Father Juan de Maldonado’s Commentary on Matt 7:21-27

Verse 21. Not everyone that saith to Me. All the Ancients explain these words of the life of beatification. For, although the Church is sometimes called the kingdom of heaven, the words ” Enter into the kingdom of heaven ” never signify the Church, but always the life of everlasting beatification. It is clear that Christ, in this passage, is speaking of the reward which is given, not in the Church, but in the kingdom of heaven. As if He had said, ” The way to heaven is not by words but by actions,” and, from the following verse, it is clear that the allusion is to the last judgment, when some will be admitted into heaven, and others will be shut out.

But he that doeth the will of my Father. It seems as if Christ should have said, “He that doeth My will,” for the people called Him ” Lord,” and not the Father, and they ought to do the will of Him whom they confess as their Lord. ” Why call ye Me Lord, and do not the things which I say? ” S. Chrysostom and Theoophylact reply, on the passage, that we may see that the will of the Father and of the Son are the same, as the Son, when He ought to have named His own will, named His Father’s instead.

But if the will of each be the same, why did He speak of His Father’s rather than His own ? They answer that He did so, as it would be more acceptable to His hearers, and would cause less invidiousness to Himself Another reason may be suggested. Christ everywhere ascribes to the Father the ” person ” of a lawgiver, and He comports Himself as His legate—numbering Himself among those who do the will of the Father, as in Matt 26:42; .S. John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; and He always speaks of ” the will of My Father,” not of ” My will,” as in Matt 12:50.

Verse 22. In that day. In that terrible and most notable day. For the word “that” has here this force. As if Christ spoke of a day not like others, but sure, and peculiar, and to be filled with the fear and the fame of the future judge (Matt 24:36; S. Mark 13:32; S. Luke 21:34; 1 Thess 5:4; 2 Tim 1:12, 18; 4:8: 1 Cor 3:13; 4:5).

Many miracles. Miracles are of many kinds, at least frequently. For what Christ had before said per partes and distributively, He now concludes in genere. As if He then said, ” Have we not prophesied and cast out devils, and done many other miracles in Thy name?”

This passage has given rise to the question whether miracles can be wrought, even by the wicked. This, at least, is certain. As there are two kinds of miracles, the true and the false, the false can be wrought even by the wicked. For S. Paul declares (2 Thess 2:9) that Antichrist will work false miracles ; and although it may be doubted whether the magicians of Pharaoh worked true miracles or not, yet, at least, it is certain that they did work false ones. The question is, therefore, of true miracles: Whether they can be wrought by the wicked?

Here a distinction is to be made. For true miracles can be wrought by the wicked, either while they are wicked or before they began, or after they had ceased to be such. It is not doubtful as regards the two last classes. For Saul, before he became wicked, when he was a ” child of one year” (1 Sam 13:1), prophesied, as we read in 1 Sam 10:10-12; and S. Matthew the publican, after he had ceased to be a publican, that is, a public sinner, wrought many miracles like the other Apostles. It is more doubtful as to those who arc wicked as long as they remain so.

There is yet another distinction to be observed. For a question may be raised as to the wicked who have faith, or of the same who have none. Of the former. Scripture has taught us that they can work true miracles; for Caiaphas was wicked, but he prophesied because he was high priest that year; Judas wrought miracles while he believed in Christ, for he received power with the other Apostles (S. Matt 10:1); and he gloried with the others, because the devils were subject to him (S. Luke 10:17); and yet he was a thief, and bore the purse (S. John 12:6). Saul, after the Lord had departed from him, stood in the midst of a company of prophets and prophesied like the rest (1 Sam 19:20-24). As miracles are done most chiefly by faith, we may doubt of those who have not faith; not whether they do work miracles, for Scripture declares that they do: but whether they work true miracles.

S. Chrysostom (Hom, xxv.), S. Jerome, Euthymius, and Theophylact prove by many examples that, even by men who do not believe, true miracles have been wrought. For Balaam, a false and unbelieving prophet, prophesied truly (Num 24:17). From this passage we may easily conclude that the false prophets of whom Christ spoke as hereafter to do true miracles, prophesied truly—truly cast out devils ; and Christ did not say that they were liars, but that, though they had done these things. He did not know them. The sense of the passage requires it that Christ signified their miracles to be true. For it would have been no matter of wonder if, to those who had done false miracles, He should have answered that He did not know them. But it would have been strange indeed if He had made this reply to those who had done true miracles. It would not have been a great matter if He had warned us against believing those who did false miracles. But it is wonderful that He puts us on our guard against believing false prophets, even if they do true miracles. We are not to discern between true and false prophets by their miracles alone, but also by their fruits, that is, by their lives.

