Matthew 25:31

Mat_25:31

When the Son of Man shall come in His glory.

-The righteous at the judgment.

I. The kingly character of the lord Jesus.

II. The character of the people of God.

1. Blessed of God.

2. Represented as being at the right hand of God.

III. That to which the people of God are introduced.

1. A kingdom.

2. A prepared kingdom. (B. W. Bucke, M. A.)

The peculiar character of the general judgment

I. Who are to be judged?-All nations.

II. The judge of man.

1. The Judge will be righteous in His decisions.

2. The Judge Himself having been the witness of all the moral actions of men will require no evidence.

3. Then why do we live so thoughtlessly?

III. The issue of the judgment. Final separation of the wicked and the righteous. (R. Jones, B. A.)

The last judgment

I. The personal glory and majesty of the judge.

1. He will appear in that nature which He assumed as the Saviour of men.

2. The attributes of a suffering and degraded humanity will not be requisite to identify the Judge.

3. Heavens innumerable inhabitants will accompany the Son of Man.

4. Then shall He set up the throne of His glory.

II. The supreme prerogatives of the son of man as displayed in the judgment of the world.

1. The veil has been removed which conceals His dignity.

2. His unsearchable wisdom and power is further exhibited in the separating process.

III. The principle on which the awards of the judgment will be distributed.

1. The Judge speaks from His throne as King in Zion.

2. He proceeds to assign reasons for the Fathers having thus received them.

3. The language of surprise on the lips of the righteous.

IV. The final state of the righteous.

1. Express our solemn satisfaction in the assurance that Christ will sit as Judge of the race.

2. Let us daily demonstrate our love to Christ by abounding in works of mercy.

3. If through self-interest any Christian be undone, he will be found without apology. (J. Dixon.)

The judgment

I. The vast assemblage.

1. All the holy angels.

2. All nations.

3. All classes.

4. All ages.

5. All characters.

6. We shall be there.

7. All must obey the summons. Each must answer to his name.

II. The final separation.

1. Here, this separation is impossible. The tares grow with the wheat.

2. Here, while many unions are injurious, many separations are painful. There, all will feel that the separation is right.

3. It will be based on character. Here wealth, etc. sunders men. There, all will belong to one of two classes-sheep or goats.

4. Viewed from our present standpoint, many of those separations will be painful,

III. The solemn sentence.

1. Even to the good.

2. Still more to the wicked. There will be no reversal of the sentence.

3. Execution will promptly follow the sentence. (J. C. Gray.)

The great day of the Lord

Contrast the first and last coming of Christ.

I. Its great revelations.

II. Its great account.

III. Its great separation.

IV. Its great decision. (D. Gerok, D. D.)

The final separation

I. Its author.

1. His ability.

2. His prerogative.

II. Its nature.

1. Its exactness.

2. Its completeness.

3. Its consequences in respect to place and employment and interest.

4. Its duration.

III. Its principle.

1. On the ground of character.

2. The test of character being the state of mind and heart toward the Redeemer.

3. The evidence of a right state of mind and heart toward the Redeemer being the treatment of His people. If we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. (G. Brooks.)

The final separation

I. The important period referred to. When the Son of Man shall come.

1. What this statement implies. It is the certainty of the Saviours second coming; no intimation given of the precise time.

2. What this statement announces-It tells us how He will come.

(1) The manner of His appearing-in His glory.

(2) His numerous retinue-and all the holy angels.

(3) The dignified position He will assume-Then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory.

II. The solemn transactions described.

1. The persons who will appear before Him-all nations.

2. The division that will take place-and He shall separate them.

III. The separate awards pronounced.

1. The righteous.

(1) The ineffable welcome they receive.

(2) The special reasons adduced.

(3) The questions which the favoured throng propose.

(4) The explanation which is given in reply.

2. The wicked.

(1) Their awful doom.

(2) The grounds on which it rests.

IV. The final issue declared-And these shall go away, etc. (Expository Outlines.)

The great separation

I. Let us contemplate it as a revealed fact.

II. The nature of this separation.

1. It will be made by the Judge Himself.

2. It will be made wholly on the ground of moral character.

3. It will take place at the judgment day.

4. It will be a separation in place and residence.

5. It will be a separation in interest and employment.

6. It will be eternal.

III. On what ground it will be made.

1. Upon our moral character formed in this state of probation.

2. This has an important bearing upon our earthly friendships.

3. What must be done in order to avoid being separated with the wicked. (G. Coad.)

The great separation

I. The coming.

II. The sitting.

III. The gathering.

IV. The separating.

V. The convicting.

VI. The sentencing.

VII. The executing. (Dr. Bonar.)

Christ come in His glory

The Judge of this world is Jesus Christ. Let us inquire-

I. How Christ cometh to be the worlds Judge; and with what conveniency and agreeableness to reason this honour is put upon Him. To a judge there belongeth these four things-

(1) Wisdom;

(2) justice;

(3) power;

(4) authority.

II. Why is Christ the Judge of the world rather than the Father, and the Spirit, who made us and gave the law to us? These have one common nature, and the operations that are with the Divine essence, are common to them all. There is also an order and economy, according to which all their operations are produced, and brought forth to the creature; according to which order their power of judging fell partly to the Father, and partly to the Son. (T. Manton.)

Christs appearance

Doctrine. That Christs appearance for the judgment of the world shall be glorious and full of majesty.

I. His personal glory

1. The dignity of His person.

2. The quality of His office.

3. The greatness of His work.

4. The foregoing appearances of Christ. Why will He come in this great glory?

(1) To take off the scandal and ignominy of the cross.

(2) To beget a greater reverence and fear in the hearts of all those that shall be judged by Him.

(3) For the comfort of His people; for Christ is a pattern and pledge of what shall be done in them.

II. His royal attendance-Holy angels with Him.

1. Partly for a train.

2. Partly that, by their ministry, the work of the day may be more speedily dispatched. (T. Manton.)

Christ the Shepherd

A shepherd among men is not lord of the flock, but a servant to take charge of them.

I. Christ is a good shepherd.

1. Known by His care and vigilancy.

2. Shown by His pity and wisdom, to deal tenderly with the flock, as their state doth require.

3. Seen in His constantly.performing all parts of a shepherd to them.

4. Proved in His giving His life for them.

II. Christ is a great shepherd.

1. Great in His person; the Son of God.

2. Great in regard to the excellency of His gifts and qualifications.

3. Great in regard of His flock; He is the Shepherd of souls, millions of them are committed to His charge, and one soul is more worth than all the world. (T. Manton.)

The godly are as sheep

1. Sheep are such kind of creatures as naturally gather themselves together, and unite themselves in a flock.

2. They are innocent and harmless creatures.

3. They are obedient to the shepherd.

4. They are poor, dependent creatures

(a) because of their erring (wandering)property;

(b) because of their weakness. (T. Manton.)

The wicked are as goats

They are as goats both for their unruliness and uncleanness. Unruliness; they have not the meekness of sheep; are ready to break through all fence and restraint; so a wicked man is yokeless. They are also wanton and loathsome-tis a baser sort of animal than the sheep-therefore chosen to set forth a wicked and ungodly man. (T. Manton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 25:31. When, &c. — The same great truth, that there is no such thing as negative goodness, which was shown, 1st, in the parable of the virgins; 2d, in the still plainer parable of the servants who had received the talents; is here shown a third time, in a direct unparabolical declaration of the manner in which our Lord will proceed at the last day. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, &c. — With what majesty and grandeur does Christ here speak of himself! giving us one of the noblest instances of the true sublime. Indeed, not many descriptions in the sacred writers themselves seem equal to this. We can hardly read it without imagining ourselves before the awful tribunal it describes. He styles himself the Son of man here, because, when he appears as the great Judge, he will appear in the human form, and as very man, as he is, being to judge the sons of men. For by being of the same nature with those whom he judges, and having shared with them in human infirmity, he is the more proper for the office of their judge. But no one that reads this can reasonably suppose that he who speaks thus is a mere man. He is termed the Son of man, too, because his wonderful condescension in taking upon him our nature, and becoming the Son of man, will be recompensed by his exaltation in that day. For he shall come, not only in the glory of his Father, but in his own glory as mediator. His first coming was under a dark cloud of obscurity; but his second will be in a bright cloud of glory. Doubtless if his disciples understood and believed what he here declares concerning his future glory, it would help them to meet with fortitude the offence of the cross, and prepare them for the approaching scene of his humiliation and sufferings. To manifest his glory still more, all the holy angels, who had long been subject to him as his ministering servants, shall now come along with him, and that not only for state, as his attendants, but for service, as ministers of his justice. They shall come to summon the court; to gather together the elect, to sever the wicked from the just, to be witnesses of the saints’ glory, Luk 12:8; and of the sinners’ misery, Rev 19:10. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory — A throne high and lifted up, and conspicuous to the eyes of the whole assembled world; the throne of judgment, very different from the throne of grace, upon which he now sits, with his Father, and to which we may come boldly.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 119. PICTURE OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT, Mat_25:31-46.

1. In the passage Mat_24:29-31, the introductory circumstances of the judgment day are described. But as they are there introduced for a given purpose, namely, to contrast the sudden shock of that day with the slow process of the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord suspends the conclusion in order to attend to other points of the contrast, and to give parabolic illustrations of the nature of the coming of the Son of man. Now it is time that the commenced picture should be completed. Accordingly, a cursory examination will show that both parts of the picture perfectly fit to each other. This latter passage presupposes the other. Let them be read in connection and they will form one complete narrative.

2. There is not the slightest reason for calling this description a parable. In all the preceding parables the likeness, or parabolic similarity, is expressly declared. The kingdom of heaven is likened unto its illustration. All the terms here are literal. Surely the Mat_25:29-31 describe literal things by their literal names. And in this passage the literal Son of man, (not a parabolic husbandman or master of servants,) in his literal person, at his literal coming to the literal judgment, so often alluded to in Scripture, is described. The folly of calling it “a parable of the sheep and goats,” (of which even Olshausen is guilty,) is exposed in our comment on Mat_25:32.

3. A certain class of expositors as strenuously maintain that this passage is an allegory symbolizing the destruction of Jerusalem. They do this for the purpose of maintaining the tenets of universal salvation, by removing from the Bible the doctrine of a future judgment and a future retribution. In this they have had, we regret to say, but too much aid from the expositions of orthodox commentators of the present day. It is unnecessary for us to say how inadmissible such a perversion of the passage is, for it appears from our whole mode of explaining this discourse. We view the whole discourse as a distinguishing and not a blending of the two events, (the destruction and the advent,) which the disciples specified in their two questions.

31. Son of man — In all places in which the judgment scene is alluded to, it is not the Father but the Son who is the visible judge. Hence in Rev_20:12, God must be understood to designate the God incarnate, yet glorified. It is therefore strictly speaking a proof text of the divinity of the Son of man. Our Lord receives, or rather assumes this title not as a term solely of humiliation; but for the purpose of identifying himself as the Son of man, described in the glorious prophetic visions of Daniel. All the holy angels — That belong to the sphere of our mundane system. Throne of his glory — Of his final eternal kingdom. He exercises, like the judges of the Old Testament, both the judicial and regal authorities. Hence, in Mat_25:34, he is styled king, although the action is, on the face of it, judicial.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Mat_25:31. When the Son of man shall come, etc.—The paragraph, Mat_25:31-46, is not a parable, as some, inclusive of Townsend and Olshausen, have supposed, but a prophecy. It is a prophecy, however, which is largely imbued with parabolic and dramatic symbolisms; and which, consequently, requires for its interpretation the careful discrimination of substance and form, essence and accident (Morison). His glory.—His personal glory. The throne of His glory.—The glory of His judicial authority (Brown).

Mat_25:32. All nations.—Either

(1) all the nations of the world, including the Jews; or

(2) all the Gentiles. The almost invariable use of τὰ ἔθνη to signify the Gentiles; the unconsciousness of service to Christ shown by just and unjust alike; the simplicity of the standard proposed by the Judge, favour the second interpretation. On the other hand, the special warning to the Apostles, and to the Jewish race, in the previous parts of the discourse render it probable that Jews and Christians are not excluded from this picture of the judgment. The unconsciousness of the judged may be referred, not to ignorance of Christ, but to unconsciousness that in relieving the distressed they were actually relieving Christ. The simplicity of the standard may be intended to include what is called “natural” religion, as well as revealed religion. The nations are judged by a standard of justice which all recognise. Read Rom_1:18-20; Rom_2:9-16 (Carr). As a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.—The sheep and goats are always seen together under the same shepherd and in company; yet they never trespass on the domain of each other.… When folded together at night they may always be seen gathered in distinct groups; and so, round the wells they appear instinctively to classify themselves apart, as they wait for the troughs to be filled (Tristram). The goat was not in evil repute in the East, as contrasted with the sheep; on the contrary, the he-goat was a symbol of dignity, so that the point of analogy is merely the separation between the sheep and the goats (Carr).

Mat_25:41. Ye cursed.—Through their own fault penetrated by the curse of God (Lange).

Mat_25:46. Everlasting punishment … life eternal.—Eternal punishment … eternal life (R.V.). The two adjectives represent one and the same Greek word, αἰώνιος, and we ought, therefore, to have the same word in both clauses in the English. Of the two words “eternal” is philologically preferable, as being traceably connected with the Greek, the Latin æternus being derived from ætas, and that from ævum, which, in its turn, is but another form of the Greek αἰὼν (æon) (Plumptre).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_25:31-46

The end itself.—Respice finem. Look to the end. Call no man happy till death. Children and fools should not be allowed to see half-done deeds. All these express what, on a far grander scale, is expressed in this passage. Its whole structure is eschatological in the highest degree. The Son of man has come in His glory; all the holy angels are with Him; all nations are assembled before Him; all the ages of Time are over; nothing remains but to pass sentence on all. What do we learn from it all? Principally, that the end of all things will show all things in a light of its own. This is shown, first, in the view it gives of men’s lives; secondly, in the view it gives of men’s motives.

