Bible Verse and Commentary
Matthew 25:31-46 –
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All 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. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“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. 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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“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. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I 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.’
“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?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Comment: I read a lot of books about Christian theology, and I am endlessly fascinated by the amount of ink that’s been spilled in an effort to either torture these verses into non-existence or ignore them completely. Especially in the past century.
Jesus is coming to judge those that can’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps.Report
I prefer to read that as, “Jesus will be incredibly pleased and probably nut all over himself to send every one of the evil baby boomers straight to Hell; and if you’re one of the Lucky Ones, you can look down on them from Heaven and urinate on them while they roast in the fire, for all of Eternity.”
But that’s just me.Report
Seems to me — and I’m not a Christian — that this particular verse doesn’t need a lot of deep reading.
Jesus instructs: “Feed the hungry. Clothe the poor. Tend to the sick and the old. Treat prisoners with humanity.”
By indictating that the righteous who failed to do these things in life will be punished by God in the afterlife for their omissions, we are to understand that feeding the hungry, etc. are moral imperatives, affirmative duties deriving from our common humanity, and thus to which there are no exceptions.
Am I missing something? Why all the spilt ink over splitting hairs about “Treat other human beings like they are, in fact, human beings”?Report
You’re not missing anything. But these things are HARD, so people try to work around them.Report
Interesting. I find many people (though I don’t claim to read a lot of straight-up theology) try to use this to support their prefered political stance (or is this what you meant by “torture into non-existence”?).
I prefer a fairly simple reading: we should try to help people. (Okay, maybe that’s an over-simplification, and we can have debates about what it means in practice, but hopefully my point comes across.)Report
as a Christian who also reads a fair amount of theology books, I seem to have missed the ones trying to interpret this passage out of existence. Which authors are you reading?Report
John Calvin and those who followed in his footsteps, for one.
All of the “born-again” adherents.
More recently, and in an entirely different, equally heretical way: T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen.Report
You know what’s HARD…trying to figure out what you’re getting at. I’m more interested on the Calvin side, but it seems a bit odd to slam all these guys without even giving a hint of what they may have said/done.
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Not sure how well you understand John Calvin or his times. One of Calvin’s first reforms was to make the church responsive to the needs of the poor instead of enriching itself at their expense. The poor became the responsibility of the deacons, elected for a period of one year. The Ecclesiastical Ordinances make it clear enough: in summary:
O vous, sur ces enfants, si chers, si precieux, Ministres du Seigneur, ayez toujours les yeux. f132 It is not with children alone that he concerns himself, it is with all the weak. He thinks of the sick. He fears that many neglect to find consolation in God by His word, and die without the doctrine which would then be to them more salutary than ever; and he requires that no one should be sick more than three days without sending for a minister. He takes thought for the poor, and will have the deacons receive and dispense ‘as well the daily alms as possessions, annuities, and pensions.’ He does not forget the sick poor, and will have ‘them cared for and their wounds dressed.’ He demands for the town hospital a paid physician and surgeon, who shall also visit the other poor.Report
This is my favorite Bible passage, comprising the whole of my theology.Report
You realize that’s not an original observation 🙂
When asked by a non-Jew to relate all the Torah had to say while standing on one foot, Hillel replied, “Do not unto your neighbor what you would not have him do until you; this is the whole Law; the rest is commentary.” Report
Indeed not. I am sure that similar sentiments have been expressed by the wise and good throughout history, in literature both sacred and secular. I just like the way Jesus says it.
And I also really like the “consider the lilies of the field” part.Report
As a doctor, you know that losing weight requires exercise as well as diet. (They toil not, nor do they thin.)Report
I’m always perplexed by people who try to shave away all the more “interesting” parts of scripture for the stuff that is basically common sense. There’s nothing prophetical or revelatory about the notion that we should treat our fellow humans with dignity and respect. It becomes readily apparent you should do those things once you’re mature enough to see and understand the social outcomes of your behavior. If you cheat, lie and steal from your neighbors, you’re going to be lonely and mistrusted. If behave altruistically, you and your offspring have a better chance of survival. That some desert nomads managed to ink those phrases down doesn’t strike me as the least bit impressive, much less divinely inspired. Hell, chimps know this stuff.
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I prefer Hillel to Jesus.
Sure, he shoots a little lower but that makes his prescription that much more attainable by everybody.Report
Luke 6:31 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That’s pretty much the extent of my theology these days.Report
As someone who is allergic to shellfish, I prefer Leviticus 11:9. Words to live by, if you know what I mean.Report
I run my personal theology through this heuristic, by Karen Armstrong:
“The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. If your understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathetic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God’s name, it was bad theology. Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tsu, the Buddha, or the sages of the Upanishads.”Report
That’s a lovely sentiment.Report
That’s a fine heuristic.Report
lovely sentiment. wrong though.
