Mother and Daughter praying. by bigbirdz This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. 
Posted on 01/07/2020 10:16:12 AM PST by Salvation
Mother and Daughter praying. by bigbirdz This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Every now and then someone will come past my door and request parish services of some sort. Maybe it’s to plan a wedding, a baptism, or a funeral; maybe it’s for money! And then I look at him or her and say, “Who are you?” (since I don’t recognize the person). “Oh, well Father, you don’t know me but my grandmother goes here; this is our family Church.” “Oh, I see, but where do you go to Church?” I usually ask. The response is usually something like, “Well, you know how it is Father, I don’t get to Church too often … but my mother goes here.”
Well, I’ve got news for you: your Mama’s faith isn’t going to save you. You gotta have your own faith. You have to know Jesus for yourself. There are some things you just can’t borrow. Once, you depended on your mother and ultimately the Church to announce the True Faith to you. But at some point you have to be able to claim the True Faith as your own. Your mother can’t go to Church for you and she can’t believe for you.
On another occasion, a man came up to me in the parking lot of the local food store and began to talk to me as if we were old friends. Perhaps he saw the puzzled look on my face as I awkwardly wondered if I had ever met him. He was mildly offended and said, “Gosh, don’t you know who I am?” “No,” I admitted with some embarrassment. He went on to explain that his family had been one the “pillar” families who had helped build the Church and that I really ought to know who he was. “Do you come to Mass often?” I asked. “No, but I was there at the last funeral, the one for my grandmother, whom YOU buried. Perhaps you know who I am now!” I said, “No. I certainly knew your grandmother, but I can’t say I know you.” “That really hurts Father, ’cause if it hadn’t a been for my family the Church wouldn’t be there.”
Eventually I got the man to admit that he hadn’t been going to Sunday Mass for over 20 years, from the time he graduated from the parish school, and that his only real attendance was for funerals and a few weddings. “Consider this a dress rehearsal,” I said, humorously but with ironic seriousness. “You may be angry and disappointed that I don’t know you, but it will be a lot worse to hear Jesus say ‘I don’t know you.'”
Indeed, one of the judgment scenarios has Jesus declare that he does not “know” some who seek entrance to heaven:
We may wonder how the Lord cannot “know” someone. Is he not omniscient?
Here it helps to understand that the “knowing” as understood in Scripture does not have the modern Western notion of simple intellectual knowing. To “know,” in biblical terms, more richly describes knowing through personal experience. Hence it implies an intimacy, a personal experience of another person, thing, or event. Sometimes the Scriptures use “knowing” as a euphemism for sexual intercourse (Gen 4:17,25; lk 1:34 etc).
Hence the Lord, who does not force us to be in an intimate relationship with Him, is indicating in verses like these that some people seeking entry to Heaven (probably more for its pleasures than for its supreme purpose as a marital union with God) have refused His invitation to intimacy. He does not “know” them because they never wanted to be known by Him in any intimate way. They may have known OF Him, and even spoken and taught of Him. But they did not want HIM. They may have used him for their purposes, but Him they did not want. Jesus stands at the door and knocks; He does not barge in and force Himself on anyone.
Thus, we must personally and individually accept the Lord’s invitation to enter our lives and transform our hearts. We cannot simply say, “My family built the Church,” or “I went to Catholic School,” or “My mother goes there.”
Remember the story of the wise and foolish virgins? (Matt 25:1-13) They were waiting for the groom (in those days you waited for the groom, nowadays we wait for the bride) to show up for a wedding. Five were wise and brought extra oil for their lamps, while five were foolish and did not not. But the groom delayed his coming and so the foolish ones said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil.” The wise ones then told the foolish that they could not do this because there was not enough oil for all ten of them.
You see, there are some things you just can’t borrow and some things you just can’t lend. You can’t lend your readiness to meet God to someone else. You can’t borrow someone else’s intimacy with God.
You know what happened in the story. The foolish bridesmaids went off to buy more oil and missed the groom’s arrival and then were not able to enter the wedding feast. In those days, when a wedding feast began, the doors were locked and no one else could enter. When they finally arrived, the groom said that he did not know them.
The bottom line is that you have to know Jesus for yourself. You can’t borrow your mother’s intimacy, relationship, or readiness. You have to have your own. No one can go to Church for you. You can’t borrow someone else’s holiness.
