Chapter 7:7-12 Prayer and the Golden Rule

7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Ask - seek - knock - These three words include the ideas of want, loss, and earnestness.
Ask: turn, beggar at, the door of mercy; thou art destitute of all spiritual good, and it is God alone who can give it to thee; and thou hast no claim but what his mercy has given thee on itself.
Seek: Thou hast lost thy God, thy paradise, thy soul. - Look about thee - leave no stone unturned there is no peace, no final salvation for thee till thou get thy soul restored to the favor and image of God.
Knock: Be in earnest - be importunate: and, if thou die in thy sins, where God is thou shalt never come.
Ask with confidence and humility.
Seek with care and application.
Knock with earnestness and perseverance.

7:8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
For everyone that asketh receiveth -For God is no respecter of persons; whoever makes application, be he a Jew, or a Gentile, rich or poor, bond or free, a man of great gifts, or mean parts, provided he asks aright. The promise is universal to all who obey the precept.

7:9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Will he give him a stone? - Will he not readily give him bread if he have it?

7:10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? - Fish and bread are mentioned, because these were common food.

7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?
If ye then being evil - As all mankind in general are, both by nature and practice: how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven; who is omniscient and omnipotent; who knows the persons and wants of his children, and what is proper for them, and is able to relieve them, being Lord of heaven and earth, give good things to them that ask him?

7:12 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.

Therefore all things whatsoever - These words are the epilogue, or conclusion of our Lord's discourse; the sum of what he had delivered. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men - This is a most sublime precept, and highly worthy of the grandeur and beneficence of the just God who gave it. The general meaning of it is this: 

Guided by justice and mercy, 

do unto all men as you would have them to do to you.

Chapter 7:1-6 Judging Others

7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
Judge not, that ye be not judged - These exhortations are pointed against rash, harsh, and uncharitable judgments, the thinking evil, where no evil seems, and speaking of it accordingly.

7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

For with what judgment - He who is severe on others will naturally excite their severity against himself. A hard and censorious behavior is sure to provoke reprisals.
With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you - Awful words!

7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Our tendency is to spy out splinters in other men’s eyes, and not to see the beam in our own. 

Instead of beholding, with gratified gaze, the small fault of another, we should act reasonably if we penitently considered the greater fault of ourselves. It is the beam in our own eye which blinds us to our own wrong doing;

7:4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

and behold a beam is in thine own eye - thou art guilty of a far greater iniquity.

Q:Art thou so blind, as not to see and observe thy viler wickedness?

7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Q: Is he not a hypocrite to pretend to be so concerned about other men’s eyes, and yet he never attends to his own? 

Jesus is gentle, but he calls that man a “hypocrite “ who fusses about small things in others and pays no attention to great matters at home in his own person. 

Our reformations must begin with ourselves, 

or they are not true, and do not spring from a right motive. 

*Sin we may rebuke, 

but not if we indulge it. 

*We may protest against evil, 

but not if we willfully practice it.

7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

When men are evidently unable to perceive the purity of a great truth, do not set it before them. 

They are like mere dogs, and if you set holy things before them they will be provoked to “turn again and rend you”: holy things are not for the profane. “Without are dogs”: they must not be allowed to enter the holy place. 

When you are in the midst of the vicious, who are like “swine,” do not bring forth the precious mysteries of the faith, for they will despise them, and “trample them under their feet” in the mire.
You are not needlessly to provoke attack upon yourself, or upon the higher truths of the gospel.