SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:23
Y entonces les confesar: Nunca os conocí; apartaos de mí, obradores de maldad.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Matthew 7:23
Verse 23. Will I profess] omologhsw, I will fully and plainly tell them, I never knew you-I never approved of you; for so the word is used in many places, both in the Old and New Testaments. You held the truth in unrighteousness, while you preached my pure and holy doctrine; and for the sake of my own truth, and through my love to the souls of men, I blessed your preaching; but yourselves I could never esteem, because you were destitute of the spirit of my Gospel, unholy in your hearts, and unrighteous in your conduct. Alas! alas! how many preachers are there who appear prophets in their pulpits; how many writers, and other evangelical workmen, the miracles of whose labour, learning, and doctrine, we admire, who are nothing, and worse than nothing, before God, because they perform not his will, but their own? What an awful consideration, that a man of eminent gifts, whose talents are a source of public utility, should be only as a way-mark or finger-post in the way to eternal bliss, pointing out the road to others, without walking in it himself! Depart from me] What a terrible word! What a dreadful separation! Depart from ME! from the very Jesus whom you have proclaimed in union with whom alone eternal life is to be found. For, united to Christ, all is heaven; separated from him, all is hell.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 23. Then will I profess unto them , etc.] Publicly before men and angels, at the day of judgment, I never knew you ; which must be understood consistent with the omniscience of Christ; for as the omniscient God he knew their persons and their works, and that they were workers of iniquity; he knew what they had been doing all their days under the guise of religion; he knew the principles of all their actions, and the views they had in all they did; nothing is hid from him. But, as words of knowledge often carry in them the ideas of affection, and approbation, (see Psalm 1:6 2 Timothy 2:19) the meaning of Christ here is, I never had any love, or affection for you; I never esteemed you; I never made any account of you, as mine, as belonging to me; I never approved of you, nor your conduct; I never had any converse, communication, nor society with you, nor you with me. The Persic version reads it, I have not known you of old, from ancient times, or from everlasting; I never knew you in my Fathers choice, and my own, nor in my Fathers gift to me, nor in the everlasting covenant of grace; I never knew you as my sheep, for whom, in time, I died, and called by name; I never knew you believe in me, nor love me, or mine; I have seen you in my house, preaching in my name, and at my table administering mine ordinance; but I never knew you exalt my person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; you talk of the works you have done, I never knew you do one good work in all your lives, with a single eye to my glory; wherefore, I will neither hear, nor see you; I have nothing to do with you. In this sense the phrase is used in the Talmud f485 : Bar Kaphra went to visit R. Juda; he says to him, Bar Kaphra, lw[m rykm ynya , I never knew thee. The gloss upon it is, he intimates, that he would not see him.
So here, Christ declares, he knew them not; that is, he did not like them; he would not admit them into his presence and glory; but said, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity . The former of these expressions contains the awful sentence pronounced by Christ, the judge; which is, banishment from his presence, than which nothing is more terrible: for as it is his presence that makes heaven, it is his absence that makes hell; and this supposes a place and state, whither they are banished; which is elsewhere called their own place, the lake which burns with fire and brimstone; everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Departure from Christs presence is the punishment of loss, and being sent to everlasting burnings, is the punishment of sense; and the whole, as it is an instance of strict justice, so a display of Christs almighty power. The latter expression contains the character of these persons, and in it a reason of their punishment; they were workers of iniquity: it may be, neither adulterers, nor murderers, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, nor thieves, or any other openly profane sinners; but inasmuch as they did the work of the Lord deceitfully, preached themselves, and not Christ; sought their own things, and not his; what they did, they did with a wicked mind, and not with a view to his glory; they wrought iniquity, whilst they were doing the very things they pleaded on their own behalf, for their admission into the kingdom of heaven. Some copies read, all the workers of iniquity, as in ( Psalm 6:8) from whence the words are taken.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 21-29 - Christ here shows that it will not be enough to own him for our Master only in word and tongue. It is necessary to our happiness that we believe in Christ, that we repent of sin, that we live a holy life that we love one another. This is his will, even our sanctification Let us take heed of resting in outward privileges and doings, lest we deceive ourselves, and perish eternally, as multitudes do, with a li in our right hand. Let every one that names the name of Christ, depar from all sin. There are others, whose religion rests in bare hearing and it goes no further; their heads are filled with empty notions These two sorts of hearers are represented as two builders. Thi parable teaches us to hear and do the sayings of the Lord Jesus: some may seem hard to flesh and blood, but they must be done. Christ is lai for a foundation, and every thing besides Christ is sand. Some buil their hopes upon worldly prosperity; others upon an outward professio of religion. Upon these they venture; but they are all sand, too wea to bear such a fabric as our hopes of heaven. There is a storm comin that will try every man's work. When God takes away the soul, where is the hope of the hypocrite? The house fell in the storm, when the builder had most need of it, and expected it would be a shelter to him It fell when it was too late to build another. May the Lord make u wise builders for eternity. Then nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ Jesus. The multitudes were astonished at the wisdom an power of Christ's doctrine. And this sermon, ever so often read over is always new. Every word proves its Author to be Divine. Let us be more and more decided and earnest, making some one or other of thes blessednesses and Christian graces the main subject of our thoughts even for weeks together. Let us not rest in general and confuse desires after them, whereby we grasp at all, but catch nothing __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 CONJ τοτε 5119 ADV ομολογησω 3670 5692 V-FAI-1S αυτοις 846 P-DPM οτι 3754 CONJ ουδεποτε 3763 ADV εγνων 1097 5627 V-2AAI-1S υμας 5209 P-2AP αποχωρειτε 672 5720 V-PAM-2P απ 575 PREP εμου 1700 P-1GS οι 3588 T-NPM εργαζομενοι 2038 5740 V-PNP-NPM την 3588 T-ASF ανομιαν 458 N-ASF
Vincent's NT Word Studies
23. Profess (omologhsw). The word which is used elsewhere of open confession of Christ before men (Matt. x. 32; Rom. x. 9); of John's public declaration that he was not the Christ (John i. 20); of Herod's promise to Salome in the presence of his guests (Matt. xiv. 7). Hence, therefore, of Christ's open, public declaration as Judge of the world. "There is great authority in this saying," remarks Bengel.24 sqq. I will liken him, etc. The picture is not of two men deliberately selecting foundations, but it contrasts one who carefully chooses and prepares his foundation with one who builds at hap-hazard. This is more strongly brought out by Luke (vi. 48): "Who digged and went deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock" (Rev.). Kitto ("Pictorial Bible") says: "At this very day the mode of building in Christ's own town of Nazareth suggest the source of this image. Dr. Robinson was entertained in the house of a Greek Arab. The house had just been built, and was not yet finished. In order to lay the foundations he had dug down to the solid rock, as is usual throughout the country here, to the depth of thirty feet, and then built up arches." The abrupt style of ver. 25 pictures the sudden coming of the storm which sweeps away the house on the sand:
"Descended the rain, and came the floods, and blew the winds."