I. The view it gives of men’s lives.—To us, now, there appear to be many differences—many in number and in importance as well—between one man’s life and another’s. To us, even the same life appears at times to differ much from itself. “The end” will show us that each individual life should be regarded rather as one. As we, then, “look back” upon it, we shall see this to be true. In much the same way soldiers both see and reckon when the day of battle is over. Either the enemy’s position has been captured, or it stands where it did. Either we are in possession of it, or we are not. If not the former, then, whatever the vicissitudes of the interim—not only so, but whatever, also, its gains—the day has been one of defeat. That is its character as a whole. Very similar to this will it be with us all when the individual battle of life is seen in the “perspective” of its end. All other differences and passing distinctions will be lost, then, in this one. All other dissimilarities between man and man will be obliterated in this. The mere “accidents” of comparative wealth and personal advantages and reputation and dignity, will be seen, then, to be such. Did the man succeed, or did he fail, in that which was all-important to his destiny? Did he win the day, or did he lose it, from his point of view as a soldier? That is the distinction—the only distinction—which will be of any weight then. The present parable expresses this with singular force. Its whole final issue is made to depend on the single word “not.” There are those who “did.” There are those who “did not” (cf. 34–36, 42, 43). Nothing whatever, in distinguishing between them, is mentioned beside of an external description.

II. The view it gives of men’s motives.—Why will so much be then made of that outward difference of which we have spoken? Because of the still greater inward difference which it betokens. This is easily seen, on the one hand, in a general way. Why is it that some succeed, and others do not, in the battle referred to? That some “do,” and others “do not,” the things mentioned by Christ? The answer is to be found, in part, in the respective state of their hearts. One man has chosen the will of God before everything else. The other has chosen something else—be this what it may—in its stead. Naturally, therefore, this latter man has not succeeded in doing God’s will. How should he, indeed, if he has only desired it, at best, with part of his heart? Equally naturally, therefore, the other man has been (at least) in the way of success, and has won the day, in short, because, in comparison with the former man, he has given his heart to that task. This is, therefore, one great secret which will be brought out thus at the “end.” The man who did not win will be shown, then, to have never really, because never fully, intended to win. But there is another secret, and that a deeper one, which will be brought out at that time. There is, if we may call it so, a highly specialised way of proving the point we are on. On one thing, as it were, above all other things, God has set the stamp of His will; and that is that the fulness of honour should be paid by all to His Son. This will of His has been proclaimed, on the one hand, in heaven above. “Worship Him, all ye gods” (Psa_97:7; Heb_1:6). This, therefore, by implication, is what we are taught to pray for on earth (Mat_6:10). Also, and that as expressly as may be, by Jesus Himself (Joh_5:23). Yet this is just the point, again, as a matter of fact, in which men are most opposed to God’s will; as is shown by the way in which they treat the representatives of Christ in the world (see Act_9:5; Psa_105:15, Jerome’s translation—Nolite tangere meos Christos”); and as is also implied, on both sides, with great clearness here in Mat_25:40; Mat_25:45. Not, however, that this truth is now seen as it should be on either side of the case. Neither those who do minister, nor those who refuse to minister, to these persons are aware now of the extent to which they are influenced in their conduct by what they discover and perceive in these persons of the image of Christ, and so, therefore, of the will of Him whom Christ alone can fully, and does fully, set forth (Joh_14:8-9). That, on the contrary, is what the day which “declares” all things will alone fully make known; and will make known, also, in such a way as to be an astonishment then unto all (Mat_25:37-39; Mat_25:44), and so, therefore, “reveal” to all men the true character of their lives, and the full extent to which they were opposed to or in harmony with the will of God as declared to men in His Son. “Ye did it to Me.” “Ye did it not to Me.” That is the summary of the whole. That is what will be shown, then, of the thoughts of us all. Utterly unperceived by most, and only dimly seen by any, before the time of the end, this is one of the first things which the end itself will make at once permanently and undeniably clear.

These things may prepare us, therefore, for what we read finally here about the character of the “end”; how it is marked:—

1. By the idea of separation.—Men will be shown then to have been either with God or else against God, in that which was nearest His heart. How inevitable, therefore, in the “day” which is to put all things right, that such as these should be “divided” asunder (Mat_25:32-33)! How fitting, also, that what is said to them respectively should be the words “come” and “depart” (Mat_25:34; Mat_25:41). And how necessary, once more, that the issues following these should be things as far apart as they can be! Even as far as between a throne (Mat_25:34), on the one hand, and a prison-house (Mat_25:46) on the other.

2. By the idea of duration.—On this most solemn of subjects there seem to be two things to be equally shunned. Over-pressing the language employed, on the one hand. Wresting it, on the other. That the idea of duration is emphatically present cannot be denied (Mat_25:46). That there is nothing in the nature of what is told us, and nothing also in the way in which it is told us, to suggest the idea of termination, seems equally plain. May it not be wisest to leave the subject in that negative form? Even so, it is awful enough!

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Mat_25:31-46. The general judgment.—The following are the prominent dogmatic points.

I. Christ is the Judge of the world.—Cf. Act_10:42; Act_17:31.

II. The judgment shall be exercised by Him upon all mankind.—The general resurrection is included, so that all nations may be assembled.

III. The standard of judgment will be the question, how they reputed and dealt with Christ in the world; how they regulated their conduct toward Him in His own person, and in His unseen life in humanity as the Logos; how, therefore, they honoured or dishonoured the Divine in themselves and in their fellow men; how they showed christological piety in christological humanity; or how, in short, they behaved toward Christ in the widest sense of the word.

IV. The demand of the judgment will be the fruit of faith in Christian love of men, or human love of Christ. Thus not merely

(1) doctrinal faith, or

(2) external works without a root of faith, or

(3) merely individual evidences of good. But decided goodness in its maturity and consistency, as it acknowledged Christ or felt after Him, in all His concealments, with longing anticipations.

V. The specific form of the requirement will be the requirement of the fruit of mercy and compassion; for the foundation of redemption is grace, and faith in redeeming grace must ripen into the fruits of compassion. Sanctified mercy, however, is only a concrete expression for perfected holiness generally, or the sanctification of Christ in the life.

VI. The finished fruit of faith and disposition is identical with the man himself, ripe for judgment.

VII. The judgment appears to be already internally decided by the relation which men have assumed toward Christ, or the character which they have borne; but it is published openly by the separation of those who are unlike, and the gathering together of all who are like; it is continued in the sentence which illustrates the judgment by words, and confirms it by the extorted confession of conscience; it is consummated by the fact of the one company inheriting the kingdom, and the other departing to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

VIII. This perfected separation implies also the total change of the earth; on the one side the view opens upon the finished kingdom of God; on the other the view opens upon hell, now unsealed for the lost.

IX. The time of the judgment is the final and critical period in which all preparatory judgments are consummated.

1. The judgments of human history in this world.

2. The judgments in Hades in the other world. See Luk_16:19.

3. The great judgments which will begin at the manifestation of Christ.—J. P. Lange, D.D.

Mat_25:31. The glory of Christ in the judgment.—He will be glorious:—

I. In His power.

II. In His omniscience.

III. In His righteousness.

IV. In His grace.—Niemann.

Mat_25:32. The twofold classification.—“I can understand what is to become of the sheep, and I can understand what is to become of the goats; but how are the alpacas to be dealt with?” These words, quoted by a writer in The Nineteenth Century, touch one of the difficulties of the last judgment that has probably occurred at some time or other to most of us. The alpaca is a half-domesticated animal that is pastured in large flocks on the upper ranges of the Andes in Chili and Peru. It has long, lustrous hair, and in many respects is not unlike the sheep. An untravelled Eastern shepherd would probably call it a sheep. At the same time it possesses some of the characteristics of the goat. After all, however, it is neither sheep nor goat, but a species of small camel. By the “alpaca” I suppose the writer meant the man who has admirable and attractive social qualities, but who seems to be almost destitute of religious interest and sympathy and leaning. We do meet with that type of man at times. Now the question arises, Is there a nondescript type in character, corresponding to the alpaca in animal life—a type for which the classification set up in the text provides no appropriate place? A little reflection will enable us to see that Christ’s twofold classification—rigid, narrow, unsympathetic, as some men may pronounce it—is sufficiently comprehensive to embrace all stages, and growths, and varieties, of human character.

I. A man cannot live out his span of destiny upon earth, be it long or short, without acquiring for himself clear moral determination in one direction or another.—All supposed alpacas, upon careful examination, will be found to be either slightly-disguised sheep or slightly-disguised goats. High, unselfish, deep-rooted, inward morality is one with the most exalted religion. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least,” etc. The working out of that principle will scarcely leave you room for the alpaca, the unspiritual moralist, the irreproachable worldling, the man who is too good for the left hand, and not quite qualified to take a place on the right.

II. The elements that make and keep a man right in his earthly relationships are essentially one with the elements that make and keep a man right in his heavenly relationships.—The same qualities that will harmonise a man with the demands of his fellow-men will harmonise him likewise with the law and character of the great God. Faith, love, reverence, justice, rectitude, enthusiasm for goodness, steadfast longing and striving to bring benediction into the lives we touch and sway—these are the things needed to make a man all he should be in his relations with his fellow-man, and these are the things needed no less to make a man all he should be in his relations with his God and Father, and Saviour and King.

III. These moral and religious distinctions exist amongst those whose education in spiritual things has been superficial and defective.—The man who has the minimum of religious knowledge may sometimes be a latent Christian. And the other side of the lesson is equally true, a side enforced in the closing sentences of the Sermon on the Mount,—the man who has the maximum of religious knowledge may be a Christian in nobody’s judgment but his own.—T. G. Selby.

Mat_25:34-46. Will the final Assize be held on faith or on character?—As a matter of fact, the best public mind under all religions has judged by character, and has done so with a keen sense of justice and a conviction of paramount authority. When the individual has to form an estimate of his neighbour in critical circumstances, he ignores his opinions and weighs his virtues. No one, for instance, would leave his wife and children to a trustee because he happened to be a Trinitarian, but only because his friend was a true man before God. It is a working principle of life that judgment goes by character, and if in the end it should go by faith, it might be in keeping with some higher justice we know not here; but it would cover our moral sense with confusion and add another to the unintentional wrongs men have endured, in this world, at their fellows’ hands. It were useless to argue about a matter of which we know nothing, and where speculation is vain. We must simply accept the words of Jesus, and it is an unspeakable relief to find our Master crowning His teaching on character with the scene of the Last Judgment. The prophecy of conscience will not be put to shame, nor the continuity of this life be broken. When the parabolic form is reduced and the accidental details laid aside, it remains that the Book of Judgment is the Sermon on the Mount, and that each soul is tried by its likeness to the Judge Himself. Jesus has prepared the world for a startling surprise, but it will not be the contradiction of our present moral experience; it will be the revelation of our present hidden character.—John Watson, M.A.

Mat_25:34-40. The surprise of the righteous.—

I. The special peculiarity of the persons of whom our Lord here speaks, is that they did not know, that they had no suspicion, that in showing kindness to men, they were showing kindness to Christ. “Lord,” they answer, “when saw we Thee?” It is a revelation to them, in the strictest and deepest sense of the word. But who are they? I think we must agree with some of the best commentators, that they are persons who, till the Day of Judgment, have never heard of Christ; but who then, for the first time, as Dean Alford says, “are overwhelmed with the sight of the grace which has been working in upon them and the glory which is now their blessed portion.”

II. If this be the true meaning of our Lord’s words, what comfort and hope they may give us, when we think, as we are bound to think, if we have a true humanity in us, of the hundreds of millions of heathens now alive, and of the thousands of millions of heathens who have lived and died! The wages of sin are death, and can be nothing else. But may not Christ have His elect among them? May not His Spirit be working in some of them? They are Christ’s lost sheep, but they are still His sheep who hear His voice.

III. How shall we know Christ’s sheep when we see them? How, but by the very test which Christ has laid down in this very parable?—C. Kingsley, M.A.

Mat_25:34. The public adoption.—The Romans had two forms of adoption: one private, the other public. One was at home in the adopter’s house. This was the agreement and union between the adopter and the adopted. The other form was in public, in the forum, where, in presence of the people, the adopter took the adopted for his son and heir. Thus God by His Spirit, when we believe in Jesus, receives us and seals us as His children. The public adoption is to come. “We wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.” When, at the resurrection of the just, Jesus will say, “Come, ye blessed children of My Father,” etc. our adoption shall be manifested.—C. Graham.

Mat_25:37-39. Christ the Interpreter of conduct.—It is not simply the idea of modesty that is expressed. Something profounder is suggested. There is a mystery in many of the actions of men which needs the interpretation of the Master.—J. Morison, D.D.

Mat_25:40. Our suffering brethren.—Some four days before these words were spoken, one of our Lord’s adherents had attempted to set up a rivalry betwixt the claims of his Master and those of the poor, when a warm-hearted woman, moved with gratitude, broke over the feet of Jesus costly spikenard. Judas thought that better use could have been found for the money had it been given in charity. It was then, and it is still, a very false sentiment which would attempt to make competing claims out of what is due to God’s worship on the one hand and to the service of suffering humanity on the other. Such an unseemly competition as this has no real existence. Edward Irving had it engraved on the silver plate of his congregation that when the offerings of the people no longer sufficed for the wants of God’s poor ones, the sacred vessels were to be melted down to supply the deficiency. And he was right; it is the mind of the Master. Christ has expressly transferred to the honest and suffering poor His own claims on the devotion of His people.

