Mat 25:31-41 | KingComments | STEP | This verse is connected to Matthew 24:31. In that verse ( ) the coming of the Son of Man with His angels is already referred to. He appears on earth in the glory from on high, the glory that is His own and that is given to Him. He will connect heaven and earth with each other. However, the earth must first be cleansed of sin and sinners. To this end He takes His place on the throne of His glory in Jerusalem. The Father gave Him this authority to judge because He is the Son of Man ( ). Before His glorious throne is seen the result of the preaching of the kingdom by the brothers of the Lord, which are His disciples who preached in the time of the great tribulation. They performed His command and went to all nations to preach the kingdom ( ). How the nations have reacted to this is now being made clear. The nations are gathered before Him. All nations. No nation will be able to stay away. He is the Commander and Judge. He judges with discernment. He is Shepherd as well as Judge. He knows who His sheep are, and He also knows who the goats are, and thus do not belong to His sheep. They are not individuals, but nations. By the location which He designates for the different nations, He already makes their position clear. They obey without contradiction. It does not occur to them to protest.

‏ Matthew 25:31-41

The Son of Man on His Throne

This verse is connected to Matthew 24:31. In that verse (Mt 24:31) the coming of the Son of Man with His angels is already referred to. He appears on earth in the glory from on high, the glory that is His own and that is given to Him. He will connect heaven and earth with each other. However, the earth must first be cleansed of sin and sinners. To this end He takes His place on the throne of His glory in Jerusalem. The Father gave Him this authority to judge because He is the Son of Man (Jn 5:27).

Before His glorious throne is seen the result of the preaching of the kingdom by the brothers of the Lord, which are His disciples who preached in the time of the great tribulation. They performed His command and went to all nations to preach the kingdom (Mt 28:19). How the nations have reacted to this is now being made clear.

The nations are gathered before Him. All nations. No nation will be able to stay away. He is the Commander and Judge. He judges with discernment. He is Shepherd as well as Judge. He knows who His sheep are, and He also knows who the goats are, and thus do not belong to His sheep. They are not individuals, but nations. By the location which He designates for the different nations, He already makes their position clear. They obey without contradiction. It does not occur to them to protest.

The Judgment of the Sheep

The Lord first addresses those who are on His right hand, the sheep. He calls them “blessed of My Father”. That must have sounded good, but also surprising, to their ears. They may come in order to inherit the kingdom. They will be overwhelmed by it. They hear that they are heirs and that they are receiving something that is already prepared for them “from the foundation of the world”. This has always been God’s intention with the earth, this has always been in His mind.

The Lord tells them why they are receiving this blessing. They have done something for Him. All the things He mentions are related to a situation of need, misery and loneliness. He mentions it all one by one. He doesn’t say very generally in one word that they have been good to Him, but He says what they have done for Him. As the Creator He provides others with food and drink and He provides shelter. His concern extends even to the foxes and birds of heaven (Mt 8:20). But as Man He made Himself dependent on people’s care for Him.

He was hungry and thirsty and was like a stranger on earth. And the sheep provided Him with food and drink and shelter. Even when He was naked and sick and in prison, they dressed Him and visited Him, and made the effort to come to Him. Clothing and shelter provide protection. He was without protection. That is what they offered Him. Disease and imprisonment limit a person’s freedom to go and be wherever he wants. The sheep have come to Him Who had those restrictions.

By the way, we see here that the Lord has participated in the consequences of sin, including illness. Not that He Himself was sick, but He made Himself one with those who are sick and felt and carried sickness (cf. Mt 8:17). Sickness is not a sin. He says “I was sick” in the same way He suffered hunger and thirst. This means that sickness is not something bound up in salvation and should therefore be contested. We must bear the consequences of sin, including sickness, and He helps us to bear them.

The sheep who are called “the righteous” here do not boast of anything. On the contrary. Amazed, they ask when they saw Him hungry and thirsty, and then gave Him food and drink. They don’t remember that at all. They go through the list He has mentioned and do not recognize any of the charitable acts where He says that they have done it to Him. They don’t know that they ever welcomed Him hospitably into their house or that He was naked and that they dressed Him. Nor can they remember ever seeing Him sick or in prison and then coming to Him.

The Lord makes it clear to them that He and His brethren are one. Everything they have done for even the least of His brethren, they have done for Him. He sent out His brothers in a time of great tribulation to preach the gospel of the kingdom. They have done so under the toughest conditions of trial and persecution. And these people have invited His brethren and provided them with what was necessary. This deed proved that they received Him Who had sent them. The sheep, those who received the servants, thereby participated in their trials and tribulations.

As proof of His appreciation and the Father’s appreciation, the Lord gives them the kingdom as inheritance. Here we see how highly He values their work. We also see here how great His love is for His faithful servants He has sent out. The proof of this we see in the fact that He judges the nations to whom the testimony has been sent, according to whether or not they received the servants as if it were Him.

The Judgment of the Goats

The goats are referred to as “those on His left”. They get to hear the greatest possible contrast with the sheep. The sheep hear “come” (Mt 25:34), the goats hear “depart from Me” (Mt 25:41). He calls the sheep “blessed of My Father” (Mt 25:34); He calls the goats “accursed ones” (Mt 25:41). The sheep inherit the kingdom, the goats are referred to the eternal fire. This eternal fire was originally prepared for the devil and his angels, but they will be joined by all those who rejected the Lord Jesus, no matter in what way He came to them.

The goats had no eye for the need of the Lord’s messengers because they had no eye for Him. So they gave the messengers nothing to eat and drink when they were hungry and thirsty. The goats also had no regard for the circumstances of the messengers of the Lord. There was no compassion for them.

Just like the sheep they ask for the “when” of the withholding the necessary and desired. They did not recognize Him. Neither did the sheep, but they had acted charitably to the brothers for the Lord’s sake. The Lord answers them in the same way He answered the sheep. Those who have gone out for Him are so important to Him, that He sees everything that has happened to them as done to Him.

The final destinations of the behavior on earth are so far apart that no greater contrast is conceivable: eternal punishment or eternal life. These two destinations will never come together. The eternal fire is the eternal punishment for the people who have conspired with the enemy against the Lord and His messengers. The righteous, those who have done God’s justice, may enter the kingdom of Mt 25:34, which is called here “eternal life” (Mt 25:46).

This does not mean that entering eternal life is based on merit, a performance delivered. The Lord Jesus says in John 3 that one can enter the kingdom of God only if one is born again, that is, has new life (Jn 3:3 ; 5). But that new life manifests itself in receiving the brothers of the Lord. He therefore presents it here in such a way that whoever receives His messengers enters eternal life. Receiving the messenger is equivalent to receiving the message. Because of the special time in which that happens, it is appreciated by the Lord in a special way.