Matthew 25: 31-46 is used by some to slam believers who are viewed as hypocrites for their intolerance of sin. Does this passage mean that you can just be a kind person and get a pass? This devotion looks at what it takes to get into heaven.
Nuggets
- Matthew 25: 31-46 is sometimes used to indicate that people only need to be kind to others to secure entrance to heaven.
- People will enter heaven, not because they go to church or do random acts of kindness for others, but because they have asked God to forgive them of their sins and try live their lives according to His guidelines.
- Loving others is the second-most important commandment behind loving God with all our beings.
- God wants us to live out what He tells us in His Word.
I saw on Facebook a meme that said going to church was not going to get people into heaven. Being kind to others will.
That may be what the worldview wants to believe. That isn’t the way God has planned.
It’s Not Just Going to Church; It Is How You Treat People
"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" (Mt. 25: 32 ESV)
Part of that is right — just going to church is not enough. Part of that is wrong — just being kind to others is not enough, either.
Yes, Matthew 25: 31-46 does say Jesus separates people as if they were sheep and goats. It says that those who fed Him, clothed Him, and visited Him when He is sick and in prison gain entrance to heaven. Those who didn’t, don’t.
Jesus defined “me” as “… as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt. 25: 40 ESV). What that says is that how we treat our fellow man is important.
Important But Not the Most Important
“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’” (Mt. 25: 34 ESV )
But it seems to me like a couple of things are missed here. The first thing missed is that those gaining entrance to heaven (the sheep on the right) first were blessed by the Father. Jesus was talking to those “… ‘who are blessed by my Father …’” (Mt. 25: 34 ESV).
It wasn’t their actions that put them on the right. It was being blessed by the Father.
Who is blessed by the Father? Jeremiah 17: 7 says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.” (ESV). Trusting God is paramount.
Believing God is our Sovereign King is the most important aspect of our faith, not how we treat others. Faith is a gift from God and a work of the Spirit that enhances the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives and distinguishes us from others.
If we don’t believe God is our Sovereign King and put our trust in Him — no matter how we treat others — we will be a goat on the left.
Glossary
In order to become children of God and become sheep on the right, we have to admit that mankind was separated from God after the original sin, making us sinners; believe Jesus paid the penalty for those sins to become our Savior and Redeemer; confess God as Sovereign God; and demonstrate that commitment by submitting to living our lives following His laws and commandments confessing God as Sovereign Lord.
Putting our trust in Him that He will provide for and protect us will make us sheep on the right. If we don’t do that — no matter how we treat others — we will be a goat on the left.
It is about God and what He has done for us. It isn’t about us.
Most Important
You cannot take Matthew 25: 31-46 out of the context of Matthew 22: 36-40. The greatest commandment is to love God; then you have to love other people.
Glossary
The only way to love God and be restored so that we can have a relationship with Him is through Jesus. “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 ESV). If we don’t accept Jesus as our Savior, it isn’t really going to matter how we treat others. Being kind to others is not a substitute for accepting Jesus as our Savior.
The goats (and we don’t mean Greatest of All Time) are the ones who haven’t accepted Jesus as their Savior. They won’t be let into heaven. “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? …” (I Cor. 6: 9 HCSB). Only those who have accepted Jesus as their Savior will be sheep on the right.
No, that doesn’t make the second commandment any less important. Jesus was only asked for the greatest commandment. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Mt. 22: 36 NIV). He was the one Who added the bonus: “And the second is like it …” (Mt. 22: 39 NIV). He wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t important. The second commandment just isn’t as important as the first. The second commandment is suppose to flow from the first.
Hear, Believe, Act
God doesn’t want us to only hear what He is telling us in His Word. He wants us to put it into practice. “But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and do not simply listen and then forget it, but put it into practice — you will be blessed by God in what you do” (Jas. 1: 25 GNT). We put His guidelines into practice by treating those around us how He would treat us.
Did you see what that says — “… the perfect law that sets people free …” Then it goes on to the doing. The hearing and believing have to come first. You can’t have the entrance to heaven by being a kind person without the trust in God.
Is the Action Really Inaction?
The second thing missed is what the actions are. It doesn’t mean that the sheep let the goats believe anything the goats wanted. It means the sheep supported them during the rough spots in their lives. It means we share the love of Christ with them so they can become redeemed.
We need to look at what sin is for a second. Galatians 5: 19-21 says the works of the flesh (a.k.a. sin) “… are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (ESV). People try to use Matthew 25: 31-46 to mean that believers have to condone sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, yada, yada, yada. That’s wrong.
Believers are not called to tolerate the sins of others. Sometimes, I think the world wants believers to give a blanket pass to those pursuing a life of sin. They don’t understand that forgiveness comes to us individually.
Believers are to love non-believers and support them in order to show God to them. Jesus came to earth to be the sacrifice to pay the price for our sins. He also came to be an example as to how we are to live. He came to show us Who God really is. If we follow His example, we show others Who God really is.
But Believers Keep Sinning
Are believers going to commit yada, yada, yada? Yes — at least yada. We want to follow God’s guidelines, but we are still human. We are still in our sinful flesh. That makes a tug of war that we sometimes lose.
Thankfully, “But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing” (I Jn. 1: 9 GNT). All we have to do is go to the Father, confess what we did wrong, be forgiven, and turn from doing that sin.
What is God’s promise? “‘The mountains and hills may crumble, but my love for you will never end; I will keep forever my promise of peace.’ So says the LORD who loves you” (Isa. 54: 10 GNT). His love for us is never ending.
Yes, it is hard. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mt. 7:13-14 NKJV). Yes, believers will mess up at times. We won’t be perfect until we are one of the sheep in line.
No, we can’t get into heaven by just being a kind person. We have to follow the first commandment to love God with our whole being before we can love everyone else. After that, it is a work in progress.
Father. That You love us is beyond our comprehension. But You loved us so much that You sent Your Son to give us new and eternal life (Jn. 3: 16). You ask us that we model, as Christ did, Your love to those around us. In today’s world, we run into people who would rather just be kind people than put their trust in You. Help us to show them the Way. Work in their hearts and lives to make them more receptive to You and Your love. Lord, we don’t want them to be goats. We want them to be sheep. Amen.
What do you think?
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