I. Our suffering brothers are to us in the room of Christ.—Why does Christ thus find His true representatives in men who suffer? It is not a question very easy to answer. If He meant these words to be strictly confined to the pious, then that would be enough—we should not need to inquire further; but I am not at all satisfied that we are entitled to limit His words so narrowly. Am I to ask, “Is this poor creature a Christian?” before I relieve him for Christ’s sake? Or does Jesus not care to reward your kindness if you show it to the unbeliever? We must try to understand on what ground it is that the great Lord of men, the Saviour and Friend of all men, identifies Himself with every human being, and with those human beings most of all who are afflicted.

1. He chose to be Himself a sufferer, poor, and “acquainted with grief”; and, I suppose, the recollection of His own straitened lot will teach Him to care most for those who are in like case.

2. Our Saviour’s design in coming here at all was to be a healer, a rescuer, a comforter for mankind.—He is the ideal Man, the representative Sufferer for all mankind. “Do it to any of them, you do it unto Me.”

II. The advantage of this arrangement.—

1. To Christ’s people.—More or less in the case of every Christian who fairly comes within the spell of it, the love of Christ has become the master passion, and the most effective and enduring of all inducements known to human history. Now consider how great the misfortune would have been if Jesus, after evoking, creating such a tremendous force as this, had not yoked it to any practical service or utility. Like all wasted religion of enthusiasm, it must have spent itself in a mischievous asceticism or a mischievous fanaticism. Christ does not bid you spend your strength in building cathedrals, or chanting Te Deums. No; you may quite lawfully do all that if you like, and more, in His honour; but if you really want to please Him, then His directions are very simple. He bids you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and heal the sick.

2. To the afflicted members of the race.—Are you surprised that Christ should champion so magnificently the classes whom society is wont to hustle out of sight? I am not: it is just like Him! But it surprises me exceedingly that the very classes for whom He claims everything that He might have claimed for Himself are grown in a large measure to forget Christ and to despise His name.—J. O. Dykes, D.D.

Mat_25:46. Everlasting punishment.—I. Man’s conscience, until he deadens it. speaks out clearly, that punishment is the due reward of our deeds.—But of what duration? All knowledge as to eternity must come from the Eternal, whose it is. It is a common formula of those who venture to object anything to God’s revelation—it is inconceivable that God should visit passing acts of sin with an eternity of misery. But who so revealed to us that sin ceases in the evil, when life ceases? Never do men abandon sin, except by receiving God’s converting grace. To sin on is nature. It grows, deepens, hardens, becomes more malignant, more ingrained, more a part of man’s self until the hour of death. Why, unless changed even then by the grace of God, should it change in eternity?

II. Unchangeableness may be, for what we know, one of the laws of eternity.—We know that it shall be of the blessed. Heaven could not be heaven unless they were fixed in good. And it may be an equal law of our moral nature that those who reject God in time, even to the end, will, by a continuance of that same fixed will, reject Him everlastingly.

III. Place alone does not make heaven or hell.—Hell, with the love of God, were as heaven: without the love of God, it may be, it seems even probable, that heaven would be the worst hell. As we see in Satan, the sinner, even apart from God’s judgments on sin, carries about within him his own hell.

IV. Never will you know anything of the depth of sin, or of the deeper depth of the love of Christ or of God, until you not only believe in the abstract, but accustom yourselves to think of that awful doom, to which each wilful rejection of God’s voice in your conscience, was dragging you.—E. B. Pusey, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

FIFTH SECTION

THE FINAL JUDGMENT IN ITS LAST AND MOST UNIVERSAL FORM UPON ALL NATIONS; AND AS SEPARATION

Mat_25:31-46

(The Gospel for the 26th Sunday after Trinity.)

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy46 angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all [the] nations [πάντα τὰ ἔθνη]: and he shall separate [divide, ἀφοριεῖ] them one from another, as a [the, ὁ] shepherd divideth [ἀφορίζει] his [the] sheep [τὰ πρόβατα] from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34Then shall the King say unto them [those] on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was a hungered [hungry, ἐπείνασα], and ye gave me meat [to eat, φαγεῖν]:47 I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered 38[hungering, πεινῶντα], and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? [And, δέ] When 39saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,48 ye have done it unto me. 41Then shall he say also unto them [those] on the left hand, ,Depart49 from me. ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was a hungered [hungry], and ye gave me no meat [did not give me to eat, οὐκ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν]: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not:50 sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered [hungering], or athirst [thirsting], or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, an I did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment [eternal punishment, κόλασιν αἰών]: but the righteous into life eternal [eternal life, or everlasting life, ζωὴι αἰώον]51

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The final Judgment. General Remarks.—The new salient points of the last judgment are: 1. The Son of Man as Judge unfolds His perfect kingly and judicial glory. 2. He exercises judgment now upon all the nations of the earth, and upon all the generations of men. 3. He judges individuals according to their personal conduct, with as much strictness and reality as He judges the collective whole. 4. He finds in all the consummate character of their inner life and nature so expressly stamped upon them, that He can divide them as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. 5. He judges, therefore, according to the perfected consummation of the spiritual life in the works, and according to the fundamental idea of all good works—love and mercy. 6. He judges according to the standard of the universal life of Christ among men of all times, as well as of the historical Christ. 7. His sentence introduces a separation which must bring the earth itself, in its ancient form, to an end; for, the good are received into the kingdom of the Father, and the wicked are cast into hell.—Thus viewed in all its extension, it presupposes the general resurrection, and forms the conclusion of the Lord’s coming and parousia in this present state of things, of the one last day of a thousand years in a symbolical sense, that is, of a full and perfect judicial æon. Thus, as the first parable (Mat_24:45) must be placed at the beginning of these thousand years, and the second and third exhibit the further development of the kingly, judicial administration of Christ, this last judgment forms the great conclusion, as it is exhibited in 1Co_15:24 and Rev_20:9.

This decides the question as to whether it is merely a judgment upon Christians, or upon other than Christians, or upon all, both Christians and not Christians. The first was maintained by Lactantius, Euthymius, Grotius, and others; the second, by such as Keil, Olshausen, Crusius;52 the third, by Kuinoel, Paulus, Fritzsche. In favor of the first view—that Christians alone are here judged—it is alleged that the doctrine of the divine election comes in, Mat_25:34, of the righteous, Mat_25:37, etc. But, on the other hand, such also are spoken of as never had the consciousness of being in personal relation with Christ. It is supposed to decide in favor of the second hypothesis—those not Christians being the objects of the judgment—that the judgment proceeds not according to the law of faith, but according to the law of works and of love to man. But that Christians also will be judged at last by works, the fruits of faith, as being faith developed, is proved by Mat_7:21; Rom_2:6; 2Co_5:10; Gal_6:8, and the whole tenor and spirit of Christianity; and that, on the other hand, all the works of men will be judged, not according to their outward appearance, but according to their spirit and motive, or according to their real, though unconscious, faith in Christ, and love or drawing toward Him, is proved by an equal number of passages; e.g., Mat_10:40; Act_10:35; Rom_5:18, and the universally valid word: “The Lord seeth the heart.” De Wette urges, in favor of the third supposition, that in Mat_13:37-43; Mat_13:49, we find the plain idea of a final judgment upon Christians and those who are not Christians. De Wette here confounds good and bad with Christians and not Christians.

Our section certainly presupposes the universal nominal Christianization of the world, which must take place before the end of the world: the Christianization of mankind in this world (Mat_24:14; Rom_11:32), and of the whole of mankind in the other (Php_2:10; 1Pe_4:6). Such a Christianization would necessarily follow from the advent of Christ in itself; so far as it must constrain the nations to submission, and continue throughout an entire period of judgment, Revelation 20. The common notion, which terms every supposition of a more extended final period Chiliasm or Millennarianism, does not merit notice. It is beyond all things necessary that we should distinguish between a concrete and a fantastic doctrine about the last things. The differences are: 1. The former regards the thousand years as a symbolical number, as the mark of an æon, or the period of transition for the earth and mankind from the earthly to the heavenly condition (Irenæus; see Dorner’s History of Christology, I. p. 245). But millennarianism interprets the thousand years chronologically, and seeks to define their beginning. 2. Concrete eschatology regards the last period as the manifestation of a judgment, already internally ripe, on the ground of the perfect redemption accomplished through Christ. But millennarianism is not satisfied with the first redeeming appearance of Christ; i looks forward to the second as of greater importance 3. Concrete eschatology expects with the advent the beginning of a spiritual transformation of the present state of things; millennarianism expects a perfect glorification of things here as they are. 4. The former sees in the first resurrection only a revelation of the full life of the elect, destined to be helpers of Christ in the glorification of all humanity; but millennarianism regards that period as the time of the realization of Jewish, Jewish-Christian, pietistic, sectarian prerogatives and spiritual pretensions. 53

[We add here the remarks of Dr. Nast on the different views as to the subjects of the final judgment: “According to the premillennarian view, advocated by Olshausen, Stier, and Alford, the judgment here described does not include those that constitute the Church triumphant; that is, those who, at Christ’s personal coming to introduce the millennium, are either raised from the dead, or, if still living, are glorified and caught up together into the air, to meet the Lord (1Th_4:16-17; 1Co_15:25; 1Co_15:24; 1Co_15:51-52)—to reign with Christ, and with him to judge the world (1Co_6:2). The term ‘all nations,’ (πάντα τὰ ἔθνη,) it is said, is used in the same sense as the Hebrew ‘the nations, or Gentiles,’ as distinguished from God’s chosen people, and stands here in antithesis to the ‘brethren’ of Mat_25:40, who had already received their reward as wise virgins and faithful servants. In support of this view the following arguments are advanced: 1. ‘Those only are said to be judged who have done it or not done it to my brethren; but of the brethren themselves being judged there is no mention.’ In this argument we can see no point. The love of the brethren is the mark by which, our Saviour says, all men shall know that ye are my disciples. 2. ‘ The verdict turns upon works, and not upon faith.’ Surely this will be the case with every believer or Christian, when he is brought before the judgment-seat of Christ, whether at the beginning or close of the millennium, in so far as works are the fruit of faith, or true saving faith is only that which worketh by love (Mat_7:21; Rom_2:6; 2Co_5:10; Gal_6:8), and in so far as our good works spring from sincerity of heart, to which the Lord looketh (Act_10:35). Moreover, unless the plan of salvation is entirely changed in the millennial state—which, if we mistake not, the premillennarians deny—the nations living during the millennium will be judged according to their works, no more and no less than those that lived before the millennium. 3. Another objection to the common view is stated by Alford thus: ‘The answer of the righteous appears to me to show plainly that they are not to be understood as being the covenanted servants of Christ. Such an answer it would be impossible for them to make, who had done all distinctly with reference to Christ, and for His sake, and with His declaration of Mat_10:39-42, before them. Such a supposition would remove all reality, as, indeed, it has generally done, from our Lord’s description. See the remarkable difference in the answer of the faithful servant (Mat_20:22).’ The reply that the language in question is that of humility is said not to be satisfactory; but we know not why. Besides, the difficulty appears to us to be the same with regard to the people that have lived during the millennium. If they are to be saved, they also must have done their works for Christ’s sake, and, if so, they must have been conscious of it. We have given the grounds on which the premillennarian interpretation is based. In objection to it, it may further be urged that it is against common Scripture language to call any other than believers, the members of Christ’s mystical body, ‘sheep,’ or ‘righteous,’ or ‘the blessed of the Father, for whom the kingdom was prepared from the foundation of the world.’ With regard to the difficult question of our Lord’s second advent, Alford makes, at the close of his comments on the twenty-fifth chapter, a declaration breathing the docile spirit of the true Christian and of the thorough scholar. He says, (p. Matt 238:) ‘ I think it proper to state, in this third edition, that having now entered upon the deeper study of the prophetic portions of the New Testament, I do not feel by any means that full confidence which I once did in the exegesis, quoad prophetical interpretation here given of the three portions of this chapter 25. But I have no other system to substitute, and some of the points here dwelt on seem to me as weighty as ever. I very much question whether the thorough study of Scripture prophecy will not make me more and more distrustful of all human systematizing, and less willing to hazard strong assertion on any portion of the subject. July, 1855.’ ”—In the fourth edition Alford adds: “Endorsed, Oct. 1858.”—P. S.]

The representation of this judgment is not a parable or simile, as Olshausen thinks. It contains some of the elements of a parable; but really sets the judgment before us in its concrete form.

[Mat_25:31. Jerome remarks on the time of this discourse: “He who was within two days to celebrate the passover and to be crucified, fitly now sets forth the glory of His triumph.” This contrast deepens our view of the divine foresight and majesty of our Lord, and the sublimity of this description.—And all the [holy] angels with Him.—As witnesses and executive agents who take the deepest interest in man’s destiny and final salvation, comp. Heb_1:14; Mat_13:40; Mat_24:31; Luk_12:8. Bengel: Omnes angeli: omnes nationes: quanta celebritas! “The first-born of God, the morning stars of creation—beings that excel in strength, whose intelligence is immense, whose love for God and His universe glows with a quenchless ardor, and whose speed is as the lightning. Who can count their numbers? They are the bright stars that crowd in innumerable constellations every firmament that spans every globe and system throughout immensity.”—P. S.]

Then shall he sit.—Expression of finished victory.

Mat_25:32. And before Him shall be gathered.—Intimating a perfect voluntary or involuntary acknowledgment and submission; comp. Php_2:10.