There is an Old Gospel hymn that says, “Yes I know Jesus for myself.” It’s not enough to quote the pastor; it’s not enough to say what your mother said. You have to know Him yourself. Do you know Him? I didn’t say, “Do you know about Him.” This is more than intellectual knowing; this is the deep, biblical, experiential knowing. Do you know the Lord Jesus? Have you experienced that He has ministered to you in the Sacraments? Have you heard His voice resounding from the pulpit and in others you meet? Do you know Him? Don’t be satisfied that your mother or grandmother knew Him. You are called to know Him for your very self.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Many will cry LORD, LORD..................
I presume the answer isn’t name tags?
Preachers who preach the word but are doing it for their own personal greed like fancy mansions, SUV’s and bizjets.
Might be a CEO - Christmas / Easter Only!
It means He never knew you.
Perhaps Jesus is speaking of someone who appears to be acting and thinking in contradiction to their own nature.
Someone who has decided to pander to a peer group, and chooses not to do what he knows it right, just and Christian.
It can happen at any age, not just in the teens.
Some will chose to drastically modify their behavior in hopes of becoming more accepted by a particular group.
It is to this phony person that Jesus speaks when he says;
‘I don’t know you!’
Philippians 2
1 ¶ So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,fn 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,fn being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12
-> ¶ Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 1
I like the Inspired Version of the Bible
Matthew 25:11
But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, You know me not.
The Inspired Version never says that God or Jesus didn’t know us. Of course, He does.
It’s about whether we know Him as Savior and Lord.
The difficulty I have is that the churches I’ve been to have not followed the Word. They have become social constructs rather than places of worship. I certainly won’t fund them.
So I sit at home, I pray, I read, and I try to impart what I can to those I know.
He’s talking about people who have never repented but claim Him as their God- these people are trying to add works to salvation requirement- they are trying to earn their way to heaven because they won’t humble themselves and repent (ie: Change their mind about how to be saved- they repentant person No longer earns their salvation, they go directly to the source of Salvation, and accept Him as their means to salvation, and no longer rely on their ‘good works’ to get them there-)
It’s not just “knowing Jesus.” It’s doing the will of His Father.
“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
The Apostle John makes it clear in his first letter that if you love Jesus you will follow the commands of His Father. The Apostle Paul makes clear that following the will of God includes trying to live a pure and holy life, and that Christians who continue to lead an immoral and impure life are not saved. See e.g. Ephesians 5, I Cor. 6.
Simply saying the “Sinner’s Prayer” and “believing” in Jesus does not get you to Heaven. Unless you change your life through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are not truly saved, but just pretending.
He said, “I never knew you!”
Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those that find it are few.”
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruit.”
While some may claim assurance of salvation by faith alone in Christ and can quote multiple scripture passages, this appears to missing the true understanding of faith and the result of false teachers.
“that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 1Cor 2:5
How do we help forgo the ways of the world and fully accept the ways of Jesus that leads to our salvation?
That he didn’t know them.
They weren’t saved in spite of their claims to religious activities.
Something some works based religions should take heed to.
Exactly.
“They” gave all these reasons to be saved, and all of the reasons were works. None of them professed faith.
Yes, Baptism, prayer, the Sacraments, Mass, Works of Mercy are good works that follow the way of Christ and leads us to know Christ and for Christ to know us.
Your comment: “They weren’t saved in spite of their claims to religious activities.”
It was stated in the article that they did not participate in religious activities. So when they asked for a religious service such as a wedding, the pastor did not know them.
So what are you going to say if Jesus asks you what did you do to know me or why did you leave the Catholic faith?
This is what Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy is about: apostacy. People with itching ears turning from the TRUTH of the Gospel of Grace to a FORM of RIGHTEOUSNESS, with works and a false gospel being preached and accepted.
Paul instructs Timothy in something very important in this letter: 2 Tim. 2:15. He does not tell Timothy to depend on others for instruction in God’s word. He tells him to STUDY God’s word. For himself. That he will NOT be ASHAMED as a WORKMAN for God if he STUDIES His word, rightly divided. He doesn’t tell him to go to a church building, or adhere to doctrines and traditions of men. That’s where APOSTASY originates; in doctrines and traditions of fallen men.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.