I have been reading in Matthew lately. We are going through the Sermon on the Mount as a church. What an incredible passage. Recently we have been studying Matthew 7. I have been dwelling on verse 7 since I read it the other day. The verse reads, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The more I thought about this verse, the more I had a problem with it. Now let me back up here and explain that I firmly believe that all of Scripture is God's Word and being such, it contains no errors. There are times, however, where I study a text and ask myself why it was translated in a certain way. Being a bit of a geek when it comes to language study, I pay attention to things like grammar and verb usage in particular. Should I apologize? I'm not sure, but hopefully I will not lose you by simply mentioning the words grammar and verb. But understanding the verbs in this verse is important to understanding its meaning as a whole.
Okay, so why did I have a problem? Well, if you're anything like me, I've asked God for plenty of things and have yet to receive them. I have sought God many times over and sometimes he seems very hard to find. I have knocked on plenty of doors that seem to be barred shut and vacant on the other side. So, how then can Jesus say "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you,"? Is this a bit of an empty promise on Jesus' part? Would Jesus ever make an empty promise? Never. So the problem must be in the translation.
The New Testament was written in Greek. The Greeks paid particular attention to something called "verbal aspect." This means, that rather than putting a lot of stock in verb tense (when the action took place) as we do in English, the Greeks were more concerned with how the action took place - that's what verbal aspect is all about, how the action took place.
The key to understanding Matthew 7:7 is in the commands, or imperatives as they are known to grammar geeks. The commands are "Ask," "seek," and "knock." Allow me to set the stage here. In the Greek, it is very common to have a command in a simple form known (are you ready for this million dollar word) aorist (pronounce "air-ist"). In layman's terms this aspect means that the action is simply happening. Nothing is really being said about how it happened, just that it happened. So if I were to command you to run in the aorist, I could simply say, "Run." BUT the commands in this verse are not in the aorist, which should catch the Greek geek's attention and tell him something is a little special about these commands. There are a lot of commands in the aorist, but not so with this verse.
They are not in the aorist, but are in the present form. In Greek, the present form is one that implies continuing action. If I were to command you to run in the present, I would say, "Keep running." This means you need to run without stopping. So it means a little more than just "run." Well, the commands in Matthew 7:7 are all in the present. SO, a good translation that brings out this emphasis would read, "Keep asking and it will be given to you; keep seeking and you will find; keep knocking and the door will be opened to you."
Now is the other translation wrong? No, but this translation brings out the emphasis of what Jesus is commanding. Can you hear the difference?
If I told you that when you asked for something it would be given to you, then you would expect that to happen without having to ask twice. And since Jesus has given us this promise, then it would be safe to say he would follow through on it, right? It seems as though this is an empty one since Jesus can do anything, but doesn't always give us what we ask for, especially after only asking one time. Does Jesus just hand out empty promises? I think not. That would be totally inconsistent with his nature.
Instead, if we understand that the verse is saying, "Keep asking and it will be given to you," then the emphasis shifts and the burden of realization falls on the shoulders of the one who is asking rather than on Jesus. You see, Jesus says to "keep on asking," "keep on seeking," and "keep on knocking." He desires that we continue to seek him for all our needs, rather than ask once and wait for something to happen. The gist of this whole verse is that we should continue to excercise our faith. Faith continually seeks after God regardless if the results are immediate or if they take years. A genuine faith is not in results - the benefit we receive, but it is realizing that God is faithful and true regardless of my circumstances. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." And that does not waver just because we do not see results.
So rather than this verse being an empty promise, it forces us to examine whether or not we have empty faith. It is as though Jesus is saying, "keep on seeking me," "keep on asking me," do not stop! A faith that continually seeks after God will not be disappointed.
How long must we continue to ask, seek, or knock? Well, if we really think about it, if we have faith that God is who he is, would we care how long it took to get results? It's like asking, "how far can I go before it is called sinning?" You can tell that the person who asks this is not concerned at all with living a sinless life, but wants to get away with as much as possible before he crosses the line. So, if we ask "how long must I seek you?" then our hearts' motives are made clear - we care more about results than our faith in God.
I know this has become a short novel, but I think you can see why this distinction meant so much to me. Let us continue to seek the Lord for more wisdom on how to apply his word! Let me know if this doesn't make sense. There were a lot of different words, but I tried to explain them so that anyone could understand. The bottom line is that we should be more interested in the condition of our faith and our hearts than with getting what we want. And that is exactly what Jesus is wanting us to realize as we continue to seek him.
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