Matthew Chapter 7 verse 23 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 23. - (Cf. Luke 13:27.) And then will I profess unto them. Openly in the face of all men (cf. Matthew 10:32). I never knew you. Even when you did all these miracles. etc., I had not that personal knowledge of you which is only the result of heart-sympathy. There was never anything in common between you and me. Although this is, perhaps, the only example of this sense of ἔγνων in the synoptic Gospels, it is common in John. Depart from me. The absence of recognition by Christ, though not represented as the cause, yet will involve departure from his presence (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:9). This clause reproduces verbally the LXX. of Psalm 6:8, except in St. Matthew's word used for "depart" (ἀποχωρεῖτε), which gives more idea of distance in the removal than the word used in the psalm and in Luke (ἀπόστητε). Ye that work. In full purpose and energy (οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι, cf. Colossians 3:23), and that till this very moment. Iniquity. The assurance of the psalmist becomes the verdict of the Judge. Observe that at this, the end of his discourse, our Lord speaks not of sin generally (τὴν ἁμαρτίαν), but of lawlessness (τὴν ἀνομίαν). He has throughout been insisting upon obedience to the Law in its final meaning as essentially necessary for his followers (most recently ver. 12). So that instead of saying, "ye that work sin," he uses the correlative (1 John 3:4), for sin is neglect of or opposition to the perfect Law of God in the three spheres that this regards - self, the world, God (cf. Bishop Westcott, on 1 John 3:4). It is, perhaps, more than a coincidence that in 2 Timothy 2:19 we have again the collocation of the Lord knowing and of man's departing, i.e. either from him or from sin (cf. especially the parallel Luke 13:27); vide Resch, 'Agrapha,' p. 207.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(23) Then will I profess unto them.--The words form a remarkable complement to the promise, "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32). The confession there recognised is more than lip-homage, and implies the loyal service of obedience. And the condemnation is pronounced not on those who have wandered from the truth, but on those who have been "workers of iniquity," or, as the word more strictly means, "of lawlessness." The words remind us of those of Psalm 15:2-3; Psalm 24:3-4, and are, perhaps, a transfer of what David had spoken of his ideal of his earthly kingdom to that of the kingdom of heaven which the Christ had come to found.