Matthew 7:21-23 , I never knew you

[Esther4:14]

I think we can learn what He is referring to from the theme taken from the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.  

The church of Ephesus is praised for hating the works of the Nicolatians (Revelation 2:6).  

The church of Smyrna is praised for suffering persecution from those who call themselves Jews but are really a synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9).  

The church of Pergamum is praised for suffering persecution in the city where the throne of Satan dwells (Revelation 2:13).

Everyone in the church of Thyatira is warned of judgement for tolerating the teachings of Jezebel; except, those who do not know these teachings yet (Revelation 2:20;24).  

He says that there are some in the church of Sardis who have not soiled their garments, which indicates that they have not included extra teachings (Revelation 3:4).

The church of Philadephia is praised for enduring persecution from the ones who call themselves Jews but are a synagogue of Satan.  

Finally, the church of Laodicea is not praised for enduring persecution or for not tolerating the teachings of Jezebel or the Nicolations (Revelation 3:14-18).  

Therefore, His judgement of their works rested significantly on whether they were tolerating or not tolerating teachings from the Devil and provides several illustrations of when Jesus would say to some, "depart from me for I never knew you," (Matthew 7:23).  

In Psalm 45:6, King David says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.  A scepter is a identifying feature in a kingdom.  Therefore, if the scepter of His kingdom is justice, then justice is how to identify the Kingdom of God.  If we are seeking the Kingdom of God first, we are seeking justice first (Matthew 6:33).  

Therefore, I think a great overall solution to the problem of Devils planting false teachings among us, is to seek justice first.  I think we can spot any Devil this way because the Devil does not like to play fair.  

Peace

 

 

Edited August 31, 2015 by Esther4:14

[missmuffet]

So this is about being lukewarm?

 

Question: "Why did Jesus speak so strongly against lukewarm faith?"

Answer: In Revelation 3:14-21, the Lord is describing the “lukewarm” heart attitude of those in the Laodicean church, an attitude manifested by their deeds. They were neither cold nor hot in relation to God, just lukewarm. Beverages are better either cold or hot. Similarly, the Lord would rather that people be either hot (spiritually on fire for Him) or cold (rejecting Him outright). The Laodiceans understood the analogy because their city drinking water came from a spring six miles to the south over an aqueduct, and it arrived disgustingly lukewarm. It was not hot like the nearby hot springs that people bathed in, nor was it refreshingly cold for drinking. It was lukewarm, good for nothing. In fact, it was nauseating, and that was the Lord’s response to the Laodiceans—they sickened Him.

The letter to the church at Laodicea is the harshest of the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor. By His indictment against their “deeds,” Jesus makes it clear that this is a dead church. That is not to say that there were no true believers there, only that the church as a whole was spiritually uncommitted. Jesus frequently equates deeds, or works, with a person’s true spiritual state. He said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” and “Every good tree bears good fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17). Clearly, the deeds of the Laodiceans were not in keeping with true salvation because the deeds of the true believer will be “hot,” reflecting the spiritual passion of a life transformed. Such are easily recognizable by the world. The lukewarm deeds, however—those done without joy, without love and without the fire of the Spirit—do more harm to the watching world than the deeds done by those who are completely cold to the things of God. The lukewarm are those who claim to know God but live as though He doesn’t exist. They may go to church, but their religion is self-righteous complacency. They may claim to be Christians, but their hearts are unchanged, and their hypocrisy is sickening to God. 

The Lord rebukes and disciplines the true believers in the church of Laodicea, commanding them to repent. He sees their lukewarm attitudes as “shameful nakedness” that needs to be clothed in the white garments of true righteousness. He urges them to be earnest, or zealous, and commit themselves totally to Him, for He will reject their lukewarmness by spitting them out of His mouth. But our Lord is gracious and long-suffering. He will always receive to Himself even the most lukewarm Christian who comes to Him in repentance. 

The Laodiceans enjoyed material prosperity that led them to a false sense of security and independence. The expression "I am rich, and have become wealthy" is a literary device that inverts the natural sequence for emphasis. Here it stresses that the wealth attained came though self-exertion. Spiritually, they had great needs. This self-sufficient attitude is a constant danger when Christians live lives of ease and enjoy prosperity.

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-lukewarm-faith.html

Edited August 31, 2015 by bopeep1909

[thereselittleflower]

Many believe that they have Jesus in them who do not.  He has never known them.

They cast out many demons in Jesus name, they prophesied in Jesus name,  they did many wonderous works - miracles in Jesus name . . 

But Jesus was never in them?

That's not what Jesus is saying here.

 

 

Where does it say they did these things?  I read where it says that they thought they did and were asking for confirmation but were denied.

Where do you find the word  "they thought" they did these things?   Where does it say they asked for confirmation that they did these things?

There is no question about what they did.   There is no seeking confirmation.

They are arguing with Christ.  

They made absolute claim to have done them.   He does not say they didn't.

Mat 7:21

¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 7:22

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity

Another translation captures the thought behind this verse putting it this way:

Mat 7:22  

On judgment day many will say to me, 'Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.'

 

 What Jesus is saying here is that prophesying, casting out demons, doing miracles is not what is involved in doing the will of the Father in heaven.

Just because someone can prophesy, just because someone can cast out demons, just because someone can do miracles, this says nothing of their actual inner standing with God for the rest of their lives or at any given momemt.   

The questions above are not asking did we do these things in your name, but why aren't you allowing us in heaven when we did do these things in your name?  Aren't these proof enough that we belong to you?    This is the context of those questions. They are rhetorical.

 

 

I came to the Cautionary Tale I posted above after many years of reading those verses and puzzling over them, for one would think that if someone is doing such things, then this is proof of their close walk with Jesus.  But is that true?  I discovered to my amazement, no it's not true.   I discovered this when  finally one night, while contemplating these verses, I realized that Jesus was saying these are not what he means by doing the will of the Father.   So I asked God right then and there 'if these were not enough for one to be doing the will of the Father, then what was?'  And my mind was flooded with scriptures. And from this, the Cautionary Tale was born. 

 

 

 

[gdemoss]

It is quite amazing how different we can interpret a text.  

They ask him questions seemingly based upon what they thought and get rejected.  You determine that they actually did the things they are asking about.  The text never gives that idea.  It never says they did anything right at all.

[Guest shiloh357]

Matthew 7:21-23

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

   At the last day when we stand in front of God in judgement, there will be people according to the verses above who will be convinced they got it right. They will be convinced they are going to be with the Lord forever, that they are saved and sadly they will be wrong. I find myself keeping going back to the part of Jesus answer that says " I never knew you " . It gets me wondering , what makes the relationship real? When does he know you and when does he not? How can these people not realize they got it wrong? It seem like this is saying that Jesus wants a relationship with us, but what kind of relationship does he want? How do we know we won't be one of the people in the above verses?  How do we know our relationship with Jesus is real and not just in our heads? 

 

Firestormx

Joseph

 

Hi Joseph,

That passage is important and I want you to notice what's going on.  Notice that these people are appealing to all the good things they did in life.   There are a lot of people who base their Christianity on good deeds.    Notice what they are not saying...   "Lord, I was unworthy of your grace and mercy and still am.  But I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and I appeal to you on the grounds of your grace.   I have no good thing to offer you.   I have only my faith in your finished work on the cross and your shed blood."

They didn't appeal to the grace of God; rather, they are shocked that their good deeds are not good enough.   "Lord!!!   look at all the money I gave to charity!  I dug wells in Mozambique,  I fed starting children in Ethiopia, I went on mission trips to South America.   I taught Sunday School and coached the church's softball team!!  I helped with  a church building program and I supported 5 missionaries on a regular basis!!   Look at all that I did!   I never smoked, or drank and I paid by taxes and loved my family!!  I did all  these good things! How could that not be enough???"

These people appealed to God on the basis of their own "perceived" righteousness and not solely on the grace of God.   Jesus said, "depart from me workers of iniquity; I never knew you."   Those are the most terrifying words spoken in the Bible.   Too many people are still trying to "deserve"  heaven.  They are trying to save themselves and they will be going to everlasting destruction forever, as a result.

