"Where you come from"

In Luke 13:23-27, when Jesus is asked the question, "Lord, will those who are saved be few", His response is to strive to enter the narrow door, and to those who beg the door to be opened to "the house", those who will say:

"‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’"

The response of the Lord will be:

"‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’"

There is a paralleled instance of this verse also in Matthew 7:21-23 that reads:

"'Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 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."’"

That verse in Luke caught me off guard though, something I had not seen before. He says the phrase, "where you come from." The word there is pothen, which means, "of place: from where, from what condition."

The conclusion I drew from my study was that God is interested in all of us. Our entire person, which in our current state, includes where we have come from, and of what conditions we were in, and what condition we are in now. Insert every conceivable condition, and you will find the yearning of God to be in close relational proximity to us in it. In fact, when we read this verse, this is a condition set by God in which we can enter eternity with Him. By eternity with Him of course I mean the period of time set forth from the moment we choose to have God in our minds, including the present time here on earth, the part of eternity with God, the part of heaven, that is on earth.

It is this eternity, of which Jesus describes when He says, "the kingdom of heaven is here", that has a specific prerequisite, for God to be invited into our past and present personhood. The brutal places in our minds we only dare to describe to our closest friends, certified therapists, or anyone present at our lowest when we are ready to throw it all away, sometimes even complete strangers when we are in such places.

It can be stated, that God, before He would allow such an intimate proximity with us, would only enter such proximity when we allow Him to know us, not in part, as many of us would think such a perfect God would prefer, but in whole, our entire soul and where it has been.

It is the personal nature of God that would not allow a closeness with Him without our desire first to be close to Him, and our submission and allowance for God to be let inside our own little worlds we call our minds and memories. This is the essential part of what many people would consider to be repentance, which is only distinguishable by God himself as he searches whether or not we truly invited Him into our soulscape. It is the very thing He will use when determining whether or not we really chose Him in this life.

"I do not know where you come from"

Have we really invited Him into every room in our house?

If not, what is stopping us from doing so?

If it is not our pride, it is our misunderstanding of who God is. Truly, it is our God's ultimate goal for humanity to be reconciled to Himself, a reconciliation that does not give regard to the size or weight of things we have done worthy of separating us from Him. For in fact the very thing we think would separate us upon revealing, is the very thing that would usher us into His presence upon submission. It is His presence that is the ultimate mission and goal. That is the kingdom of heaven of which Jesus teaches. A friendship, an ongoing conversation, an adoption to sonship. It is everything that could possible pose to matter in this life, and it has everything to do with how much we invite Him in.

Comment your thoughts or ask some questions, and I'll see you in the next post.