Mat 7:21, 24, Luk 6:47, Jam 1:22 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 21. Not every one that saith , etc. He goes on to say that many, on the ground of that profession, will claim admittance into his kingdom. Many will plead that they had done miracles, and preached or prophesied much, and will demand an entrance into heaven. The power of working miracles had no necessary connexion 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. A miracle is a display of his own power through the medium of another. An act of healing the sick is also a display of his power through the agency of another. In neither of these cases is there any necessary connexion with moral character. So of preaching, or prophesying. God may use the agency of a man of talents, though not pious, to carry forward his purposes. Saving power on the mind is the work of God; and he may convey it by any agency which he may choose. Accordingly, many may be found in the day of judgment who may have been endowed with powers of prophecy, or miracle, as Balaam, or the magicians of Egypt; in the same way as many men of distinguished talents may be found yet destitute of piety, and shut out of his kingdom. See . In this last place, Paul says, that though he spoke with the tongue of angels, and had the gift of prophecy, and could remove mountains, and had not charity or love, all would be of no avail. . (h) "Lord, Lord"

Matthew 7:21

Verse 21. Not every one that saith, etc. He goes on to say that many, on the ground of that profession, will claim admittance into his kingdom. Many will plead that they had done miracles, and preached or prophesied much, and will demand an entrance into heaven. The power of working miracles had no necessary connexion 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. A miracle is a display of his own power through the medium of another. An act of healing the sick is also a display of his power through the agency of another. In neither of these cases is there any necessary connexion with moral character. So of preaching, or prophesying. God may use the agency of a man of talents, though not pious, to carry forward his purposes. Saving power on the mind is the work of God; and he may convey it by any agency which he may choose. Accordingly, many may be found in the day of judgment who may have been endowed with powers of prophecy, or miracle, as Balaam, or the magicians of Egypt; in the same way as many men of distinguished talents may be found yet destitute of piety, and shut out of his kingdom. See Mk 9:38, Lk 9:49, 1Cor 13:1-3. In this last place, Paul says, that though he spoke with the tongue of angels, and had the gift of prophecy, and could remove mountains, and had not charity or love, all would be of no avail. 1Cor 13:1-3.

(h) "Lord, Lord" Is 48:1,2, Mt 25:11,12, Lk 6:46, 13:25, Rom 2:13

Matthew 7:24

Verses 24-27. Jesus closes the sermon on the mount by a beautiful comparison, illustrating the benefit of attending to his words. It was not sufficient to hear them; they must be obeyed. He compares the man who should hear, and obey him, to a man who built his house on a rock. Palestine was, to a considerable extent, a land of hills and: mountains. Like other countries of that description, it was subject to sudden and violent rains. The Jordan, the principal stream, was annually swollen to a great extent, and became rapid and furious in its course. The streams which ran among the hills, whose channels might have been dry during some months of the year, became suddenly swollen with the rain, and would pour down impetuously into the plains below. Everything in the way of these torrents would be swept off. Even a house erected within the reach of these sudden inundations, and especially if founded on sand, or any unsolid basis, would not stand before them. The rising, bursting stream would shake it to its foundation; the rapid torrent would gradually wash away its base; it would totter and fall, and be swept away. Rocks in that country were common, and it was easy to secure for their houses a solid foundation. No comparison could, to a Jew, have been more striking. So tempests, and storms of affliction and persecution, beat around the soul. Suddenly, when we think we are in safety, the heavens may be overcast; the storm may lower; and calamity beat upon us. In a moment, health, friends, comforts, may be gone. How desirable then to be possessed of something that the tempest cannot reach! Such is an interest in Christ; attention to his words; reliance on his promises; confidence in his protection; and a hope of heaven through his blood. Earthly calamities do not reach these; and, possessed of religion, all the storms and tempests of life may beat harmlessly around us.

There is another point in this comparison. The house built on the sand is beat upon by the floods and rains; its foundation gradually is worn away; it falls, and is borne down the stream, and is destroyed. So falls the slumber. The floods are wearing away his sandy foundation; and soon one tremendous storm shall beat upon him, and he and his hopes shall fall, for ever fall. Out of Christ, perhaps having heard his words from very childhood; perhaps having taught them to others in the Sunday-school; perhaps having been the means of laying the foundation on which others shall build for heaven, he has laid for himself no foundation; and soon an eternal tempest shall beat around his naked soul. How great will be that fall! What will be his emotions when sinking for ever in the flood, and destined for ever to live and writhe in the peltings of that ceaseless storm that shall beat when "God shall rain snares, fire, and a horrible tempest" upon the wicked!

(l) "Therefore" Lk 6:47 (m) "wise man" Ps 111:10, 119:99,130

Luke 6:47

Verse 47. Mt 7:21; Mt 7:22; Mt 7:23; Mt 7:24; Mt 7:25; Mt 7:26; Mt 7:27.

James 1:22

Verse 22. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. Obey the gospel, and do not merely listen to it. Compare Mt 7:21.

Deceiving your own selves. It is implied here, that by merely hearing the word but not doing it, they would deceive their own souls. The nature of this deception was this, that they would imagine that that was all which was required, whereas the main thing was that they should be obedient. If a man supposes that by a mere punctual attendance on preaching, or a respectful attention to it, he has done all that is required of him, he is labouring under a most gross self- deception. And yet there are multitudes who seem to imagine that they have done all that is demanded of them when they have heard attentively the word preached. Of its influence on their lives, and its claims to obedience, they are utterly regardless.

(a) "doers of the word" Mt 7:21