Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Matthew

[Grass]

What do you think of Matthew 7:21-23?

As an agnostic who likes Judeo-Christian values, I've thought a bit about this. I've seen Christians who seem to have no idea what they're talking about, or rather, they don't understand the things they say. They parrot what they've read. I've also met some who seem like very good people, who are very aware of their own flaws and try to rectify them.

I wonder, what gives you confidence that you're doing the right thing and not just deceiving yourself?

[jimwalton]

What Matthew 7.21-23 are about is that falseness can be difficult to detect. Just because at one point in your life you ask Jesus into your heart is not all of what's required. A person’s lifestyle is the true detector of his faith and sincerity. Doing is most important.

The expression "Lord, Lord" implies that you have chosen to obey, especially since calling him "Lord" is a deliberate choice one makes. But then to not obey the one you have chosen and pledged to obey is worse than an insult; it's a hypocritical rejection.

C.S. Lewis, in *Mere Christianity*, said, "How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s worth of Pride towards their fellow-men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking about when He said that some would preach about him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good-above all, that we are better than someone else—I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether."

Then in verse 23 we find that Jesus rejects those who reject him first. One thing can be said of Jesus: he doesn’t let anyone pull one over on him, and he doesn’t pull any punches. Always fair, this guy.

How do we know we're not just deceiving ourselves? We have the plumb line of the Scriptures to all keep us on the straight. The Scriptures are the standard, and we can measure our lives and our conformity to the truth by knowing the Bible accurately.