what is matthew 7:21-23 all about?

That doing the will of the Father is a condition upon entering the Kingdom of God. We cannot attempt this by our own effort or by our good works to merit or gain salvation. It has to be by faith and repentance alone. A total trust in Christ that through Him the work is done. Many works and wonders will be performed in Christ's name but without His power, authority, will or knowledge. It will be done for selfish gain or recognition, totally opposite for what Christ stands for. Many want the blessings of Christ, but not the responsibility that comes behind it such as suffering for His sake and giving up one's will daily. Having a true heart for the lost and needy. They do not know Him because they have no real idea what He is all about. They possess a book knowledge, but no real personal relationship with Christ therefore He states He doesn't know them.

good question Many out there are playing Christian and only those that do the will of the Father will show that they are true Christians. If you truly believe then you will do the work of the Father. If you only say, then you will not

. You notice that these folks 1. preached 2. cast out demons 3. did miracles This really shows that the Bible is the test and not miracles whether one is a true christian.

Jesus told them: “You have made the word of God invalid because of your tradition. You hypocrites, Isaiah aptly prophesied about you, when he said, ‘This people honors me with their lips, yet their heart is far removed from me. It is in vain that they keep worshiping me, because they teach commands of men as doctrines.’” (Matthew 15:1-9; Isaiah 29:13) So if we want God’s approval, it is necessary that we make sure that what we believe is in agreement with the teachings of the Bible.

It is not enough for us to say we believe in Christ and then do what we think is right. It is absolutely necessary that we find out what God’s will is on the matter. Jesus showed this in his Sermon on the Mount when he said: “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.”—Matthew 7:21.

We could even be doing what we believe to be “good deeds,” and be doing these in the name of Christ. Yet all of these would be of no value if we failed to do God’s will. We would be in the position of the ones Christ next mentions: “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:22, 23) Yes, we can be doing things that we think are good—and for which other humans may thank us and even praise us—but if we fail to do what God says is right we will be regarded by Jesus Christ as “workers of lawlessness.”

Since many religions today are not doing God’s will, we cannot simply assume that the teachings of the religious organization we are associated with are in agreement with God’s Word. The mere fact that the Bible is used by a religion does not of itself prove that all the things it teaches and practices are in the Bible. It is important that we ourselves examine whether they are or not. Persons in the city of Beroea were commended because, after the Christian apostle Paul preached to them, they checked the Scriptures to make sure that the things he was telling them were true. (Acts 17:10, 11) The religion that is approved by God must agree in every way with the Bible; it will not accept certain parts of the Bible and reject other parts.—2 Timothy 3:16.

SINCERITY ALONE NOT ENOUGH

But someone may ask: ‘If a person is sincere in his beliefs, won’t God approve of him even if his religion is wrong?’ Well, Jesus said he would not approve of “workers of lawlessness” even though they believed they were doing what was right. (Matthew 7:22, 23) So sincerity alone would not be approved by God either. Once Jesus told his followers: “The hour is coming when everyone that kills you will imagine he has rendered a sacred service to God.” (John 16:2) Such killers of Christians might sincerely believe that they were thereby serving God, but clearly they were not. God does not approve of what they did.

The "salvation-by-grace" people ought to be quaking in their shoes over this verse because it exposes the flaw in their false method of worship. Here the Lord himself points out the importance of works coupled with the grace of Jesus Christ. He condemns individuals (many of whom contribute to this site) as not following His will because they falsely believe that they need only confess with their lips and magically they are guaranteed eternal life. It it clear that the Lord does not agree. He states flatly that only those who DOETH the will of the Father will inherit eternal life. The others (born again followers) who only said "Lord, Lord" will be cast out, and the Lord will state he never knew them.

As the Book of Mormon clarifies, "For it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." We do everything we can to be obedient and faithful and then if our intents have been honorable and godly but we fall short of perfection, then the Lord's grace bridges the gap and helps the rest of the way.

Additionally in the previous verses we are warned to beware of false prophets in the last days and to judge them by their fruits. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I hear all the time that there will be no more prophets in our day (re: Joseph Smith, et, al.) but apparently the Lord does not agree with that false view. He warns us to be aware of FALSE prophets, which implies that there WILL be true prophets. If there were to be no more prophets the Lord would have said, "Beware of ALL prophets."

These verses are great ones to prove to the salvation-by- grace crowd that their belief system is NOT Biblical.

It's about a DAY to come, The Day of The LORD, that will be a wonderfully happy day for some, but for others it will be a sad day. It's a DAY when many pew potato pew warmers self-righteous calling themselves "Christian", that never study His word and don't really know Him having no good fruits, listening to a man types face God. They even have the pride within themselves to TRY and tell God all that they've done. God will tell them He NEVER knew them and to depart from Him. What a sad day that will be for them; to hang their heads in shame and have to leave God and heaven.

The key is "I never knew you."

Absolute existence pertains only to God. His knowledge is the subjective and objective of everything that is knowable. To say the subjective and objective is very important. Another way to say it is that God, when thinking about what is true, thinks only of Himself. That which is not God, is not knowable in that sense.

Contrary to popular belief, the Gospel is not God's plan to get people up to Heaven, but rather it is God's plan to get Himself out of Heaven and into the hearts of men. ONCE this takes place ... God's infinate knowledge in both objective and subjective unity is aware of each man that is willing to merge with His Spirit, IN THE SAME way that God is aware of Himself.

Another way to look at this is that God is aware of Himself in the hearts of each man that is willing to have His Spirit mingle with their innermost being ... and because of His self-awareness IN them, He "knows" them in an intimate way ... just as He "knows" Himself intimately and absolutely.

Those that are UNWILLING to allow this to happen will not be forced to have it happen ... (God is not a rapist and does not go against the unwillingness in the goats.) In a very real sense God does not know them. He can ponder the transitory and fluxuating limits of their temporal existence in His wisdom ... but that is a far cry from God "knowing" them.

These goats (no matter if they acted like sheep or not) will be separated from the sheep at the end. This is not done so that God can discover whether you are sheep or goat ... rather this is done to expose to man, what God already knows.

This piece of scripture is telling us that going to church and all the functions won't get us to Heaven. We need to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and to obey His commands. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, NO ONE comes to the Father except though Jesus. Jesus is the key to eternity, and there is none other.

I think it means this. If you die a non-Christian, they will turn you away from heaven. And if they turn you away, they might change. Sadly, it'll be too late after death, because they just want in, not want Christ. Now, at this time of grace, if yo call on the name of the lord, and mean it, you will go to heaven. But not after the time of grace has expired.

False prophets...or false Christians. If you are a Christian, you will bear some good fruit. Some people are fooling themselves thinking they are Christians.

Matthew 7:15-23 (NKJV)

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. [16] You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? [17] Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. [18] A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. [19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [20] Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

[21] "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. [22] Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' [23] And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

That is why we are to make sure we are in the faith. We could be deceiving ourselves.

2 Cor. 13:5 (NKJV)

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you are disqualified.

21 “Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ 23 And yet then I will confess to them: I never knew YOU! Get away from me, YOU workers of lawlessness.

Just what it says. One must do the will of Jehovah.

Just because you say I believe in Jesus does not mean that you will be saved! Satan believes in Jesus, do you think he will be saved? I think not!

If you truly want to know what Jehovah's will for us is, have your bible ready and visit www.watchtower.org.