You relationship with Jesus is real when it based on his grace and not your efforts.  It is real when you are relying him and letting holiness be a work of the Holy Spirit on your heart.  When your holiness comes from within, when it is His work in you, and not you trying to keep a list of rules, then you know it is real.  When you have that witness of the Holy Spirit in you that tells you that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16)  then it is real.

 

[thereselittleflower]

It is quite amazing how different we can interpret a text.  

They ask him questions seemingly based upon what they thought and get rejected.  You determine that they actually did the things they are asking about.  The text never gives that idea.  It never says they did anything right at all.

I thought you might still think they are asking questions, as if they are not sure of themselves, so I want to add to it what the underlying Greek reveals about what they said or didn't say.

In Greek there are 4 Moods that can be used with verbs.  The mood used in this verse for all three verbs is controlling on how we understand what they were saying:

 

MOOD

There are four moods in Greek. They demonstrate the relationship between the action of the verb and reality. They denote whether the action is factual, potential, wishful, or a command.

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. [4] The indicative mood is the only one to give designation concerning time (past, present, and future). The majority of all verbs used in the New Testament occur in the indicative mood.

The Subjunctive Mood:

This is the mood of probability or desirability. It, however, has many usages and this is only a general definition.

The Optative Mood:

The optative has relatively few appearences in the New Testament because—by the time the New Testament was written—the subjunctive has taken over some of the classical usages of it. Some of its usages include, a wish/prayer or a potential statement. Mounce states that the optative is two steps away from reality whereas the subjunctive is only one step away. [5]

The Imperative Mood:

This mood is reserved for the indication of commands.

Understanding How Greek Verbs Work

https://www.blueletterbible.org/help/greekverbs.cfm

 

 

If the ones Jesus refers to here in Matthew were unsure of themselves, as you suggest, then the correct mood to use would be the Subjunctive or Optative Moods.

For example, if we look more closely at the Subjunctive mood, we see this:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

So if this was indeed a question in their minds, then this would have been the mood to have used.

 

But this is not what we see here in this passage.   Instead of the Subjunctive Mood, we see the INDICATIVE MOOD  used for each of these three verbs, these three actions, these three claims.

Again, 

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. 

 

looking further into this mood:

The indicative mood is a simple statement of fact. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be rendered in the indicative mood.

 

There is no question in the Greek as to what is intended by these "questions" which are simply statements of fact, of actions that really occurred, asserted by those making these statements of certainty.

That they are formed as questions makes the questions rhetorical in nature.  They are actually statements of fact in the guise of questions used to defend themselves.

 

If we take this even further, and look at other verses where the subjunctive mood actually appears  - such verses used by those who claim one cannot lose their salvation to prove one cannot lose their salvation, one actually finds such verses say the exact opposite:

 

Jhn 10:28

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

 

"and they shall never perish"  - the verb is NOT in the indicative mood.  this is NOT the simple statement of fact those who want to use this to prove "once saved always saved" is true, claim and want it to be.

 

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

These are ones to whom Jesus already said he gave them eternal life  - and the verb here  -   "gave" -  Is in the Indicative mood, and so is a simple statement of fact -  Jesus did indeed give them eternal life.

 

But then he says  " and they shall never perish"    -  this is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD - there is no certainty they will never perish in the Greek unlike how the English  appears to render it.

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD, which, again means:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

 

This is the mood of probability or desirability.

 

It is desirable they should never perish.  But it is not certain.   It is a possibility, a potentiality, something that may or may not occur, depending on the circumstances.

 

And here in Matthew, we see that the circumstances for those who had been given eternal life, who had cast out demons in Jesus name, who had prophesied in Jesus name, who had done miracles in Jesus name,  did not result in this desired outcome of not perishing.  The circumstances to allow this outcome were lacking.   The possible, potential end of not perishing did not materialize for them.

Why?

They did not do the will of the Father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2015 by thereselittleflower

[gdemoss]

It is quite amazing how different we can interpret a text.  

They ask him questions seemingly based upon what they thought and get rejected.  You determine that they actually did the things they are asking about.  The text never gives that idea.  It never says they did anything right at all.

