In one of his songs, Bill Gaither penned these words: “The One who knows me best, loves me most.” This phrase expresses a towering, intimate truth repeatedly borne out throughout Scripture, and not least in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew chapters 5-7. King David, in Psalm 103:14 (The Voice), says: “You know all about us, inside and out. You are mindful that we’re made from dust.” So, Jesus, looking around at the made-from-dust hearts before him, was moved with the entirety of his divine compassion to unshackle those very hearts from the tyranny of wrongly-directed, dirt thinking, simultaneously straightening the way for them to make their cleared-up-thinking way back to his (and their) Father’s heart to; full fellowship, full worship, full freedom.

Matthew 7:1-6

1. ___________________ criticizing

2. __________________ focusing

3. __________________ intervening

4. _________________ offering

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.” ― Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard