🌱 Seeds of Scripture

I Never Knew You: When Belief Has Not Become Love

🌿 Reflection Question

What if Yeshua’s warning, “I never knew you,” was never primarily about those who didn’t believe in him, but about those who claimed to know him without becoming anything like him?

📖 Scripture

«“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

Matthew 7:21 (KJV)»

«“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Matthew 7:23 (KJV)»

🌱 The Seed

There are few statements attributed to Yeshua that have produced more fear than these four words:

“I never knew you.”

For generations, they have been used as a warning about salvation.

A warning about believing correctly.

A warning about being on the wrong side of eternity.

But something fascinating happens when we return to the passage and actually look at the people Yeshua is addressing.

They aren’t strangers to religious language.

They aren’t people who have never heard his name.

They aren’t people who openly reject him.

Quite the opposite.

They call him Lord.

They prophesy in his name.

They cast out demons in his name.

They perform mighty works in his name.

By many religious standards, these would be considered extraordinary believers.

They have the vocabulary.

They have the spiritual experiences.

They even have the miraculous works.

And yet Yeshua says:

“I never knew you.”

Perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question about this passage.

Instead of asking, “How can I make sure I’m using the right name?”

Perhaps we should be asking:

“What does it actually mean to know him?”

🌿 The Warning Was Spoken to the Religious

Consider the setting.

Yeshua is nearing the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount.

He has been teaching about the nature of life in Father’s Kingdom.

He has spoken about loving enemies.

Forgiving others.

Showing mercy.

Giving without seeking recognition.

Praying without making a performance of spirituality.

Releasing judgment.

Treating others as we would want to be treated.

And immediately before the warning about those who cry “Lord, Lord,” he says:

«“Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

Matthew 7:16»

That’s important.

Because Yeshua doesn’t tell us to identify people by how loudly they profess his name.

Or how many Scriptures they have memorized.

Or how impressive their spiritual experiences appear.

He points toward something far more revealing.

Their fruit.

What is growing from their lives?

Does their presence produce compassion?

Does their understanding lead to mercy?

Does their spirituality bring healing?

Does their faith make room for those who have been rejected?

Do they love their enemies?

Do they care for the vulnerable?

Or have they learned to speak about the Light while continuing to spread darkness?

Perhaps Yeshua was revealing that spiritual appearance and spiritual transformation are not the same thing.

🌿 What Does It Mean to Know?

This is where the passage becomes deeply mystical.

In Scripture, knowing can describe something much deeper than possessing information.

It can describe intimate relationship.

Personal experience.

Communion.

A knowing that changes the one who knows.

Yeshua says:

«“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

John 10:14»

And later:

«“I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

John 14:20»

Notice how the language moves beyond simply knowing things about Yeshua.

It becomes the language of mutual indwelling.

Relationship.

Union.

Participation.

Perhaps knowing Christ isn’t merely the ability to explain who he is.

Perhaps it involves allowing his nature to become increasingly alive within us.

And what is that nature?

Love.

Mercy.

Truth.

Compassion.

Forgiveness.

Restoration.

The very qualities he demonstrated throughout his life.

We can know every teaching about Love and still resist becoming loving.

We can memorize the invitation without ever entering the experience.

We can spend our lives studying the doorway while never walking through it.

🌿 When the Name Becomes a Substitute for the Nature

There’s something especially striking about the people in Matthew 7.

They repeatedly appeal to what they accomplished in his name.

They seem convinced that invoking the name and performing extraordinary works should establish their relationship with him.

But Yeshua directs attention elsewhere.

And perhaps that should cause us to examine something.

Have we sometimes treated his name as though it were a spiritual password?

As though speaking the correct words were more important than embodying the life those words point toward?

Yeshua healed the sick.

We can speak endlessly about healing while overlooking the wounded.

He welcomed those considered unclean.

We can create new categories of people to exclude.

He washed the feet of his disciples.

We can build spiritual hierarchies that place us above others.

He taught us to love our enemies.

We can become so consumed with defending our beliefs that we forget to love the people who challenge them.

He revealed Father’s love.

We can turn that revelation into another reason to judge.

And all the while, we may sincerely believe we are honoring him.

What if the greatest danger isn’t failing to speak his name, but speaking his name while forgetting his Way?

🌿 The Mystery of Christ Within

Paul writes:

«“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Colossians 1:27»

And elsewhere:

«“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”

Galatians 4:19»

Consider that expression.

Christ formed in you.

Not merely Christ discussed.

Not merely Christ admired.

Not merely Christ defended.

Formed.

Something taking shape within the human being.

Something becoming visible through our thoughts, intentions, choices, and actions.

Perhaps this is one of the great mysteries of spiritual awakening.

The teachings of Yeshua were never intended to remain ideas we agree with.

They were meant to become a living reality.

Until forgiveness becomes more natural than revenge.

Until compassion begins replacing judgment.

Until generosity flows more freely than fear.

Until we can recognize sacred worth in those we once considered outsiders.

Until Love is no longer simply something we believe in.

It becomes the nature we increasingly express.

And perhaps that is what it means for the Word to become flesh in our own lives.

Not another incarnation identical to Yeshua’s, but the divine nature he revealed becoming visible through us.

🌿 But What About the Miracles?

Here’s another fascinating detail.

The people in Matthew 7 claim to have performed extraordinary works.

Prophecy.

Deliverance.

Miracles.

And Yeshua doesn’t respond by giving them a lesson about how impressive those accomplishments are.

Instead, he confronts their lawlessness.

Does that mean miraculous works are meaningless?

Not at all.

Yeshua himself healed the sick, restored sight, delivered the oppressed, fed the hungry, and raised the dead.

He even told his followers:

«“The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.”

John 14:12»

But perhaps Matthew 7 reveals something essential about spiritual power.

Power and spiritual maturity are not necessarily the same thing.

A person may have extraordinary experiences without becoming compassionate.

Someone may speak prophetically while still being controlled by pride.

Someone may possess spiritual knowledge while remaining deeply unloving.

And perhaps this is why the fruit matters so much.

Because the purpose of divine life expressing itself through us is not simply to demonstrate power.

It is to reveal the nature of the Source.

Healing without compassion can become a spectacle.

Knowledge without love can become superiority.

Authority without mercy can become oppression.

But when spiritual gifts flow from Love, they become instruments of restoration.

Perhaps the deepest question isn’t merely what we are capable of doing.

It’s what nature is being expressed through what we do.

🌿 Where Was Yeshua Waiting to Be Recognized?

Now consider another teaching.

In Matthew 25, Yeshua describes people encountering him without realizing it.

He was hungry.

He was thirsty.

He was a stranger.

He was without clothing.

He was sick.

He was imprisoned.

And when they ask when they saw him in these conditions, he tells them that what they did for the least of his brothers and sisters, they did for him.

Think about that.

People were looking for the King.

But the King was being encountered through the vulnerable.

They were looking for the sacred.

But the sacred was appearing in ordinary human need.

They were looking for someone worthy of honor.

But he was inviting them to recognize him in those the world often overlooks.

Perhaps this offers another way of contemplating the words:

“I never knew you.”

What if we spend our lives claiming to know Christ while failing to recognize the life he taught us to love?

What if we are so busy looking toward heaven that we overlook the suffering right in front of us?

What if we defend the name of Yeshua while mistreating those who bear Father’s image?

And what if knowing him becomes inseparable from learning to recognize and express his Love?

🌿 The Kingdom Is Not Merely a Destination

Yeshua taught his disciples to pray:

«“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:10»

Perhaps the Kingdom is not simply a place we hope to enter after death.

Perhaps it is also a divine reality meant to become visible through our lives here and now.

Where hatred gives way to compassion.

Where fear gives way to trust.

Where the excluded find belonging.

Where the wounded encounter healing.

Where the hungry are fed.

Where enemies become neighbors.

Where Love begins transforming the human heart.

And perhaps this is what it means to do Father’s will.

Not merely agreeing that the Kingdom exists.

But allowing the Kingdom to become visible through us.

The Sermon on the Mount is not simply a collection of rules to memorize.

It is a revelation of a different way of being.

A way of living from Love rather than fear.

From unity rather than separation.

From mercy rather than condemnation.

From the nature of Father rather than the demands of ego.

🌱 A Seed to Carry

Perhaps the warning “I never knew you” is not meant to leave us terrified that we haven’t believed correctly.

Perhaps it is meant to awaken us to the difference between religious appearance and genuine communion.

Between speaking of Christ and allowing Christ to be formed within.

Between claiming the Light and becoming transparent to it.

Between knowing the teachings of Love and actually loving.

Because the question isn’t simply:

“Do I believe in Yeshua?”

Perhaps another question deserves our attention:

“Is the nature Yeshua revealed becoming visible through me?”

Not perfectly.

Not without mistakes.

Not as another impossible standard by which to condemn ourselves.

But genuinely.

Are we becoming more compassionate?

More merciful?

More willing to forgive?

More attentive to suffering?

More capable of recognizing the sacred in others?

Is Love growing?

Perhaps that is the fruit worth examining.

🚶 A Walk in the Garden

Today, consider your spiritual life without measuring it by how much you know.

Set aside, just for a moment, the doctrines you can explain.

The verses you can quote.

The experiences you have had.

The labels you identify with.

And ask yourself:

“What is my relationship with Father producing in the way I live?”

Not as an accusation.

As an invitation.

Think about someone who challenges you.

Someone you struggle to understand.

Someone whose beliefs are different from yours.

Someone you may have quietly judged.

Now imagine encountering that person through the eyes of Yeshua.

What would Love notice?

What would compassion understand?

What might mercy do differently?

Then consider one small way to embody that awareness today.

Listen instead of arguing.

Encourage instead of criticizing.

Help without expecting recognition.

Forgive without demanding repayment.

Care for someone who has nothing to offer you in return.

And when you find yourself falling short, don’t turn the experience into shame.

Let it become another opportunity to grow.

Because the goal isn’t to prove that you have become Love perfectly.

The invitation is to keep allowing Love to transform you.

💛 Love’s Echo

Beloved,

You have spent so much time searching for the right words to speak about Me.

But I have always desired something deeper than words.

I desire communion.

I desire that you know My Love so intimately that it begins transforming the way you see yourself and others.

Do not be afraid to examine the fruit growing in your life.

I am not inviting you into shame.

I am inviting you into awakening.

When you discover judgment within yourself, allow Love to soften it.

When you discover fear, bring it into My presence.

When you discover resentment, allow forgiveness to begin its work.

When you encounter someone who is suffering, do not overlook the opportunity to make Love visible.

You do not need to build a throne to honor Me.

You can offer someone a seat at your table.

You do not need to win every argument about My nature.

You can reveal something of that nature through compassion.

You do not need to prove your spiritual importance.

You can become a vessel through which healing, mercy, and kindness flow.

Beloved, do not settle for knowing words about Love when you are invited to experience Love itself.

Let what you have learned become what you live.

Let what you have believed become what you embody.

Let the Light you have sought become visible through you.

And when you wonder whether you truly know Me, remember this:

Love is not merely something to understand.

Love is a Life to participate in.

Come, Beloved.

Let us make that Life visible together.

Ashé. (May it be so.)