And He shall divide them.—This is not merely the beginning, but the fundamental outline of all that follows.—As the shepherd divideth.—He was Himself the Shepherd, also, of the goats,—the Shepherd of all mankind. Hence He knows how to distinguish them perfectly, as they are perfected in good or evil.—The sheep from the goats.—Properly: the lambs from the he-goats, ἔριφοι. Goats and sheep are represented as pasturing together (comp. Gen_30:33). They were classed together under the name of small cattle. The wicked are here exhibited under the figure of goats. Why? Grotius: “on account of their wantonness and stench.” De Wette says (referring to Eze_34:17, where, however, it is otherwise): “The goats (he-goats) are of less value to the shepherd; they are wilder, and less easily led.” Meyer: “Because the value of these animals was held to be less (Luk_15:29); hence also, in Mat_25:33, the disparaging diminutive τὰ ερίφια.”54 But the main point of distinction is the gentleness and tractableness of the sheep, which points to a nobler nature; and the wild stubbornness of the goats, exhibiting an inferior, egotistical nature.55

Mat_25:33. On his right hand.—The side of preference and success.—On the left.—The opposite. On the omens of the right and left, see Schöttgen and Wetstein; comp. Virg. Æn. vi:542 sqq.

Mat_25:34. The King.—Not parabolical, as Olshausen thinks; but Christ in His advent comes forward with all His real kingly dignity.

Ye blessed of My Father.—They are the really blessed, as the regenerate, penetrated and renewed with the Spirit, life, and blessing of the Father, Eph_1:3.

Inherit the kingdom.—See Romans 8.—Prepared from the foundation of the world.—De Wette finds here the idea of predestination, Rom_8:28. But what is here spoken of is the eternal foundation of the kingdom for the subjects of the King. There is no contradiction to Joh_14:2. For here the calling and foundation is referred to; there, the actual building up of the heavenly community.56

Mat_25:35. Ye took Me in, συνηγάγετέ με.—Meyer: As members of My household. Deu_22:2 : συνάξεις αὐτὸν έ̔νδον εις τὴν οἰκίαν. Oriental hospitality was an essential form of love to our neighbor. See, in Wetstein and Schöttgen, the rabbinical sayings concerning the promise of paradise to the hospitable.

[Mat_25:35-36. Heubner: “The acts of love here named are not such as require merely an outlay of money, but such as involve also the sacrifice of time, strength, rest, comfort,” etc. On the other hand, Webster and Wilkinson justly observe on Mat_25:36, that the assistance to the sick and prisoners here is not healing and release, which only few could render, but visitation, sympathy, attention, which all can bestow. But whatever good they did, was done in faith and in humility, and consequently the product of divine grace. For charity is the daughter of faith, and faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who unites us to Christ.—P. S.]

Mat_25:37. Lord, when saw we Thee?—De Wette: “The language of modesty.” Olshausen: “The language of unconscious humility.” Meyer: “Actual declining of what was imputed, since they had never done to Christ Himself these services of love. The explanation is given in Mat_25:40.” Certainly, they have not yet any clear notion of the ideal Christ of the whole world. But this is connected with their humility; and it must not be lost sight of, since the opposite characteristic among the reprobate is exhibited as self-righteousness. [Origen: “It is from humility that they declare themselves unworthy of any praise for their good deeds, not that they are forgetful of what they have done.”]

Mat_25:40. To one of the least of these My brethren.—Not the apostles alone, but Christians generally, and pre-eminently the least of them. They are the least, the poorest, the last, in whom the divine life, which the Lord here recognises as brotherly love, is awakened.

[Stier, confining this judgment to the heathen, infers from this description that “a dogmatically developed faith in the Lord is not required of all men,” and condemns “all narrow dogmatism that would set limits to God’s infinite love.” Alford, taking a similar view of this section, remarks: “The sublimity of this description surpasses all imagination—Christ, as the Son of Man, the Shepherd, the King, the Judge—as the centre and end of all human love, bringing out and rewarding His latent grace in those who have lived in love—everlastingly punishing those who have quenched it in an unloving and selfish life—and in the accomplishment of His mediatorial office, causing even from out of the iniquities of a rebellious world His sovereign mercy to rejoice against judgment.” But we must not weaken the fundamental principle: out of Christ there is no pardon and no salvation. Every consideration of God’s justice and mercy, and every impulse of Christian charity leads us to the hope that those will be ultimately saved, who without knowing Christ in this life have unconsciously longed after Him as the desire of all nations and of every human soul, but it can only be through an act of faith in Christ, whenever He shall be revealed to them, though it be only on the judgment day. We cannot admit different terms of salvation.—P. S.]

Mat_25:41. Ye cursed.—Through their own fault penetrated by the curse of God. The appended “of My Father” is not now found here as in Mat_25:34. And so also, “from the beginning of the world” is not added to “prepared” here. Nor is it said, “prepared for you,” but, “for the devil.”57 The great judgment of fire is prepared for the devil, as a punishment for devilish guilt. Thus, these are here represented as having plunged themselves into the abyss of demoniac reprobation. The Rabbins disputed whether Gehenna was prepared before or after the first day of creation. According to the gospel, it will not be finished and made effective till the final judgment of the world (see Rev_20:10). The scholastic theology of the middle ages,58 instead of making it a final period, as in the gospel, gradually dated it back to the beginning, as the Rabbins.

[Mat_25:42-43. Only sins of omission are mentioned here; showing that the absence of good works, the destitution of love, or the dominion of selfishness, disqualifies man for blessedness, and is sufficient, even without positive crimes, to exclude him from heaven.—P. S.]

Mat_25:44. And did not minister unto Thee?—As if they would always have been ready to serve Him. But there is nothing of the spirit of love in their assumed readiness; only in the spirit of servitude they would have waited on Him had they seen Him. The ignorance of the blessed was connected with), their humility, as a holy impossibility of knowing; the ignorance of the cursed was of another kind, and closely connected with self-righteousness.59

Mat_25:46. Into everlasting punishment.—Comp. Dan_12:2 (εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον ... εἰς αὶσχύνην αιἰώνιον). Meyer finds the absolute idea of eternity in endlessness, and thinks even that ζωὴαἰώνιος describes an endless Messianic life. But in this last idea the intensive boundlessness of life is expressed (an abstract endless life might be also merely an endless existence in torment); and, therefore, the predominant notion of the opposite is an intensive one, too. We say only, the “predominant” one. For here also, as in the doctrine of the parousia of Christ, we must distinguish between religious and chronological notions and calculations.60

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The section is a parabolical discourse61 concerning the general judgment of the human race. Hence the essential ideas and the symbolical features are to be distinguished.

The following are the prominent dogmatic points:—(1) Christ is the Judge of the world; compare Act_10:42; Act_17:31; the Symb. Apost. (2) The judgment shall be exercised by Him upon all mankind: all nations shall appear before the throne—not merely those existing at the end of the world, but all generations. Therefore the general resurrection is included, so that all nations may be assembled. (3) The standard of judgment will be the question, how they reputed and dealt with Christ in the world; how they regulated their conduct toward Him in His own person, and in His unseen life in humanity as the Logos; how, therefore, they honored or dishonored the Divine in themselves and in their fellow-men; how they showed christological piety in christological humanity; or how, in short, they behaved toward Christ in the widest sense of the word. (4) The demand of the judgment will be the fruit of faith in Christians love of men, or human love of Christ. Thus not merely, (a) doctrinal faith; or (b) external works without a root of faith—of actual trust in Christ, or love for the divine in humanity (done it unto Me, done it not unto Me); (c) nor merely individual evidences of good; but decided goodness in its maturity and consistency, as it acknowledged Christ or felt after Him, in all His concealments, with longing anticipations. (5) The specific form of the requirement will be the requirement of the fruit of mercy and compassion; for the foundation of redemption is grace, and faith in redeeming grace must ripen into the fruits of compassion: see this in the Lord’s Prayer. Sanctified mercy, however, is only a concrete expression for perfected holiness generally, or the sanctification of Christ in the life; see Rev_21:8; Rev_22:15; Rev_22:6. (6) The finished fruit of faith and disposition is identical with the man himself, ripe for judgment. (7) The judgment appears to be already internally decided by the relation which men have assumed toward Christ, or the character which they have borne; but it is published openly by the separation of those who are unlike, and the gathering together of all who are like; it is continued in the sentence which illustrates the judgment by words, and confirms it by the extorted confession of conscience; it is consummated by the fact of the one company inheriting the kingdom, and the other departing to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. (8) This perfected separation implies also the total change of the earth: on the one side, the view opens upon the finished kingdom of God; on the other, the view opens upon hell, now unsealed for the lost. (9) The time of the judgment is the final and critical period in which all preparatory judgments are consummated: (a) the judgments of human history in this world; (b) the judgments in Hades in the other world (see Luk_16:19); (c) the great judgments which will begin at the manifestation of Christ (see chs. 24 and 25; Rev_20:1 sqq.). The more precise description of the form of this crisis is found in Rev_20:7-15.

As symbolical features of the scene, we may notice prominently:—(1) The enthronization of the Son of Man upon the judgment-seat: a figure of His perfected victorious glory (1Co_15:25). (2) The administration of Christ in the form of the separating shepherd: for He is still a shepherd; and one great reason of the judgment is the perfecting of the redemption of the good, the revelation of the kingdom (Revelation 21). (3) The sheep and the goats, with their separation, expressing the nature of their respective characters, as now perfectly stamped upon them in the resurrection. (4) The placing on the right hand and on the left; all the ideal characteristics of the judged being exhibited as personal relationship to Christ, and the whole sequel of the judgment being thus presented in one anticipatory act of decisive division. (5) The colloquy of the Judge and the judged: a disclosure of humility, on which the piety of the pious rests; and of pride, on which the reprobation of the wicked rests; and, at the same time, a clear exhibition of the oft-repeated truth, that men will judge themselves by their own words.

2. The historical judgment of Christ will be the simple, though solemn revelation62 of that spiritual judgment which, as to its beginning, is already decided in difference of character. It is the last quiet perfecting of a state already ripe and over-ripe. The blessed of the Father are already filled with blessing; and the kingdom, the foundation of which was laid before the foundation of the world, is already in full glory, finding now in the glorification of the world, of the heaven and the earth, its new form. The accursed are also, on their part, penetrated by the curse; and the hell to which they go is the kingdom of darkness in its consummation, separated from the kingdom of light and consigned to its proper place. “From the fall of Satan downward the eternal fire began to work on him and his; and, in connection with this development, there is going on in humanity also a great spiritual torment, a great fellowship in his destruction.”

3. “The coming of Christ would not be historically that which it was to be, if it were not at the same time spiritual; it would not be spiritually that which it was to be, if it were not historical also.”

4. Concerning the succession of the æons or epochs of which Rev_14:11; Mat_19:3; Matthew 21; Matthew 22; and 1Co_15:26-28, speak, nothing more is here said. But in the ζωὴ αιώνιος unlimited intensity is the first point, unlimited extension the second (for an endless existence is also imaginable as endlessly tormentel), and hence the opposite conception also must be understood in the religious and dynamic sense.

5. Otto von Gerlach: “The circumstance that the righteous also stand before the Judge, while the contrary seems to be stated in Joh_5:24; 1Co_6:2, is no serious difficulty. For, every one must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ (2Co_5:10; comp. Joh_3:15); although the Christian knows full well that he will be no more hurt by the last judgment than he was by those earlier judgments which fell upon him in common with the wicked.” We must carefully distinguish therefore between judgment to condemnation and judgment generally. The manifestation of the good will be the concrete judgment of the ungodly.

6. Prepared for you.—Gerlach: “From the foundation of the world: this shows that the reward in the future life will be a reward of grace. The for which follows states the ground of vocation to blessedness only so far as the works which the Lord mentions bear witness to the existence of faith.” It should be said rather, “bear witness to His life in believers;” for the final judgment will be not merely the confirmation of justification, but its perfected development in life.

7. “Christ manifestly assumes the personal existence of the devil, when he says that wicked men will suffer the same doom with him.” Heubner.

[8. “The great facts of the divine retribution, says Morison, the eternal bliss of the righteous, the eternal woe of the wicked, are indisputable, and the images of uplifting or appalling grandeur in which they are enveloped cannot act too powerfully on the heart of man. But the particulars, the blissful or terrible details, are wisely withheld from our mind, which in its present state of knowledge could not comprehend them, and would only be confounded or misled by any description of them in human language.”—P. S.]

