Matthew 7:23 - Exposition

(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 Psalms 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 ( οἱἐργαζόμενοι , 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 verse 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 (of. 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 (of. especially the parallel Luke 13:27 ); vide Resch, 'Agrapha,' p. 207.