Housing benefit ban on jobless migrants: Ministers' new crackdown to stop Britain's welfare system being magnet to citizens of other EU states, Daily Mail

• New rules mean EU arrivals claiming jobseeker's allowance will not be able to receive housing benefit as well
• Those who get jobs but then lose them will only be entitled to housing benefit for six months 
• Ministers hope the measures will cut migration to the UK from EU states 
• But both Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May say more needs to be done 

By JAMES CHAPMAN

PUBLISHED: 23:14, 19 January 2014 | UPDATED: 00:14, 20 January 2014

 
 
 

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Jobless immigrants are to be denied housing benefit.

Writing in the Mail today, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May say Britain’s generous welfare system should no longer be a magnet for citizens of other EU states.

The Work and Pensions Secretary and the Home Secretary claim Labour doled out millions of pounds ‘for people to sit on benefits’ while opening the door to mass migration.

They pointed to incendiary figures showing the number of Britons in jobs plunged by 413,000 between 2005 and 2010, while the number of working foreigners soared by 736,000.

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Less appealing: Ministers have outlined a tough new crackdown on migrants claiming benefits in a bid to get annual net migration down to the tens of thousands

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New rules: Home secretary Theresa May, pictured left, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, pictured right, claim the Government's reforms to welfare and immigration systems are beginning to pay off 

They said this was a shameful betrayal and evidence that immigration can displace some British workers and depress wages for the low-skilled.

 

Under the new rules, to be introduced in April, new European arrivals claiming jobseeker’s allowance will not be able to receive housing benefit as well.

Those who get jobs but then go on to out-of-work handouts will be able to claim housing benefit for up to six months.

After this they will have to show they have a genuine prospect of work.

Housing benefit helps cover accommodation costs for people who are out of work or on low incomes.

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Strict: Under the new regulations, EU arrivals claiming jobseeker's allowance will not be able to claim housing benefit as well

Under emergency regulations that took effect on January 1, all new EU migrants now have to wait for at least three months before they can claim out-of-work benefits.

In their article, Mr Duncan Smith and Mrs May say the Government’s reforms to the welfare and immigration systems are beginning to pay off.

Between 2010 and 2013, the number of Britons in jobs rose by 538,000, while the number of working foreigners increased by 247,000.

The figures are even more striking for the year 2012-13 with 348,000 more British workers and only 26,000 from abroad.

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Employment minister Esther McVey has claimed the Government's long-term economic plan has helped create 1.6million private sector jobs

The ministers say the new £26,000-a-year cap on household benefit claims has affected 33,000 families and encouraged up to 19,000 to return to work.

A limit on economic migrants from outside the EU, changes to the rules on family and student visas and a crackdown on bogus colleges have helped bring down net migration by nearly a third from its peak.

However, Mr Duncan Smith and Mrs May admit there is ‘much more to do’ to meet a Tory target of getting annual net migration down to the tens of thousands. 

Ministers have set out a series of measures to limit migrant access to public services and benefits to try to reduce further so-called ‘pull factors’ to the UK.

Landlords will be fined up to £3,000 if they rent a property to an illegal immigrant, while non-EU migrants will be expected to pay a levy of £200 a year to access the NHS if they do not have private healthcare. 

The changes to the housing benefit rules will not affect UK and Irish Republic nationals, or European migrants genuinely self-employed or in a job. 

European nationals who have been working in the UK, and are subsequently made redundant and claim benefits, will not be affected.

Historically, EU migrants have been able to lodge a claim for the benefit as soon as they arrive in Britain and pass a ‘habitual residence test’ under EU rules.

The Government’s reforms mean they will not be able to make a housing benefit claim at any point unless they are in work.

Employment minister Esther McVey said the Government’s long-term economic plan had helped create 1.6million private sector jobs.

This shameful betrayal

By IAIN DUNCAN SMITH AND THERESA MAY

It was a shameful betrayal of thousands of British workers. For years Labour presided over a labour market where the number of foreign people in jobs rocketed to record levels – while thousands of British workers were left on the sidelines, facing the prospect of long-term unemployment.