[9. There is an eternal election to life, but no eternal foreordination to perdition (except as a secondary or conditional and prospective decree); there is a book of life, but no book of death. But “they who will serve the devil must share with him in the end.”—P. S.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The great judgment in its comprehensive importance: 1. A judgment upon the whole world; 2. a whole world of judgment (all judgments summed up in one). Or: 1. The Judge of the world (the Son of Man, whom the world judged, now in His glory); 2. the judged; 3. the separation, and the twofold sentence; 4. the end and issue of all.—The judgment of the world as the last great revelation 1. Of the great Judges 2. of the great judgment; 3. of the great redemption.—The last judgment, the great epiphany, Tit_2:13; and the end of the world.—Christ at that day will seal and finish His Pastoral office.—The Son of Man one with the Judge of the world: 1. The Son of Man is Judge of all; or, the divinity of the destiny of man.63 2. The Judge of all is the Son of Man; or, the humanity of the divine judgment.—Christ is all in all in the judgment: 1. He is the Judges 2. He is the Law, according to which judgment is pronounced (whether He was or was not regarded in His brethren); 3. He is Himself the Retribution:—(a) the recompense of the good; (b) the loss of the wicked.—Individuality reigns throughout the judgment: 1. All the fundamental laws of holy life appear in the person of Christ; 2. the spirit and work of men are manifest in personal characteristics; 3. blessedness and perdition are seen in the fellowship of persons.—Christ, once crucified, will speak as the King in the judgment.—The distinctions in the divine decrees of salvation and perdition: 1. Blessedness was prepared for men from the foundation of the world; 2. condemnation (the portion of the wicked with the devil and his angels) not till the end of the world.—Christ will at that day judge the divinity of our faith by its Christlike humanity, its sacred mercy—according to its fruits.—Men’s good or evil treatment of the suffering Christ in suffering humanity: 1. As the Christ in need: (a) hungry, and fed or not fed; (b) thirsty, and given to drink or not; (c) a stranger, and taken in or not. 2. As the Christ in suffering: (a) naked (poor), and clothed or not; (b) sick64 (wretched), and visited or not; (c) in prison (banished, persecuted, condemned), and receiving fellowship or not.—Have ye taken in Christ, though in strange garments? In the strange garments: 1. Of nationality; 2. of religion; 3. of confession (or denomination); 4. of scholastic terminology.65—The marks of good works which Christ will recognise: 1. The works of faith, which have, consciously or unconsciously, regarded Him in the brethren; 2. true works of faith, which have beheld Christ in men, and treated them accordingly, in actions (and not in dogmas only); 3. works resting on the ground of a true humility, which, wrought by the Spirit, knows not what good it has wrought.—Christ, as the Judge, will bring to light the most hidden roots of life, and principles of judgment: the humility of the godly, and the self-righteousness of the ungodly.—The great redemption and the great judgment are the consummation and complement of each other.—The great contrast in the issue of men’s ways and purposes: the kingdom of the Father, and the fire of Satan—And these shall go away: let us never forget the terrible end.

Starke:—Mark, ye scoffers, Christ will surely come to judgment; 2Pe_3:4.—Quesnel: The sinner may do his best now to fly from the presence of God; but he must finally make his appearance before His judgment-seat, Rom_14:10.—Canstein: That the faithful will themselves stand before the tribunal, is by no means a contradiction to their high prerogative of judging the world as spiritual kings, and of being as it were assessors of the Judge, 1Co_6:2.—Greg. Nazianz.: Nulla re inter omnes ita colitur Deus ut misericordiâ.—Hedinger: Good works shall be compensated, as if they had been done to Christ.—Canstein: Believers remain humble, even in their glorification.—The best good works are those which are done in hearty simphcity, and almost unthought of.—The blessed lose none of their honor through their humility; God glories in them all the more.—How great the love of Jesus, thus to call the faithful His own brethren!—If he must go into eternal fire to whom Christ says, “I was naked, etc.,” what place shall receive him to whom He will have to say, “I was clothed, and ye stripped Me?” Augustine.—Neglect of doing good is a grievous sin, Jam_4:17.—Luther: That the ungodly will not confess to their neglect of doing good, only reveals the darkness and wretchedness of their minds, which made them refuse to know, in the time of grace, either Christ or His members; the thought they had concerning Christ in their lifetime will be most strongly declared in the judgment.—No excuse will stand in the day of judgment.—Canstein: The eternal rebellion of the lost against God’s holy will, will be great part of their eternal woe.—Wretched prince of darkness! who cannot defend himself and his servants from the pains of hell.

Gerlach:—Two things must be specially marked in the proceedings of the judgment: the division of all men into two parts or fellowships, and that for eternity; and then the tokens which will be found on those whom the Lord will accept—self-forgetting, humble, brotherly love.—Faith alone justifies and saves (Rom_3:22; Rom_3:24; Rom_3:28; Eph_2:8-9); but that only is true faith which works by love (Gal_5:6; Jam_2:14; 1 Corinthians 13). Yet we must avoid the old confusion which identifies righteousness and salvation.—The Christian, in his course, looks not back upon the past (what he has done), but forward to the goal, Php_3:13-14.—Ye cursed, who wilfully remained under the curse of the law from which I redeemed you, Deu_27:26; Gal_3:13. [The curse, however, at the end of the world, does not merely signify condemnableness, but consummate ripeness for condemnation.]—Not “Ye cursed of My Father:” their own acts, and not the Father, brought their curse upon them.—The everlasting fire which was prepared (not for you, but) for the devil.—Chrysostom: I prepared for you the kingdom, the fire for the devil and his angels; ye have plunged into this fire, and it is now yours.—Indeed, the fire was not from eternity prepared for the devil; but the difference is, that men were redeemed.—The second death.

Lisco:—The inseparable connection between love to Christ and love to the brethren.—Departure from Jesus, the doom of the unloving.—Their mind was like the devil’s; hence they share his doom.

Heubner:—Remember always the hymn: Dies iræ, dies illa.66—Ask often of thy soul, where will the Lord finally place thee.—The kingdom is the kingdom of glory, into which the kingdom of grace has changed.—Prepared: the blessedness of the good, the end of creation.—Leo Magn.: The passion of Christ if continued to the end of the world.—Luther: It is a lie to say that thou wouldst have done much good to Christ, if thou art not doing it to these, the wretched.—Unchristian, evil tendencies invariably end in communion with Satan.

Theremin:—Of blessedness and condemnation.—Niemann:—The glory of Christ in the judgment: He will be glorious: 1. In His power; 2. in His omniscience; 3. in His righteousness; 4. in His grace.—Kniewel:67 How firm faith in the coming of Christ to judgment sanctifies and glorifies earthly life. It produces in us: 1. A holy fear of God; 2. genuine love; 3. sound hope.—Dräseke:—The great day of the kingdom a glorious day, an all-decisive day, an inevitable day, and a day profoundly mysterious.—The same:—The threefold judgment—in the heart, in the history of the world, in the great day.—Reinhard:—That we may not fear the day of judgment, we must have our hearts filled with the spirit of true Christian love to man.—Bachmann:—The last judgment in its glory.—Natorp:—God will reward every one according to his works.

[W. Burkitt (condensed): The general judgment: 1. The Person judging, the Son of Man; 2. the persons judged, good and bad; the one called sheep, for their innocency and meekness; the other goats, for their unruliness and uncleanness; 3. the manner of His coming to judgment most august and glorious in His person and attendance; 4. the work of the Judge: (a) He will gather all nations, persons of all nations, sects, classes, and conditions of man; (b) He will divide them, as a shepherd his sheep,—a final separation of the godly and the wicked; (c) He will pronounce the sentence, of absolution of the righteous, and condemnation of the wicked; 5. the final issue.—Christ personal is not the object of our pity and charity, but Christ mystical is exposed to want and necessity.—Christ keeps a faithful record of all our acts of pious charity, when we have forgotten them.—Christ calls His poorest members: My brethren.—God is the author and procurer of man’s happiness (“ye blessed of My Father…the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” Mat_25:34); but man only is the author of his own misery (“ye cursed,…for the devil,” etc., Mat_25:41).—Sins of omission are damning as well as sins of commission (Mat_25:42-45).—The one sin of unmercifulness is enough to damn a person, because it deprives him of the grace of the gospel.—If the uncharitable shall be damned, where shall the cruel appear?—Matthew Henry (condensed):—The general judgment: 1. The appearance of the Judge in the bright cloud of glory and with the myriads of angels as His attendants and ministers; 2. the appearing of all the children of men before Him; 3. the separation; 4. the process of judgment: (a) the glory conferred upon the righteous: they are called blessed and admitted into the kingdom, on account of their works of charity done in faith and humility, the grace of God enabling them thereto; (b) the condemnation of the wicked: Depart from Me, ye cursed, etc.—every word has terror in it, like that of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, waxing louder and louder, every accent more and more doleful. The reason of this sentence: omission of works of charity. 5. Execution of the sentence. Thus life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse, are set before us, that we may choose our way.—(Dr. Thomas Scott in loc. makes excellent practical remarks, but not in the form of hints or short heads.)—D. Brown: Heaven and hell are suspended upon the treatment of Christ and of those mysterious ministrations to the Lord of glory as disguised in the person of His followers.—True love of Christ goes in search of Him, hastening to embrace and to cherish Him, as He wanders through this bleak and cheerless world in His persecuted cause and needy people.—To do nothing for Christ is a sufficient cause for condemnation.—(I have examined also the Fathers on this section and read through the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas, but find them far less rich than I expected, and considerably inferior to the practical comments of Protestant expounders above quoted. Some of their views are inserted in the Exeg. Notes. Augustine dwells at length on Mat_25:46 to refute Origen’s view of a final salvation of all, even the devil and his angels, and tries to solve the difficulty that the wicked can be capable of suffering bodily and spiritual pain, and yet be incapable of death. Comp. De civit. Dei, Mat_21:3.)—P. S.]

Footnotes:

[46]Mat_25:31.—The adjective ἅγιοι of the text. rec. is wanting in Codd. B., D., L., [also in Cod Sinait.], many versions [including the Vulg., which reads simply: omnes angeli], and fathers, and seems to be a later interpolation.

[47]Mat_25:35—[Comp. the translation of the English Version in Mat_14:16, where the same [phrase is rendered: give ye them to eat.—P. S.]

[48]Mat_25:40.—Των αδελφῶν μου, although omitted by Cod. B, is well established by the majority of witnesses.

[49]Mat_25:41.—[Cod. Sinait. reads ὑπαγετε for πορεύεσθε.—P. S.]

[50]Mat_25:43.—[Cod. Sinait. omits the words: γυμνὸς καὶ οὑ περιεβάλετέ με. But they are well supported by the best authorities and retained in all the critical editions.—P. S.]

[51]Mat_25:46.—[As the Greek uses αὶώνιον before ζωήν as well as κόλασιν, it should be rendered by the same word (either eternal or ererlasting) in both clauses. Comp the Lat Vulg.: in supplicium œternum…in vitam œternam; all the German Versions (ewig); Wiclif: everlastynge turmente…everlastynge liif; the Rheims Version: punishment everlasting, life everlasting. Tyndale introduced the change: everlastinge payne…lyfe etern all, which was retained in the subsequent Protestant Versions except the word pain, which King James revisers gave up for punishment I would prefer, however, in both cases eternal to everlasting, and translate: into eternal punishment…into eternal life. For everlasting refers to extensire infinitude or endless durat o; eternal expresses the intensive infinitude, and this dynamic conception, which implies much more than mere duration or existence in time, is the prevaili g idea here, without, however, excluding the other. But in any case the passage is one of the very strongest against Universalism, and the αποκατάστασις των παντων. Comp. also Dr. Lange’s Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

[52][So also Stier and Alford, who understand πάντα τὰ ἔθνη to mean all the nations of the world as distinguished from the ἐκλεκτοί, who were already gathered to Christ at the first resurrection and beginning of His mill nnial kingdom, and who will take part in the final judgment (1Co_6:2).—P. S.]

[53][In German: geistliche Anmassungen. The Edinb. trsl has dignities!—P. S.]

[54][So also Hilary and Chrysostom: “Sheep are profitable by their woo, their milk, their offspring. Not so goats: they represent unfruitfulness of life.” Wordsworth adopts this view and adds with Euthymius and Grotius the δυσωδια, in opposition to the sweet and fragrant sacrifice of holy and charitable deeds.”—P. S.]

[55][Similarly Origen, Theophylact, and Maldonatus, who explains: Boni oves appellantur quia mites sunt, mali autem hirci quia asperi et per prœrupta ascendentes, idest, non acta et plana incidentes via. Nast combines un-cleanness and stubbornness as the two points of comparison of the bad with the goats, but mentions only meekness on the part of the sheep.—P. S.]

[56][Bengel derives from the word ὑμῖν, prepared for you, an argument against the scholastic notion that men were created or elected to fill up the number of fallen angels: Ergo homines electi non sunt suffecti in locum angelorum, qui peccarunt.—P. S.]

[57][Similar observations are made by Alford and Wordsworth: “In Mat_25:34,” says the latter, “Christ describes the joys of heaven as a κληρονομία prepared for men by God even from the beginning. But the pains of hell are not described as prepared for men, but for the devil and his angels. God designs eternal happiness for men; they incur eternal misery by their own acts.”—The significance of the omissions and change in the two cases was early observed even by Origen and Chrysostom, and is urged also by Maldonatus, Olshausen, Stier, Nast, and other.—Origen: “He says not now: Ye cursed of My Father, because of all blessing the Father is the author, but each man is the origin of his own curse when he does the things that deserve the curse.”—Maldonatus: “Non dixit: ‘Maledicti Patris mei’, sicut justis dixerat: ‘Venite, benedicti Patrismei,’ quia Deus non maledictionis, sed benedictionis, non pœnœ, sed prœmii auctor fuit; non quod non etiam pœna auctor fuerit, sed quod prœmia libenter et ex animi propensione, pœnam invitus quodammodo, ut justitœ suœ satisfaceret, prœparaverit.”—P. S.]

[58][So also Dante in the famous inscription on the gate of hell; see Inferno, Canto iii. Stier observes, that even for the devil, who was created an angel, hell was no more fore-ordained than his sin, although it was prepared for him as soon as he became a devil.—P. S.]

[59][The Edinb. trsl. renders Selbstgerechtigkeit (=ἡ ἐμή, or ἡ ἰδία δικαιοσύνη, or δικαιοσύνη τοῦ νόμου, ἐκ νόμου, δικ. ἐξ ἔργων) here and above ad Mat_25:37 by self-justification, confounding the word with Selbstrechtfertigung (=δικαίωσις).—P. S.]