I thought you might still think they are asking questions, as if they are not sure of themselves, so I want to add to it what the underlying Greek reveals about what they said or didn't say.

In Greek there are 4 Moods that can be used with verbs.  The mood used in this verse for all three verbs is controlling on how we understand what they were saying:

 

MOOD

There are four moods in Greek. They demonstrate the relationship between the action of the verb and reality. They denote whether the action is factual, potential, wishful, or a command.

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. [4] The indicative mood is the only one to give designation concerning time (past, present, and future). The majority of all verbs used in the New Testament occur in the indicative mood.

The Subjunctive Mood:

This is the mood of probability or desirability. It, however, has many usages and this is only a general definition.

The Optative Mood:

The optative has relatively few appearences in the New Testament because—by the time the New Testament was written—the subjunctive has taken over some of the classical usages of it. Some of its usages include, a wish/prayer or a potential statement. Mounce states that the optative is two steps away from reality whereas the subjunctive is only one step away. [5]

The Imperative Mood:

This mood is reserved for the indication of commands.

Understanding How Greek Verbs Work

https://www.blueletterbible.org/help/greekverbs.cfm

 

 

If the ones Jesus refers to here in Matthew were unsure of themselves, as you suggest, then the correct mood to use would be the Subjunctive or Optative Moods.

For example, if we look more closely at the Subjunctive mood, we see this:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

So if this was indeed a question in their minds, then this would have been the mood to have used.

 

But this is not what we see here in this passage.   Instead of the Subjunctive Mood, we see the INDICATIVE MOOD  used for each of these three verbs, these three actions, these three claims.

Again, 

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. 

 

looking further into this mood:

The indicative mood is a simple statement of fact. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be rendered in the indicative mood.

 

There is no question in the Greek as to what is intended by these "questions" which are simply statements of fact, of actions that really occurred, asserted by those making these statements of certainty.

That they are formed as questions makes the questions rhetorical in nature.  They are actually statements of fact in the guise of questions used to defend themselves.

 

If we take this even further, and look at other verses where the subjunctive mood actually appears  - verses used by those who claim one cannot lose their salvation to prove one cannot lose their salvation, one finds such verses say actually the opposite:

 

Jhn 10:28

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

 

"and they shall never perish"  - the verb is NOT in the indicative mood.  this is NOT a simple statement of fact that those who want this to prove "once saved always saved" want it to be.

 

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

These are ones to whom Jesus already said he gave them eternal life  - the verb there Is in the Indicative mood, and so is a simple statement of fact -  Jesus did indeed give them eternal life.

But then he says  " and they shall never perish"    -  this is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD - there is no certainty they will never perish in the Greek unlike how the english  appears to render it.

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD, which, again means:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

 

This is the mood of probability or desirability.

 

It is desirable they should never perish.  But it is not certain.   It is a possibility, a potentiality, something that may or may not occur, depending on the circumstances.

 

And here in Matthew, we see that the circumstances for those who had been given eternal life, who had cast out demons in Jesus name, who had prophesied in Jesus name, who had done miracles in Jesus name,  did not result in this desired outcome of not perishing.  The circumstances to allow this outcome were lacking.   The possible, potential end of not perishing did not materialize for them.

Why?

They did not do the will of the Father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I studied Greek.  I did all of the intellectual exercises that led me to believe I actually understood.  Then I realized that I had become a fool who professed himself wise.  The passage is really simple and straight forward.  Jesus spent time teaching what works look like when one is right with God then explained in no uncertain terms that those who don't live right won't be welcomed by him but rejected.  

You have come to believe they actually did those works.  Ok.  I don't.  Others believe he rejects them because they did not rely soley upon grace to get in.  Ok.  I don’t.  Jesus painted a simple picture of a life lived selflessly through the Holy Spirit unto God where our bodies are presented as a living sacrifice.  Those who get turned away are they who do not walk in the Spirit doing the works of God from the heart.  Many are the reasons people cannot accept that but it is the truth nonetheless.

