Depart from me, I never knew you...

[JohnD]

Matthew 7:21–23 (AV)
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.
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?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The text (aside from all debates as to whether or not "every one" spoken of here was a misguided believer or a non-believer trying to lie their way through judgment) speaks to an intimacy / knowledge or actual relationship between the Savior and the individual believer. And it prompts me to ask the question:

Since so much emphasis is placed on his knowing us, how much or how little do we know Jesus?

 

[JohnD]

Believers the world over know A Jesus (according to their traditions).

How do they know that Jesus is the genuine Jesus?

2 Corinthians 11:3–4 (AV)
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Galatians 1:8–9 (AV)
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Believers the world over have an image of Jesus:

(which I understand was from a painting portrait of a British nobleman)

A Jew of the 1st Century CE from the Mesopotamian region probably looked more like this:

but neither are of any consequence for he is not described in scripture to these details.

The point I am making is that we are victims of our own rhetoric, symbolism, and traditions which interfere at best and are antithetical at worst to scripture:

the blueprint and guide of God's will and plan. And they are among the greatest robbers of humanity from our Savior and a relationship with him.

 

[JohnD]

Setting aside all the traditions and images and pomp and circumstances and pageantry that muddy the waters of what was intended to be a very simple one-to-one relationship with Jesus Christ...

Have you ever tried to get to know him?

Have you bothered reading about him in the Bible to really get to know the God and the man?

Do you even know he is God and man?

Do you know why he became a man?

We who claim to love Jesus consider, what's the first thing we do when we love somebody? Try to get to know them and all we can learn about them...

Is Jesus just an eternal fire insurance policy for you? An exit strategy from this world?

Matthew 7:21–23 (AV)
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.
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?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Even if you can do all these things listed... without the relationship with Jesus, it is working iniquity. So don't be fooled by signs and wonders when we also have the complete Word of God to test through the Spirit who wrote the Bible all things.

2 Peter 1:20-21, 1 Thessalonians 5:21, 1 John 4:1, Acts 17:11, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 etc.

Jesus offers every individual person the opportunity to believe in him and to know him. The least we can do is try.

 

[Neighbor]

How do I know?

It is pretty simple for me. I worship my savior, the one the Holy Spirit revealed to me when He made that very specific call to me individually (as one of many of God's elect) to make up my mind, with no further debate against Him. I knew nothing of any Jesus except that  various religious people had forms of worship, and I wanted none of them or their formalities and rites.

Having started by the agency  of the Holy Spirit's call, as fully saved by God's mercy alone, I have not had a need to build a Jesus of my choosing. Instead I have had to concentrate on simply being a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, and following the lead of the Holy Spirit to the places and the tasks He will have me doing.

 I have no need to make my Lord into anything, anything at all. As I follow, my Lord leaves a trail for me to look back upon, an awesome trail of evidence that He is God. I never see forward, I am simply led. But I am allowed to marvel at what I see has passed, and it is evident that He has been leading via the Holy Spirit all the time.

 I am fully secure, eternally secure in Him.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Neighbor

[GiftofGod]

In that day, in light of my sins and His glory, holliness, righteousness, I think I could not point to any works of service I've done as justification.

The only thing I could say is "thank you!", because He provides my justification through His work of obedience alone.  

I pray I remember when I see Him.

Edited December 25, 2016 by GiftofGod

[4LdKHVCzRDj2]

On 12/25/2016 at 0:42 PM, JohnD said:

Matthew 7:21–23 (AV)
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.
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?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

.

