July 31

TODAY'S BIBLE VERSE

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matthew 7:12

​Memorize this Verse:
Cover the verse text and using just the first letters of each word try to recite the entire passage.
12. T A T W Y W T M S D T Y D Y E S T T F T I T L A T P

Notes on verse:

“Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you”: versions of the “Golden Rule” existed before Christ, in the rabbinic writings and even in Hinduism and Buddhism. All of them cast the rule as a negative command, such as Rabbi Hillel’s version, “What is hateful to yourself do not to someone else.”

Jesus made it a positive command, enriching its meaning and underscoring that this one imperative aptly summarizes the whole gist of the ethical principles contained in the Law and the Prophets.

Here again, we see that we should expect the same kind of treatment that we give. Giving is very much a part of receiving.

Verses 13-14: The closing section of the Sermon on the Mount presents two choices to the listener. These are presented in a series of contrasts: two ways (verses 13-14); two trees (verses 15-20); two professions (verses 21-23); and two foundations (verses 24-29). This was a common method of teaching in both Jewish and Greco-Roman thought.

Both the narrow gate and the wide gate are assumed to provide the entrance to God’s kingdom. Two ways are offered to people. The narrow gate is by faith, only through Christ, constricted and precise. It represents true salvation of God’s way that leads to life eternal. The wide gate includes all religions of works, and self-righteousness, with no single way (Acts 4:12), but it leads to hell, not heaven.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate” (narrow), means that one must come through the narrow gate in order to reach the path that leads to eternal life. Though many are on the “broad … way, that leadeth to destruction” (eternal separation from God), the gate that leads to life is so narrow that “few there be that find it.”

Christ Himself is both the gate and the way (John 14:6), and God enables men to find that gate (John 6:44).

TODAY'S BIBLE READING

Our Bible Reading Plan runs from the 1st to the 25th of each month.
The next reading will be on the 1st of next month. Check back then!