Devotional Reflections on Matthew 7:21-27

David A. deSilva
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the
one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to
me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name,
and do many mighty works in your name?' 23 And then will I declare to them, 'I never
knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' 24 Everyone then who hears
these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the
rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that
house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who
hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his
house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and
beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matt. 7:21-27 ESV)

This passage is the climax or epilogue to the Sermon on the Mount, that collection of
Jesus teachings that begins in Matthew 5:3 and ends with these words. The ways in
which teachings parallel with those collected in these three chapters appear scatted
throughout several discontinuous chapters in Lukes Gospel has suggested to many
scholars over the centuries that the Sermon on the Mount represents Matthews skillful
collation of a body of Jesus teachings originally spoken on several different occasions.
Whether the placement of our passage is due to Matthews editorial craftsmanship or
Jesus own, the message of the passage is the same and unmistakable: Jesus teachings
are put into practice by his genuine followers. It is a sober word to us who call Jesus
Lord in prayer after prayer, hymn after hymn, praise song after praise song. It means
nothing to call Jesus Lord without doing what he says.
What is perhaps particularly frightening about this passage is that one can have what
appears to be a vibrant and powerful ministry (whether one does so as an ordained or
lay person), and still not be doing what Jesus says. One can speak prophetically, expel
demons, and even work dynamic signs and wonders, and still not be honoring Jesus
lordship as Jesus genuine followers as those who do what he says to do.
The Sermon on the Mount is full of instructions that challenge the wisdom of how we
have been building our lives, I dare say, even to this very day. It is indeed difficult and
strongly countercultural to do what he says. To go to the sister or brother who has
something against us before the start of worship and seek reconciliation, prioritizing
this above everything else in church that day. To show generosity to those who hate us,

speak ill of us, and have acted to our harm. To willingly offer to someone more than he
or she is suing us for. To invest our money not with a view to our indulgence beyond
the needful in the present or to our secure enjoyment of the future, but with a view to
relieving the necessity of our neighbor in the present. To turn our powers of diagnosis
ever towards ourselves and the distance we still have to travel toward Christ-likeness
before presuming to diagnose a sister or brother. So much within us screams that, were
to live like this, wed be ruined, wed be fools. But Jesus says that to live like this is like
building a house upon a foundation of bedrock. To live like this now is to lay a strong
foundation for the future.
Protestant Christians are deeply Pauline Christians often, I think, even more Pauline
than Paul himself. It is difficult to integrate Matthews emphasis on obeying Jesus and
on attaining the righteousness that comes from aligning ones life with Jesus teachings
with our theologies of being saved by grace alone or saved by faith alone or even
saved by grace through faith alone. Matthews Jesus seems to require more than our
acceptance of his gift or our belief that his death accomplished something on our behalf.
He seems to require obedience, and even to claim that entrance into Gods kingdom
depends upon offering Jesus such obedience. Being told on that day when the end of this
age grates against the beginning of the coming age, Depart from me, evildoers; I never
knew you, is more than a slap on the wrist before being allowed to pass into Gods
kingdom. It means to be turned away.
Again, Jesus is not looking for works in the sense of engaging in prophetic utterances
or expelling demons or even working miraculous signs. None of this impresses him
here. Only doing what he commands, which he equates with doing the will of my
Father in heaven and with hearing my words and doing them. All this talk about
doing is bound to make Protestant Christians, especially, nervous. Isnt faith opposed
to works?
Paul was adamant that those who are in Christ are no longer under the Torah,
bound to do the works prescribed by the Law of Moses. But he is not at all opposed to
the idea that those in Christ are under Christ, or, to use terminology more Pauline,
invited to live by the Spirit, to sow to the Spirit, and to align their hearts and lives with
the Spirit so that Christ is fully formed in them, so that they live no longer for
themselves, but live for him who died and was raised on their behalf. Calling Jesus
Lord meant as much of a shift in allegiance and a level of commitment to a new kind
of life to Paul as it did to Jesus.
I would read Matthew 7:21-27 not as a passage in which works are promoted over faith,
but as a passage that spells out what it means to have faith in Jesus. To live as he

instructs, to do what he says to do, and much of this counter to the wisdom of our own
upbringing and the wisdom of the world that surrounds us that requires faith, that is
an expression of genuine and deep trust. The wisdom of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing; the wisdom of living in obedience to Jesus teachings is
foolishness to those who have been convinced that sand is the thing upon which to
build a secure life. Faith lives in line with Jesus wisdom, believing that he is indeed the
Way to build securely for eternity; he indeed tells the Truth about what has eternal and
lasting value and why it is so important to invest for eternity every day now; he is
indeed the source of Life to all who obey him.
To borrow another Pauline expression, God is not mocked. We are only deceiving
ourselves is we use the discourse of faith versus works to excuse ourselves from
obeying the one whom we call Lord. And clearly, for Jesus, it is not enough to call
him Lord without doing what he says.
We are always building, with each action and each omission of action, each decision to
invest in a particular direction, each response to a new situation. Best to make sure that
we are always building on the firm foundation of obeying the Lord who will also return
as Judge.