Today – as Work and Pensions Secretary and Home Secretary – we publish a devastating analysis which lays bare the shocking scale of Labour’s failure.

But this analysis also demonstrates how this Government’s long-term economic plan is putting things right.

Welfare reform and controlling immigration are at the very core of this plan – and if we are to strike the right balance for a strong, sustainable economy, we cannot look at these issues in isolation.

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Both Home Secretary Theresa May, pictured with Prime Minister David Cameron, and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith claim Labour doled out millions in benefits while allowing mass migration

Labour failed to recognise that if you have a welfare system that doesn’t make work worthwhile or support people into jobs, you pay the price elsewhere.

With one hand, Labour doled out millions of pounds for people to sit on benefits. With the other, they opened the door to mass migration, with those from abroad filling jobs which our own people didn’t want or couldn’t get. 

In just five years between 2005 and 2010, for every British person who fell out of work, almost two foreign nationals gained employment. 

Now, the Home Office and Department for Work and Pensions are working together to put this travesty right. 

Already, we are seeing success in reforming welfare and restoring the incentive for British people to get back to work. 

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Iain Duncan Smith argues that the Government is now reversing the damage done under Labour

Take the benefit cap: already 33,000 households have had their benefits cut so they receive no more than average earnings, and 19,000 potentially capped claimants have returned to work.

As a result, as our economy picks up, we have reversed the damaging trend under Labour. The latest data shows that of the rise in employment over the past year, over 90 per cent went to UK nationals.

We’re also putting right the mess Labour left on immigration. Of course immigration, over the generations, has made a tremendously rich contribution to our country, both culturally and in terms of the talent it brings – but it must be controlled.

We know that the idea there’s a set number of jobs to be divided up and handed around is wrong, and things are far more complicated than the simplistic notion that all immigrants come and ‘take British jobs’. 

But evidence from the Migration Advisory Committee and other academic studies has demonstrated that immigration can displace some British workers in the labour market. So we have tightened up the system... and the latest figures show our reforms are working.

For those migrants who do come here, we’re ensuring they are unable to take unfair advantage of our system by accessing benefits as soon as they arrive.

For example, we introduced rules so that from January 1 this year we are banning individuals from receiving out-of-work benefits until they have been living in the UK for three months. And we will go still further: from the beginning of April we will be removing entitlement to housing benefit altogether for this group. 

In addition, EU migrants can only claim jobseeker’s allowance for six months unless they have genuine prospects of finding work. No longer can people come here from abroad and expect to get something for nothing.

Together, these new immigration and benefit checks will clamp down on those trying to exploit the system. We can ensure that Britain’s growing economy and dynamic jobs market deliver for those who work hard and play by the rules.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2542352/Exclusive-Ministers-new-crackdown-Housing-benefit-ban-jobless-migrants.html#ixzz2qurATAEH
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Lions and donkeys: 10 big myths about World War One debunked, Dan Show BBC News

Much of what we think we know about the 1914-18 conflict is wrong, writes historian Dan Snow.

No war in history attracts more controversy and myth than World War One.

For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse.

By setting it apart as uniquely awful we are blinding ourselves to the reality of not just WW1 but war in general. We are also in danger of belittling the experience of soldiers and civilians caught up in countless other appalling conflicts throughout history and the present day.

It was the bloodiest war in history to that point

Fifty years before WW1 broke out, southern China was torn apart by an even bloodier conflict. Conservative estimates of the dead in the 14-year Taiping rebellion start at between 20 and 30 million. Around 17 million soldiers and civilians were killed during WW1.

Although more Britons died in WW1 than any other conflict, the bloodiest war in our history relative to population size is the Civil War which raged in the mid-17th Century. It saw a far higher proportion of the population of the British Isles killed than the less than 2% who died in WW1. By contrast around 4% of the population of England and Wales, and considerably more than that in Scotland and Ireland, are thought to have been killed in the Civil War.

