And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.
All Commentaries on Matthew 7:23 Go To Matthew 7
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And then will I confess unto them, &c. "I Christ, will say unto the false prophets, who have taught and done miracles in My Name, in the Judgment Day, I knew you indeed as My prophets, who did miracles in My Name: but as My friends and sons whom I predestinated to the inheritance of My glory, I know you not. That Isaiah , I do not love and delight in you, because the will and law of My Heavenly Father, which ye taught unto others with your mouths, ye have not fulfilled in your deeds. Go ye therefore into everlasting fire, because ye have wrought iniquity." So says S. Augustine; and S. Gregory says, "Christ deserts them as unknown whom He did not know for the merit of their lives." (Hom12in Evangel.) This knowledge therefore of God is not speculative, but practical, loving, and affectionate: as we are said to know those whom we love, and not to know those whom we dislike.