[60][Alford: “Observe, the same epithet is used for κόλασις and ζωή—which are here contraries—for the ζωή here spoken of is not bare existence, which would have annihilation for its opposite; but blessedness and reward, to which punishment and misery are antagonist terms.”—Wordsworth in loc.: “The word αἰών corresponds to the Hebrew עדֹלָם, which appears to be derived from the unused root עָלַם, to conceal; so that the radical idea in αἰών, as used in Holy Scripture, is indefinite time; and thus the word comes to be fitly applied to this world, of which we do not know the duration; and also to the world to come, of which no end is visible, because that world is eternal. This consideration may perhaps check speculations concerning the duration of future punishments. (?)” But this etymology of עדֹלִם is somewhat doubtful, and αἰών has nothing to do with hiding and concealing, but comes probably from ἄω, ἄημι, to breathe, to blow; hence life, generation, age (like the Latin œvum); then indefinitely for endless duration, eternity.—P. S.]

[61][Not a parable proper. Comp. M. Henry: “We have here a description of the process of the last judgment in the great day. There are some passages in it that are parabolical , as the separating between the sheep and the goats, and the dialogues between the judge and the persons judged; but there is no thread of similitude carried through the discourse, and, therefore, it is rather to be called a draught or delineation of the final judgment than a parable; it is, as it were, the explanation of the former parables.”—P. S.]

[62][Not: the grand and awful revelation (Edinb. trsl.). In German: die einfache, wenn auch feierliche Enthüllung.]

[63][Not: “of His (Christ’s) human decrees,” as the Edinb. trsl. renders “die Göttlichkeit der (not: Seiner) menschlichen Bestimmung” (i.e., destiny, end).—P. S.]

[64][For which the Edinb. trsl. reads rich,—evidently a typographical error.]

[65][Der religiösen Schulsprache, the language of different theological schools, but not “denominational language” (as the Edinb. trsl. has it): for this would be identical with the preceding confession, which the Germans use it the same sense in which we use denomination. Dr Lange refers to theoretical theological differences as distinct from practical religious differences. Many disputes in the Christian Church are mere logomachies, and disappear, if they are divested of their learning, and the parties are brought face to face and heart to heart in prayer or good works as Christian brethren—P. S.]

[66][This awfully sublime hymn of an humble mediæval monk, Thomas a Crlano (about 1250), is the most perfect specimen of Latin church poetry, and sounds like the trumpet of the final judgment which will rouse the dead from their sleep of centuries. Each word contains a distinct sound and sentiment; the ear and the heart are carried on step by step with irresistible force, and skeptical reason itself must bow before the general judgment as an awful, impending reality which will confront at last every individual. The Dies [illegible] is introduced with great effect in Goethe’s Foust. There are over 70 German, and many English translations (by Walter Scott, Trench, Davidson, Coles, who alone furnished 18. etc) of this giant hymn, as it is called, but none comes up fully to the majestic force and overpowering music of the original. It has given rise also to some of the best judgment hymns in modern languages, and to famous musical compositions of Palestrina, Pergolese, Haydn, Cherubini. Weber, and Mozart—P. S.]

[67][A preacher in Danzig, not to be confounded (as it done in the Edinb. trsl.) with Kuinoel, the commentator.—P. S.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 25:31-46.

Judgment Scene At The Coming Of Christ,

The other Gospels have nothing at all parallel to this solemnly beautiful passage. Matthew has in various other instances given much more of a discourse than Mark or Luke, e. g., Matthew 5-7, Matthew 10, Matthew 13, Matthew 18; and so here Matthew 25 is all peculiar to Matthew, except that Luke has a parable given on a former occasion that closely resembles the parable of the Talents. The reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, with which this great discourse began, has now passed out of sight, and we think only of the final coming of Christ. (Compare on Mat 24:3) Our Lord had before intimated that he was to be the final judge of men (Mat 7:22 f.; Mat 13:40-43, Mat 16:27 Joh 5:25-29); he now describes the future judgment scene, in a way strikingly appropriate for the conclusion of his whole discourse on his coming. (Matthew 24 and Matthew 25.) Especially close is the connection with the foregoing parable of the Talents, in which the master returns to examine, and reward or punish.—Some expositors here introduce elaborate discussions as to the relation of this judgment to the "thousand years" of Rev 20:2-7. But whatever may be regarded as the meaning of that obscure and highly figurative statement in the visions of Patmos, it seems out of place to bring in the matter here, where there is no distinct room, and no occasion whatever, for its introduction.—The passage obviously divides itself into Mat 25:31-33, Mat 25:34-40, Mat 25:41-45, and Mat 25:46. Alford: "It will heighten our estimation of the wonderful sublimity of this description, when we recollect that it was spoken by the Lord only three days before his sufferings."

Mat 25:31-33. All men gathered and divided. When, Rev. Ver., But when. It is very doubtful whether the Greek particle ought here to be translated ’but,’ or ’now,’ or to remain untranslated. This depends on the relation of what follows to what precedes, which the particle itself does not at all determine. Only if the following passage stands in some sort of opposition to the foregoing, do we properly render ’but,’ otherwise the Greek term is only a particle of transition, which we render by ’now’ or ’and,’ or often leave quite untranslated. This passage does not seem clearly opposed to the parable of the Talents, for that also, as we have seen, presents an examination followed by reward and punishment. It would therefore seem better to leave the particle untranslated, as in Com. Ver. The Son of man, the Messiah, as so often in this discourse, (Mat 24:27, Mat 24:30, Mat 24:37, Mat 24:39, Mat 24:44) and previously; see on "Mat 8:20". Nowhere in the discourse does Jesus say that this will be himself, but he is answering the question of the disciples, ’what shall be the sign of thy coming?’; (Mat 24:3) and indeed he had long encouraged the disciples in the belief that he was the Messiah. Shall come in his glory, compare Mat 16:27, ’in the glory of his: Father,’ and Mat 24:30, ’coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.’ We have little further information as to the nature of this ’glory.’ Just below is mentioned ’the throne of his glory;’ and Paul speaks of ’flaming fire’, (2Th 1:8) and ’the trump of God.’ (1Th 4:16, 1Co 15:52) Nothing earthly could furnish the images for an adequate description. And all the holy angels with him, like the splendid retinue of a king, compare Mat 13:41, Mat 16:27. No longer will he be a homeless wanderer, with a handful of followers. As to the angels in general, see on "Mat 18:10". ’Holy’ (Com. Ver.) is a spurious addition.[1] Sit upon the throne, as a king (Mat 25:34.); compare Mat 19:28. The Jews, including the Twelve, expected the Messiah to sit on a throne of temporal dominion. Our Lord here shows the disciples that at his second coming he will sit on a throne of judgment, making awards for eternity. He sits now already on the throne of mediatorial authority, (Mat 28:18) spiritually conquering and ruling. (1Co 15:25 Heb 12:2)

[1] It is wanting in the earliest uncials, and in nearly all the early versions. It was probably suggested by way of contrast to ’the devil and his angels,’ in Mat 25:41, or by "the Lord my God shall come, and all the Holy ones with thee," Zec 14:5, Rev. Ver.

All (the) nations. Not only Jews, but Gentiles, not only some nations, but all. The ancients all inclined to think that every nation must of course have its own deities; but there is only one God for all nations, and only one Mediator and final Judge. (compare 1Ti 2:5) Though his personal mission was exclusively to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat 15:24) yet he was destined to draw all men unto him, (Joh 12:32) and the proclamation of his work was to be made to all nations. (Mat 28:19) Bengel: "All the angels, all the nations; how vast an assembly." Some commentatators suppose that it means only the Gentiles, who are most frequently meant by ’the nations.’ Plumptre finds a striking distribution: the parable of the Virgins refers to all Christians; that of the Talents to those "that hold any office or ministry in the church"; and this passage to the heathen. But the parable of the Talents does not admit of the proposed limitation; and here, certainly the blessed for whom the kingdom is prepared are Christians. Others, even Meyer, understand that this judgment relates to Christians only; but that is made highly improbable by ’all the nations,’ and seems impossible in view of ’depart accursed’—strange Christians! As (the) shepherd, in any particular case, like ’the sower,’ ’the good man,’ etc. (Mat 12:35, Mat 13:3) Divideth, or separateth (Rheims), same word as in preceding clause. Com. Ver. follows Tyn., ’divideth,’ an improper variation of the translation, compare on Mat 25:46.

From the goats. The Greek word properly means ’kids’ (Rev. Ver. margin), as in ’Thou never gavest me a kid,’ Luk 15:29. The Latin and Peshito versions have the distinctive terms for kids; Jerome expressly mentions that it is not goats but kids, and Anon. labours to show why the term kids is more appropriate. The difference is of course quite unimportant. Sheep and goats are often found in one flock, (Gen 30:32 f.) but sometimes do not feed well together, and are kept apart while grazing.[1] The Scriptures often employ sheep to denote those who trust in God, and so the goats or kids are here naturally taken to represent the worse side. Various Fathers and some modern writers proceed eagerly to trace minute analogies between the wicked and kids or goats, and between the righteous and sheep, in the way that has brought so much reproach upon the interpretation of Scripture. On his right hand... on the left. Wet. quotes Greek and Roman writers and the Talmud as putting the good on the right hand of the judge and the bad on the left hand. It is a perfectly natural symbolism, connected with our preference for the right hand in greetings, and in many ways. (Luk 1:11 Mar 16:5) How far this predictive imagery of a judgment scene will be literally fulfilled by actual assembly in a locality, etc., no one can tell. All descriptions and conceptions of things unseen and eternal are necessarily dependent upon material analogies, even as our own mental action can be defined only in terms drawn from physical action. We may be very sure that the spiritual and eternal reality will be something far more solemn and instructive than any conception we are able to derive from the simplest or the most sublime images.

[1] The morning after reaching Palestine, when setting out from Ramleh, across the plain of Sharon, we saw a shepherd leading forth a flock of white sheep and black goats, all mingled as they followed him. Presently he turned aside into a little green valley, and stood facing the flock. When a sheep came up, he tapped it with his long staff on the right side of the head, and it quickly moved off to his right; a goat he tapped on the other side, and it went to his left. Thus the Saviour’s image presented itself exactly before our eyes.

Mat 25:34-40. The King and Judge speaks to those on his right hand. The King. Our Lord has been constantly speaking, throughout his ministry, of the ’kingdom of heaven,’ and ’kingdom of God’, (Mat 4:17 Joh 3:3, etc.) the familiar Jewish designation of the Messianic reign (see on "Mat 3:2"). In like manner "King Messiah" was a familiar phrase among the Jews. Had Jesus employed that expression in speaking to the people, they would have seized upon it as confirming their conception of a worldly sovereign, conquering and reigning in splendour at Jerusalem. So he has preferred to designate the Messiah by the phrase ’the Son of man’ (see on "Mat 8:20"), which would not encourage these popular misconceptions. In Mat 16:28 he predicted ’the Son of man coming in his kingdom,’ coming as king, and in Mat 19:28 as sitting ’on the throne of his glory’; but in both cases he was talking with the Twelve. And so here—perhaps with only four of them (see on "Mat 24:3"); the time is near when he will avow himself before the Sanhedrin to be the Messiah and will take the foreseen consequences. (Mat 26:63-68, Mat 27:11)

Observe too that he distinctly speaks of his future coming, and not of any present and temporal reign. It must be remembered that an Oriental king, indeed any ancient king, often acted as judge. Come, in Greek the same emphatic expression as in Mat 11:28; as now he strongly and warmly invites to loving trust and service, so hereafter to blessed reward. Blessed, not the word properly rendered ’happy’ (see on "Mat 5:3"), but another which exactly means ’blessed,’ persons whom God has blessed, who are in a blessed state; as in Mat 21:9, Mat 23:39 Luk 1:42. Blessed of my Father means exactly ’my Father’s blessed ones,’ denoting not simply that they have been blessed by him, but that they are his. Tyndale unwarrantably, ’blessed children of my Father,’ and this expression, though adopted by none of his followers, was introduced into the Burial Service of the Church of England. Our Lord delights to connect his work in many ways with that of the Father; see Mat 10:32 f.; Mat 11:25, Mat 11:27; Mat 15:13; Mat 16:17, Mat 16:27; Mat 18:10, Mat 18:19; Mat 20:23; Mat 23:29; Luk 2:49; Luk 22:29; Luk 23:46, and exceedingly often in John. Inherit, because it is not merely theirs by gift, but theirs by inheritance (so Chrys. and followers), their Father’s gift, (Rom 8:17 Rev 21:7) designed from all eternity to be theirs. So the literal sense of the word seems appropriate here, (compare 1Co 15:50 Gal 5:21) and not the modified sense found in Mat 5:5, and perhaps in Mat 19:29. But this heirship is proven to exist by their manifesting a Christian character and leading a Christian life; (2Pe 1:10) and particularly, as here set forth, by their kindness to Christ’s people.

