<p>7:23 <em>And then will I tell them- </em>The attitude which we have to the Lord Jesus&nbsp;<em>now</em>&nbsp;will be the attitude we have to Him at the day of judgment (Mt. 7:23 cp. Lk. 6:46). The Lord will &quot;profess&quot; to them that He doesn't know them and they must depart from Him; but Strong understands the Greek to mean 'to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent'. The Lord will be agreeing with them, that they are worthy of condemnation. They will have condemned themselves, and the Lord will simply confirm this to them in His final verdict. If we are ashamed of Him now, we will be ashamed from before Him then (1 Jn. 2:28), and He will be ashamed of us (Lk. 9:26). Every time we are asked to stand up for Him and His words in the eyes of men, we are as it were living out our future judgment.</p>
<p><em>I never knew you-&nbsp;</em>&ldquo;Many&quot; will be rejected at the judgment seat because they don't&nbsp;<em>know</em>&nbsp;the Lord Jesus Christ; they never had a personal relationship with Jesus, even though they have experienced answered prayer, done miracles, worked for their Lord etc. (Mt. 7:22,23; 1 Cor. 13). They will have built a spiritual house, but on sand. It isn't difficult to be a good Christian outwardly. But to&nbsp;<em>know</em>&nbsp;the Lord Jesus? That's another question. The Greek for &quot;never&quot; means literally 'never at any time'. The course of their lives was such that there had never been a time when He 'knew' them. We rather expect Him to say '<em>You</em>&nbsp;never knew&nbsp;<em>Me</em>'. But He says that&nbsp;<em>He</em>&nbsp;never knew&nbsp;<em>them</em>- because the whole idea of 'knowing' Him is mutual. Insofar as we know Him (in a relational sense), He knows us- and vice versa. We really need to ask whether we are praying to Jesus, talking to Him, 'knowing' Him...&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Depart from me-&nbsp;</em>This is alluded to in 2&nbsp;Tim. 2:19: &lsquo;Depart from sin now, or you'll depart from Christ at the judgment&rsquo;. This is Paul's classic way of making plays on words; again an indication of how his writings are partly a product of his own meditation upon and familiarity with the Gospels.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>You that work iniquity</em>- And yet they have just protested all the good they did for others, healing, teaching etc. On one level, good can be done- but the good is a work of iniquity if it is done with an unspiritual heart, and especially in order to gain personal wealth or advantage (see on &quot;ravening wolves&quot;, 7:15). In Old Testament times, God used the nations to do His will, but they were still condemned for their hearts being far from Him. Those who &quot;do iniquity&quot; [s.w.] are gathered out of the Kingdom at the last day (Mt. 13:41)- confirming that these people are within the visible Christian community. And there will be &quot;many&quot; of them (:22)- suggesting the Lord doesn't just have in view a handful of charlatans at the leadership level who claim to do miracles and teach in His Name just for money. This problem of thinking that we are justified before Him just because we are His channel of work is clearly foreseen by the Lord as a major and widespread problem. Mt. 24:12 could imply that this will be a specific latter day problem- for within the believing community, &quot;because iniquity [s.w.] shall abound, the love of many [Gk. 'the majority'] shall become cold&quot;.</p>