Jesus gave a pretty serious warning in Matthew 7 when He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven …” There are people, sitting in church every Sunday, who believe they are headed for heaven when they’re really in danger of hearing the words, “I never knew you, depart from me …” In today’s post, you’ll find out what does and doesn’t save you so you’ll never hear those words.
Also, read about the importance of making sure we see clearly before we can be of any help to others and what it really means to build your house on the Rock. Finally, from our Old Testament reading, we’ll talk about how some sins like homosexuality cry out for God’s judgment and what God expects of us in the meantime.
Welcome, to “God’s Word Day by Day” where I blog through the Bible in a Year. I hope you’ll join me every day. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here. This year I’ve added a couple of new features. First, check out the “Free Resources” tab at the top. You’ll find a downloadable, printable PDF with “Going Deeper Study Questions” for each day’s post. And … this year you’ll find the daily “Bible in a Year” posts on YouTube. The daily emails now have a link to both the Soul Survival posts here and the YouTube videos. I hope you’ll sign up. (If you already receive them, no need to sign up again.)
Today’s Readings:
Genesis 17 & 18
Psalm 5.8-12
Proverbs 2.10-22
Matthew 7.1-29
What If God Said, “I Never Knew You”?
Matthew 7.1-29:
Judging the Hearts of Others
Matthew 7.1-5 reminds us of the dangers of judging the hearts and motives of others (although we are to judge sin and even, at times, to lovingly rebuke one another, more about that in a later commentary).
1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at 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,’ and behold, the log is 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.
It’s so easy to see the sins of others as logs and our own as specks, but Jesus said we have it backward. In fact, we can be so blinded by the logs sticking out of our eyes that we can’t see clearly enough to accurately help anyone else.
And that can, not only cause us to mischaracterize others, but can put us in a dangerous place with God.
In Danger of God’s Discipline
When we fail to judge ourselves, we are in danger of God’s discipline.
But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world (1 Cor. 11.31-32).
God disciplines His children because He loves us. This discipline is corrective because He wants us to become more like Christ and share in His holiness (Heb. 12.5-11).
You can read more about the importance of judging ourselves in “God’s Judgment on Profane Fire.”
But there is an even stronger warning in today’s reading to those who may believe they are His but are not.
I Never Knew You!
Let’s look at verses 21-23:
21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Notice these are religious-appearing people doing religious things. There are many people sitting in churches who think they are right with God, but who Jesus says are in danger of hearing, “I never knew you!”
Believing in God, coming to church, reading your Bible, teaching in the church, serving in ministry, taking sacraments, doing good works, prophesying (God spoke through pagans and even a donkey once so this is not a test of spirituality), casting out demons and doing wonders (or appearing to) cannot save you!
12 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 Jn. 5.12-13)
God wants us to know that we can have eternal life, but only through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Coming to the End of Ourselves
Entering into a personal relationship with Him means we have come to the end of ourselves and admitted that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. It means we have accepted Christ’s work on the cross, personally, asked Him to forgive us, and believed that He can. The gospel is the only thing that will keep us from hearing those words, “I never knew you.”
If you’re not sure, you might want to read, “Could You Be a Christian in Name Only?”
Don’t let what people might think or your own stubborn pride keep you from a genuine relationship with Him and put you at risk of hearing those words, “I never knew you!”
Life on the Rock
And finally, let’s look at Matthew 7.24-27:
24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
This talks about two kinds of men (and women) building on two kinds of foundations. One is a solid foundation, the Rock, and the other is sand.
But notice what the Rock is—it is HEARING and DOING what we’ve heard (“… whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them …” (v. 24). Just knowing what the Bible says is not enough, only living obediently out of a desire to please Him causes our house to be built on the Rock.
Somewhere I read the only way we can ever live obediently is to shoot for something much higher—to be like Christ. It’s what Jesus was talking about when he told the Pharisees not to just wash the outside of the cup (doing good things), but the inside of the cup (the heart) (Matt. 23.25-26).
