Matthew 7:21–23 Meaning: “I Never Knew You”

My beloveds, today I want to talk to you about a fear that a great many believers carry. And that fear does not come from God — it comes from the enemy.

• “What if Jesus denies me on that day?”
• “After all this service, all this prayer — will I still be counted with those people?”
• “That verse in Matthew 7 — is it about me?”

This fear is drawn out of a verse, so the answer will have to come from the verse too. So read it whole first.

The thing to notice here is what Jesus is saying — those people are not doing the Father's will. And it cannot be that Jesus leaves us without telling us what the Father's will is. Let us go on and see.

1. The word of God is a sword

It is only by one verse that you can understand another verse. Satan too came to Jesus Christ carrying Scripture, but Jesus Christ defeated Satan with another Scripture. [Matthew 4:6-7]

Because the Scripture Satan brought to Jesus was brought to destroy. Even today Satan comes to people with Scripture to destroy their lives — “you have lost your salvation”, “you are not living a right life”, “God is not pleased with you”, “look, it is written that those people do not do the will of God”. This is exactly Satan's work — the Bible calls him the accuser. [Revelation 12:10]

And how am I so sure that this is Satan speaking and not the Holy Spirit? Because if you were not a born-again believer, if you had not received salvation, Satan would never have brought this fear to you at all. Because those who have not received salvation, the people of the world, are not troubled by what they say to Jesus Christ. Satan can give this fear only to those believers who have received salvation.

2. So what is the Father's will? Jesus said it in his own word

It is written here that whoever believes on the Son is saved, and has everlasting life. Meaning this is about faith alone — whoever believes on Jesus, only on Jesus, is the one who is saved. Let us walk through a few more verses to understand this one.

Here the Bible says your salvation came by grace, not because of works. Meaning it did not come through your good living or your holy living — you received it only through the sacrifice of Jesus. Because no one could ever earn salvation by their own good works; the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. [Romans 3:23]

Which is why it is by grace that anyone was saved at all. And I am not saying here that holy living does not matter. It is our nature now, because the righteousness of Jesus has been given to us. [2 Corinthians 5:21]

That righteousness is what carries us toward holy living, and living well is ours to do. But it does not mean we take a fear the enemy handed us and accept it as though it came from God — because we are not ignorant of his devices. [2 Corinthians 2:11]

3. And then there is his own promise

Jesus is saying it himself — he will not leave you, he will not forsake you. And God cannot give his word and then forget it, or take it back; that would be against his own character. The Bible says:

So in the end, who are the ones Jesus turns away?

They are the ones who never received salvation. They hold on to Jesus and to other gods alongside him. They have no personal relationship with Jesus — which is why he tells them plainly, I never knew you.

And read that sentence closely. He did not say “I knew you and forgot you”, or “you were mine and you slipped away”. Never knew — the relationship never began. Which is precisely why the sentence cannot land on someone he does know.