Matthew7:11 How Much More

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How Much More Working name

Matthew 7:11

Jesus points to something every father already knows: no good dad hands his hungry child a stone. If imperfect fathers love to give, the Father in heaven gives far more.

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How Much More

What Is Your Life Preaching?

So if you 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!

MATTHEW 7:11 BSB

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What the passage says

1A Better Father Than Me

Jesus has just told His listeners to ask, seek, and knock, and promised that the Father answers (Matthew 7:7 to 10). Then He uses an example every parent understands. If your son asks for bread, you do not hand him a rock. If he asks for a fish, you do not give him a snake.

The argument moves from smaller to greater. Human fathers are sinful. Jesus says it plainly: "you who are evil." Even so, ordinary fathers know how to give good things to their kids. If flawed fathers can do that, the perfect Father in heaven will give far more.

The promise is good things, not everything we ask for. A good father sometimes says no because he sees what the child cannot. In Luke's version of this teaching, the good gift Jesus names is the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13). God's best gift is Himself.

How it was back then

Bread and stones looked alike.

Bread in that region was baked in small round loaves. The limestone rocks scattered across Galilee were often about the same size and shape. A cruel joke would be easy to pull, which is why Jesus' picture works. The devil used the same comparison when he tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3).

A fish and a snake were both near at hand.

Fish from the Sea of Galilee was a basic food. Some scholars suggest Jesus had in mind eel-like creatures without scales, which looked like snakes and were unclean under the Law (Leviticus 11:10 to 12). Either way, the father in the example hands his son something that looks like food but would harm him.

"How much more" was a known way to argue.

Jewish teachers used a method called qal wahomer, "light and heavy." If something is true in a small case, it is even more true in a greater one. Jesus' listeners would have recognized the pattern immediately: if this is true of human fathers, how much more of God.

Fathers held great authority.

In the Roman world a father had near total legal power over his household, even over adult sons. In Jewish homes, a father was expected to provide for his children, teach them the Law, and teach his son a trade. Jesus' audience thought of fathers as providers first.

What it means for a father

This verse cuts two ways for a dad.

First, it honors what you already do. The joy you feel when you give your child something good, the way you light up watching them open it, is a small picture of how God feels toward His children. Your love as a father is meant to point past you to Him.

Second, it humbles you. Jesus calls even good fathers evil, meaning sinful. You will let your kids down. Some men had fathers who gave them stones instead of bread. This verse says God is not that father, and He is better than even the best one. Your kids' picture of God does not have to depend on how well you did.

He gives more than you ever could.

Did this speak to you?

The challenge · 7 days

Now it is your turn.

“You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.”

2 CORINTHIANS 3:2 BSB

This week, your kids are reading. Pick one. Do it for seven days. Tell one man you are doing it.

In good company.

“For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

EPHESIANS 2:18 BSB

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