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mannafest.faith

Matthew 7:21

in Matthew 7

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

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 who is in heaven.

KJV

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.

This verse in Matthew 7

Commentary

6 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Matthew · Written before 420.

(Verse 21.) 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 who is in heaven. As he said before, those who have a garment of good life should not be received on account of the wickedness of their teachings: so now he asserts the opposite, that even faith should not be given to those who, although they possess the integrity of faith, live wickedly and destroy the integrity of doctrine with evil deeds.

This site's exposition

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven

Saying Lord, Lord is not itself condemned, since the title rightly confesses Jesus' authority, but saying it is shown insufficient without doing the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same standard of doing, not only hearing or saying, that closes the Sermon in the builders' parable. The verse anticipates the still harder case of verses 22 and 23, where the claim includes visible spiritual activity and still falls short. Entering the kingdom of heaven is here made to depend on a relationship proved by obedience rather than on a title correctly spoken.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century4 voices
Not every one that saith ... - The Saviour goes on to say that many, on the ground of a mere profession such as he had just referred to, would claim admittance into his kingdom. Many would plead that they had done miracles, and preached or prophesied much, and on the ground of that would demand an entrance into heaven. The power of working miracles had no necessary connection with piety. God may as well, if he chooses, give the power of raising the dead to a wicked man, as the skill of healing to a wicked physician.

on Matthew 7:21-29

The Lord Jesus winds up the Sermon on the Mount by a passage of heart-piercing application. He turns from false prophets to false professors, from unsound teachers to unsound hearers. Here is a word for all. May we have grace to apply it to our own hearts! The first lesson here is the uselessness of a mere outward profession of Christianity. Not everyone that saith “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Not all that profess and call themselves Christians shall be saved. Let us take notice of this.
IN reading this chapter one is led to feel that it is not, after all, an easy thing to be a sincere Christian. The way is hard, the road is narrow. Who will, may represent the way to Heaven as being easy, but our Savior does not speak so of it. "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there are that find it." "Many are called and few chosen." The difficulty of being right is increased by the fact that there are men in the world whose trade it is to make counterfeits.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Yet our Lord claims and expects this of all His disciples, as when He washed their feet: "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am" (Joh 13:13). shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven--that will which it had been the great object of this discourse to set forth.

The words behind it

25 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    James 1:22

    Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

    it leads to

    • John 13:17

      If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Romans 2:13

      For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous.

    • Luke 6:46–48

      Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?

    • James 4:17

      Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do, yet fails to do it, is guilty of sin.

    • 1 John 2:3

      By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.

  • Through

    Luke 11:28

    But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

    it leads to

    • Luke 6:47–48

      I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them:

    • Luke 8:21

      But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”

    • Psalms 112:1

      Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.

Where this verse is studied

About Matthew

John the Baptist Baptizes Jesus — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)
John the Baptist Baptizes Jesus — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1158: “The Sieve” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible and Jerome, Commentary on Matthew.