Jesus took a moment to make a correction we church-goers need at times. We may get so carried away with doing good things that we end up following our wills more than the will of God. Jesus corrects our notion that doing good is synonymous with doing the will of God.
“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” (Matthew 7:21). After talking about false prophets who claimed the Lord gave them messages to speak (vv. 15-20), Jesus explains to His disciples the true way into the kingdom of heaven. It’s not by merely using His title Lord, as the false prophets were doing, but following through on the commands of the Lord.
“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?’” (v. 22). These people were full of good deeds. They even prophesied in God’s name (like the false prophets, unfortunately). They thought their good deeds would impress God. Although the deeds they did appeared commendable, even remarkable, they lacked one important ingredient.
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (v. 23). Following His commands involves reading the word of God and praying over what you’re learning. This praying is revealing your mind and heart to the Lord. You reveal in prayer your struggles in understanding the text and your trials when putting it into action. This is how He “knows” you: you open your heart to Him.
How do we make sure we are not the above people in vv. 21-22? Perhaps we feel we should do a lot of good deeds to magnify God. Well, these people did so, and we see them rebuked. We may even carry out works that require a lot of people, money, and planning.
What’s wrong with simply following the specific commands that are revealed in the Bible, instead of making up great works of our own?
What commands does He want us to follow? This section is part of the Sermon on the Mount. He is teaching us the ways of the kingdom. They are relational; how to get along with other people. They reflect the heart of a child of the King.
His commands in this sermon go right to the heart of what it means to live in the kingdom. The people whom the Christ rebuked put deeds first and not character. They thought they were loving God. Theirs were not half-hearted deeds. They went all out.
We can do good deeds for God and not be merciful (5:7), pure in heart (5:8), or peacemakers (5:9).
We can plan great works and still be salt that is good for nothing (5:13). We can be more zealous for good deeds than anyone in church and be in grave danger because of murdering a brother in the thoughts (5:22), lusting in the heart (5:27-28), or making foolish oaths to God (5:33-37).
All our good works will be for nothing if we want to get even (5:38-39), or if our tithing and prayer are for merely for show (6:1-5).
The people saying “Lord, Lord” are not putting first things first–to obey the actual commands of Christ and deal with their relationships with God and neighbor. They need to work with God on the heart issues.
Jesus came to save us from our sins. It won’t do to focus on our deeds without a heart being freed from its corruption. That would be a poor testimony to the gospel. How can we be the light of the world of the love of Jesus when we don’t share His character?
Paul the apostle pointed out the errors of the Corinthian church when they exercised their gifts. He told them that without love they are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). They were blessed more than most church-goers with the gifts of the Spirit, of healings, words of knowledge, miracles, and so on.
But God is love and wants His church to live it out in their community as they used their gifts; not to show off, but to love one another. What were they (and we) to obey, exactly? The famous qualities of love in 13:4-8, of patience, kindness, without jealousy or arrogance, and more. These qualities in us as we work are proof that God has been at work.
Character matters. When the character improves, the flavor of the work changes. From showing off, to showing love.
It’s not the scale or difficulty or number of the tasks we do that makes them significant. It’s the fact that we take Christ’s words personally, as a disciple to the Lord, and do it faithfully. The Son faithfully carried out the will of the Father. This is an aspect He zealously wants reproduced in His followers.
If the work you do for the Lord is whatever you imagined, then who is being Lord? Certainly not the Christ in heaven.
Jesus told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-31, for God will care for us as He does the birds and flowers. We accept this command personally and take it to the Lord in prayer for help. We are prone to fretting and worry, after all. Our Lord wants us to cease from that because it means we don’t trust Him to care for us; it dishonors the King when we worry.
We struggle in life to put it into practice day by day, watching our thoughts and intentions. And when we catch ourselves worrying, for instance, we cut it off with apologies to the Shepherd of the sheep and cast the care back on Him, restoring trust in Him.
And so the lessons of obedience become internalized over time, strengthening our faith in the Master, with the heart of a true disciple forming within. Our words no longer reflect our worries, fears, and doubts and we develop and greater testimony of the Savior. From working in fears and doubts, to working in love.
We see what parts we cannot do ourselves and give that area of our hearts to the Lord to fix. The Spirit is reproducing in us the Son’s own heart to the Father when He walked here. A spirit of need and dependence.
