" Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day ,'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:21-23

Just some observations on this passage that struck me this morning. First of all, Many will say...... It appears that many people are going to find themselves in this situation, which I find to be a very sobering idea. Sobering both from the obvious personal perspective but also from the perspective of being careful not to propagate the incorrect ideas/doctrine that puts people in this place. It is so comfortable and easy to go with the flow, and not to confront or stand or even deal with things that are being taught in our present day which are simply not true and if taken to the extreme put people in this very place.
Church/Christian work is not the measure that will be used to determine relationship. It is obvious in the passage that the question is whether or not Jesus knew the individuals. The individuals point to their Christian works done in Jesus name to prove relationship. Jesus is clear in declaring that no relationship existed, and that the evidence of that vacuum was that they were workers of iniquity. I think it's extremely easy to think that our Christian endeavors somehow prove personal holiness and excuse personal wickedness. Apparently not.