Corporate Judgment in Matthew and the Phrase "Depart from Me"
Question: He's got a question related to Matthew chapter 7 verse 23, which says, "Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." A number of pronouns are in here: "I will profess to them." I suppose "I" is the Lord in the future when he's the judge. "I profess unto them." Now "them" is, I assume, a crowd of people who is the same as the "you," because he's going to profess to them and then look directly and speak to them and say, "I never knew you." This is a group. Notice this is not individual. I suppose that you could argue if you don't know the group, you don't know the individual. Then Manny says, in Matthew 25:41, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Once again, you've got probably, I would guess, the same judgment that is given, and it is the goats that he speaks to collectively, not individually, collectively. And he says again, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Now to the question: does the phrase "depart from me" in Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25:41 go together when God judges the sheep and the goats?
Both Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25:41 present a judicial scene in which the Lord addresses a group with the words "depart from me." In both passages the grammar and the context indicate a collective judgment rather than an individualized, case–by–case verdict.
In Matthew 7:23 the pronouns are plural: "I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." The verbal address is aimed at a body of people who stand before the Judge together. The same is true in Matthew 25:41: "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Here again, the language is plural and corporate.
This collective aspect fits the broader setting of both texts. Matthew 7 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, which is intensely oriented toward Israel and her kingdom ethics. The warning, then, naturally concerns segments of Israel who are outwardly associated with the kingdom program but are in truth "workers of iniquity." Matthew 25:31–46 is commonly called the "judgment of the nations," yet the details point in an Israel–centered direction: Israel is regathered from all the nations, and the judgment has a strong connection to the treatment of "these my brethren." The plural language suggests that we are not dealing with, for example, ethnic entities such as "the Chinese" being judged as a single bloc, but with identifiable groupings associated with Israel and her kingdom hopes.
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The Greek supports this corporate reading. The plurals are not merely distributive (as if each individual is being addressed in isolation) but genuinely group–oriented. The King James Version makes this clearer than most modern translations by retaining "ye" and other plural forms, while contemporary English tends to blur plural and singular "you." Many modern versions therefore read naturally as if the address were individual, when the underlying Greek is clearly plural.
When we set the two passages side by side, the parallels are hard to ignore:
- Both scenes are eschatological judgments.
- In both, the Judge is the Son of Man / the King.
- Both contain the command "depart from me."
- Both are directed to a plural "them/ye."
- Both result in exclusion from the kingdom and association with everlasting punishment.
Because of these parallels, it is reasonable to see Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25:41 as referring to the same general judgment complex at the end of the age. The setting is the consummation of the kingdom program, and the ones addressed are those who stood in some visible relationship to that program yet were, in reality, outside of saving faith and obedience.
This reading also sheds light on the frequently individualistic way Matthew 7:23 is used in evangelical circles. The verse is often reduced to a one–on–one confrontation with a single sinner: "Depart from me, I never knew you, Bubba." While there is a legitimate secondary application to individual destiny, the primary exegetical sense is a group verdict. The Lord is dismissing a class or body of professed followers whose works and hearts have proven false in the kingdom context.
Regarding the "judgment of the nations" label for Matthew 25, the corporate plurals lend weight to the idea that the primary focus is Israel in her dispersed state among the nations rather than a simple geopolitical census of Gentile states. It is called the judgment of the nations because Israel has been scattered among all nations, and now that scattered nation is being sifted, with sheep and goats distinguished in relation to the kingdom and to "these my brethren."
In sum, the phrase "depart from me" in Matthew 7:23 and Matthew 25:41 does go together conceptually and contextually. Both passages depict a collective, eschatological judgment closely tied to Israel and her kingdom, and both use the same solemn formula of exclusion addressed to a group who, though outwardly associated with God's work, are rejected at the final assize.
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