NOTES for Mat 7:9-11

As we can see, readiness to grant good to the one who asks is presented as a distinctive feature of God, to which Jesus draws His listeners' attention. Of course, Hosea had already spoken of God's readiness to do more than deserved for His people, as well as for each individual person. The only thing required of the people for this is to turn to God and ask forgiveness for the sins they have committed. And the pre-exilic prophets already connected this readiness of God for undeserved benefactions with the very possibility of justification on the day of Judgment, whether for the people or for an individual person.

Jesus, as we see, connects with it the very possibility of the Kingdom as such. He says to the people listening to Him: you are able to do good deeds for those you love, for example for your own children, although in general goodness is contrary to your fallen nature; yet sometimes you are able to build concrete relationships with concrete people, even if only a few, despite your nature. But for God a good attitude toward every person is the norm; doing good does not contradict His nature. It is enough only to enter into relationship with Him in order to receive good, for there can be no other, non-good relationship with Him. And this in turn opens the road to the Kingdom for everyone: for the fullness of relationship with the Father and with Christ is precisely what brings a person into communion with it.

And Jesus bears witness that God is always ready for such relationships, so now it is up to the person. For Him, loving a person is no labor: relationships of love are the only relationships natural to Him. But in order to love, a person must always step over himself and build a relationship with another, whether God or neighbor, against his own fallen nature. Yet for a person the matter is made simpler by the fact that God is always ready to take a step toward him. And not only one step, but many steps in response to the one step taken by a person seeking relationship with God and the Kingdom.