Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
Three short commands, each with a promise attached, tell the Lord's disciples how to deal with God. The words rise in force. But the reason given in the verses that follow is not our persistence. It is the character of the Father who hears.
The verse just before this one spoke of holy things and pearls, and of people who cannot value them. One writer draws the contrast directly, and lets it shape what we should be asking for.
Verse 6 shows the ungodly in no state to receive the things of God, since they do not ask. We, on the other hand, are invited to ask and receive. This dependent, earnest state of soul is what the Father delights to answer... But let us remember that the "holy things" and "pearls" should be what we want most.
Each verb describes a different situation, and the effort rises with each one.
"Ask" means something I want to have. "Seek" means something I have lost. "Knock" means I want to be let in. Each step presses harder than the last. There is more intensity in "seeking" than in "asking", and more again in "knocking" than in "seeking".
The ladder from asking to knocking makes room for something we all meet — the answer that has not yet come.
Asking reveals the desire of the one praying. Seeking and knocking, however, show that God will not always answer prayer at once. We are all in danger of becoming tired and weary in our prayers.
The original wording carries this sense in the form of the verbs themselves, as one note on the tenses brings out:
Matt. 7:7. "Keep asking, and it shall be given you; seek again and again, and you shall find; knock persistently, and it shall be opened to you."
Scripture records people who asked, sought and knocked, yet went away empty. The promise does not cover every kind of request.
Some asked wrongly, meaning to spend what they got on their own pleasures (James 4:3). Others sought, but not in faith (John 6:34). And some will knock only to be shut out (Matt. 25:11). But the Lord encourages His own to deal simply and directly with their Father in heaven. This is the opposite of all empty repetition.
The Lord grounds the promise in something every hearer already knows — how a parent treats a child.
His love goes out to His children in every request that is for their good. He holds back only what they foolishly asked for that would harm them... If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Commentators differ here. Some read the rising words as a call to press on until the answer comes. Kelly calls them "a clear climax, all leading to urgent prayer before God." Others say the increase is on our side only, never on God's.
In our judgment, it would be a mistake to use this Scripture as a call to persistence in prayer... It expresses instead a growing, energetic confidence in the Father for the blessings the heart is set on, through grace.
Another writer puts the same caution more sharply.
See how ready God is to answer human need. Never say that persistence moves God... You may have been praying for a long time with no answer. Be sure the waiting has not been wasted. If the work was not done in heaven, it was done in the training of your spirit.
- Ask — the invitation follows a warning about people who cannot receive holy things. The one who asks is in the very state the Father delights to answer.
- Seek — the second word assumes a gap between the request and the reply. Seeking and knocking exist because answers are not always instant.
- Knock — the third word presses hardest. The danger is that we grow tired before the answer comes.
- Rightly — asking for pleasure, seeking without faith and knocking too late all fail. The promise is for simple, direct dealing with the Father.
- Given — the guarantee rests on His heart, not our effort. If evil parents give good gifts, how much more will He? He holds back only what would harm us.
For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.
Having told His disciples to ask, seek and knock, the Lord now gives His reason — the same promise again, this time with "everyone" attached. Why repeat it, why three words instead of one, and does it hold without exception?
Verse 8 gives no new command. It fastens a guarantee onto verse 7, and behind that guarantee stands the character of the Giver:
Now the heart of God comes into view as the ready and generous Giver. His fullness can never run dry. His word to His people is always, "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." There is only one limit: the limit that little faith may set. On God's side there is a safeguard, which is no limit at all — that the gift be good. And the Lord clasps His commands shut with a double assurance: everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What a door is opened for us here, and what possibility of blessing! How rich we may all be, if we only will be!
Ask, seek and knock are not three words for one thing. Each names a different need:
"Ask" implies something I desire to have; "seek" something I have missed; and "knock" wanting an entrance. It means increased urgency. There is more intensity in "seeking" than in "asking", and again more in "knocking" than in seeking.
These words address people already in God's family, not a sinner seeking pardon. That is also why a shut door can be part of the answer:
This is not a sinner needing life and forgiveness of his sins. These are saints told to appeal to God, sure of their Father's answer of love, whatever their needs may be… So they must persevere and be earnest. Asking will secure receiving — yes, for everyone who asks. Seeking will not be fruitless; it will find. And to the one who keeps on, God will open the door — a door He shuts only to exercise faith.
