Matthew 7:21 — Community Reflections

MATTHEW 7:21 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

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. The most disturbing passage in the Sermon: religious language directed at Jesus — Lord, Lord — is not equivalent to kingdom entry. The one who does the will of the Father enters; the one who only says Lord does not. Luke 6:46 asks the same question: why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? The doing of the Father's will is the fruit that the two-trees teaching has been describing: the verbal profession is the sheep's clothing; the life of obedience is the fruit that reveals what is actually happening beneath the surface.

Church Fathers on Matthew 7:21

As He had said above that those who have the robe of a good life are yet not to be received because of the impiety of their doctrines; so now on the other hand, He forbids us to participate the faith with those who while they are strong in sound doctrine, destroy it with evil works. For it behoves the servants of God that both their work should be approved by their teaching and their teaching by their works.
Jerome · 4th century

Wherein He seems to touch the Jews chiefly who placed every thing in dogmas; as Paul accuses them, 'If thou art called a Jew, and restest in the Law.'
Chrysostom · 4th century · Hom., xxiv. Rom. 2, 17

Otherwise; Having taught that the false prophets and the true are to be discerned by their fruits, He now goes on to teach more plainly what are the fruits by which we are to discern the godly from the ungodly teachers.
Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century

Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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