A. S. K.
Ask, Seek, Knock [lightly edited and clarified Nov. 5, 2024]
A reflection upon Matthew 7:7:
“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened for you.”
On the one hand, there is power behind these words. But they are also simply true. People think nothing now of asking Siri or Alexa, not to mention ChatGPT, and receiving an answer. The idea of receiving a response to a question that you just “put out there” isn't so far fetched.
I got the idea of just putting questions out there from Buckminster Fuller, when I read one of his books during some phase of my early adult life. He wrote something about being "a citizen of the universe", and I recall reading or thinking I read about him asking questions of the universe. (In re-reading a little of his biography just now, I am also reminded that we both dealt with suicidal ideation, and we found a similar resolution.)
It's not that I didn't know Matthew 7:7 long before I learned about Buckminster Fuller. I did. Around 1969 a local preacher made an acronym of it, ASK -- Ask, Seek, Knock. What it is is that almost nobody shares that verse that way, and yet "Bucky" seems to have picked up the principle anyway. More importantly, in my worst unbelieving days -- and there were decades of those -- I continued to ask questions of the universe, and I continued to receive answers. It works! (YMMV, details below.)
There are, however, three parts to the verse. Asking is just the first step. Seeking and knocking follow, and, though guided (more on that in a while), they are both discrete actions in which one must engage. Seeking takes you to the gate. Knocking results in it opening. It then shifts from active to passive as we approach that which we cannot do for ourselves.
Verse 7 is the start of a passage that I am inclined to say extends through verse 14, in a three part progression, v. 7, then vv. 8-12, and finally vv. 13-14. So to v. 7 we add
Matt. 7:8-12 ““For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. “Or what person is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “So if you, despite being 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! In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
The idea, then, is that we ask and someone is listening, a Father who cares about us and responds with what is best for us, not necessarily always what we asked for, but good. Along with this asking and receiving comes the expectation that we will treat other people well.
With this, we find our selves at the Golden Rule, a childhood memory verse usually taught out of context. Let’s add context. First, a different translation:
“So whatever you would like others to do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets."
I have to stretch my brain a little to see the sequitur, but it's there. We start out asking, most likely, for things we want, for which the above is the answer.
This is the Mounce (an NIV/ESV translator) rendition, which preserves the Greek phrase order (as does the KJV). I think it makes more sense this way. It's about "other-focus". Focusing heavily upon our own needs is not the way to be provided for. It is inherently unstable. It doesn't work. This passage points to a balance of asking, receiving, and giving that does work. A theme of the need to return good for evil, another stabilizing principle, can also be found within the preceding context of the passage.
I think of "the law and the prophets" as referring to the design, the scripturally-revealed Plan of Creation, that which was designed and engineered to work well in this world. Specifically it refers to a portion of what is commonly called “The Old Testament”.1 Part of having gates open for you is getting with the plan. Humanity is not doing so well with that right now. “The Prophets” had a lot to say about that, and it still applies today.
Finally, there is the hard part (staying in the Mounce translation):
Matt. 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and easy the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it!"
So this is no simple, pleasant walk in the park. There are many ways to fail, and one way to succeed.
What's so difficult about finding a gate and entering a path (way), if you've asked about it, and sought it, and know it can be found? Well, it can be asked for with the wrong motivations, not aligned with the Plan, and it can be sought with the wrong motivations as well. And what is on the other side can prove unappealing, "not what I had in mind". But that gate "leads to life". There's another gate that is easy to find and easy to pass through, and appealing almost to the point of being irresistible. It's propped wide open, and it "leads to destruction". So it's not like there's no choice.
Humanity often seems inclined to go for "cheap and convenient". That is rather like the wide gate.
Just as we can't open the narrow gate ourselves, we also need help with the asking and the seeking. It must be guided, once we engage. When our motives are aligned with the Plan, the help is provided. Even the evil earthly father (in the illustration) provides his son with what he needs. "…how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"
Can you imagine a child, knowing nothing, refusing any parental help, preferring to work everything out the hard way? That's us! And it doesn't work. Our design requires cooperation. But the child discovers hammers (knowledge of good and evil, science), and goes after the creation with a big one.
Once on the difficult path, it is difficult. Extraordinarily difficult. Let no one deceive you about that. I gauge it impossible to traverse without asking for and receiving a great deal of help. But that’s the idea. We can’t accomplish anything good of lasting significance on our own. And above all, we can’t save ourselves! Look deeply and honestly at how we have done so far.
Why is the world made this way? I could speculate, but all I will suggest is that this is part of the design, to offer hard lessons for those willing to be taught. I believe there will be a time to ask that question and receive a full answer, for those who were willing to be taught and those who were not.
All of this points to a way of life that works, for those that will enter through the opened narrow gate on to the difficult path. Traits of surrender, humility, other-focus, self-sacrifice, and persistence are called for.
Or there’s the other, wide gate. The one we appear to be staring through if not sucked through right now.
Related: Such Foolishness
Related: Total Depravity?
See for example, if you have the time and interest, The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms: how is the Old Testament divided?