Most soldiers died

In the UK around six million men were mobilised, and of those just over 700,000 were killed. That's around 11.5%.

In fact, as a British soldier you were more likely to die during the Crimean War (1853-1856) than in WW1.

Continue reading the main story

Trenches in WW1

• Dan Snow explains how so many soldiers survived the trenches
• Discover new perspectives on WW1

Men lived in the trenches for years on end

Frontline trenches could be a terribly hostile place to live. Often wet, cold and exposed to the enemy, units would quickly lose their morale if they spent too much time in them.

As a result, the British army rotated men in and out continuously. Between battles, a unit spent perhaps 10 days a month in the trench system, and of those, rarely more than three days right up on the frontline. It was not unusual to be out of the line for a month.

During moments of crisis, such as big offensives, the British could occasionally spend up to seven days on the frontline but were far more often rotated out after just a day or two.

The upper class got off lightly

Although the great majority of casualties in WW1 were from the working class, the social and political elite was hit disproportionately hard by WW1. Their sons provided the junior officers whose job it was to lead the way over the top and expose themselves to the greatest danger as an example to their men.

Some 12% of the British army's ordinary soldiers were killed during the war, compared with 17% of its officers. Eton alone lost more than 1,000 former pupils - 20% of those who served. UK wartime Prime Minister Herbert Asquith lost a son, while future Prime Minister Bonar Law lost two. Anthony Eden lost two brothers, another brother of his was terribly wounded and an uncle was captured.

'Lions led by donkeys'

George V and his generals, Buckingham Palace 1918

Continue reading the main story

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British commanders were thrust into a massive industrial struggle unlike anything the Army had ever seen”

This saying was supposed to have come from senior German commanders describing brave British soldiers led by incompetent old toffs from their chateaux. In fact it was made up by historian Alan Clark.

During the war more than 200 generals were killed, wounded or captured. Most visited the frontlines every day. In battle they were considerably closer to the action than generals are today.

Naturally, some generals were not up to the job, but others were brilliant, such as Arthur Currie, a middle-class Canadian failed insurance broker and property developer.

Rarely in history have commanders had to adapt to a more radically different technological environment.

British commanders had been trained to fight small colonial wars, now they were thrust into a massive industrial struggle unlike anything the British army had ever seen.

Despite this, within three years the British had effectively invented a method of warfare still recognisable today. By the summer of 1918 the British army was probably at its best ever and it inflicted crushing defeats on the Germans.

Gallipoli was fought by Australians and New Zealanders

Australians and New Zealanders mark Anzac Day in Gallipoli, 2011

Far more British soldiers fought on the Gallipoli peninsula than Australians and New Zealanders put together.

The UK lost four or five times as many men in the brutal campaign as her imperial Anzac contingents. The French also lost more men than the Australians.

The Aussies and Kiwis commemorate Gallipoli ardently, and understandably so, as their casualties do represent terrible losses both as a proportion of their forces committed and of their small populations.

Tactics on the Western Front remained unchanged despite repeated failure

Never have tactics and technology changed so radically in four years of fighting. It was a time of extraordinary innovation. In 1914 generals on horseback galloped across battlefields as men in cloth caps charged the enemy without the necessary covering fire. Both sides were overwhelmingly armed with rifles. Four years later, steel-helmeted combat teams dashed forward protected by a curtain of artillery shells.

They were now armed with flame throwers, portable machine guns and grenades fired from rifles. Above, planes, that in 1914 would have appeared unimaginably sophisticated duelled in the skies, some carrying experimental wireless radio sets, reporting real-time reconnaissance.

Huge artillery pieces fired with pinpoint accuracy - using only aerial photos and maths they could score a hit on the first shot. Tanks had gone from the drawing board to the battlefield in just two years, also changing war forever.

Continue reading the main story

The World War One Centenary

• Michael Mosley on plastic surgery techniques pioneered in WW1
• Ian MacMillan asks has poetry distorted our view of WW1?