It will be said: “No conclusion in proof of the truth of the doctrine can be drawn from true miracles.” It does not follow that no proof at all can be drawn, but none wholly conclusive. We know that Christ gave the Apostles power to work miracles, for the confirmation of the faith. We know that the whole world was drawn to the faith by the power of miracles. They who deny this, as S. Augustin says, against the Gentiles, work, themselves, a greater miracle by taking away miracles. For it is a more incredible miracle that the whole orb of the world—that is, that so many philosophers and wise men— should have believed the Apostles, who were so few in number and without learning, when teaching things so incredible to human reason, without any miracles, than were the miracles themselves which are declared to have been done by them. It is, therefore, a probable argument for the faith that is drawn from miracles, for they are often done by faith, very seldom indeed without it. When they are done they are done, not to prove the faith of those who do them, but to confirm the truth of the faith of those who have faith. For Balaam did not confirm his own faith by his prophecies, but rather the faith of the people of God against whom he had been brought to bear testimony; and almost all the miracles which were done by heretics (and they were, indeed, few) appear to be of this kind, and such as we read of in Scripture.

For the argument derived from miracles is necessary, if not from every point of view, yet at least from one or even two. For although it does not follow of necessity that whoever works miracles should have true faith, it does follow that that in which frequent and, as it were, ordinary miracles are wrought, must be the true Church; because, although God sometimes permits miracles to be wrought by particular individual creatures, out of His Church, as He did by Balaam’s ass, which was certainly not in the Church, yet to no society of men in general has He given the ordinary power of miracles but to His Church.

The negative argument on the other side has, in fact, more force—that that in which no miracle is wrought cannot be the true Church of God, because we know that He has given to this the power of working miracles. SS. Jerome and Augustin object, on this passage, “that ‘no one can say Jesus but by the Holy Ghost’ (1 Cor 12:3). How, then, can they who have not the Spirit of God, not only say Lord, Lord, but even work miracles in the name of Christ?” They answer: “To say Jesus does not there mean to utter the name in words, but in deeds “. That is, not only to confess Christ by faith, but to show Him in our lives, which no one, it is plain, can do without the Holy Ghost.

Verse 23. And then. In that day (of which Christ has spoken in the preceding verse), before all men, when the hidden things of darkness will be revealed: “As if He had said, I will bear with you, and dissemble with you, even to that day, and leave you like chaff mixed with the grain on the threshing floor; but then I will search you, then I will sift you” (S. Jerome, The Author, and Bede).

I will profess. The Author reads  “I will swear,” for  “I will confess,” which agrees well with the text. For by “swear” he understands Christ to say, ” Amen, amen, I say unto you I know you not” (Matt 25:12). S. Jerome and others explain the words, “I will profess,” to mean, “I will publicly profess that I know them not “. Christ appears to oppose His own true to their false confession, as if He had said: They have confessed Me falsely before men; I will confess them truly before My Father, but that I know them not. As He says on the contrary of those who have truly and sincerely confessed Him: “Everyone that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess Him before My Father who is in heaven ” (Matt 10:32).

I never knew you. Theophylact says: “Not even then when you did miracles “. All ancient authors, and Origen first (On Rom. viii.), have observed that the word “know,” in this and other like passages, does not mean knowledge, but feeling, approbation, as S. John 20:14; 2 Tim 2:19; S. Matt 25:12 S. Luke 13:25. For God knows all men, but He does not approve all men for His own. The true meaning of the passage is manifold. It may mean (1) either “I never knew you, that is, I never held you as my own, I never placed you in the number of the predestinated”; or (2) “I never held you for true prophets, such as you feigned to be”. This agrees apparently with the text, of which the subject is the discerning of false prophets.

Verse 24. Everyone, therefore. Having spoken of false prophets generally, Christ now concludes generally of all mankind.

Who heareth these My words. Some refer these words to the contents of the three chapters preceding. But it seems more safe to refer them to all the sayings of Christ, and to explain “these words” to mean words of this kind, “these words and others like them,” or “these, my present words”. For those which Christ had spoken before were His own words, and the whole genus is frequently signified by some one individual.

That built. To build is to believe in Christ (1 Cor 3:10). Of this building Christ says that the foundation may be twofold—the sand or the rock. He calls faith without works sand (verse 26), and He calls good works the rock (verse 24). Hence are derived arguments against two errors of the followers of Calvin, (1) That faith alone is not sufficient for salvation. (2) That good works, which are adjuncts of faith, not only justify and avail very greatly to, but are also a most firm foundation of, our salvation; nor is it contrary to S. Paul (1 Cor 3:11). There are many stones in the same foundation, of which Christ is the first and chief, and beside this foundation none other can be laid by any man; but upon Him all other things are built which rest upon this foundation. For both Apostles and Prophets are called a foundation (Eph 2:20; Rev 21:14). Faith and works, therefore, are two foundations, each resting upon Christ, the first and firmest of all. But faith alone is sand strewn upon a rock, which, however firm and strong the rock itself, is easily scattered, and then it brings down whatever is built upon it. Works are a rock upon a rock, which no rain, no wind, no rushing torrent can destroy.

Verse 25. The rain fell. Some distinguish the three words, “rain,” “wind,” and “flood,” as meaning three different things. It is more probable that Christ, by these three words, by which buildings are most frequently ruined, meant to describe the same day of judgment as a terrible tempest, as in Ps 50:3. Christ, therefore, teaches us that those who have good works will stand firmly in the judgment, and that all others, whatever their faith, will perish utterly. “For the wicked shall not rise in judgment ” (Ps 1:5).