There are passages in Scripture that don’t feel like they match our expectations. How many of us have faced a horrible situation – one which we have prayed over, cried over, struggled through? A situation that seems to clearly have a right and wrong outcome? Perhaps it’s a situation with a faithful, true friend facing cancer; perhaps it’s pleading for freedom from a toxic job situation or relationship. We face many situations that feel “gray,” but there are also those that seem so black and white. We understand answers we don’t understand for those gray areas; but the black and white ones? It’s clear what God should do. And so we plead and pray, and the end result is… not the clearly correct solution?
Into that confusion, how are we supposed to read passages like Matthew 7:7-12? Verse 11 seems fairly clear: “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?” Verse 8 wants to shape our expectation: “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Why then, Lord, have I asked and not received? I’ve sought and not found! That closed door – the one I’ve been pounding on for years – is still closed! And the gifts you’ve given recently, Good Lord, feel like burdens and struggles.
How do we read these passages? I think there are likely a few things at play.
First, there is often interpretive nuance at play; taking the verses out of context misses some of the point. I’m often struck by the context of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” For a verse often used to say anything will turn out well if just approached with enough faith, and often applied to test taking, baseball tryouts, first dates, and job promotions, it’s striking to be reminded that Paul speaks it in passing while address the Philippian church’s financial generosity, and Paul’s ability to be content in any circumstance. Paul isn’t saying, “I will receive all I need if I’m merely faithful,” he’s saying, “I can be content no matter the circumstance, because my hope is in Christ.” Again, he’s not using this verse to promise that his faithfulness will lead to success – he’s using it to say, “Any result will not shake my faithfulness.” The common contemporary interpretation is almost entirely backwards.
It’s striking then, that Matthew 7:11 is followed immediately by Matthew 7:12. “Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” It’s the Golden Rule! But not just the first half… do unto others and you would have done for you,” but the second, summative piece as well: “for this is the Law and Prophets.” As an outline in Matthew, this ends the main ethical teaching of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus opens in Matthew 5:17. This has been Jesus expansion on understanding and living within the Law of God. “You have heard it was said… but I say to you.”
That said, it’s likely that there is contextual nuance in how we should interpret Matthew 7:7-12. I can’t say I have a full handle on how those 6 verses fit together, and how that pericope connects to the verses before and after; but I think perhaps it’s less face-value than it first seems. Without doing a lot of digging, I might argue that verses 7-10 relate towards our interaction with others, rather than God’s interaction with us? And verse 11 expands that principle to our expectation in God’s movement towards us? (see below) It’s a possibility, one that might be more contextually accurate than the common reading.
(It’s also worth noting that different translations paragraph that passage differently. The CSB and NIV includes 12 with 7-11, the ESV, NASB, and NLT breaks 12 off into it’s own paragraph. It’s a bit of a unexpected alliance, seeing the NLT and the ESV and NASB agreeing!)
Secondly – and importantly – passages like Matthew 7:11 should shape our understanding and expectation of our experiences, rather than be compared and evaluated against our experiences. In other words, our posture should never be, “I was faithful, but received this bad gift, therefore Matthew 7:11 is wrong.” Instead, we should say, “Wow, that situation is awful. But I have a God who gives good gifts – how does that reframe my understanding of this situation?”
In other words, these passages don’t create a metric by which we judge Scripture, but instead a hermeneutic or worldview through which we better understand our situations. We don’t start with, “I got a bad gift, how do I understand Matthew 7:11?” Instead, we start with, “God gives good gifts – and this situation seems terrible. How do I better understand what I’m going through, in light of this Scriptural truth?”
I think this is probably most obvious in looking at passages like 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.” If we viewed this passages in the way we often interpret Matthew 7:11, we might say, “Well, the verses say I can overcome any temptation through Christ. But I failed last week, therefore the passages must be wrong.” No, we almost always read this as, “The verse says I can overcome any temptation through the faithfulness of Christ. I failed last week, and that means I failed to fully avail myself of Christ’s help. The verse isn’t wrong – I just need to more completely surrender to Christ.” The verse shapes our understanding of the circumstances, rather than the other way around.
Ultimately, this means we need to start with ‘Scripture as true,’ and then move towards interpretation. If we shoot that foundation out – if we make meaning dependent on experience we’ll rarely arrive at a truthful interpretation.
Questions and Follow-up:
Content for future posts:
What is the most faithful interpretation of Matthew 7:7-12, considering the broader context?
What translational philosophies have led to the different paragraphing with verse 12?
How do we, with grace and compassion, approach interpreting truly tragic life situations through the lens of, “God gives good gifts?” How and when do we communicate this when counseling or caring for our congregation or friends who are walking through tragic situations?