The kingdom is here the Messianic kingdom (see on "Mat 3:2") in its perfected heavenly state. Prepared, not merely destined, but made ready (Meyer); compare Joh 14:2 Heb 11:15 Jas 2:5. Peter adds (1Pe 1:4 f) that it is preserved for the heirs, and they are guarded for the inheritance, so that neither shall fail of the other. The eternal fire also is ’prepared.’ (Mat 25:41) From the foundation of the world, compare Joh 17:24, 1Pe 1:20 Eph 1:4, and above in Mat 13:35. For introduces the proof that they are blessed of the Father, and entitled to inherit the kingdom, viz., that they have rendered service to the King’s brethren, and thus virtually to him. Ye took me in. The Greek means led me with (you), viz., into your houses (Grimm.). Naked, imperfectly clothed.—These (Act 19:16) tender and beautiful sentences are designed to impress the great thought that the Messiah would recognize himself as served in serving even the least of his brethren, and neglected in neglecting them, a thought for which the way has already been prepared in Mat 10:40 ff.; Mat 18:5 f.; compare Heb 6:10, 1Jn 3:16. It would be a grave mistake to suppose that nothing will be regarded in the judgment, nothing help in determining a man’s future, but the simple question whether he has been benevolent towards suffering Christians; we are taught elsewhere that each will "receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." (1Co 5:10, Rev. Ver.) It is also a mistake to infer that only actions will enter into the judgment. The essence of the passage is that the actions in question will be accepted as indicating personal relation to Christ; and it is really personal relation to Christ, as acted out in the life, that will fix eternal destiny. All this directly applies only to those who have had some knowledge of Christ’s brethren and of him; the heathen who have had no such knowledge will be condemned for neglecting the light of nature, and the law of conscience. (Rom 1:18 ff.; Rom 2:12-16)—observe then that our Lord is not expressly speaking of benevolence to the poor and suffering in general, but of kindness to his poor and suffering ’brethren’ for his sake. Yet he himself healed and fed many who were not truly his; and we are imitating and honouring him if for his sake we minister to any and all who are needy or distressed—provided always we minister wisely in a truly helpful way, and not so as to promote professional beggary or other imposition, nor the self-conceit of criminals in prison, etc.

Mat 25:37-39. The righteous answer in no self-depreciation, but in simple sincerity and humility; they have not personally seen the Saviour, (1Pe 1:8) and how (Mald.) can they have rendered him any personal service? They will, when actually brought to judgment, think and feel otherwise only in proportion as they have understood and remembered the lesson here given.

Mat 25:40. Verily, I say unto you, calling solemn attention. (Compare on Mat 5:18) With this reply of the King we may well compare Mat 6:4, Rev. Ver., "that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee." He knows and remembers every act of modest charity, and is ready to accept it as done to himself. One of the least of these, or, even these least. Many of Christ’s followers were poor and of little apparent importance; only a few were otherwise. (Joh 7:48, 1Co 1:26 ff.) He identifies himself not merely with the distinguished, but with those whom men would lightly esteem. Morison : "When the Judge, as it were, points to these his brethren, and then refers to the least of them, it is not needful that we should suppose that they are different from ’the sheep.’... In pronouncing sentence on each, he could point to surrounding brethren who had been loved and sympathetically helped."

Mat 25:41-45. Those on the left hand. Depart from me, substantially the same expression as in Mat 7:23; but the added words are here more awful. The participle rendered cursed lacks the article in some of the earliest and best MSS.,[1] and in that form it could not mean ye cursed, but depart accursed, ’depart from me under a curse’ (Rev. Ver., margin), the curse resting upon them as a part of the sentence. Everlasting, or, the eternal, fire, the Greek having the article; that eternal fire which was a familiar thought to the minds of his hearers; see the same phrase in Mat 18:8, and compare Mat 3:12, and Mar 9:48, ’the fire is not quenched.’ See on "Mat 5:22", ’the Gehenna of fire,’ and Mat 13:42, Mat 13:50, ’the furnace of fire’; also on Mat 3:11, ’baptize... in fire.’ (Compare Jdg 1:7 Rev 20:10 ff.) The term ’eternal’ is used instead of ’everlasting,’ merely to keep the translation uniform. (See on "Mat 25:46".) Whether eternal punishment involves any physical reality corresponding to fire, we know not; there will be something as bad as fire, and doubtless worse, for no earthly image can be adequate. (Compare above on Mat 25:31-33.) For the devil, that is, Satan (see on "Mat 4:1".) We might say that by analogy to the angels of God, Satan’s attendants and helpers, the demons (see on "Mat 8:31"), are called his angels. But more than that appears to be true. The demons are fallen angels. (Jdg 1:6, 2Pe 2:4 Rev 12:7) We must beware of confounding what little we know from Scripture concerning these dreadful beings with the ideas of Milton in Paradise Lost, or with popular traditions and nursery tales. (Compare on Mat 4:1) Notice (Origen) that while it is the kingdom prepared for you (Mat 25:34), it is not the eternal fire prepared for you, but prepared for the devil and his angels; the wicked go to share the dreadful doom of the fallen angels, go of their own movement into that which was prepared for others. And they are not said to ’inherit’ the eternal fire, but incur the punishment through conscious sin and through rejection of the Saviour.

[1] The article is omitted by à B L, 33, 102, Cyril. One sees no ground for supposing it to have been struck out as an "Alexandrian" correction (such as these documents sometime give), since the reading with the articles is good unobjectionable, corresponding directly to "come, ye blessed." But we can see for obvious reasons for the insertion of the article by copyists, both because of a certain obscurity without it, and from the desire to make the two corresponding clauses exactly symmetrical. Therefore the reading without the article is quite probably correct. Its distinctive meaning, though one that might not readily occur to a copyist, is thoroughly appropriate.

Mat 25:42-45. This answers to 35-40, with the beautiful Hebrew circumstantiality and parallelism, compare Mat 25:20-23, Mat 7:24-27. This passage presents a notable exemplification of sins of omission.

Mat 25:46. We find here a remarkable instance of that unnecessary and unwarranted variation in translation which so abounds in the versions from Tyndale to King James. The Greek here applies the same adjective to punishment and life. The Latin and other early versions translated both by the same word, and Wyc. and Rheims, following the Latin Vulgate, render ’everlasting’ in both cases; but Tyn. and followers, ’everlasting pain... life eternal.’ The English language, as being compounded of Anglo-Saxon and French (Latin), has an extraordinary number of words nearly synonymous; and this fact has probably fostered a passion for variety of expression. As a mere question of English literature, the early versions have no doubt gained a certain beauty of style by diversifying their renderings; and King James’ translators, in their "Address to the Reader," have expressly defended themselves and their predecessors for this practice. But they have thereby seriously obscured the verbal connection throughout many a passage and between different passages. The careful student of the English Bible, using Concordance and References for comparing Scripture with Scripture, has been misled a thousand times, either imagining two passages to contain the same Hebrew or Greek word when they do not, because the English has the same word, or failing to learn, often in highly important cases, that two passages do contain the same word in the original, because the English has rendered differently. It is of course impossible to translate the same Hebrew or Greek word in every case by the same English word; but wherever this can be done with due regard to the meaning, it is a grave fault to neglect it merely for the sake of gratifying a certain fastidious taste in English style. Among the many examples of this fault which occur in the Common Version of Matt., see Mat 5:15 f.; Mat 14:24, Mat 18:33, Mat 19:20, Mat 20:20, Mat 20:25-32. For some examples in other parts of New Testament, see Bp. Lightf. on Revision. As to whether eternal or everlasting should here be used in both cases, there is room for a slight difference of opinion. Noyes, Amer. Bib. Union, and Davidson give ’everlasting punishment.., everlasting life’; (compare Dan 12:2) Darby, ’eternal punishment... life eternal.’ Some would prefer to reserve the term ’eternal’ for that which is without beginning as well as without end; but that word is necessary in several passages of the New Testament to denote duration that is simply without end. Upon the whole, the Revisers are believed to have acted wisely in uniformly rendering this Greek word by eternal; there is a slight loss in some passages, but an important gain upon the whole. It is difficult to estimate how much would have been gained for the English speaking world in the exact apprehension of the present important passage, if the punishment and the life had been through all these centuries described, in English as in the Greek, not merely by substantially equivalent words, but by exactly the same word.

Eternal punishment... life eternal. It will at once be taken for granted, by any unprejudiced and docile mind, that the punishment of the wicked will last as long as the life of the righteous; it is to the last degree improbable that the Great Teacher would have used an expression so inevitably suggesting a great doctrine he did not mean to teach; those who deny the doctrine must establish here a difference of meaning, and with an overwhelming presumption against them. Attempts to set aside the obvious meaning have been made in several ways. (a) It is pointed out that the etymology of the term aionios, ’eternal,’ has not been clearly ascertained. But it is now past question (Curtius, Lid. and Scott, Cremer, Skeat) that aion, originally, has the same root as aiei and aei, ’always’; the same as the Latin aev-um, from which came aev-ternus, borrowed by us in the form eternal: the same as the Gothic aiws, aiw, the German ew-ig, ’everlasting,’ ’eternal,’ and the English ev-er in everlasting, forever, etc. And the words and in the Greek as well as in the other languages mentioned certainly have the use in question, whatever may have been the primary sense of the root. You cannot persuade those who speak English that the meaning of everlasting is doubtful, simply because philologers have not determined the primary sense of the root ev.[1] (b) It is urged that and are in the Sept. frequently applied—following the Hebrew word ’olam,—to things finite, as "the everlasting hills," "an ordinance forever." Certainly, just as in English we say "to have and to hold, unto him and his heirs forever," or say "there is everlasting trouble in that church." In the one case we use a natural and perfectly intelligible hyperbole, in the other the possession or the law really is of unlimited duration, in a sense well understood, and not restricted save by the nature of things. Any terms that could possibly be employed to describe future punishment as unlimited would be equally subject to such processes of "explaining away."[2] (c) It is affirmed by some that while here means ’eternal,’ that is a wholly different idea from everlasting or endless. They say that ’eternal life,’ as in Joh 3:36, Rev. Ver.; Joh 5:39, Joh 17:3, Rev. Ver., does not mean ’endless life,’ but simply the kind of life which is lived in eternity, for it really begins in this life whenever one becomes a Christian; and so they infer that ’eternal punishment ’means simply punishment suffered in eternity and not necessarily endless punishment. But ’eternal life’ does in all the cases primarily and distinctly denote the future and endless life, and it is simply an added thought that the believer becomes already in this world a partaker of its spiritual essence—this added thought not at all excluding or pushing out of view the primary sense. Of course then the inference as to eternal punishment falls away. Others turn attention to the Hebrew phrase "this ’olam,’ and ’the coming’ ’olam," (see on "Mat 12:32"), and urge that punishment means only that which pertains to the coming aion (’olam), age or period, after the day of judgment, without saying that it is to be endless punishment. But the force of those Jewish phrases, whether as used by the Rabbis or in New Testament, turned on ’this’ and ’the coming,’ which terms are wanting in the phrase aionian punishment,[3] Thus none of these attempts have set aside or really weakened the plain meaning of the word aionios, ’eternal,’ as here describing both the punishment and the life. Westcott and Hort suppose the expression to be derived by our Lord from Dan 12:2, ’some to everlasting life,’ where the Greek has exactly the same phrase as here, ’and some to shame and everlasting contempt,’ where the adjective is the same.

[1] We do not know the original meaning of this root aiw, or ev, whether it meant primarily unlimited duration, and was then weakened to denote definite periods, or, more probably, meant a definite period, as a lifetime, an age, and was then extended to denote an indefinite period, or unlimited duration. But there is no question that the Greek words formed upon the root do often actually denote unlimited duration; e. g., eis ton aiona, ’forever,’ apaianos, ’from everlasting,’ etc., and aionios, as often applied to God.

[2] Farrar says ("Mercy and Judgment,"p. 388) that aei, ’always,’ "would have been regarded as decisive," and that aneu telous, ’without end,’ "would preclude all controversy." Yet aionios has the same root as aei, and as aidios, which he mentions in the same connection: and Farrar himself, in quoting Ovid’s expression, "Eternal civil wars," remarks (p, 390, n.). "So we say, ’It will be an endless business;’ ’This led to endless trouble,’ etc." Thus we see that the term ’endless’ could be explained away in the same fashion.

[3] Farrar even says (p. 395) that the phrase used here by the Peshito Syriac means ’the punishment of the world to come’; whereas the ’to come,’ is entirely wanting, and the Syriac plainly means ’the punishment that is forever,’ using the same phrase as the Hebrew le-’olam, Greek eis aiona.

The term kolasis, rendered punishment, denotes primarily pruning (a tree, vine), and hence checking, chastisement, castigation, punishment. Aristotle says that this word is different from timoria, vindication, vengeance, revenge, "for punishment is for the sake of the sufferer, but revenge for that of the person inflicting it, in order that he may be satiated"; and Plato kolasis joins with admonition, as opposed to irrational vengeance (Trench "Syn."). So kolasis is the milder term, implying the absence of vengefulness. It is therefore naturally employed here to denote punishment inflicted by God, and so also in 1Jn 4:18, not ’torment’ Com. Ver., but ’punishment’ Rev. Ver., and the verb in 2Pe 2:9; while the severer term timoria is used only in Heb 10:29, for the punishment of very aggravated sin. But that the distinction made by the philosophers was not absolute, that really meant penal infliction, is seen from the use of the verb in Act 4:21, "finding nothing how they might punish them, "compared with Paul’s use of the stronger term timoreoin Act 22:5, Act 26:11, to describe the persecutions he had inflicted on the Christians; also from such classic phrases as "punish (kolazein) with death" and from the conjunction of the two words kolazein timorais (Lid. and Scott). It is therefore vain to say that the use of this term here forbids us to understand the punishment as penalty, and without end.

With this passage agree the general teachings of Scripture on the subject, including even some corresponding expressions, as ’into the eternal fire,’ Mat 25:41, Rev. Ver., (compare Jdg 1:7) ’into the unquenchable fire,’ Mar 9:43, Rev. Ver., (compare Mat 3:12) and ’where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched,’ Mar 9:48. This last phrase is obviously derived from Isa 66:24, but it does not follow that our Lord means by it only what the prophet had in view, for it is not a quotation, but a mere use of the prophet’s terms. Compare also Joh 3:36, Rev. Ver., "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him," where the last phrases distinctly indicate a penalty without end; also Joh 5:28 f., etc.

