Sermon on the Mount-- known by God!

And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you.”

I knew Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone. Whenever he came by the newspaper office where I worked, he stopped by my desk to talk. He was my friend, though I don’t think he knew my name.

Minnesota Governor Rudy Perpich knew my name. After a public meeting, a crowd of reporters were aggressively asking him questions. He saw me in the back of the crowd and pointed at me. “Larry,” he said, and then he winked, “What’s your question?”

To be known by prominent people is a great honor for us. To be know by God is an infinitely greater honor. As we go about performing our religion (preaching, evangelizing, dispelling the powers of darkness), is being known of God our first concern? Or instead, is it so we will be known by other human beings?

If being known by God is not what really concerns us, at the Last Day He will pronounce, "I never knew you."