The same writer points to a foreign mother who lived through a shut door:
There may be something important for the person asking to learn before the request can be granted. So it was with the Syrophoenician woman. She begged the Lord to pity her, for her daughter was badly possessed by a demon. At first the Lord did not answer her a word. She pleaded as if she were one of the lost sheep of Israel's house. In fact she was a Greek, with no claim on the promises made to the Messiah… But she drops the title Son of David. She sees from His answer where her mistake lay, and she bows before Him, saying, "Lord, help me."… This did help her soul, for it led her to the secret of sovereign grace, and she threw herself upon it at once… The door opened to her knock. She was deepened and made clearer in her faith, as her daughter was healed from that hour.
The verse says "everyone", and one writer presses how wide that word runs:
The heart can spring upward to the throne in prayer and supplication at any time. Our Father's ear is always open, His reception room always accessible. Come when we may and with what we may, He is always ready to hear, ready to answer. He is the Hearer, the Answerer, and the Lover of persistent prayer… These words apply to everyone. They are meant for all God's children. The feeblest child of God can pray, can watch, can get an answer, and return thanks.
Another writer applies the promise to knowing the Bible itself:
God never intended theology to be for a class of men called theologians. Instead, all the treasures of His Word are for all His people. Nothing is hidden, except from the careless and the indifferent… Teachers are only God's pledge of how eager He is to have everyone know His Word.
Some people in Scripture asked and received nothing. So the promise assumes honest dealing with God:
Some asked with wrong motives, wanting to spend it on their pleasures (James 4:3). Others sought, but not in faith (John 6:34). And some will knock, only to be turned away (Matthew 25:11). But the Lord encourages His own to deal simply and directly with their Father in heaven. This is the opposite of empty repetition… His disciples were free to voice the deep feelings of their souls to God and to bring their needs to Him.
- Doubled — verse 8 repeats verse 7 as a guarantee: the same three promises, clasped shut on God's side.
- Rising — asking wants what it lacks. Seeking hunts what it missed. Knocking presses for entry. The urgency climbs.
- Delayed — a shut door is not a refusal. God shuts it to exercise faith, as with the foreign mother who saw her mistake before she got her answer.
- Everyone — no exceptions and no experts. The feeblest child of God can ask, and the treasures of His Word are open to all His people.
- Real — the promise covers honest need, not requests aimed at our own pleasures (James 4:3).
Or what man is there of you who, if his son shall ask of him a loaf of bread, will give him a stone;
This verse sits in the middle of Jesus' teaching on prayer, and here He stops arguing and paints a picture of an ordinary father. The question He raises is simple: is God's heart at least as good as the heart of a human father?
He describes a household anyone has seen, and a particular kind of asking inside it.
The Lord Jesus uses an illustration which everybody can understand. He speaks of the normal relation between a son and his father which is marked by love and confidence. The son is in trouble and asks his father for bread or a fish, that is, the things he needs for daily life. He does not demand, as the son in Luke 15:12 did. Nor does he ask wrongly, to satisfy his own selfish desires (which James 4:3 warns us about). No, he asks his father with trust and without doubting, for what he really needs.
Two Greek words in the New Testament both become "ask" in English. The one used here has its own tone.
Both aiteo and erotao are translated "to ask," and in many places that is right. But some passages lose much of their force, because the translation does not keep a very real difference between the two words. Aiteo is the word for pleading, as when someone lower asks someone higher — a beggar asking for money, Acts 3:2; a child asking his parents (Matt. 7:9), and the disciples asking God the Father (1 John 3:22; James 1:5-6).
The two items Jesus names in verses 9 and 10 fail the child in different ways, and the second is worse than the first.
If a child asks for bread, will his father give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will his father give him a serpent? No father is likely to be so callous as this. The stone is useless, but the serpent is dangerous. On the other hand, if a child asked for a serpent, what father would give it to him? Why would we ever think of asking for what is useless or harmful?
One writer names what such a gift would really be. It would not just be a poor gift. It would mock a hungry child.
Who would not reject such mockery of a son's hunger?
