Matthew 25:41-46 41“Then he will also say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not care for me.’ 44Then 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?’ 45Then 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.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The next paragraph about the goats echoes the first previous paragraph about the sheep. The great separation will put the goats on the left, the side considered cursed in the ancient world. The goats are commanded to depart from the Good Shepherd. Verse 41 gives four insights into the nature of hell. First, it is being away from the Savior, Jesus, who is the source of eternal life. Second, it is a cursed place, the opposite of blessing. Curses in the Bible bring pain, sorrow, and emptiness. Third, it is a place of fire, which represents great suffering and destruction. Fourth, it is the destiny of the devil and his angels who are enemies of God’s people. None of these descriptions are what any person would want to experience.
The reason for the curse of the goats is how they treated others during their lifetime on earth. They neglected to do the very things that the sheep did. One possible reason for this is their nature. They did not do the same things as Jesus because they did not have Jesus living within them, guiding their actions. They lived for themselves and followed their selfish nature. They did not see the hungry and thirsty needing food and drink, strangers needing a place to stay, the naked without anything to wear, and those who were sick and imprisoned and had no one to look after them. By neglecting to love others in tangible ways, they neglected to serve Jesus. Selfish love can deteriorate to self-destruction.
Verse 46 gives the final verdict and warning to this scenario. Eternal punishment is a difficult teaching to accept because we like to emphasize and think about God’s love and grace. Grace is meaningless without the opposite of condemnation. Hell exists because of God’s utter holiness. God gives the choice to humans whether to follow the path of light to his holiness or to walk the path of self to punishment. Jesus’ words contain great seriousness and heaviness for our consideration. He connects righteousness with acts of charity. Righteousness cannot simply be an attitude or inner thought shown through the occasional act of piety, like going to a church service. The Pharisees were good at this, and Jesus condemned them as hypocrites for it. Righteousness must be shown with loving activities that model the type of actions Jesus did in his ministry.
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