Holy Bible: Easy-To-Read Version

Matthew 7:7-22 Holy Bible: Easy-To-Read Version (ETR)

7. “Continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you.

8. Yes, whoever continues to ask will receive. Whoever continues to look will find. And whoever continues to knock will have the door opened for them.

9. “Do any of you have a son? If he asked for bread, would you give him a rock?

10. Or if he asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Of course not!

11. You people are so bad, but you still know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask him.

12. “Do for others what you would want them to do for you. This is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.

13. “You can enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to hell is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way.

14. But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people find it.

15. “Be careful of false prophets. They come to you and look gentle like sheep. But they are really dangerous like wolves.

16. You will know these people because of what they do. Good things don’t come from people who are bad, just as grapes don’t come from thornbushes, and figs don’t come from thorny weeds.

17. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit.

18. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

19. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

20. You will know these false people by what they do.

21. “Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what my Father in heaven wants.

22. On that last Day many will call me Lord. They will say, ‘Lord, Lord, by the power of your name we spoke for God. And by your name we forced out demons and did many miracles.’