Will the Lord really say, depart from me I never knew you?

It would be an oxymoron for the Lord to say “I never knew you” as the Lord knows all things, Jeremiah states: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Paul writes: The Lord knows them that are His 2 Tim 2:19. David declares: You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar Psalm 193:2. Jehovah knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psalm 94:11. In the general context, flow and tide of the whole bible it reveals God is, Omniscience, Omnipresent and is a God who is all in all.

So how do we interpret Mathew 7: 22-23?

The word “know” in the original Greek is ginōskō which can also be translated: to perceive or to acknowledge. Rotterdam’s Emphasized Bible renders:  And then, will I confess unto them, never have I acknowledged you, depart from me, ye workers of lawlessness!

To take the Lord’s name in vain is a serious thing; to take His name in vain doesn’t mean to swear, curse or blaspheme. In the context of doing the Fathers will, for a Christian to embark on a ministry that is not orchestrated by the Lord nor has its origin in Christ is a work of pure vanity and wallowing in arrogance, egotism and self-effort. The gifts of the Spirit are irrevocable and the Lord will honour His name in the healings and miracles administered, but He will never acknowledge the ministers that perform them; indeed, to take the Lord’s name in vain is a serious mistake and will have severe consequences with a weighty time of chastisement; hence the culprits will be cast for a time into outer darkness, until the completion of their remediation, after which they’ll fall into the arms of a loving Saviour.