What Does Matthew 7:2 Mean?
For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.THE KEY
The measure in your hand becomes the measure over your own life.
THE MEANING
The way you weigh another person sets the standard by which you are weighed. Your judgments and measures do not stay outside your own life; the verse places you inside the same scale you apply.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your judgments are one-way, that you can place another under a harsh standard while staying beyond its reach.
THE ROOT
κρίμα
krima
GROWS FROM
κρίνω
krinō
To distinguish, decide, or judge.
The noun “judgment,” the act “you judge,” and the passive “you will be judged” all belong to the same Greek word family. The sentence folds the one who judges into the judgment itself: the standard you apply also reaches you.
ALSO GROWS
krinō: To judge or decide.
κρίνω
This is the root behind both the act of judging and the judgment that comes back.
krisis: Judgment or decision.
κρίσις
It shows the same root forming the judgment named in the verse.
kritēs: A judge.
κριτής
The word for the person judging shares the same root as the judgment and the act.
μέτρῳ
metrō
GROWS FROM
μέτρον / μετρέω (metron / metreō)
A measure or standard; to measure.
The noun “measure,” the verb “you measure,” and “it will be measured” repeat one Greek word family. What returns is shaped by the very measure used in the first place.
ALSO GROWS
metron: A measure or standard.
μέτρον
It names the standard the reader uses toward another person.
metreō: To measure.
μετρέω
This verb supplies both the measuring action and the passive form describing what comes back.
THE PATTERN
The standard applied to others returns as the standard that measures the self.
With the one of faithful love you show yourself faithful love; with the strong and whole one you show yourself whole.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.Luke repeats the same Greek measure-family: measure, measure, be measured. Its image of a good measure running over opens Matthew’s saying further: the measure given and the measure received belong to one movement.
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