What do you know?!??

He said, "Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you'll sit down to God's salvation banquet just because you've been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you're going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you'll find the door locked and the Master saying, 'Sorry, you're not on my guest list.'

26-27"You'll protest, 'But we've known you all our lives!' only to be interrupted with his abrupt, 'Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don't know the first thing about me.'

"Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing, you dont know the first thing about me." is a statement which applies to everyone. God is big and even if we feel we know stuff about him, it is only the beginning.

However, Jesus only says it to the people outside, and not on the inside. Because the differences between the innies and the outies is their attitudes.

The people on the outside assumed they had a place, and that assumption led to complacency and ultimately missing out on grace. One of my favorite quotes is "Assumptions are the mother of all...mess-ups...!" from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I see the people on the inside being people who are humble and live their lives aware of the meaning of grace, and that is that it is not deserved. So they do their best to live their lives righteously, paying attention to details.

We are all equal. We all are sinners destined for hell, and in dire need of grace. What separates the ones who are saved and those who are not is an attitude of humility .