Iniquity isn't always something you do. Sometimes it's everything you didn't.
We picture the workers of iniquity as people doing something terrible. But read the warning again.
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven… I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." — Matthew 7:21–23
Sometimes being far from Him doesn't look like rebellion. It looks like being off your square. Not about His business. Standing over a seed He placed in your hands, too afraid to put it in the ground.
This is why the enemy loves fear as a weapon. It doesn't need to make you do evil. It only needs to keep you from being obedient.
Remember the servant in the parable. He wasn't punished for stealing or squandering. He buried what he was given, and when his master asked why, he said the quiet part out loud: "I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth" (Matthew 25:25). Fear was the whole reason.
But fear was never the inheritance.
"God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." — 2 Timothy 1:7
So let us be worthy of the vocation to which we've been called (Ephesians 4:1). Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow… Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34).
What seed has He given you that you refuse to plant because of fear?
The word iniquity carries more than one meaning in Hebrew. The one this lesson rests on is 'aven (Strong's H205) — at its root, to pant, to exert yourself, usually in vain; to come to nothing. Nothingness. Effort spent for no fruit.
So the question turns personal: Where have we poured our time, money, energy, and attention into things that bear no fruit — or bear fruit for mammon but not for the Most High? Or worse, where have we simply let it waste away, never doing the thing that was in our heart to do? Write the book. Start the business. Call the friend who's been on your mind.
For nearly two years, the Most High has given me so much — understanding about simple things, about myself as I seek wholeness, about biblical mysteries. I captured all of it: in the notes on my phone, in recorded calls with friends also seeking Him, in my voice journal.
And then I sat on it. Just like the man with the buried talent, I was afraid. Afraid of being misunderstood. Afraid of the who does she think she is. Afraid of landing on deaf ears because I wasn't "good enough."
Today I begin anyway. Not because it's perfect. Not because it's ready, and not because I am — but because of the fear of the Lord.
Dear God — thank You for giving me the Word, the Way, for showing me Your Will, and for making me a Witness. Thank You for Your Ruach, Your Koach, and Your Noach. May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May we find ourselves on the narrow path. And may many be changed by the words of my testimony — to the Spirit of Your power, and love, and sound mind. Amen.
Matthew 7:21–23 · Matthew 25:14–30 · Matthew 13 · 2 Timothy 1:7 · Ephesians 4:1 · Matthew 6:34
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