not all religions are good. many are lawful neutral.Report
Most seem Lawful Evil from where I’m sitting. Search for Compassion in Leviticus, you will search in vain.Report
Searching for compassion in Religious-Based State Laws going back thousands of years will likely prove difficult. You would be better served searching through contemporary religious literature.Report
But wouldn’t it be unkind or cruel to let people blindly follow fallacious theologies that will damn them to Hell for eternity?Report
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did within the free market for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”Report
Well, we all know that the King James edition of the Bible was wrongly translated. Fortunately the Heritage Foundation has recently released an edition of the Bible called “The Prosperity Gospel” which has fixed the original Greek to mean what you just posted.Report
Verily I say unto you, direct your sympathy for the poor into buying and selling, and the creation of functioning markets, and not into handouts, since both winners and losers in the market are rewarded according to their need. For truly the invisible hand of my father directs all good deeds to those most worthy, and while the spirit moves some to even greater riches, even so the poor attain a wealth of spirit. And that is good.Report
The thing is stillwater, I actually kind of was nodding along and agreein with you. Then it sort of hit me that you were parodying right-wingers…Report
Yes, it would indeed be unkind to not send people to prison for refusing to buy health insurance. Kindness is an aggregate, after all, and being a little bit kind to a lot of people balances out being really unkind to a few.Report
only in america. swedish prisons are quite pleasant. perhaps you might try one sometime?Report
Not that’s its relevant, but in what country do they send people to jail for not buying HC? Hint: that doesn’t happen in the US and there is no provision in PPACA for that.Report
I’m guessing its something like
If you don’t buy HC you get a fine
If you don’t pay the fine you get a court summons
If you ignore the summons eventually the police come to collect you
If you fight to stop them taking you to court you can be arrested.
If you are arrested for attacking a police officer the odds are you will at least spend a few hours in a holding cell and you could end up convicted and sent down.
Miss out all the intermediate steps and it looks exactly like you can go to jail for not buying HC
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Matty, don’t forget the multiple strip searches once you find yourself in jail.Report
To boot of course you will get health care of a sort at least in Jail. I have often though that one way to get healthcare at a Federal Prision was to rob a bank. I think some have tried it and the feds don’t get interested until the take reaches some sum.Report
http://www.9news.com/news/sidetracks/204061/337/Man-robbed-bank-for-1-to-cover-jail-health-care
Sadly, apparently robbing a bank for one dollar is not ‘bank robbery’ but just ‘larceny’, so he probably won’t end up in jail for at least three years like he was hoping.Report
“…I am endlessly fascinated by the amount of ink that’s been spilled in an effort to either torture these verses into non-existence or ignore them completely. Especially in the past century.”
Oh, come’on. SOME of that lives on… Specifically, this part: “…you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…” There is no shortage of attention paid to all the cursed folk who will burn in hell. They just changed the definition of who is cursed.Report
It’s worth noting that with very few exceptions, said least do not actually live in the United States. My impression—though I could be wrong about this—is that conservative Christians are actually pretty good about giving to the third-world poor.Report
This seems like a very… mathematical interpretation of “least.”Report
Mathematical would be “And don’t forget to give to the 7-foot-tall mezzo-sopranos with Ph.Ds in Molecular Biology. There’s hardly any of them.”Report
I admit it would be awesome if the verse said that.Report
I guess. How else would you interpret it, if not to mean the world’s poorest? Demographics which lean strongly Democratic?Report
I think the verses actually refer to circle of influence.
This is more of an exposition of the parable of Lazarus.
He’s not referring to “Chase down some poor person, and ____.” It’s about acknowledging what’s in front of you, like Lazarus was in front of the rich man’s gate.
He’s not referring to the giving of money. Money is a short-hand for expended effort. It by-passes the caring and humanity aspect.
What Jesus is referring to is the interaction of people.
He’s talking about living with a charitable heart; not charity as a form of thrill-seeking, or a business transaction.
He didn’t offer to pay the Samaritan woman for the water from the well, and he didn’t panhandle so that he could make the purchase elsewhere. He didn’t ask someone on the other side of the world.
He refers to a conduct.
The conduct is a product of an internal state.
That internal state is in turn the product of the salvation He came to offer.Report
This is what I was thinking. “Among you” can mean a lot of things, and if we’re not so keen on avoiding what’s right in front of our face, it can mean the guy down the street who, though food insecure, homeless, and mentally ill, isn’t quite so bad off as the Sub-Saharan toddler whose distended belly belies the fact that he has barely eaten in weeks.Report
protein deficiency is bad news. Really bad news.
But it drives me crazy, when I see it on TV. Because you can save a lotta malnourished kids for the price of one that’s protein deficient.Report
By my reading anyone who is hungry, thirsty etc. The implication of ‘the least of these’ seems to me not ‘what did you do for those who needed most help’ but ‘what did you do for those you least wanted to help’.Report
Or least as in least able to offer any recompense or recognition.Report
That passage could be quite troubling if you’re big into the prosperity or dominion brands and given to introspection, but then most folks who are big into the prosperity or dominion brands don’t tend to be that introspective.
Aside from that, this passage has been the foundation of many a sermon on the importance of works.Report