We can’t reproduce His character by good deeds alone. All they do is make us busy when we lead. Truly, our outward works cannot create a spiritual character. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. We can’t reproduce a servant heart without submission to His revealed will.
When we tend to put works first, then our encouragement to others will be to work harder to overcome. When we find fuller salvation from sin through trusting the Lord, we’ll encourage others to believe Christ to overcome.
The focus of His commands is that we work with the Holy Spirit to become holy in heart, soul, mind, and strength, and consider this a great work. This will take more dedication and effort than many of the church tasks that man has devised for himself to do.
Paul found in Romans 7:7 that he was covetous when the law said not to covet. So he worked on that. He found out the hard way that evil was present when he did good. After much effort, he acknowledged he couldn’t fix the sin problem himself.
The Spirit showed him the way of escape so he could deal with this and other character flaws, and preach the gospel more accurately. When we focus on the character flaws, the Spirit wants us to come to this same fact: salvation from the power of sin is through faith in Christ (Romans 1:16-17), not through our work.
If our major focus is on good deeds, we’ll “manage” our sins through self-will and tech devices to protect us. Those are weapons of the flesh, and in going this route we ignore the salvation that is “mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” of sin (2 Corinthians 10:4). Do these words characterize man’s resources we use to “manage” our sin? No, for God’s power goes down to the spirit and soul. Our works show confidence in the flesh, not faith in Christ.
“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” (Matthew 7:24-25). The wise person acts on Christ’s words and deals with these inner sins. I write about what I read in Scripture. But the words don’t count much if I don’t follow through on them. I think about what I read and write, but little is accomplished if they don’t result in mirroring their values in my daily life by what I say, do, and think.
The house needs to be built on the rock. A relationship of faith in Jesus is that firm foundation. A strong house will be framed and built when the servant is taking his Lord’s words seriously. In humility, surrender, and faithfulness.
“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” (vv. 26-27). If we do not start with a strong and growing desire for Christ as Lord, the building will not end well. A healthy pursuit of Christ will be seen by what we do with His word and focus on the character flaw it exposed.
Earlier in the chapter, Jesus talked about judging your brother, the narrow gate, and trees bearing fruit.
If we judge others when we have the same fault, then we are not taking Jesus’ words seriously to work on the hypocrisy within (vv. 1-5). We are not wrestling with the words and coming to terms with the fact that we are no better than the ones we condemn. That house will fall. (The plank is removed when we put ourselves at their level and help them in love.)
If we are doing what everybody else is doing, following along with the crowd on the broad way (vv. 13-14), it won’t end well. The world does not put Jesus’ words on a pedestal while the faithful and good servant does. That house will fall. (We’re on the narrow way when we are responding to Jesus with a faith that works in love.)
If we are false professing Christians (vv. 15-20), our tree (our lives and ministry) will produce bad fruit. Certainly the results won’t be the good fruit of the character of Christ. False prophets don’t identify with Jesus as Lord. They talk a good talk, but don’t do what He says. Their use of the word Lord in their speeches is empty of meaning because they have no allegiance to Him. Their own imaginations and understanding lead, not the Spirit of Christ. Their house must fall.
Are we stressed out trying to do enough good deeds? Are we perplexed, wondering if what we have done in the religious sphere is acceptable by God? Are we slowly being crushed under loads of shoulds and oughts, but soldier on because it’s the “will of God”?
Jesus calls us to come to Him first, to build a foundation of trust and obedience. To re-evaluate all those tasks we do from fear. The goal is not more work, but work directed by Him and His unconditional love.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This rest will never come from minds feverishly planning out the next work to do. Whatever happened to Proverbs 3:5-6? We are to stop leaning on our own understanding and acknowledge Him–as Lord. The goal is to be God-directed, not self-directed. Jesus as Lord, not flesh as lord.
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30). Being firmly yoked like a young ox tied to the strong, we follow his patient steps in the field. From that position, we can’t help but learn of the strength of His character. Following Him, we work on that furrow in the field of our hearts that He walks us through, overturning the ground and dealing with what’s beneath, and preparing it to receive seeds to be harvested in due time.
The fruit, or the result of the Spirit, is love–of relating to others from a heart that’s dominated by God and not sin. Put first things first. A changed life will change the works. God is love. We have proven every day that we can do good deeds without sacrificial love. But the love formed by the Spirit can’t help but do the deeds of the Master who commands. When we follow the words of the Master, His love will flow through our works. His own life in us–that’s what’s missing.