• The WWI Centenary: Discover new perspectives on the war

No one won

Swathes of Europe lay wasted, millions were dead or wounded. Survivors lived on with severe mental trauma. The UK was broke. It is odd to talk about winning.

However, in a narrow military sense, the UK and her allies convincingly won. Germany's battleships had been bottled up by the Royal Navy until their crews mutinied rather than make a suicidal attack against the British fleet.

Continue reading the main story

Germany's Army collapsed as a series of mighty allied blows scythed through supposedly impregnable defences.

By late September 1918 the German emperor and his military mastermind Erich Ludendorff admitted that there was no hope and Germany must beg for peace. The 11 November Armistice was essentially a German surrender.

Unlike Hitler in 1945, the German government did not insist on a hopeless, pointless struggle until the allies were in Berlin - a decision that saved countless lives, but was seized upon later to claim Germany never really lost.

The Versailles Treaty was extremely harsh

The treaty of Versailles confiscated 10% of Germany's territory but left it the largest, richest nation in central Europe.

It was largely unoccupied and financial reparations were linked to its ability to pay, which mostly went unenforced anyway.

The treaty was notably less harsh than treaties that ended the 1870-1 Franco-Prussian War and World War Two. The German victors in the former annexed large chunks of two rich French provinces, part of France for around 300 years, and home to most of French iron ore production, as well as presenting France with a massive bill for immediate payment.

Treaty of Versailles, 1919

After WW2 Germany was occupied, split up, her factory machinery smashed or stolen and millions of prisoners forced to stay with their captors and work as slave labourers. Germany lost all the territory it had lost after WW1 and another giant slice on top of that.

Versailles was not harsh but was portrayed as such by Hitler who sought to create a tidal wave of anti-Versailles sentiment on which he could then ride into power.

Everyone hated it

Like any war, it all comes down to luck. You may witness unimaginable horrors that leave you mentally and physically incapacitated for life, or you might get away without a scrape. It could be the best of times, or the worst of times.

Many soldiers enjoyed WW1. If they were lucky they would avoid a big offensive, and much of the time, conditions might be better than at home.

For the British there was meat every day - a rare luxury back home - cigarettes, tea and rum, part of a daily diet of over 4,000 calories.

Absentee rates due to sickness, an important barometer of a unit's morale were, remarkably, hardly above peacetime rates. Many young men enjoyed the guaranteed pay, the intense comradeship, the responsibility and a much greater sexual freedom than in peacetime Britain.

Find out more from Dan Snow on how so many soldiers survived the trenches and Michael Mosley on the plastic surgery techniques pioneered in WW1.

Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

Words for the Wise, Matthew 8 Faith to Heal

Matthew 8

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Jesus Cleanses a Leper; The Centurion’s Faith

8 When [a]Jesus came down from the mountain, [b]large crowds followed Him. 2 And a leper came to Him and [c]bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus *said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the [d]offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

5 And when [e]Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6 and saying, “[f]Lord, my [g]servant is [h]lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7 Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion said, “[i]Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just [j]say the word, and my [k]servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith [l]with anyone in Israel. 11 I say to you that many will come from east and west, and [m]recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; [n]it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the [o]servant was healed that very [p]moment.

Peter’s Mother-in-law and Many Others Healed

14 When Jesus came into Peter’s [q]home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and [r]waited on Him. 16 When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and [s]carried away our diseases.”

Discipleship Tested

18 Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. 19 Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” 20 Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the [t]air have [u]nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” 22 But Jesus *said to him, “Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead.”

23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And behold, there arose [v]a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. 25 And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” 26 He *said to them, “Why are you [w]afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and [x]it became perfectly calm. 27 The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Jesus Casts Out Demons

28 When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. 29 And they cried out, saying, “[y]What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before [z]the time?” 30 Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. 31 The demons began to entreat Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters. 33 The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, [aa]including what had happened to the demoniacs. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.

