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| Essential 100 -- Yow! "I never knew you" | | Date Created: Mar 29, 2005, 07:44 AM |
57 — Tuesday March 29 — Matthew 6:5 - 7:29
The true and false prophets section near the end of this passage is pretty frightening and a little confusing. Surely what we'd want to say about Christian leaders is that they're human and can make mistakes. Doesn't that mean that a good tree can sometimes bear bad fruit? We started the chapter with "Do not judge, don't look at the sawdust in another's eyes" but it isn't long before we're having to discern who are the dogs to whom we're not to give what is sacred and who are pigs toward whom we're not to throw pearls. And now, by their fruit we are to recognize false prophets / preachers.
But verses 22-23 of chapter 7 are even more worrying. Apparently, doing what you do and doing it in the name of Jesus isn't enough. I like 1 Corinthians 12:3 "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" -- how different is Matt. 7:21: "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter"! Folks who preach / prophesy in the name of Jesus -- "many" of us, according to verse 22 -- will be told by Jesus "I never knew you." Even performing miracles in his name is insufficient evidence of being known by him. This is terrifying stuff.
I'd like to tuck all this away and lump it all on the American tele-evangelists who play for laughs and flirt with the politicians and for whom it's all about self-promotion. But I've a hunch that that's just doing the judging thing without taking the danger seriously. "Many." |
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