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MATTHEW 7:23 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 7:22Matt 7:24
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you — the relationship was never actually there. The workers of lawlessness did impressive works but without the relational reality of knowing and being known by the Son. The knowing that is missing is not intellectual knowledge about Jesus but the relational intimacy that the Sermon has been building toward: the purity of heart that sees God (5:8), the prayer life that addresses the Father as Father (6:9), the seeking that finds (7:7). Depart from me is the reversal of the kingdom's invitation to come; the one addressed is excluded from the presence that the Beatitudes promised those who mourn and hunger and are pure in heart.

Church Fathers on Matthew 7:23

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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Matthew 7:23 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy