The Best Cure for Christianity Is Reading the Bible, Essay No. 4

Matthew 7: A good start, then cult severity and bragging

It might be a good idea to compile a list of the Top Ten Bible Texts that Christians Ignore—and, no surprise, these can be found in the gospels, especially in the Jesus-script. The final section of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 7, includes a classic example of ignored text:
 
“Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

 
This theme begins with the first verse of the chapter: “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” But we have seen so much pain, so much damage, caused by devout believers who couldn’t care less about this noble advice. Racial minorities, immigrants, gay and transgender people, foreigners, those in different social classes—all have suffered because “good” Christians can’t stand them, revile and curse them. Large numbers of holier-than-thou believers wage campaigns against gays and transgender folks—especially these days, when Christian fanatics are on the warpath. The American Civil War was fought because southern Christians couldn’t tolerate the idea that black people were not inferior, and deserved to be free citizens. The greatest irony is perhaps the fact that, in two world wars, the citizens of so-called Christian nations rallied fervently to the calls of patriotism, and despised the foreigners (in other Christian nations) they fought against, judging them harshly, brutally—in fact were willing to kill and slaughter them. 
 
The opening few verses of Matthew 7 carried no weight whatever: the attitude seems to be we can ignore the Sermon on the Mount. This “good start” to the final chapter of this famous chunk of scripture hasn’t had much impact. Well, maybe it has with some decent believers, but the bad examples far exceed the good examples. 
 
[Essay No. 2, on Matthew 5 is here.  Essay No. 3, on Matthew 6 is here.]
 
The author of this gospel didn’t seem to notice that he contradicted himself with verse 6 that comes next: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.” Here he seems to be judging those who disagree with teaching of the Jesus cult, comparing them to dogs and swine.  
 
In verses 7-11, we find an extravagant claim about prayer. If you ask, search, knock—presumably in your approach to god—you’ll get results. The author points out that when a child asks a parent for bread, no one gives him/her a stone; nor does a good parent give the kid a snake instead of a fish. Verse 11 reminds us that the author is preaching to the cult, because he reminds them that they are evil, desperately in need of the cult: “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!” Even though you’re evil, our god will respond to proper begging.
 
In verse 12 we find the Golden Rule, which has been mentioned in one form or another in many religions: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” The last few words are useless bragging: anyone who has read the Old Testament—the law and the prophets—knows very well that “others” were often threatened and treated brutally. 
 
Verses 13-14 is an example of cult severity. “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” The leaders of the cult (such as the author of this gospel) can show the way to the narrow gate that leads to life. 
 
The Jesus-script in verses 15-20 is about good and bad fruit, and is yet another violation of the advice at the start of the chapter about not judging others: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (v. 15) And we find yet more cult severity here: “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (vv. 18-19) In other words, members of the cult should be aware that if they fail to bear good fruit, they’ll be tossed into fire. 
 
There’s even more cult severity in vv. 21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 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?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’” 
 
Presumably being in the cult was a way to be sure that god would not say, “I never knew you, go away from me.” 
 
The Sermon on the Mount concludes with the famous Jesus-script about building a house on rock instead of sand. If you build on rock—that is, on the supposed words of Jesus in this sermon—your house will survive when “…the rain falls, the floods come, and the winds blow…”  If not, the house will collapse. This is yet more bragging about the teaching of this particular cult. 
 
The final two verses, after this Sermon, portray crowds being in awe when Jesus was done talking: “Now when Jesus had finished saying these words, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes.” Indeed, the cult leader is presented as the preacher who possesses the only valid authority. 
 
Surveys have shown that reading the Bible is not a major preoccupation of churchgoers. And those who do bother to read it usually fail to ask important questions, fail to dig beneath the surface. For example, in the last verse of Matthew 7, the author reports that “the crowds were astounded at his teaching…” But how did Matthew come across this information? Mainstream scholars estimate that this gospel was written about fifty years after the death of Jesus. Matthew’s author never bothers to identify his sources, but even more damning is his blatant plagiarism: he copied heavily from Mark’s gospel without ever mentioning that he’d done so. This is not a sign of honesty.
 
We need to know, moreover, how the author conjured the Sermon on the Mount. It is not found in Mark’s gospel—nor in John. When Luke examined Matthew’s gospel, he wasn’t satisfied with Matthew’s version of the sermon: he shortened and rearranged it, and changed the wording. Which should prompt readers to avoid using the term the words of Jesus. It is more appropriate to refer to Jesus-script, that is, script that was created by the gospel authors. This is especially true in John’s gospel. That author didn’t like the parables found in the other gospels; hence his Jesus doesn’t teach in parables, but rather in long—and often tedious—monologues, not found anywhere else. Jesus-script is especially appropriate in any analysis of John’s gospel. 
 
Bible editors have resorted to tricks to divert attention from these distressing facts: they print the Jesus-script in red, as a way of assuring unsuspecting readers that these are the very words of their holy hero. This is blatant dishonesty—and they know it. 
 
Indeed, one of the best cures for Christianity is reading the Bible—but this means reading it with eyes-wide-open, and with a mind free from take-it-on-faith lockdown promoted by the church.  Readers must be on the lookout for ways in which the gospel authors were committed to promoting their individual cult agendas. They wanted to advance the cause of their holy hero, but far too much of the time they didn’t notice how they failed utterly to do so. Especially as the centuries passed, and eyes-wide-open humans realized that superstitions, magical thinking, and theological guesswork derived from ancient mythologies—all of which clutter the gospels—can be abandoned.       
 
 
 
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
·      Guessing About God (2023),
·    Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available. 
·      Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.