Judgement of the Nations

Dear Diary,

One stormy late afternoon and I am stuck at home, not able to go for my usual evening jog... hmmm... well, waiting for dinner now and so decided to just come online to add a blog entry. The motivation is that in church today, the gospel from Matthew 25: 31 - 46 was read but surprisingly not mentioned at all in the sermon! In fact, the sermon was totally focused on another scripture reading from the Petrine letters. I was kinda sitting in anticipation on what the priest would interpret from this passage of scripture from the book of Matthew, but it was not meant to be, haha... Maybe I will try to interpret it now.

In this passage (Matthew 25: 31 - 46) describing the judgement of the nations, goes this way...
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For 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, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit 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? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Frankly, this passage is shocking to say the least. The fact that this passage came right after the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents will give us some clues to how it is to be viewed. Of particular similarity will be the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25: 1 - 13), where it ended sadly when Christ (depicted as the bridegroom) told the five unprepared virgins who kept virgil without the oil, "I do not know you." (Mt 25:12). I am inclined to believe that all the ten virgins were believers of Christ, and that the oil is the fruit of their faith (ie. good works) which the apostle James described as a manifestation of true faith (James 2:14-19). I thought this is further reinforced in the parable of the Talents (Mt 25:14 - 30) about being faithful in using one's gift.

So in Mt 25:31 - 46, we can see that the judgement is on the works of men. The Protestant interpretation has always been about imputation.That means Christ's righteousness is imputed upon us when we trust in God. Yet, that trust has to be a living one... something that can change us for the better and to make us more Christ-like (2 Cor 3:18). We must strive to do good and avoid sin because we are instructed to be holy (Leviticus 11:44). In fact, the apostle Paul made it clear that we have to persevere to do charity (Romans 2: 5 -11) and to be zealous about it (Titus 2:11 - 14). So while we are saved by faith through grace, the works is a testimony of our faith (Mt 7:20). As for the Roman Catholic teaching on infused grace, it addresses the issue on the purifying of the person's soul and changing it to be more and more pleasing to God (ie. more Christ-like). However, I find it hard to reconcile its teaching on the state of grace upon death. So if someone dies without confession / penance after committing a mortal sin, the person is lost in perdition. It does put the confidence of salvation on shaky ground, quite unlike what was stated in 1 John 5:13. Personally, I would think that a "mortal" sin that can cut the salvation of a believer will be apostasy. The Roman church's list of mortal sins is much longer.At the other end of the spectrum, I do not believe in the concept of "once saved always saved" and that it is impossible for one to lose one's salvation after knowing Christ. That is a fallacy. Many biblical verses tell us otherwise, like Phillipians 2:12 and Romans 11:22... I am sure you can even state even more of such verses.

Oops, I think I have strayed too much from the passage. So, in that Mt 25:31 - 46 passage, we have to do good to the "least of my brothers" (v. 40). Who are these "least of my brothers"? If we see it in the light of Matthew 10:41 - 42, we will interpret these "least of my brothers" as fellow Christians persecuted by others. In fact, for a moment, I thought that maybe this whole parable actually means the acceptance or rejection of those who bring the gospel to us. However, I soon realised that it can't be interpreted this way because in v.44, we see that those who did not help "the least of my brothers" were possibly believers of Christ as they called him "Lord"! So, I do favour interpreting that the "least of my brothers" would mean just about anyone regardless of race, religion, gender etc, as in the parable of the Good Samaritan and Christ Jesus's command to love our neighbours.

In conclusion, put our trust in Christ Jesus, loving our neighbours, pick up the cross daily and following him, aspiring to be like him and striving to be found faithful at the end. Taking heart that God will be here for us always, just a prayer away. Have a nice week ahead! ;-)

God Bless,

Andrew