Jesus says something in the Sermon on the Mount that should stop every one of us: "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?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness'" (Matthew 7:22 and 23).
Look closely at who he's talking about. These aren't people who never claimed Christ. They prophesied. They cast out demons. They did miracles. By every outward measure it was real spiritual activity, and they still heard those words.
A Healthy Kind of Fear
There's an anxious, paralyzing dread of a God who might drop us at any moment, and that isn't what I mean. A godly fear works more like the instinct that keeps you back from a cliff edge. It doesn't paralyze. It protects. Hebrews says, "Let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach" God's rest (Hebrews 4:1). That's not a call to constant anxiety. It's a call to take Matthew 7 seriously.
Why We Skip This Passage
It's much easier to assume Matthew 7:21 to 23 is about obvious frauds, famous religious leaders who turned out to be fakes. It's harder to ask honestly whether "lawlessness" has a foothold in my own life, the same partial, self directed obedience we saw in Saul, however busy and spiritual I look on the outside.
No Easy Exit
This is a hard passage precisely because it won't give me an escape hatch. It would be more comfortable to treat it as a warning for other people. But the whole force of it is that outward spiritual activity, even genuinely supernatural activity, isn't proof of a right relationship with God. Lawlessness can live alongside impressive ministry.
The self examination this asks for isn't paranoid. It's honest. I'm not asking, "Am I doing enough visible spiritual things?" I'm asking, "Is there some area of ongoing, unaddressed disobedience running quietly under all of it?"
That's a question worth actually answering, not just reading past.