Edited December 30, 2016 by 4LdKHVCzRDj2

[woundeddog]

11 minutes ago, 4LdKHVCzRDj2 said:

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

I think there are many people that have a "zeal" for god, but they think it is their efforts that grant them a relationship with god-- their religious traditions and performances- their charitable acts and their various attempts to gain perfection. Only a person that has admitted their sin and helplessness before God and has asked for His mercy based on the shed blood of Jesus , will Jesus acknowledge as being known by him-- to "know" some one is a very special and intimate relationship-- only when we open our heart and let Jesus see us in all our sinful wretchedness will he say he knows us-- only the genuinely saved- not a single person that attempts salvation based on their "wonderful works" will be able to stand the test of being known or not being known by the Lord

Edited December 25, 2016 by woundeddog

[thilipsis]

12 hours ago, JohnD said:

Matthew 7:21–23 (AV)
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.
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?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The text (aside from all debates as to whether or not "every one" spoken of here was a misguided believer or a non-believer trying to lie their way through judgment) speaks to an intimacy / knowledge or actual relationship between the Savior and the individual believer. And it prompts me to ask the question:

Since so much emphasis is placed on his knowing us, how much or how little do we know Jesus?

 

If you notice, what Jesus is talking about here is how believers are treated, he takes that personally. In 1Cor. 11 Paul tells them, 'some of you are sick, some of you sleep', why, because they were depriving the poor at the love feasts. James 2, the famous, 'faith without works is dead', passage is talking about the exact same thing. Wealthy Christians were treating other believers as inferior, James asks is this even saving faith. In the Revelation Jesus tells the church at Ephesus, 'you have left your first love', Ephesus had planted the other six churches in Asia Minor. They were really good at defended against error and standing on gospel but there ministry was originally Pastoral, they had planted, nurtured and raised up six churches and Laodicea was involved in the starting of the church a Colossae. There was a problem, they were so focused on fending off wolves they had forgotten to take care of the flock.

Jesus isn't reviewing how much they dropped in the collection plate, how they were baptized, how good they were at defending doctrine. He's saying, 'in as much as you did this to the least of my brothers you did it unto me'. What is peculiar is that the host of the rejected claimed to be ministering in Christ's name, let's bear in mind, religion never saved anyone from anything. Those accepted performed some act of kindness toward believers, the implication is ministers, not just on a church payroll but called and equipped by God to do his will in the ministry field and the road got bumpy along the way. People, who appear to have no idea before this who Jesus is, showed them mercy and kindness, Jesus takes that personally.

This spans Scripture, in the eight century there were four writing prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos and Micah. All four of these early warning warned of idolatry and how the rich treated the poor, in Isaiah God even says, 'my poor'. We think we are so proper and pious, stoic in our convictions, zealous for the Lord and well we should be. But you and I are not going to be friends if I find our your mistreating my children, don't you think God feels the same way about his children. 

Hey don't get me wrong, my Calvinist brethren are mostly living comfortable as upper middle class in comfortable suburban utopia and I spend a lot of time on Apologetics. Just a word to the wise, virtually all churches have a pantry, there's a reason for that. You never know when Jesus has fallen on hard times, only it won't actually be him, it will be someone he has empowered for service. There is a catch, you never really know who they are. Jesus is saving that for a surprise and boy, won't they be surprised, depart from me I never knew you. 

Grace and peace,
Mark

Edited December 26, 2016 by thilipsis

[gdemoss]

Jesus said "I never knew you".  

The 10 commandments were given as a task master to lead people to Christ.

The New Covenant was given to lead people unto Christ.

If the Spirit of Christ has never come in unto you then you do not know Christ and he has never known you.

The Father sent the Son into our hearts crying out Abba Father.  We see the blindness of heart of those about us and work diligently with Christ to minister the Spirit of Christ unto them who are without, especially they who claim Christ but do not have Christ in them, the hope of glory.

That which is in me calls me to work to minister to others.  Our day and age is marked by two opposing groups of people who know not God though they both believe they do.  They both teach and preach Jesus without touching the works themselves.  Like the Pharisees and Saduccees of old they are headed for judgement when the judge arrives and they know it not.  I was once on one of the sides but God be thanked that he opened my eyes unto my grievous error and showed me that I did not know him.

I am not the best follower of Christ but I believe I know him, heard his voice and did not harden my heart.  

[Knowingtruth]

Jesus never gave importance to performing miracles. We believe Him for eternal life, not because we were cured. Therefore, keeping His commandments are a must, not any outward signs.