Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
A multitude of unrelated verses does not define truth. Going back to the earlier comment, when the Lord said “I never knew you,” we must understand this as “I never approved of your word.” Otherwise then we must make that absurd claim that the Lord is not omniscient.
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Assuming you are right about the knowing part, we also have to deal with the other words "you workers of lawlessness" in Matthew 7:21-23
The word for lawlessness is anomia in Greek: "lawlessness; the utter disregard for God's law (His written and living Word)." (
https://biblehub.com/greek/458.htm)
When Jesus expected Nicodemus to know about the new birth in John 3:10, he was likely referring to Ezekiel 36:26-27 which describes the process of being born again:
"I will give you a
new heart and put a
new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."
Someone who is truly born again with God's spirit will follow the law of Christ in the New Covenant to love God, love neighbor and practice Jesus' teachings. That Jesus labeled the false disciples as "lawless" shows that they did not participate in this new birth.
I also didn't make this up. I'm just paraphrasing what the Apostle John wrote in his epistle who described "lawlessness" in the same manner. He also flips the direction of "knowing" in Matthew 7:23 from Jesus to us to us to Jesus.
1 John 3:4-8
Everyone who makes a
practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children,
let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
Even the Antichrist is labeled as "the man of lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:3).