Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (NIV)
As it stands in most of the English translations, this three-verse pericope could be summarised as follows: neither calling on the name of the Lord, nor performing great miracles and other supernatural acts is any guarantee of being accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only doing the will of the Father.
This doesn’t seem at face value to be unreasonable; but it is an unreliable reading of the text; one which rather misses the point Jesus is making.
The core wrong assumption, which skews our reading of this passage, is the idea that the Kingdom is a matter of “qualifying to be admitted”. What Jesus is actually saying is the opposite: that nothing else will avail you if you fail to take up the free invitation to come into the Kingdom.
I am sure that will seem an absurdly discordant thought to many, but that illustrates our problem. We think we know what Jesus should be saying, so we often miss what He is actually saying. Let’s look at a more literal rendering of the passage, with the Greek first.
Οὐ πᾶς ὁ λέγων μοι· Κύριε κύριε εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἀλλ’ ὁ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.
πολλοὶ ἐροῦσίν μοι ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ· Κύριε κύριε, οὐ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι ἐπροφητεύσαμεν, καὶ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι δαιμόνια ἐξεβάλομεν, καὶ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι δυνάμεις πολλὰς ἐποιήσαμεν;
καὶ τότε ὁμολογήσω αὐτοῖς ὅτι Οὐδέποτε ἔγνων ὑμᾶς· ἀποχωρεῖτε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν.
Matthew 7:21-23, SBL Greek
“Not all of those saying [literally ‘the one saying’] to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter for themselves [εἰσελεύσεται is middle voice, not active or passive] into the Kingdom of the Heavens, just the one bringing forth the pleasure of my Father in the Heavens.”
“Many will say to me in that the Day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many [manifestations of divine] power?”
“And then I will agree with them, that ‘I never knew you. [You] Depart [or withdraw defeated, retire] from me, the workers of lawless conduct [or lawlessness, i.e. the opposite of δικαιοσύνη, righteousness]’”
Matthew 7:21-23, my literal rendering
I will give you a smoother rendering at the end of this chapter, but for now let’s look at the key elements in this passage.
The killer blow in this scenario, which Jesus is painting for His listeners is the phrase,
ὁμολογήσω αὐτοῖς
“I will agree with them”. This is a terrifying statement, and it is no wonder that at the end of Matthew 7 we hear that the crowd were out of their minds with fear at His teaching (ἐξεπλήσσοντο οἱ ὄχλοι ἐπὶ τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ). This is a moment any sentient being wants to avoid: explaining to Jesus all the things we have done in His name and hearing Him say in reply, “You are quite right: I never knew you.”
In case the point is eluding you, put yourself in the scenario. You run to Jesus, saying “Lord! So much we have done together and walked out together, and now I finally see you face to face! This is the best!” And He replies, “You bet! We have so much to talk about! Go on in, they are expecting you. I just need to deal with these folks. They have been doing all kinds of random stuff, and claiming they did it for me…”
Now do you see? Who do you want to be? The well-known and loved son or daughter of the house, or person trying to establish the right of entry based on their CV (or maybe their LinkedIn profile)?
What about this question: confronted by a stranger who has led an exemplary life and can prove it, on the one hand; and your own child who has made endless mistakes, on the other; who do you let into your house? I am pretty sure it is your child.
Please note, I am not unaware that some parents have very difficult relationships with their children; I am simply restating what Jesus says, that it is about whether you belong in the household or not. Are you known?
Will the child of the household have done amazing things (prophesying, miracles, sending demons on their way)? Of course! How could they not have, when they have been walking with Jesus. But what would a parent think if their child stood outside the front door crying out, “can I come into your house? I cleaned my room and I did my homework…” Your child barges straight in, saying “I’m home!”
Panning back in this passage in Matthew, we also need to recognise that Jesus is not (despite numerous commentators to the contrary) the bringer of a new and better set of instructions (i.e. better than the Mosaic Law). His instructions to his Disciples are to equip them to operate in the Kingdom. So just doing stuff which appears to comply with those instructions, but failing to be in the Kingdom, is to miss the whole point, and to miss the boat as well.
“Not all of those saying to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will take themselves into the Kingdom of the Heavens, just the one who has nailed what pleases my Father in the Heavens.”
“Many will say to me in that the Day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many miracles?”
“And then I will agree with them:
‘I never knew you!
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Seeing the Kingdom 