“…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."
When was the last time you helped a stranger? or done something decent to someone you don’t really like? or shown love to those who don’t deserve it?
Jesus told this parable entitled, “Sheep and Goats”. He was showing how God will divide EVERYONE on Judgment Day, the same way a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. The sheep are the believers, the goats unbelievers.
God has called all of us (as sheep) to lives of service. He sent his son in love to save us. This means we don’t get to do whatever we want. Doing whatever we want got mankind into the mess of sin. We need to show love to everyone, especially those who don’t deserve it, because doing so shows love for God. God says, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
When we ignore others, or avoid opportunities to show them love, we ignore God. God says, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
Those who ignore God will go away to eternal punishment. In other words: Ignoring God’s call leads to hell. We have been given the opportunity of
I think you missed the main point of the parable! There is no way that Jesus could have gone into that long discourse to show how much he empathized with human suffering...only to say in all the same breath that he intends to be the direct cause of the worst suffering ever!
ReplyDeleteI've actually written an entire book on this topic--Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell, (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of Did Jesus Believe in Hell?, one of the most compelling chapters in my book at www.thereisnohell.com), but if I may, I'd like to share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.
The explanation for this contradictory statement is simple--Jesus never said it!!! It's an interpolation that was, in all likelihood, inserted by a Greek Christian scribe while making a copy of the text, totally distorting the message of the originally inspired autograph! If you have any doubts, go back and read the parable without the inserted verse 46, and notice how much smoother the text reads! Also, if you read the preceeding 3 parables, ALL having to do with the EARTHLY return and EARTHLY reign of the Jewish Messiah, you'll see there is nothing about people getting tortured after death, but being left out of the really good government jobs the Messiah would give to those who were faithful upon his return.
Sadly, though, because these few verses that place Hell on Jesus' lips serve the interests of people who feel threatened by the real message of Jesus, that we ought to care for those in need, those suffering, even those who made big mistakes that landed them in jail, even the "least," they would have us believe that God is ultimately going to give up on most of humanity and let them have it big time! From there, it makes it easy for them to deceive believers into thinking it's not all that bad to get a head start on hurting people, or at least, not helping the hurting.
The original text shows how much God cares for all, loves all, wants to heal all, and is never going to give up on anyone until the very last, lost sheep is saved.
If there were no eternal punishment, why would Jesus even have been sent to earth? Man sinned, therefore man needed a Savior. Of course God loved his creation, even though it did not deserve his love, but without faith man ends up in hell. Faith naturally produced good works and love. Good works/love for others don't save, but they are a necessary product of faith. That is the point.
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