I Never Knew You / Build on the Rock - Bible Reflections - The One Thing No Christian Should Fail to Do

By Tony Joe:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7:21.24-27:

“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. 

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?’ 

And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. 

And great was its fall.”

I Never Knew You / Build on the Rock - Bible Reflections:

The One Thing No Christian Should Fail to Do:

There are verses in the Gospel through which Jesus inspires us infinitely, and there are certain teachings through which He reminds us of painful realities.

Today's Gospel passage delivers one of the latter kind.

If you look at many of the passionate Christians around us today, one thing would be obvious - they are more focused on praise, more focused on prayers, more focused on preaching, and more focused on the Bible.

But that is not even half the story, is what Christ remdinds us through today's warning.

Only one thing counts in Christ's scheme of things - doing the will of the Father.

But that brings us to the obvious question - isn't the praising, praying, preaching, and focus on the Bible - as per the will of the Father?

Of course it is, as Jesus Himself has taught us to do all these four activities. 

But here is the catch - in as much as these four activities would appear to ourselves as mighty in the service of God, it is not so in the eyes of God; rather without something else, these four activities wouldn't count at all!

What is this something else? Read that line from Jesus again, and you would get it - "...but only the one who does the will of my Father..."

The 'does' is the key word here, and it implies purely Christ's only two commandments - love God above everything and love your neighbour as yourself.

The four activities of praising, praying, preaching, and focusing on the Bible, of course, will count towards loving God above everything else.

But none of them will count towards loving your neighbour as yourself.

Now, don't think that saving other souls through reaching the Gospel to them would count towards neighbourly love.

No, it won't, and Jesus makes it abundantly clear by foretelling that on the Last Judgement, He would drive away even those who will claim to Him that they "prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name".

It is only with terror in their hearts that all passionate Christians who are in love with praises, prayers, preaching, and the Bible, should read Christ's reply to them:

"I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!"

  

What could be more sad than supposedly dedicating a life to Jesus, only to hear from Him in the Final Judgement that, "I never knew you".

And the reason also He makes clear - our lawlessness.

Yes, we all are guilty of breaking that second commandment - "Love your neighbour as yourself".

If we weren't guilty of that, the world would have been a different place now.

Jesus continues to emphasize this point of preaching versus personal practice through His eternal parable of how two guys built their houses.

Those who preach and praise and also practice personal charity is like the guy who built his castle on the rocks. No onslaught from outside could topple it. 

In contrast, those who preach and praise but doesn't practice personal charity is like the guy who built his castle on the sand. On nature's onslaught, it just crumbled.

Adding to the terror is the words of Jesus, "And great was its fall.” This is so because, those who focus on praise and preaching, are enjoying highly elevated positions in this world, and the fall from those heights could be terrible.

Note how both the houses are subject to nature's attack. Satan and his forces will attack both the Christian models of living.

But only the 'preaching plus practice' model would sustain the attacks from the devil.

In other words, Jesus is revealing to us subtly, how personal charity towards needy people in this world, is the only guarantee that our faith and salvation in Jesus wouldn't crumble.