I Never Knew You, Part 2

I Never Knew You.  Most Christians will recognize these words as the scariest ones in the Bible.  They're from this passage in Matthew:

Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 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 perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

The thing is - while "I never knew you" can be spelled using the letters of the alphabet at the right, we cannot tell "who" never knew "who".

"I Never knew You"

We assume Jesus never knew us.

The simple truth is - Jesus never knew us, because we never knew Jesus.
That title is us telling Jesus, "I never knew you", before He ever says it to us.

Don't believe it?

How about this passage -

Mt 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Like the "I never knew you" phrase, there are two things in here as well.  One is the words.  The other is the fruit.

We can say all the right words - but what about the things we do?  Careless words includes not only the obvious ones, but also the lies we try to tell ourselves - which turn into the lies we actually tell others - who then believe us when we claim to be telling the truth.

Unbelief

Let's follow that just a bit further, before getting to the point.

The Unbelief of the Jews

Jn 10:22 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Jn 10:25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Yes - Jesus' followers know His voice.  And in a perfect world, we'd never be deceived by a false voice.  But the world isn't perfect.  And we do get deceived.  And that's how we get "bad trees" with "bad fruit".  And that's how we get people who eat the bad fruit, and get deceived.  If we are the bad fruit with the false voice - then others are deceived because of us.

How can that happen?

How can we go from trying to follow Jesus - trying to teach about Jesus - to bearing bad fruit that corrupts others and leads them so far astray that Jesus tells them, "I never knew you"?

There's another passage from John that we need to check out.

Jn 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”