We won’t do this perfectly. And when we fall short, we need to run back to the cross and remember that it’s the reason Christ died. If we could somehow earn our salvation through good works or sacraments, there would have been no reason for Him to suffer and die.
Rather than a license to sin, the more we contemplate that and the enormous amount of grace we’ve been given, the more our love for Him will grow and the more we’ll want to live obediently and for His glory.
Today’s Other Readings:
Genesis 17 & 18:
A Divine Name Change
In these two chapters, God confirmed His promise to Abram that he would be the father of many nations. Possibly, to help him and Sarai remember, He changed their names, calling Abram, Abraham and Sarai, Sarah.
God would carry out His promise even though Abram and Sarai had tried to take matters into their own hands (Gen. 16) and even the fact that both of them laughed when God said they would finally have the promised son at the ages of 100 and 90.
But as our story continues, the Lord had another reason for this visit. He was accompanied by angels and Abraham’s tent wasn’t their last stop.
Sodom and Gomorrah
Chapter 18:
16 Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off. 17 The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?
20 And the Lord said, ‘The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. 21 I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.’
Matthew Henry in his commentary said, “Some sins, and the sins of some sinners, cry aloud to heaven for vengeance. The iniquity of Sodom was crying iniquity, that is, it was so very provoking that it even urged God to punish.”
22 Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. 23 Abraham came near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?’
God assured Abraham he would spare the city if He found fifty righteous. But Abraham didn’t stop there, he implored God to spare it for forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and finally ten. Each time God responded positively. But sadly, there were not even ten righteous and God destroyed those two cities.
Hate the Sin, Pray for Sinners
Henry goes on, “Though sin is to be hated, sinners are to be pitied and prayed for. God delights not in their death, nor should we desire, but deprecate, the woeful day.” In fact, the Bible says that God looks for men and women who will stand in the gap and pray for others (Ezek. 22.30) as Abraham did.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13.8). The sins that cried out to heaven then are surely crying out today. But I have to admit I’m convicted that I don’t pray enough for those I know who are caught up in the sin of homosexuality and other forms of sexual immorality.
If your family and circle of friends are anything like mine, you probably know people who need your prayers, too. May we, like Abraham, be willing to pray earnestly for them.
Psalm 5.8-12:
God’s Favor
For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield (v. 12).
Why do we spend so much time currying the favor of men and women at the cost of our relationship with God, when we have His favor?
Proverbs 2.10-22:
Wisdom & the Immoral Woman
10 When wisdom enters your heart,
And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you;
Understanding will keep you,
12 To deliver you … (vv. 10-12).
What follows is a list of several things from which wisdom, knowledge, discretion, and understanding will deliver us. Included in that list is “the immoral woman, … the seductress who flatters with her words, who forsakes the companion of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God” (vv. 16-17).
As moms, let’s teach our sons to have the wisdom, knowledge, discretion, and understanding that will keep them from falling into Satan’s snares in this area. And let’s teach our daughters to never want to be that woman.
Closing Thoughts:
Do you worry that you might hear those words, “I never knew you”?
Are you living obediently, as a doer of the Word and not just a hearer?
Are you praying for God’s wisdom in your life and the lives of others?
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about those things in our lives that we may need to put on the altar, knowing when it’s time to go, the consequences of favoritism, and how we often hide who we really are.
I hope you’ll join me and, if you haven’t already, take the challenge to read through the Bible with me this year. Even though we may do it imperfectly or miss a day here and there, I find when we set it as a goal, we read far more of God’s Word than we would otherwise. I know we all get far too much email these days but having the daily devotion pop up in your inbox each day can serve as a general reminder to get into God’s Word. It goes out at 6 a.m. MST.
You can also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest, and now listen on YouTube. Just click on the social media icons or go to my YouTube channel.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years. Some days I make major changes, other days fewer.
I recently read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.
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