people.” We are bad and we make bad decisions that hurt people… people in our church usually have no problem with that but if you do not own the mistakes you make and then judge other people for the mistakes they made, they may avoid the church forever.
Ask, And It Will Be Given- Matthew 7:7-11
The foundational truth could not be taught more clearly that God loves giving us good gifts and that when we ask for good (and that good may be our own repentance or suffering,) He would never give us evil instead. When the church lives this out, they ask God for Himself and for His good gifts with determination and long-lasting excitement for what He will do.
Our enemy loves to twist this in churches. He wants us to think we can ask for anything, and then, if we have enough faith, we will get it. That’s a lie that gets people to have false expectations. They think getting what they want depends on them and not on the will of an always good God, and then it leaves them high and dry when they don’t get God to act like their genie-in-a-bottle. This crushes people and makes them feel the church hurt them but that God hurt them directly and on purpose.
The Golden Rule- Matthew 7:12-14
This is one of the most foundational statements for how God made the entire moral structure of the world and how He wants us to act in it. Do to others what you want them to do to you. No explanation needed. A healthy church does this and does it joyfully!
When this wonderful foundational stone in God’s church gets sharpened into a fiery arrow to wound people, it is simply ignored. People do what they want to do with no consideration of how they would feel if the same thing was done to them. They become selfish at best, and at worst, they take the place of God as judge, jury, and executioner. They treat people how they think that person deserves to be treated. They have no idea what God is doing in that person's life and they don’t care, and they treat that person as worthless. This fiery arrow creates carnage when unleashed!
A Tree And It’s Fruit- Matthew 7:15-20
Turns out Jesus does want us to evaluate things. You might even say judging is approved here. When the church evaluates messages about what God taught them and do not judge other people in pride, they do a good thing. They should look at the fruit created by a ministry. Good fruit equals a good tree that could bear more good fruit in the future. Bad fruit means the tree is bad, and that messenger should not be approved in the future. Notice that fruit should be evaluated primarily and not the messenger or the message. The Bible teaches us to evaluate the messenger and the message, but in other passages. This done well means a church has fruit bearing ministry and not just ministry that people like or think is good.
When used wrong, people just don’t evaluate things. They disregard this passage. They use Matthew 7:1-6 and the message not to judge others to cancel out this encouragement to actively judge things. We miss a lot of blind spots and healthy growth when we don’t weed out the bad ministry trees in our churches.
I Never Knew You- Matthew 7:21-23
Like I said earlier, this passage should help us evaluate our hearts. Do you know a lot about God, or think you do? That is, or should be, no comfort to you. Do you know Jesus? Do you trust in Him and Him alone for your relationship with God? And do you know that God knows you? If you aren’t sure of that you should not worry about anything else until you have that question answered for yourself!
When this passage wounds us, it's when we disregard the divisive truth it contains. “Me and God are Mates” was a line from a movie I saw as a youth. God loves you like a son which is more than anyone loves their friend. He brought havoc, death, and ultimate pain on Himself for you… and it wasn’t to curl up and watch Netflix on your couch with you! God loves you yes but it's not until you stop trusting yourself and start trusting Him. Then He will stop at nothing to be there for you… but only if He knows you!
Build Your House On The Rock- Matthew 7:24-27
There is a kid's song about it because if you don’t build your life on Jesus and His Word, everything crumbles! Churches built on Jesus Himself live and thrive. Build on literally anything else… rubble it is or soon will be!
This hurts people when they make a “once and for all” determination that their church is built on the rock. We all drift and sometimes we drift away from what God has for us as a group. Entire churches drift every day. Some choose to drift from harsh truths they don’t like. They end up disregarding God’s Word completely at some points (some would call these liberal churches). The other extreme seems more righteous but is just as dangerous. Some people build their churches or lives on traditions, severe religious practices, and exclusive group dynamics (these are often called legalists or ultra-conservative groups). Both of those extremes our enemy loves. If you are surrounded by religious people who build their house on top of rules that they hope help them obey God’s word, then you will feel the fiery sting of never being good enough. Worse yet, you will essentially wound yourself fatally if you ever start thinking you are good enough and that you do measure up. If you join people who want everything soft with blurry boundaries, you will join in a bunch of people convincing themselves they are happy as they eat sugar with no substance until they die of malnutrition. They walk happily into the enemy’s trap thinking God loves them and wants them to do whatever they want and feel however they want to feel. We have to decide every day to build our house on Jesus. Everybody and every group drift. We are not Whole or Holy yet, and until we are, we have to check the foundations of our house daily!
The Authority Of Jesus- Matthew 7:28-29
This is a simple statement but foundational. Jesus taught with the power of God. If we remember that we all stay healthy together. Following Him and what He said is not optional. It’s life or death.
Death comes when we lose our desperation. When we forget our need for Jesus’ constant authority in our lives and churches our lives and churches immediately catch fire from any number of arrows launched by our enemy.
For any of you who read to the end, you deserve a medal. Let’s each be a part of using Matthew 7 as foundational for our lives and our life together as a church. It has been a huge blessing as I have processed my wounds from the past and meditated on the foundational truths that God so graciously provides through His Word.
With Much Joy,
Pastor Will