This verse is one half of an argument. The other half, in verse 11, moves up from what any father would do to what God will do.
A response from our Father is certain. If we ask for necessary things we shall get them, for He will not give us instead something worthless like a stone, or harmful like a serpent. We may rest assured that He will give us "good things," for His Fatherhood is of heaven. His standard therefore will not fall below that of earthly fatherhood. We may apply Isaiah 55:9 to this, and say that as the heavens are higher than the earth so are His Fatherly thoughts higher than our thoughts.
The comparison also exposes something about us. Jesus calls the fathers in His picture evil, and that is what gives the argument its weight.
If we call God Father, do we expect to find Him less than such a title implies, even among men? Is not this, in fact, however real, only a feeble suggestion of what God is as Father? It would have to be, even if people had never fallen into sin. But "if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more" — there, indeed, is a calculation for faith to make.
One writer traces both the giving and the refusing back to the same love.
The Father's love goes out to His sons in every request that is for their good. He holds back only the things they foolishly asked for that would harm them.
Another writer applies this to prayers that seem to get no reply.
He will not give that which is useless or harmful in answer to requests for necessary food. Nor, we may add, will He give what is useless or harmful if we foolishly desire it and ask for it. Many an unanswered prayer is, no doubt, accounted for by this.
- Ask. The word here is the one used of a beggar, and of a child before a parent. It is not a demand. It is a plea made from need to someone able to meet it.
- Bread. The son in the picture asks for what he needs for daily life, not for what would feed his own desires.
- Stone. A stone is useless when the child needs bread. A serpent instead of a fish is worse, because it is dangerous. No decent father gives either.
- How much more. Jesus argues upward. Fathers He calls evil still give good gifts, so the Father in heaven will not fall below them. That is a calculation for faith to make.
- No. A good Father will not hand over what is useless or harmful. So some unanswered prayers are answers. He holds back only what we foolishly asked for that would hurt us.
and if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent?
Jesus pictures a hungry son asking for a fish, and a father handing him a snake instead. The absurdity is the point. The verse is not about fish. It asks what God is like as a Father, and why some prayers go unanswered.
Jesus is speaking to people who already know God as Father. No decent father plays a cruel joke on a hungry child, and He builds His argument on that instinct.
Here the Lord is not speaking to a sinner who needs life and the forgiveness of his sins. He is speaking to believers, who are told to appeal to God and are assured of their Father's answer of love, whatever their needs may be… The Lord also encourages His disciples through the affection planted in a parent's heart. If their Father makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust, how does He feel toward His sons? His love surely goes out to them in every request that is for their good. He withholds only the foolish requests that would harm them. So He says, "Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?" Who would not reject such mockery of a son's hunger?
The two images are not saying the same thing. The picture can also be turned around: what if the child asked for the snake himself?
The stone is useless, but the serpent is dangerous. On the other hand, if a child asked for a serpent, what father would give it to him? Why would we ever think of asking for what is useless or harmful?
Everything turns on the way the son comes.
The Lord Jesus uses an illustration everyone can understand. He speaks of the normal relationship between a son and his father, marked by love and confidence. The son is in trouble and asks his father for bread or a fish — things needed for daily living. He does not demand, as the son in Luke 15:12 did. Nor does he ask wrongly, to satisfy his own desires (which James 4:3 warns us about). No, he asks his father trustingly and without doubting, for what he really needs. The Lord teaches in such a way that the father's answer to the son's request is "yes." He will not disappoint his son's confidence by giving him a stone instead of bread. He will not put him in danger by giving a serpent instead of a fish.
Love alone is not enough. A father who loves his child but lacks judgment could still hand over the snake.
God does not limit Himself to our requests. He gives what He sees we need. He gives according to His wisdom, and according to the love of His heart… There is affection enough in the heart of man to make him respond to the cry of need from the lips of a child. But affection is not enough. Wisdom is also needed, so that he may give a good gift. Parents do not always give everything their children ask for. They are not inattentive to their requests, but they consider what will be suitable and good to give.
Turn the verse around. If God will not swap a serpent for a fish, He will not hand one over just because we asked for it by name.
