What Did Jesus Mean When He Said “Depart from Me I Never Knew You”?
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Matthew 7 is a rich passage of Scripture where Jesus covers lessons such as avoiding a judgmental attitude, following Christ wholeheartedly and bearing fruit. Then, we see these encouragements followed by a few verses that might seem harsh at first glance. Jesus says the words in verse 23, “Depart from Me I never knew you.” This is a warning to everyone and we need to pay close attention to His statement. Today we are going to break down what Jesus meant by this phrase and how we can apply it to our own lives.
Jesus is addressing a group of individuals who, on the surface, appear to be religious and involved in various activities in His name, such as prophesying, casting out demons, and performing miracles.Jesus speaks this warning to his disciples and it serves as a future warning for Judgement Day. When he says "I never knew you" to some of his disciples, he meant he could not recognize them as true disciples, followers, and friends. Jesus is not ending a relationship with them but rather explaining how they never had a relationship with him to begin with.
Matthew Henry's commentary states this about Matthew 7:23,
"I never knew you; "I never owned you as my servants, no, not when you prophesied in my name, when you were in the height of your profession, and were most extolled." This intimates, that if he had ever known them, as the Lord knows them that are his, had ever owned them and loved them as his, he would have known them, and owned them, and loved them, to the end; but he never did know them, for he always knew them to be hypocrites, and rotten at heart, as he did Judas; therefore, says he, depart from me. Has Christ need of such guests? When he came in the flesh, he called sinners to him (ch. 9:13), but when he shall come again in glory, he will drive sinners from him. They that would not come to him to be saved, must depart from him to be damned. To depart from Christ is the very hell of hell; it is the foundation of all the misery of the damned, to be cut off from all hope of benefit from Christ..."
Jesus is omniscent and knows our hearts. He can see whether our motives are out of our desire to know him or out of religious practice. As Isaiah 29:13 says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught."
Jesus is Telling Us Our Fruit Proves Our Faith
Matthew 7:20-23 says, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. ‘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. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
Jesus makes it known that fruit, or the life choices/way of living, is the outward evidence of what a person believes. Then He shares that not everyone who claims His name will enter Heaven. He says that these people will say they prophesied in His name, cast out demons, and did amazing things in the name of Jesus. However, He will tell them that He never knew them and He will send them away because their work was lawless.
This is a very big warning to us that not everyone who claims the name of Jesus or says that they are Christians are true believers. It is easy to assume because of a nationality you are part of a religion, because of a family you are born into you have that faith too, or because of a school you attended that you identify with their beliefs. Having Jesus on a bumper sticker, wearing a cross necklace, or going to church does not make a person a Christian. A transformed life by Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God. The Holy Spirit seals all who believe in Him.
These people who say, “Lord, Lord” and list all of the things that they did in Jesus’ name do not once mention heart transformation. They argue for the good deeds of their lives and say that they gave God the credit for the things that they did, but they were never truly His. These are the people at God will say to "Depart from me, I never knew you."
What Does "Depart From Me" Say About God?
What this tells us about God is that He is perfect. His holiness and purity cannot be attained, they can only be received through the sacrifice of Jesus in our place. We are born into a sinful world. We would have been with God our Creator had it not been for humanity’s decision to disobey and sin against Him. (Genesis 3) Just like the Lord had to banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because of their sin, He tells this person in Matthew 7 to depart because he is not able to be with God. Only perfection can be in the presence of Perfect.
Jesus’ sinless life gives us full access to the Father who made a way for us to be back together in His presence. However, not all will accept this gift of eternal life. It is important that we know God is Lord over all and this verse supports the fact that He cannot sin or lie. He told us clearly that Jesus is the only way to Himself in Heaven, those who reject Him need to know that He loves them, but He meant what He said because He is honest.
Number 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
God wants to know us intimately. God desires a personal and authentic relationship with His creation. The mere outward expressions of faith or religious activities are insufficient. True intimacy with God involves knowing Him deeply and personally. Because God wants to know us better, his love is often expressed through His warnings. We should consider it love when God warns us that we are merely observing religious practice and not pursuing to know Him better.
While Matthew 7:23 emphasizes the consequences of not truly knowing God, it does not negate God's grace and His desire for all to be saved. It's an invitation to seek Him with a sincere heart. God extends His love and grace to all as we see in 1 Timothy 2:3-4: "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."
What Does 'I Never Knew You' Say about Us?
This hard truth tells us that we are unrighteous. When people say everyone is going to heaven regardless of what they believe, this is a lie. This is hypocrisy. It is sad to know that people assume heaven for everyone when Scripture is serious that Jesus is the only way. This should tell us the significance of accepting Him and sharing Him with all people.
Humanity is fallen and they are given great grace to be able to have to possibility to be in heaven. Jesus did not have to come, but He did, and we have a way back to be reconciled to God. Not only this, we have been given amazing forgiveness and an outpouring of love through the Holy Spirit who enters into our hearts when we believe in Christ.
Romans 3:10 says, “As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one;'"
When we follow along with religious activities but fail at having true faith in Jesus alone for our salvation, we are hypocrites and God will tell us He never knew us.
Confidence in Salvation
Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
The Lord is clear that those who believe and receive Jesus have the sealing of the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of their inheritance of heaven, they are forever God’s children. This tells us that whoever is being denied entrance to Heaven is not a true believer in Jesus. This person says they knew Jesus and maybe even did acts of kindness or served in a church, but their hearts did not belong to Him.
Do not allow this passage to cause fear or doubt in your own faith that Jesus will ask you to depart from Him. If you made an authentic decision to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for your personal sins because God's grace has allowed you to have faith, then you have assurance of salvation and that salvation cannot be taken away. However, if you never made that decision, do not wait. Time is short. One day you will be in front of God too. Ask Jesus to give you faith to believe; ask Him to live in your heart, and surrender your life to Christ and His glory. Romans 10:9 says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
What We Can Learn from Matthew 7:23
How can we apply this to our own lives? We can beware of false teachers among us who claim the name of Jesus, but whose hearts are far from Him. This can sadly include those even from pulpits of churches who claim Jesus but God does not “know” them, who on Judgement Day, God will say "depart from me, I never knew you." This means testing what people teach with Scripture, not that anyone is perfect, but that they are actively seeking Jesus and His Word. This means testing anything spiritual that may be happening. This means sharing the beautiful truth of the gospel with those in the Bible Belt who think they are going to heaven because they are members of a church. This means reminding ourselves that even if we are confident that we will be in heaven because we accepted Jesus, we too need to be reminded to have our hearts right daily and let our actions for God flow out of the love from Him.
Jesus’ words “depart from Me I never knew you” is only a message for those who have passed away and rejected Him. However, to those reading this article, His message is this:
John 6:37-40 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
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This article is part of our larger resource library of popular Bible verse phrases and quotes. We want to provide easy-to-read articles that answer your questions about the meaning, origin, and history of specific verses within Scripture's context. We hope that these will help you better understand the meaning and purpose of God's Word in your life today.