Right or Left...You did it to Me.

Matthew 25:31-46

The Judgment

³¹ “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³ and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ³⁶ naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ ³⁷ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ³⁸ And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴² for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

As we look at this text, this portion of the daily reading from the One Year Bible, I want to be clear again in saying that I am not a Biblical scholar. I read and meditate on the word, trying to understand the context of what is said or written and the meaning of key words in the original language. I ask the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus says "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.(John 14:26) and "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.(John 16:13), to teach and reveal to me what the Word is saying. At times I believe we can get so lost in the technical evaluation and interpretation of a text that we lose the more simple truth. Thorough exegesis is important and surely has it's place, but hearing what the Spirit is saying is equally important. The reason for this disclaimer is that there are some who believe that this text refers to a future judgment of national entities and refers to how these countries have treated the nation of Israel throughout history and is not a message for us. Again I am no scholar and I am sure that they can make a case for their interpretation but a debate is not what I desire.

Let's begin with verse 32,  All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. It is important here that we do understand what the word nations here means. Previously when Jesus was speaking about the signs of His return He said: "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.(Matthew 24:7) The word which is interpreted nation in both of these texts is the Greek word ethnos which refers to ethnic, racial or tribal distinctions rather than geographic or political entities. So it is all peoples of every ethnicity, race and tribe who will be judged according to this word. This creates a problem for us since it would seem then that there is an element of eternal judgment which is based on our actions and we know that according to Ephesians 2:8-9, we are saved by faith not works.       For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.        James helps us with this, it says in James 2:¹⁴ What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. ¹⁸ But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.     So it is not the works themselves that save us, but rather the works are the evidence and result of our salvation by faith. We love because He first loved us.(1 John 4:19)

Remember again what Jesus said when He was asked which was the greatest commandment:

 “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”(Matthew 22:37-40)  

In today's text Jesus demonstrates that it is not enough to only love God with all our heart, soul and mind, but rather if we truly love Him we will also love, serve and minister to others. This is no small matter. James 4:17 says,  to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.  There are sins of commission, things we do wrong and there are sins of omission things we should do and don't.

This then is why we have this teaching from our text today. Our failure to love, serve and minister to others, both friends and strangers is an indication that either we do not truly love God with all our heart, soul and mind or we have hypocrisy and falsehood in our lives saying we love God but neglecting the love of others.

1 John 4:20 says:  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world... ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’... ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels...‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

It's up to you. Do you want to be on the right or the left?

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit, thank You that You first loved me. Thank You that You have given us Your Word and understanding of Your Word for our lives. Forgive me where I have failed to love You with all of my heart, soul and mind. Forgive me where I have failed to love others. Forgive me when I have said that I love You but have not been intentional to love others, friends, strangers and even enemies according to Your Word and Your great love. Today Lord God I choose to be on the right. Help me to see You in every person I meet.   Amen