I Do Not Know You...bible Verse

Question

What did Jesus mean when He said, "I never knew y'all. Depart from me"?

Answer

Jesus said, "So I volition tell them plainly, 'I never knew y'all. Abroad from me, you evildoers!'" (Matthew 7:23). It seems strange to hear our all-knowing Lord say there's something—or someone—He doesn't know. Jesus refers not to an intellectual knowledge hither only to a relational knowledge.

To understand a poetry, e'er first with the context. Jesus is wrapping up His Sermon on the Mount with a final alert about true faith. Jesus predicts that imitation Christian prophets volition exist coming every bit wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:fifteen). They may use all the right "God talk" and fifty-fifty make impressive displays of power, but they will not belong to the Lord:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but merely the 1 who does the will of my Begetter who is in heaven. Many volition say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your proper noun drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' And so I will tell them obviously, 'I never knew you. Abroad from me, you evildoers!'" (Matthew 7:21–23).

In Jesus' words on Judgment Day, we see several important truths: it's non a exact claim that ane follows Jesus that saves (Matthew 7:21). Nominal Christianity cannot save. Besides, it'southward not a demonstration of spiritual insight or ability that saves (verse 22). A person can seem like a Christian in the eyes of other people, yet still be an "evildoer" in God'due south sight and sent away from His presence (verse 23). Just those who do the Father's will and who are known of God will enter heaven.

So, what is the Male parent'due south will? Some men came to Jesus once with a question about what God required of them: "They asked him, 'What must we do to practise the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The piece of work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent'" (John half dozen:28–29). God wants the states to have faith in His Son: "This is his command: to believe in the proper noun of his Son, Jesus Christ" (ane John 3:23). Those who are built-in once again by religion in Christ will produce good works to the glory of God (Ephesians 2:10).

When Jesus said, "I never knew you," to the feigned disciples, He meant that He never recognized them as His true disciples or His friends. He never had anything in common with them nor approved of them. They were no relations of His (Mark 3:34–35). Christ did not dwell in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17), nor did they accept His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). In all these ways and more than, Jesus never knew them. Note that Jesus is not breaking off the relationship hither—at that place was never a human relationship to break off. Despite their high-sounding words and showy displays of religious fervor, they had no intimacy with Christ.

So it turns out that what matters isn't and then much that we know God on some level, but that God knows united states. As Paul explained, "Whoever loves God is known by God" (1 Corinthians viii:3; also see Galatians iv:nine). The Lord "tends His flock like a shepherd" (Isaiah 40:11), and He knows who are His sheep (John 10:14).

Those somber words "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" in Matthew vii:23 (KJV) show that Jesus is indeed all-seeing. He did non "know" them in the sense He would if they were His followers, but He knew their hearts—they were full of iniquity! Isaiah's condemnation of hypocrisy fits this grouping well: "These people come near to me with their oral fissure and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me" (Isaiah 29:13). The evildoers whom Jesus does non know are fake Christians, imitation teachers, and nominal adherents of religion.

Those who are bid depart from the presence of the Lord will not partake of the blessings of the kingdom: "Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and anybody who loves and practices falsehood" (Revelation 22:15). They will be cast "into the darkness, where at that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12). Those imitation Christians whom Jesus says He never knew will not produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians v:22–23); rather, they will produce the contrary, the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:nineteen–21).

Jesus warns that one day He will tell a group of religious practitioners, "I never knew you." God takes no delight in sending people to hell (2 Peter iii:9). Simply those who are told to depart have rejected God'south eternal purpose and plan for their lives (Luke seven:30). They have spurned the light of the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4), choosing the darkness instead, because their deeds were evil (John 3:xix). At the judgment, they try to justify themselves as worthy of sky on the ground of their works (prophecies, exorcisms, miracles, etc.), merely no one will exist justified by his ain works (Galatians 2:xvi). While claiming to do all these good works in Christ'southward proper noun, they failed to practice the simply work of God that counts: "to have faith in the 1 he sent" (John 6:29, CEV). Then Jesus, the Righteous Judge, condemns them to eternal separation from Him.

Render to:

Questions nearly Matthew

What did Jesus mean when He said, "I never knew you. Depart from me"?

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