Bible Panorama

Matthew 8

V 1–17: COMPREHENSIVENESS Jesus heals the unclean leper (verses 1 to 4), the centurion’s servant (verses 5 to 13), Peter’s mother-in-law (verses 14 and 15) and demon-possessed and sick people (verses 16 and 17). He meets the needs of many different types of people, irrespective of their background, social standing, gender, or age.

 V 18–22: COST Jesus’ responses to a scribe and then to a disciple reveal that following Him must come before where we prefer to live and what our family wants us to do. (There is no suggestion that the disciple’s father is actually dying at the time when his son wants to delay following Christ until after his burial.)

 V 23–34: CALM The Lord Jesus Christ stills the storm, showing His power over nature, and casts out demons from demon-possessed people, showing His power over Satan. He can deal with the storms and domination of Satan in men and women. That is why the whole city comes out to meet Him. But, sadly, they want Him to leave.

The Bible Panorama. Copyright © 2005 Day One Publications.

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport,  Merseyside

January 19^th 2014

Why pro-independence Catalans envy Scotland, By Allan Little BBC News

Why pro-independence Catalans envy Scotland

By Allan LittleBBC News, Catalonia

Sant Pere de Torello sees itself as a pioneer in the drive for Catalan self-rule

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Catalonia profile
• Catalans hold 'independence' link-up
• Scotland vote - timeline

The hilltop village of Sant Pere de Torello, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, north of Barcelona, is decked in the colours of Catalan statehood.

The red-blue-gold flag of the movement to win independence from Spain flies from windows, balconies and rooftops in every street.

The flag also rises above the town hall of this community of 2,500, whose mayor was the first local official in Catalonia to declare his area a free Catalan territory - electing to send local taxes to the Catalan capital Barcelona, instead of directly to Madrid. It is a symbolic repudiation of the town's Spanish heritage in favour of an explicit Catalan national identity.

"It is a small thing," says Griselda Castells, an adviser to the mayor, "but we have tried for years to explain to Spain that we need action - but nothing changes.

"Now the government of Spain can see that it is real, this feeling that we have. It's a small thing but an important thing for our ideology, for our dream, that Catalonia will be independent."

There has been a dramatic rise in support for Catalan independence in the last few years. A pro-independence demonstration in Barcelona in September 2012 attracted more than a million people. Opinion polls frequently put support for a break with Spain at more than 50%.

Scottish independence

President Artur Mas: 'Catalonia and Scotland have enough personality to follow their own ways.'

The president of Catalonia's regional government, the pro-independence Artur Mas, has majority support in parliament for a referendum which, he says, will take place in November. Spain, though, has said the move is illegal and that the referendum will not go ahead.

The stand-off is in marked contrast to the situation in Scotland, with which Catalonia is frequently compared. There, the pro-independence Scottish National Party won a majority in the Scottish parliament and announced plans for a referendum to take place in September. It reached an agreement with the British government on the timing of the poll, and on the wording of the question: "should Scotland be an independent country?"

The UK government, and the anti-independence "Better Together" campaign, have both said they will respect the outcome of the referendum.

"We envy a little bit what is happening in the UK," Artur Mas told me, "because what we would like is an agreement with the Spanish institutions.

"Our aim is to reach this agreement, but the difference is that in Spain the central government says you don't have the right to vote."

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

You cannot stop a democratic and peaceful movement like this”

Artur MasCatalan president

So, I asked him, would you rather be dealing with UK Prime Minister David Cameron than with the current Spanish government?

"Of course," he said. "Well, not exactly with David Cameron but with the British mentality. That is to say: if you have a nation, Scotland or Catalonia, and you have in this nation a broad majority of the population that is asking for a referendum, real democracy, what should you do? You should sit at the table, reach an agreement and let the people vote. This is the British way. And I wish that Spain was exactly the same, with the same mentality."

But Spain is not the United Kingdom and Catalonia is not Scotland. Scotland and Catalonia have similar sized populations - five million and 7.5 million, respectively.

Scotland contributes just over 8% of the UK's taxes (excluding oil and gas) - about the same proportion as the size of its population.

