When Jesus says, “I never knew you,” he means, “I don’t recognize you as my disciple, as my follower. You are a spiritual stranger to me.”
We close the week with a good question from Singapore, from a listener name Jia. “Dear Pastor John, I would like to ask a question following up on episode 1304 about the parable of the ten virgins. In Matthew 25:11–12, Jesus says: ‘Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.”’ Do these two verses imply to us anything about salvation? Particularly so when the bridegroom said, ‘I do not know you’?”