 

[firestormx]

You relationship with Jesus is real when it based on his grace and not your efforts.  It is real when you are relying him and letting holiness be a work of the Holy Spirit on your heart.  When your holiness comes from within, when it is His work in you, and not you trying to keep a list of rules, then you know it is real.  When you have that witness of the Holy Spirit in you that tells you that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16)  then it is real.

 

Thank you for the simple and direct answer above. It's not that I am doubting my relationship with Jesus, just have been concerned about how to know if it's real or not, how to know if I have deceived myself and have been having itching ears. Of all the lies we tell, the lies we tell ourselves are some of the most dangerous. I almost cried tears of joy reading your post. Thank you

[thereselittleflower]

It is quite amazing how different we can interpret a text.  

They ask him questions seemingly based upon what they thought and get rejected.  You determine that they actually did the things they are asking about.  The text never gives that idea.  It never says they did anything right at all.

I thought you might still think they are asking questions, as if they are not sure of themselves, so I want to add to it what the underlying Greek reveals about what they said or didn't say.

In Greek there are 4 Moods that can be used with verbs.  The mood used in this verse for all three verbs is controlling on how we understand what they were saying:

 

MOOD

There are four moods in Greek. They demonstrate the relationship between the action of the verb and reality. They denote whether the action is factual, potential, wishful, or a command.

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. [4] The indicative mood is the only one to give designation concerning time (past, present, and future). The majority of all verbs used in the New Testament occur in the indicative mood.

The Subjunctive Mood:

This is the mood of probability or desirability. It, however, has many usages and this is only a general definition.

The Optative Mood:

The optative has relatively few appearences in the New Testament because—by the time the New Testament was written—the subjunctive has taken over some of the classical usages of it. Some of its usages include, a wish/prayer or a potential statement. Mounce states that the optative is two steps away from reality whereas the subjunctive is only one step away. [5]

The Imperative Mood:

This mood is reserved for the indication of commands.

Understanding How Greek Verbs Work

https://www.blueletterbible.org/help/greekverbs.cfm

 

 

If the ones Jesus refers to here in Matthew were unsure of themselves, as you suggest, then the correct mood to use would be the Subjunctive or Optative Moods.

For example, if we look more closely at the Subjunctive mood, we see this:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

So if this was indeed a question in their minds, then this would have been the mood to have used.

 

But this is not what we see here in this passage.   Instead of the Subjunctive Mood, we see the INDICATIVE MOOD  used for each of these three verbs, these three actions, these three claims.

Again, 

The Indicative Mood:

This is the mood of assertion or presentation of certainty. 

 

looking further into this mood:

The indicative mood is a simple statement of fact. If an action really occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be rendered in the indicative mood.

 

There is no question in the Greek as to what is intended by these "questions" which are simply statements of fact, of actions that really occurred, asserted by those making these statements of certainty.

That they are formed as questions makes the questions rhetorical in nature.  They are actually statements of fact in the guise of questions used to defend themselves.

 

If we take this even further, and look at other verses where the subjunctive mood actually appears  - verses used by those who claim one cannot lose their salvation to prove one cannot lose their salvation, one finds such verses say actually the opposite:

 

Jhn 10:28

And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

 

"and they shall never perish"  - the verb is NOT in the indicative mood.  this is NOT a simple statement of fact that those who want this to prove "once saved always saved" want it to be.

 

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD.

These are ones to whom Jesus already said he gave them eternal life  - the verb there Is in the Indicative mood, and so is a simple statement of fact -  Jesus did indeed give them eternal life.

But then he says  " and they shall never perish"    -  this is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD - there is no certainty they will never perish in the Greek unlike how the english  appears to render it.

"perish" is in the SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD, which, again means:

The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances. Conditional sentences of the third class ("ean" + the subjunctive) are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses, such as those beginning with "hina."

 

This is the mood of probability or desirability.

 

It is desirable they should never perish.  But it is not certain.   It is a possibility, a potentiality, something that may or may not occur, depending on the circumstances.

 

And here in Matthew, we see that the circumstances for those who had been given eternal life, who had cast out demons in Jesus name, who had prophesied in Jesus name, who had done miracles in Jesus name,  did not result in this desired outcome of not perishing.  The circumstances to allow this outcome were lacking.   The possible, potential end of not perishing did not materialize for them.