But Catalonia is Spain's wealthiest and most economically productive region and accounts for about a quarter of Spain's taxes - far more than its share of Spain's population. This disparity has helped fuel the rise in support for independence.

In September 2012 pro-independence Catalans thronged the streets of Barcelona

Madrid warning

There is a further key difference between Scotland and Catalonia. In Scotland, the SNP has campaigned for independence as a matter of principle since the party was founded nearly a century ago. Support for independence has been fairly solid at more than 30%, arguably for decades.

In Catalonia, support has rocketed from somewhere in the teens to more than 50% since the current economic crisis began, leading many anti-independence campaigners to argue that this recent rise is ephemeral, an anomaly - a short-term response to a short-term economic crisis, but one which could have irreversible long-term consequences.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We hope it won't come to this, but we could for instance suspend Catalonia's autonomy”

Fernando Sanchez CostaCatalan MP in Spain's Popular Party

And although a clear majority in Catalonia - about three-quarters of the people in recent opinion polls - want the right to vote on the matter, a minority want Spain to act to stop the referendum taking place at all.

"Spain could do many things," says Fernando Sanchez Costa, a member of the Catalan parliament for the governing centre-right Spanish party, the Popular Party.

"We hope it won't come to this, but we could for instance suspend Catalonia's autonomy. Our democratic constitution gives us the tools. It wouldn't be necessary to suspend [the Catalan] parliament. In Northern Ireland something similar happened a few years ago. Some competences were taken away temporarily. This could happen in Catalonia."

Many in Catalonia believe that would only boost support for independence still further.

Artur Mas says he is determined to go ahead regardless. "Let me remind you," he says, "that we had democratic elections here a year ago. The electoral pledges were very clear and the people elected us because they wanted the right to exercise this choice. We must stick by our promise to hold a consultation".

And if Spain blocks it? "Then we will call new elections, by 2016 at the latest, and this election will become the referendum on independence. You cannot convince the Catalan people that they have no right to vote on this. You cannot stop a democratic and peaceful movement like this."

More on This Story

Words for The Wise, Matthew 7 Asking in Faith

Matthew 7

English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

Judging Others

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye’, when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Ask, and It Will Be Given

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 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!

The Golden Rule

12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

A Tree and Its Fruit

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thorn bushes? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Build Your House on the Rock

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The Authority of Jesus

28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Bible Panorama

Matthew 7

V 1–5: ‘FIRST’ Before criticising or judging others, especially on relatively small things, we should ‘first’ examine ourselves to see and correct our own faults. Perhaps we are far more culpable than those we criticise or judge. 

V 6: FOOLISHNESS Jesus warns against giving holy things to dogs and ‘casting pearls before swine’ as the pearls may be trampled and the person casting them may be hurt. Both illustrations apply to the sharing of God’s holy Word with ignorant, reckless and aggressive people who will refuse to listen. 

V 7–11: FAITH Faith consists of asking, seeking, and knocking, with the sure promise that God will answer even more than any earthly father will answer the needs of his own children.

 V 12: FULFILMENT The working out of keeping God’s law and the teachings of the prophets will be such that I will treat others as I want them to treat me.

 V 13–14: FINDING Only a few people find the narrow way that leads to life compared with the many who go to destruction. Jesus nevertheless urges His hearers to enter by the narrow gate to find life. 

V 15–20: FRUITSFalse prophets can be detected by the fruits of their lives and activities. Their fruits will show that they are not what they pretend to be.

 V 21–27: FOUNDATIONThe people whom Jesus will accept to be with Him in eternity will not necessarily be those who call Him ‘Lord’ and who have done great exploits in His name. Only those who know Him will be safe eternally. We must build our lives on the rock of Scripture rather than on the sand of anything else. 

V 28–29: FLABERGASTED! The crowds are astonished when they compare the authoritative and powerful teaching of Jesus with the weak words of the scribes.

The Bible Panorama. Copyright © 2005 Day One Publications.

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

January 19th 2014

Southport,  Merseyside

Slow Araf, Means slow in Wales