What are the hardest words to hear in Scripture?
In the Bread of Life discourse from the Gospel of John, many of Jesus’ disciples exclaim, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And indeed, some of Christ’s teachings are challenging.
But I would propose a different “hard saying,” one that cuts even deeper. These words are the opposite of “music to our ears.” They are, in my view, the hardest words in all of Scripture:
“Truly, I do not know you.”
Jesus speaks these haunting words in Matthew 25, during His teaching on the kingdom of heaven. It’s the scene of the sheep and the goats, where He separates those who have done His will from those who have not.
Take time to read it—really read it. It’s a passage that can’t be revisited too often. Every time, it’s unsettling. It calls us to self-examination. Am I among the sheep or the goats? Do I live as though I know the Lord?
The weight of those words—“Truly, I do not know you”—is enough to stop us in our tracks. They reveal the stakes of our discipleship and the urgency of following Christ.
Yet, as sobering as they are, these words also remind us of what it means to do His will. To feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, and care for the least among us is to live a life of love—a life that says, I know You, Lord, and I belong to You.
May those hard words never be spoken to us. And may we, by His grace, hear instead: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”