Matthew 7:21-23

Matthew 7:21-23

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!’

 Commentary

Vs. 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.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear to us that doing the will of His Father in heaven is the way into the Kingdom, for there will be people who will make an easy outward profession, saying: ‘Lord, Lord,’ but their hearts will not be with Him. What then is the Will of God in heaven? First it is that we believe in His Son (John 1:12; 6:29); that is believe the full testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 3:16). Next is that we then set in our lives in order with doing God the Fathers will in heaven, which begins with keeping the Lord Jesus Christ’s commandments, something that those who make profession alone will never do (John 14:15-21). Now this is also seen in the Lord Jesus’ parable of the two sons (Matt. 21:28-32). Where the one son at the first resisted doing his father’s will, but afterward he regretted it and went and did so, while the other son when asked to do his father’s will immediately said he would but he never did, and so it was the first son who entered the Kingdom of heaven, because after his initial resistance he regretted it and went and did his father’s will, which in context was to be baptized by John the Baptist in preparation of Christ’s coming, thereby showing that he believed the Word of God spoken to him. And it is faith that sets us in motion, to both believe and do the will of God in heaven. Now for us doing the will of God will mean not walking according to the course of this world (see 1 John 2:15-17), which again means that we will be hated by it. Nonetheless as the Lord Jesus says when we suffer for righteousness sake; living by it, and standing up for it, we will be greatly rewarded in heaven, for being faithful and not following the degenerate and degenerating values of this world (Matt.5:10; 1 Peter 3:13-17; Rev. 2:10-11).

Vs. 22-23 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!’

The Lord Jesus now warns that on His Judgment Day and at His Judgment Seat many will profess to know Him, saying: ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ Notice that their whole testimony of knowing the Lord is that that they prophesied in the Lord’s Name, or they had cast out demons in the Lord’s Name or done many wonders in the Lord’s Name. None of which requires that one actually know the Lord, for false prophets always “prophesy” in the Lord’s name, and casting out demons in the Lord’s Name by someone who doesn’t know the Lord can be done if Satan and his own deem it serves their purposes to establish one of their own in the sight of others. Same with doing wonders; think miraculous or supernatural wonders, because liars and deceivers can feign these, and Satan’s own can work wonders, just like Pharaohs own did back in Moses’ day. And so doing a supernatural work, or performing a supernatural sign, does not mean that one belongs to God, or that God’s Holy Spirit is at work, it simply means that a supernatural power is at work, which if it is not God it then is demonic, which in the last days will increase as |Jesus said for they will show lying signs and wonders (consider Matt. 24:23-24; 2 Thess. 2:9-12). Which is why we must test the spirits too see if they are from God or not (1 John 4:1). And in this era where the Word of God has been fully established by the testimony and the true signs and wonders of the Biblical Apostles there is little need for signs and wonders, because the whole truth of salvation by God’s grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has been established, and so we are all now to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7). Therefore those who build churches and ministries around showing “signs and wonders”, or are trying to demonstrate the Holy Spirit gifts through their persons and ministries one should steer clear of, because no one filled with God’s Spirit needs to prove anything to anyone, His Presence within them, which is manifested by His Spirit’s fruits in them, is being worked out through them, and this witness of God’s Presence becomes self evident to everyone. Which then leads us right back to what the Lord Jesus will say to those who will claim to Him that they did all those things in His Name: “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ For that is the life (whether secretly or openly) that every deceiver, lair, false apostle, prophet and teacher lives, a life of lies, hypocrisy and or lawlessness; thus both bad moral fruit and bad spiritual fruit is the work of their person’s, lives, and ministries, and so these will all be cast out of Kingdom by the Lord at His Judgment. 

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.