"The least of these"
"And the King will say, `I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!' (Matthew 25:40 NLT)
At first reading, Matthew 25 seems to be out of place. We get a little insight into what the judgment is going to be like. Who is entering into the kingdom of God & who is going away into everlasting condemnation.
We expect this passage to be about those that are righteous & wicked. And indeed it is, but not the typical ways we think. Jesus says that those that meet the physical needs of those around them (love their neighbor) are his & are going to be with him. They are members of his kingdom. And those that neglect the physical needs of those around them will not inherit the kingdom. So, is our eternal destiny really wrapped up in how we treat others?
This is not something new, heretical, or groundbreaking. This has always been here, we have just failed to see it the way Jesus teaches.
The Bible is clear that we are made right with God on the basis of Christ alone & what he has done for us alone, not what we do. We are not made righteous by our deeds. Isaiah 64 says even our most righteous deeds are filthy rags to God.
So what does this passage mean? It means that those that are really his will have a concern for others as if they were Jesus himself. We can't ignore hurting people because when we see them we see the face of Jesus. And when we see people hurting or in need we should ask ourselves, how would I respond if Jesus was hungry, naked, thirsty, in prison, or hurting? Wouldn't we go out of our way to help our Lord?
In the same way, followers of Jesus imitate their Lord. They go out of their way to love their hurting neighbor, meeting physical needs around them.
If we have no concern for the needs of people around us, we may need to ask which Jesus we are following. A Jesus of our own imagination or the Jesus of the Bible?
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