“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. Matthew 7:21 HCSB
Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 7:22-23 that many will say to Him, but didn’t we prophesy in Your name and drive out demons in Your name and do many miracles in Your name? And He will say to them, “I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!”
To me, this is one of the scariest and saddest verses in the Bible. Jesus is telling His disciples to beware of false prophets. He is telling them to inspect the fruit. Pay careful attention to what He says in our Scripture passage. Only the one who does the will of His Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven. We live in a society where it is so easy to be led astray. Many proclaim to be preachers or teachers but are teaching things that clearly go against God’s will.
To know God’s will, we must study the Bible. There are many things going on today that are against God’s will. I’m not just talking about things like abortion and homosexuality. I’m talking about things going on in our churches. We have evangelist and pastors going against God’s word. Many like to preach that it’s all good. They want to lead their congregations to believe that if they are good people, they will enter the kingdom of heaven. But Jesus says the opposite. He says many people will do good things in His name, and He will say, “Depart from Me! I never knew you!”
Being good isn’t good enough. We must be obedient. We must be faithful. Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is that we love Him with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. He tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). He commissions us to go forth and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16). He gives us the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20.
We can do many good things. We can feed the hungry. We can give to the poor. We can sit in church every Sunday. But if we don’t live our lives according to God’s will, it will mean nothing on judgment day. We will be turned away from the kingdom of heaven. Our “good” deeds can be for nothing if we don’t do God’s will.
We all fall short, but if we love the Lord with all our heart, we want to do His will and we feel bad when we mess up. This is why I always encourage each and every one of us to check ourselves. We should pray Psalm 139:23-24 daily which says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.”
Don’t be led astray by feel good or prosperity preachers. Spend time each and every day in God’s holy word. Pray for wisdom and discernment. Trust in Him and love Him with your whole heart. Make sure you won’t be turned away at the gate because there is only one other place to spend eternity and you don’t want that.
Have a great day!