Why?

They did not do the will of the Father.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I studied Greek.  I did all of the intellectual exercises that led me to believe I actually understood.  Then I realized that I had become a fool who professed himself wise.  The passage is really simple and straight forward.  Jesus spent time teaching what works look like when one is right with God then explained in no uncertain terms that those who don't live right won't be welcomed by him but rejected.  

You have come to believe they actually did those works.  Ok.  I don't.  Others believe he rejects them because they did not rely soley upon grace to get in.  Ok.  I don’t.  Jesus painted a simple picture of a life lived selflessly through the Holy Spirit unto God where our bodies are presented as a living sacrifice.  Those who get turned away are they who do not walk in the Spirit doing the works of God from the heart.  Many are the reasons people cannot accept that but it is the truth nonetheless.

 

If one makes the English translations determinative of one interpretation, then one is going to come away from scripture with false understandings of what is actually being said.

This is not an intellectual exercise.  This is about understanding the way language works and coming to understand what was the intention of the writer, what the writer was trying to communicate.

There is nothing straightforward about ignoring the underlying Greek of these passages to understand what the writer was saying.

In the Greek it is indeed straight forward.  Jesus is telling us these are statements of fact.  Jesus is telling us indeed they did cast out demons in His name, they did indeed prophesy in His name, they did indeed do miracles in His name - and they believed that was enough to gain them entrance into heaven, that this was proof of their right standing with God upon their death.

Jesus is indeed saying no - to gain entrance to heaven you must DO the will of His Father in heaven, and these people who relied on these supernatural manifestations of God's power in their life failed to do this one thing, failed to do the will of the Father, and lost everything.

 

They failed to love their neighbor as themselves, the 2nd Royal Law; such a failure of which also reveals they failed to love God with all their  heart, their soul, their strength and their mind, the 1st Royal Law.

It does not matter what great things one might do for God.

It matters if one has fulfilled the Royal Law of Love.

 

 

 

 

 

[Your closest friendnt]

Matthew 7:21-23

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

 

   At the last day when we stand in front of God in judgement, there will be people according to the verses above who will be convinced they got it right. They will be convinced they are going to be with the Lord forever, that they are saved and sadly they will be wrong. I find myself keeping going back to the part of Jesus answer that says " I never knew you " . It gets me wondering , what makes the relationship real? When does he know you and when does he not? How can these people not realize they got it wrong? It seem like this is saying that Jesus wants a relationship with us, but what kind of relationship does he want? How do we know we won't be one of the people in the above verses?  How do we know our relationship with Jesus is real and not just in our heads? 

 

Firestormx

Joseph

 

This group of people are not Dead, they are much ALIVE, they are people of FAITH, beleivers of Jesus Christ, 

In this example Jesus is talking about that day, the day of visitation to evaluate not only the good works of the workers in his ministry, but also their motives and their secrets, and he has found, that these ministers together with their good works they are know to practice INIQUITIES, He is asking them to repent, by way of rebuking them, he himself not been a worker of iniquity, he does not want to be indetified with them in this way. He is visiting and evaluating his own children in the ministry.

they are also at the same time workers of iniquity, that's what Jesus does not want to be indetified with. He  identifies with their good works, but not with them, 'cause  they are not clean, they practice at the same time the works of iniquity, and Jesus asking them, to repent from their works of iniquity, he is not asking them to stop doing the good work of the ministry.

This group of believers are still Very much ALIVE. 

You are bringing to much with you when you are reading this passage, trying to say I am not one of them, and I am not going to Hell, Jesus is not sending no one to Hell in this example.

   And for sure you are not one of them.  Have you cast out demons, have you prophesied in his name, have you done wonderful things, and practice works of iniquity at the same time.                     but Jesus said your are doing your own thing, greedy, self seeking, cheaters workers of iniquity, I am not my self a worker of iniquity. Repent,

All this happens on that day, the day of visitation from the Lord, the day of evaluation of the ministers of the Gospel, the day for correction, the day of purifying.