“And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”
I’ve grown up thinking I knew exactly what that verse meant. It is about doing social ministry to the poor. Feeding the poor, visiting a prison, providing a well for water for the poor in some African desert, working at a soup kitchen downtown, or giving financially to people and agencies that do. When we care for the poor in general, we are doing it as unto Jesus.
Except that is not what THIS passage means. Sometimes you read something, or someone says something, and you go “wait a minute…that is NOT how I’ve always thought about that.” There have been many such times in my life when I’ve been somewhat shocked out my eisegesis; shocked to have my eyes opened that I have brought my own desired interpretation to what a Bible passage teaches. It is a “common to man” problem; as Peter puts it, a problem of “private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20) where I bring my own private “what I think or want it to mean” to a biblical text. It’s a common issue of me speaking, rather than letting God speak by seeing what the inspired authors meant by what they said based on the context. Times where I’ve been unteachable because I think I already know.
Such was the case with this verse on “doing unto the least of these” when I read an article that stated it is not about the poor or less fortunate in general. I had to read someone else say that and then go look for myself, and I found the meaning is rather clear from the Word so I had to change my mind. This article documents that little journey of mine.
First, this comes from Matthew 25 and is the end of a long teaching session by Jesus. It is the last topic Jesus taught in this session, and it concerns the judgment that occurs at His return.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Matthew 25:31-40 ESV (italics added)
We see in vs. 31 the all-important context. Jesus is speaking of a time after His second coming with the angels when He is sitting on His throne in Jerusalem. This is a judgment of all the living when He returns and establishes the Millennial kingdom. He gathers all the nations and judges each person with Christian believers (the sheep) to his right and unbelievers (goats) to his left.
Then He very clearly turns to those on his right, the believers being welcomed into the kingdom, and tells them of what they had done for Him. They don’t understand since He has just physically returned from Heaven and ask, “when did we do all that?” and thus comes the oft misinterpreted verse – “when you did it to the least of these my brothers.” He is talking to a group of believers only. He calls them his brothers. While every human is Christ’s creation, not everyone is His brother.
50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Matthew 12:50 ESV
So Jesus is saying if you helped a fellow believer in the church, then you helped ME. You did so unto ME.
In Jesus’ teaching, he then turns to ones on His left, the unbelievers, and tells them the same thing but in the negative, rebuking them.
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:41-46 ESV (emphasis added)
I don’t think any Bible believing Christian would say that the vital, core difference between believers and unbelievers is whether or not you have personally taken care of the poor. Case in point, does that mean Jesus saves an atheist because they served beside you down at a soup kitchen, or if both you and an atheist give money to the same charities that help the poor? No, of course not. Nor is Jesus teaching that the “the least of these” verses are justification for voting for candidates who promise to put in place socialist programs that confiscate earnings from workers to distribute equally to others. No, Jesus isn’t addressing governments or economic systems of nations. He is judging individuals as to whether they are a believer or not based on how they treated his church and then congratulates or rebukes based on individual evidence. Though we’d not state it this way, Jesus is not saying enter heaven if you supported a more “Robin Hood” like candidate or agency, one that takes from the rich to give to the poor. No, eternal life or death depends solely on individual repentance from sin and faith in Christ alone. Social justice is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so “works-oriented”, it seeps into everything. So what is He saying in these passages? It’s simple:
Jesus is saying the difference is how you treated Him, as evidenced through how you treated His brothers, His body, His people, His bride.
That is so clear from the context, it is one of those things I couldn’t believe I had missed out of all the times I read it. I always read in what I already thought was there because it is what so many others think is there. We throw out the phrase “the least of these” (usually leaving off the ‘my brothers’) as a generic reference to the generic poor or less fortunate all the time, and we just absorb it. This is why we need to study the Word with Christ’s body, so we interpret Christ’s meaning correctly and live accordingly.
Roughly 30 years or so after Jesus said this, the preacher delivering a sermon that we know of as the book of Hebrews will be trying to assure his congregation of salvation and he tells them:
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Hebrews 10:32-34 ESV
So, the showing compassion and visiting in prison and all the rest is proof of salvation when you stick with your brothers and sisters in Christ in times of persecution – as they did. Christ will say to them that since they did that to least of these his brothers, they did it unto Him. Welcome to his kingdom now that the King has returned.
An individual can give lots of money to charities, directly feed the hungry and clothe the poor, and do marvelous humanitarian works, but yet turn around and ridicule and persecute believers, Christ’s brothers. Jesus is not going to say “enter my kingdom” to them based on humanitarian works. There are those who will give substantial percentages of income to the United Way and other agencies but won’t give Christ’s church the time of day.
If your fellow Christian is hungry or imprisoned for their faith, do you show compassion there? When the church is in “negative world” and it actually has social cost to identify as a Christian, do you do so then? The NT is filled with times Paul is imprisoned and believers come to help with his needs. When Paul is out, he’s taking up offerings from believers in one place for fellow persecuted believers somewhere else. Think of this as persecution rises – do you visit that elder or teacher that is in the jail now for speaking biblical truth, thus putting the bullseye on your back as well? What did you do for the least of THESE, Christ’s brothers?
That’s convicting. I liked it better when I thought it meant you could write a check to the United Way or vote for the person who promises to give more tax money away in social programs. I liked it better when the “least of these” was a generic mass.
P.S.: I’ll end it there. Hopefully we don’t have to dive into the obvious fact that Christians with renewed hearts don’t have license to be jerks with no compassion for the poor that are outside of Christ. Taking this argument there is not taking the argument seriously.