I Never Knew You



Matthew 7:15-23
15“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
16You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
17So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
18A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

“I never knew you.” These are frightening words coming from the mouth of Jesus. But, if there were no false prophets Jesus would not have warned us against them. With that said, we acknowledge that there are those who would lead God’s people astray with their own particular bent on the ways of God. We’ve all seen these false prophets at work, for they have been around forever. Awareness of their presence can be half the battle. The other half is allowing the Spirit to bring discernment about their false teaching into your mind so that you can recognize a lie when you hear one.

Later in Matthew, Jesus will instruct His followers to hold in tension the proper attitude for a Christian living in a world full of people who drag them away from the faith. Matthew 10:16 says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” That means we carry with us all of the time that innocence granted to us by our position as blood bought sinners who view the world through the eyes of a loving God. At the same time, we need to be completely aware of the fact that there are those who would do us harm and seek to snatch us away from God. We stand right in the middle of that place of friction. (The Christian walk is filled with those tensions.)

Not only does Jesus give a warning, He gives us a place to look for evidence as to whether we are dealing with a person who truly knows God or one who is merely pretending to know God in order to further their own agendas – the fruit of their lives. There is some debate about the definition of that “fruit”, so we will keep that fairly simple. Do the things that they do and say correspond to the message of the Gospel as it is presented in the Bible and do their lives display God’s love in a meaningful fashion? I will go out on a limb here and say that some of the people who are preaching today are talking about a God of their own making. What they preach does not resemble God as He presents Himself in the Word. These additions to the Word are dangerous and present for us a god who is not God at all. We are duly warned to avoid those ‘prophets’.

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