The Father in heaven is not to be thought of as less interested and considerate than an earthly father. He will not give what is useless or harmful in answer to requests for necessary food. Nor, we may add, will He give what is useless or harmful if we foolishly desire it and ask for it. Many an unanswered prayer is, no doubt, explained by this.
The gap between what a child needs and what he wants explains much of this.
If God is our Father, we are blessed indeed. He has infinite wisdom, love and power. He knows what we need. What we want is another matter. A child in a family gets its needs supplied, but if the little boy of three wants his father's sharp razor to play with, he is refused. God is as loving in His refusals as in His answers.
- Ask — the son comes in trust, for what he truly needs. He does not demand, and he does not ask to please himself.
- Father — the argument rests on relationship. God is not less caring than a human father.
- Never a serpent — a stone is useless, a serpent harms. He gives neither, even when we ask for one.
- Wisdom with love — love alone can still give the wrong gift. God answers by His wisdom, not by the wording of our prayer.
- Refusal as love — this explains many unanswered prayers. He is as loving when He withholds as when He gives.
If therefore *ye*, being wicked, know [how] to give good gifts to your children, how much rather shall your Father who is in the heavens give good things to them that ask of him?
Jesus ends His teaching on asking, seeking and knocking by comparing a flawed human father with God Himself. Three phrases carry the verse — being evil, how much more, and good things — and each one changes how we pray.
This promise is not aimed at a stranger. It speaks to people already in God's family, learning to lean on their Father.
This is not a sinner needing life and forgiveness of his sins. It is God's people, told to appeal to God and assured of their Father's answer of love, whatever they need... Asking will bring receiving — yes, for everyone who asks. Seeking will not be fruitless; it will find. And to the one who is still more persistent, the door will open. It is only shut to exercise faith.
Jesus does not soften His verdict on the people He is encouraging. That blunt word about human nature makes the comparison work.
The Lord mentions the evil of the human heart to stress a difference. The love of the kindest human father is not the perfect love of God. If even flawed people, evil by nature, like to give their children what they ask for, how much more will God, the great giver, do so!
The title "Father" carries a set of expectations. Jesus asks whether God will turn out to be less than the word implies.
If we call God Father, do we expect to find Him less than such a title implies, even among men? Real as human fatherhood is, is it not only a faint hint of what God is as Father? Even if people had never fallen into sin, it would still be only a hint. But "if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more" — there, indeed, is a calculation for faith to make.
Our folly tends to run the sum the other way:
Do not put it in your mind, "how much less," as we so often do in our folly, but, "how much more."
God's kindness already reaches everyone alike. His own children stand nearer still.
If their Father makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust, how does He feel toward His sons? His love surely goes out to them in every request that is for their good, and withholds only what their foolishness asked that must do them harm.
Heaven is where this Father lives. That sets the level of His giving.
A response from our Father is certain. If we ask for necessary things we shall get them, for He will not give us instead something worthless like a stone, or harmful like a serpent. We may rest assured that He will give us "good things," for His Fatherhood is of heaven. His standard therefore will not fall below that of earthly fatherhood. We may apply Isaiah 55:9 to this. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so His Fatherly thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Luke records this teaching with one difference in the closing words.
In Matthew we learn that God can give good things. Luke names the giving of the Holy Spirit as a blessing to enjoy.
That request belonged to one moment in history. It changes how a believer prays today.
Jesus said this to disciples who had not yet received the Spirit to live inside them. They could not, until Christ was glorified after His death and resurrection (John 7:39). He encouraged them to ask for the Spirit, for God intended to give Him. Now that the Holy Spirit has come and dwells in every believer (Rom. 8:9), it would be a mistake for a believer to ask for Him again. Instead we may thank God for Him and seek grace to "walk in the Spirit" consistently.
- The premise. Jesus gives an honest verdict: human givers are evil. Even so, they know how to give good gifts to their children.
- The leap. "How much more" is a sum faith must do; the folly of our hearts keeps writing "how much less" instead.
- The measure. His Fatherhood is heavenly. His giving never falls below the best human father — it rises far above.
- The filter. His love answers every request that is for our good. It withholds only what our foolishness asked, because that would harm us.
- The gift. Matthew says "good things." Luke names the Holy Spirit. The disciples asked for Him then; He lives in believers now, so thanks replaces the asking.