I never knew you. Four words that strike the heart of all Christians being the four words that you’ll never want to hear coming from the mouth of the Lord Jesus. He said in Matthew 7:

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

How is it that the people Jesus is talking about in these couple of verses could be cast from Jesus’s presence? All the works that they listed off are good things in the Lord’s eyes aren’t they? They prophesied, cast out devils in Jesus name, and in his name did many wonderful works. Doesn’t that sound like a compelling case for doing the will of our Father in Heaven stated in verse 21? What’s wrong here? Well, as Jesus says at the end of verse 23, the answer was iniquity.

Is he talking about me?

Who does Jesus accuse of iniquity? He lays it right out for us in Matthew 23:
27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Effect of Iniquity

So there’s the answer to the ‘who’ question. People giving the visuals of someone holy, but are a different picture on the inside. But what is the effect on others that fall prey to the iniquity of these scribes and Pharisees? Answer is in Matthew 24:
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

What is Iniquity?

Webster Dictionary reads:

Iniquity (noun) absence of, or deviation from, just dealing; want of rectitude or uprightness; gross injustice; unrighteousness; wickedness; as, the iniquity of bribery; the iniquity of an unjust judge

Jesus said because iniquity shall abound. By the definition of iniquity, that would mean the absence of dealing justly, gross injustice, a deviation from just dealing, unrighteousness meaning not being right with God Almighty. These are pointing directly to the Pharisee-like systems out there that remove the love of God and the fruits of the Spirit from the Church.

How would I make that connection? Jesus said in Mt 24:12: “The love of many shall wax cold”. And if the Love of many has waxed cold that would mean this, 1 John 4:8: He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And to whom has it been given to spread the good news of Christ Jesus and to preach the full gospel and the love of God but the Church? So if love is waxing cold, because of the lack of knowing God, as he is Love, who else will the Lord hold responsible for this iniquity?

The Apostle Paul said something very interesting in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, that gives us an idea that there are fleshly sins and there are spiritual sins.

2 Corinthians 7:

1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Paul isn’t talking to a bunch of unsaved people, he is speaking to the brethren. These people are convinced in Christ and are born again. So what’s he talking about? Well, I believe that he is covering both bases. Sins of the flesh (all of the things that we do when we know we shouldn’t), and sins of the spirit (Iniquities, spiritual conditioning that causes for one to feel justified in sin).

Take a step back into Psalms with me concerning this Iniquity problem…

Deception begins in the heart then out of the mouth of the one deceiving. The heart is the breeding ground for all kinds of iniquity. David touches this topic in In Psalms 55. Here are a few verses out of that psalm and you’ll see what kind of person David is talking about. In this psalm King David is sore and groaning to the Lord to deliver him from an unlikely enemy. He is praying about an enemy that had hurt him to the point that he wished to be taken away to a barren place, and remain in the wilderness. Let’s break a few of these verses down.
3 Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

So, because of the voice or (spoken words), and because of the oppression (causing a sense of being weighed down in body or mind) of the wicked (from dialect wick: to twist; or in this case, the twisted) Iniquity was cast at David. (Cast: to throw or hurl; fling) Not any iniquity that was within himself, but iniquity that had come from their mouths, words, and the fruits thereof. Iniquities that had been brooding in the hearts of his enemies, now took to action through twisted words, causing oppression, and consequently grinding away at King David.

Sounds like a typical enemy doesn’t it? How often do enemies ever have anything good to say about you? So who is the enemy in this case?

12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Kind of sounds like a friend? Even gives the description of a fellow church goer. Maybe a brother in the Lord so to speak, much like we fellowship today with one another? They’d go off and praise God together, go to and fro from the place of worship together. An ‘equal’ he calls him, and this is the King talking! He even goes on to call him his guide. Perhaps someone he trusted & confided with; sought advice from etc. And this is the enemy that was described above? Yes it is the very same.

20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant. 21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
This is starting to take shape as the whitewashed tombs that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 23! Smooth and decorated on the outside, but wicked & twisted on the inside. A tomb full of dead men’s bones and evidently a man pleaser to the Kings face, while plotting things in the heart at the same time. More iniquity coming out of what seems to be a well-meaning friend, but is inwardly a wolf.

To check out more on the workers of iniquity that are more along today’s standards, visit Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.

Back to the Gospels

Concerning the contents of the heart and the things that come from the mouth, I find it very interesting that these verses are grouped together the way they are in Luke chapter 6:
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

“For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”. This is the fast track to describe what we learned about the ones troubling King David in Psalms 55. A wolf can only hide for so long till it gets hungry and needs to eat. No matter the situation, iniquity brooding in the heart will come out of a person in one way shape or form. It’s just a matter of time. Usually, it flows straight from the heart right out of the mouth.

“And why call ye me Lord, Lord”, strings together well with the verses we started out with which are, “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew 21. For some fun, let’s throw these two together just to see what it looks like.
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Paying attention to the Gospels, it’s clear that there is no difference between doing what Jesus said, and doing the will of our Father which is in heaven. They are both the same, and clearly the people he is referring to are doing neither. When you think about it, throwing these two verses together from two different books in the Gospels appear to complete a thought.

The final end to the Workers of Iniquity

Jesus in Matthew 13 gives us the final end of these workers of iniquity.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

And the workers of iniquity shall in the end be thrown into the fire. It’s safe to assume that for most, the fire would be the last place the people in question thought they’d end up. Weren’t they doing all these great and wonderful things for the Lord? They say they do when Jesus talks about their defense. How it is iniquity can abound inside these people even though they did all these wonderful works?

Fruitless Works

Matthew 7:
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?

There are a few missing ingredients here. Firstly, Jesus made it clear, that even though these men did all these wonderful works, they neither did what he said, nor did they do the will of our Father. Though they did not do what he said, and did not to what the Father wills, doesn’t mean that God won’t use them to serve his purpose anyways, by way of blessing all that were prophesied over, devils cast out from them, and bore witness to the wonderful works, etc.

Here is what Jesus said to do, and is also the will of Almighty God. Jesus says in Matthew 22:
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Then later he adds in John 13:
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

The Missing Ingredient

There is the ingredient that these workers of iniquity were missing. It was Love. Like aforementioned, 1 John 4:8: He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And Jesus is the way to become one with that Love. 1 John 5 makes it clear:
1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
That’s a whole lotta love going on there between God Almighty, Jesus his Son, and us, and he says by this we know that we are the children of God. That’s how we know! That’s how we know that when the day comes for us to come face to face with our Savior, he will not say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” We show love for God by keeping his commandments as stated in verse 3. There’s a page here that describes more clearly about the relationship between us and the Godhead. It’s called Father, Son, Holy Spirit and YOU. Go check it out when you have the chance.

This is to say that you are keeping the commandments Jesus gave out of love for the Father and for his sake, instead of the means by which you save your skin. One could say that they obey God’s commandments because of his promises and goodness, and they are grateful and thankful that they have been saved. Another could say that they do their best to do what God says because they don’t want to go to hell & suffer for all eternity. Which sounds more like love to you?

The first proves that Love has come in to the heart of that believer, and is looking for opportunity to serve the Living God. The second is harboring fear, even fear of the Lord. But as said in 1 John 4:
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

And finally, concerning those workers of iniquity that Jesus was referring to we’ll conclude with one more section of scripture. It’s as if John was answering the question, “Who was Jesus talking to?” You’ll find it in 1 John 3, and it refers to, you guessed it, a condition of the heart:
14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

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