But certain more general objections are brought against the obvious meaning of our Lord’s language.

(1) It is said (Farrer) that the Jews in our Lord’s time did not believe Gehenna to be a place of eternal punishment, and that his hearers would understand him according to the common view, unless he stated the contrary. But this is an incorrect statement, see Wünsche, Edersheim (App. XIX.), and the Talmudic passages quoted in Surenh. Mishna, Vol. 2, p. 314. These make it manifest that the great Jewish schools about the time of our Lord did both believe in Gehenna as a place of perpetual punishment for some persons. And the Saviour here teaches that such will be the case with the persons of whom he is speaking.[1]

[1] The school of Shammai held there would be three classes on the day of judgment, the perfectly righteous, the completely wicked, and an intermediate class. The righteous are immediately inscribed in the book of life; the completely wicked "are inscribed and immediately sealed to Gehenna," according to. (Dan 12:2) The intermediate class "go down to Gehenna, and moan, and afterwards ascend," according to (Zec 13:9). The school of Hillel held that in God’s great mercy the intermediate class do not go down. Of the thoroughly wicked, some go down and are punished twelve months, and are then destroyed. But heretics, informers, Epicureans, persons who deny the resurrection of the dead, and persons who cause many to sin, like Jeroboam, "go down to Gehenna and are there punished unto ages of ages."

(2) A metaphysical objection is sometimes pressed, to the effect that suffering is necessarily destructive, and so the sufferer must sooner or later cease to exist. But this is not proven. And surely he who caused to exist could keep in existence. This is the most probable meaning of the Saviour’s solemn word, (Mar 9:49) ’Every one shall be salted with fire.’ Fire is usually destructive, but this unquenchable fire will act like salt, preserving instead of destroying. So Keble, "Christian Year, Fifth Sunday in Lent," says of the Jewish race in their present condition:

Salted with fire, they seem to show

How spirits lost in endless woe

May undecaying live.

Oh, sickening thought! yet hold is fast

Long as this glittering world shall last,

Or sin at heart survive.

(3) There are also "moral argument " alleged to show that the Saviour cannot have meant to teach eternal punishment. (a) Some maintain that it is inconsistent with the goodness of God. Thus John Poster said it was useless to occupy oneself with the discussion of texts, since the matter is decided by a great moral argument. But if we have a revelation from God, it is certainly our chief source of instruction concerning things unseen and eternal, and such lofty superiority to the discussion of texts is quite out of place. God is certainly a better judge than we are, as to what is consistent with his goodness. Perhaps we have not an adequate sense of the evil of sin, nor a full appreciation of the claims of justice. Perhaps the humanity for which our age is distinguished, has with many run into a sentimental humanitarianism, which weakly shrinks from the idea of suffering, and does not sympathize with stern moral indignation against wrong. Farrar argues that the doctrine of endless punishment has converted many men into infidels. But many have also declared themselves driven off by the doctrine of atonement, or that of regeneration, or of the divinity of Christ. Paul did not cease to preach the cross because to the Jews it was a stumbling-block. (b) Others say it is inconsistent with the justice of God to punish all alike, when their actual wrong-doing has been so different, and their advantages likewise so different. But it is expressly taught that the eternal punishment will not be the same for all. "That each may receive... according to that he hath done." (1Co 5:10)

"It shall be more, tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, in the day of judgment, than for you." (Mat 11:22, Rev. Ver.)

Especially notice Luk 12:47 f., Rev. Ver.: "And that servant, which knew his Lord’s will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." This teaching has been in many cases grievously overlooked. Taking images literally, men have fancied that the ’Gehenna of fire’ (Mat 5:22) will be the same place and the same degree of punishment for all. But the above passages and many others show that there will be differences. The degrees of punishment must, in the nature of things, be exceedingly various, and the extremes of punishment must be as remote as the east is from the west. All inherited proclivities, "taints of blood," all difference of environment, every privilege and every disadvantage, will be taken into account. It is the Divine Judge that will apportion punishment, with perfect knowledge and perfect justice and perfect goodness. This great fact, that there will be degrees in future punishment as well as in future rewards—ought to be more prominent in religious instruction.

It gives some relief in contemplating the awful fate of those who perish. It might save many from going away into Universalism; and others from dreaming of "a second probation" in eternity, for which the Scriptures give no warrant (compare on Mat 12:32); and yet others from unjustly assailing and rejecting, to their own ruin, the gospel of salvation.

Homiletical And Practical

Mat 25:32. Separation of the righteous and the wicked. (1) A necessary separation; (a) necessary to the vindication of God’s justice; (b) necessary to the blessedness of the righteous; (c) necessary to the punishment of the wicked. (2) An accurate separation—no mistakes; self-delusion, hypocrisy, strangely mingled characters, nothing will prevent the assignment of each as he really belongs. (3) A separation leading to new companionships—the righteous with the Saviour and all the angels—the wicked with the devil and his angels. (4) A separation without hope of reunion, Mat 25:46; Luk 16:26.

Mat 25:35-40. Charity. (1) Varieties of charity, Mat 25:35; compare Jas 1:27. (2) Reasons for charity; (a) for the sake of humanity; (b) for Christ’s sake. (3) Rewards of charity; (a) the joy of doing service to the Saviour; (b) the kingdom prepared.

Mat 25:40. Christ identified with Christians. (1) Through them men may learn concerning him, and be convinced as to the divinity of his religion. (2) Inward union with Christ should be expressed, and thus strengthened, by an outward union with his people. (3) Benefits conferred on his people as such, (compare Mat 10:42) will be acknowledged and rewarded as benefits to himself. (4) Unkindness to Christians as such is insulting rejection of Christ.

Mat 25:42. Sins of omission. (1) The neglect of any duty is in itself a great sin. (2) The omission of right-doing turns all our active powers towards the commission of wrong.

Mat 25:40. Luther: "Whoever then is minded to do works of compassion to Christians, because he believes he has in Christ a faithful Redeemer who reconciles him to God; or himself suffers the opposition of the devil and the world because of his faith—let him be cheerful and joyous, for he has already received the joyous sentence, ’Come, ye blessed.’ " Calvin: "Whenever we feel slothful about helping the wretched, let the Son of God come before our eyes; to refuse him anything is a dreadful sacrilege."

Mat 25:45. Luther: "What shall become of those who not only give nothing to Christ’s poor, but by fraud and extortion rob them of what they have?" Calvin: "Let believers be admonished; for as we need promises to incite us to zeal in living well, so also threatenings to keep us in solicitude and fear."

Mat 25:31-46. The judgment scene. (1) The Judge—once a homeless wanderer, now enthroned in glory -once despised and rejected, now accepting or rejecting—once subjected to unrighteous judgment, now judging the world in righteousness. (Act 17:31) (2) The grounds of this judgment—the conduct of men to each other, as revealing their relation to God; (a) benefiting Christ’s brethren is accepted by Christ as personal service to him; (b) neglecting them is regarded by him as personal neglect. (3) The results of this judgment—eternal punishment—eternal life.

John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matthew

THE KING ON HIS JUDGMENT THRONE

Mat 25:31 - Mat 25:46.

The teachings of that wonderful last day of Christ’s ministry, which have occupied so many of our pages, are closed with this tremendous picture of universal judgment. It is one to be gazed upon with silent awe, rather than to be commented on. There is fear lest, in occupying the mind in the study of the details, and trying to pierce the mystery it partly unfolds, we should forget our own individual share in it. Better to burn in on our hearts the thought, ‘I shall be there,’ than to lose the solemn impression in efforts to unravel the difficulties of the passage. Difficulties there are, as is to be expected in even Christ’s revelation of so unparalleled a scene. Many questions are raised by it which will never be solved till we stand there. Who can tell how much of the parabolic element enters into the description? We, at all events, do not venture to say of one part, ‘This is merely drapery, the sensuous representation of spiritual reality,’ and of another, ‘That is essential truth.’ The curtain is the picture, and before we can separate the elements of it in that fashion, we must have lived through it. Let us try to grasp the main lessons, and not lose the spirit in studying the letter.

I. The first broad teaching is that Christ is the Judge of all the earth.

Sitting there, a wearied man on the Mount of Olives, with the valley of Jehoshaphat at His feet, which the Jew regarded as the scene of the final judgment, Jesus declared Himself to be the Judge of the world, in language so unlimited in its claims that the speaker must be either a madman or a god. Calvary was less than three days off, when He spoke thus. The contrast between the vision of the future and the reality of the present is overwhelming. The Son of Man has come in weakness and shame; He will come in His glory, that flashing light of the self-revealing God, of which the symbol was the ‘glory’ which shone between the cherubim, and which Jesus Christ here asserts to belong to Him as ‘His glory.’ Then, heaven will be emptied of its angels, who shall gather round the enthroned Judge as His handful of sorrowing followers were clustered round Him as He spoke, or as the peasants had surrounded the meek state of His entry yesterday. Then, He will take the place of Judge, and ‘sit,’ in token of repose, supremacy, and judgment, ‘on the throne of His glory,’ as He now sat on the rocks of Olivet. Then, mankind shall be massed at His feet, and His glance shall part the infinite multitudes, and discern the character of each item in the crowd as easily and swiftly as the shepherd’s eye picks out the black goats from among the white sheep. Observe the difference in the representation from those in the previous parables. There, the parting of kinds was either self-acting, as in the case of the foolish maidens; or men gave account of themselves, as in the case of the servants with the talents. Here, the separation is the work of the Judge, and is completed before a word is spoken. All these representations must be included in the complete truth as to the final judgment. It is the effect of men’s actions; it is the result of their compelled disclosing of the deepest motives of their lives; it is the act of the perfect discernment of the Judge. Their deeds will judge them; they will judge themselves; Christ will judge.

Singularly enough, every possible interpretation of the extent of the expression ‘all nations’ has found advocates. It has been taken in its widest and plainest meaning, as equivalent to the whole race; it has been confined to mankind exclusive of Christians, and it has been confined to Christians exclusive of heathens. There are difficulties in all these explanations, but probably the least are found in the first. It is most natural to suppose that ‘all nations’ means all nations, unless that meaning be impossible. The absence of the limitation to the ‘kingdom of heaven,’ which distinguishes this section from the preceding ones having reference to judgment, and the position of the present section as the solemn close of Christ’s teachings, which would naturally widen out into the declaration of the universal judgment, which forms the only appropriate climax and end to the foregoing teachings, seem to point to the widest meaning of the phrase. His office of universal Judge is unmistakably taught throughout the New Testament, and it seems in the highest degree unnatural to suppose that He did not speak of it in these final words of prophetic warning. We may therefore, with some confidence, see in the magnificent and awful picture here drawn the vision of universal judgment. Parabolic elements there no doubt are in the picture; but we have no governing revelation, free from these, by which we can check them, and be sure of how much is form and how much substance. This is clear, ‘that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ’; and this is clear, that Jesus Christ put forth, when at the very lowest point of His earthly humiliation, these tremendous claims, and asserted His authority as Judge over every soul of man. We are apt to lose ourselves in the crowd. Let us pause and think that ‘all’ includes ‘me.’

II. Note the principles of Christ’s universal judgment.

It is important to remember that this section closes a series of descriptions of the judgment, and must not be taken as if, when isolated, it set forth all the truth. It is often harped upon by persons who are unfriendly to evangelical teaching, as if it were Christ’s only word about judgment, and interpreted as if it meant that, no matter what else a man was, if only he is charitable and benevolent, he will find mercy. But this is to forget all the rest of our Lord’s teaching in the context, and to fly in the face of the whole tenor of New Testament doctrine. We have here to do with the principles of judgment which apply equally to those who have, and to those who have not, heard the gospel. The subjects of the kingdom are shown the principles more immediately applicable to them, in the previous parables, and here they are reminded that there is a standard of judgment absolutely universal. All men, whether Christians or not, are judged by ‘the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad.’ So Christ teaches in His closing words of the Sermon on the Mount, and in many another place. ‘Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.’ The productive source of good works is not in question here; stress is laid on the fruits, rather than on the root. The gospel is as imperative in its requirements of righteousness as the law is, and its conception of the righteousness which it requires is far deeper and wider. The subjects of the kingdom ever need to be reminded of the solemn truth that they have not only, like the wise maidens, to have their lights burning and their oil vessels filled, nor only, like the wise servants, to be using the gifts of the kingdom for their lord, but, as members of the great family of man, have to cultivate the common moralities which all men, heathen and Christian, recognise as binding on all, without which no man shall see the Lord. The special form of righteousness which is selected as the test is charity. Obviously it is chosen as representative of all the virtues of the second table of the law. Taken in its bare literality, this would mean that men’s relations to God had no effect in the judgment, mid that no other virtues but this of charity came into the account. Such a conclusion is so plainly repugnant to all Christ’s teaching, that we must suppose that love to one’s neighbour is here singled out, just as it is in His summary of ‘the law and the prophets,’ as the crown and flower of all relative duties, and as, in a very real sense, being ‘the fulfilling of the law.’ The omission of any reference to the love of God sufficiently shows that the view here is rigidly limited to acts, and that all the grounds of judgment are not meant to be set forth.

But the benevolence here spoken of is not the mere natural sentiment, which often exists in great energy in men whose moral nature is, in other respects, so utterly un-Christlike that their entrance into the kingdom prepared for the righteous is inconceivable. Many a man has a hundred vices and yet a soft heart. It is very much a matter of temperament. Does Christ so contradict all the rest of His teaching as to say that such a man is of ‘the sheep,’ and ‘blessed of the Father’? Surely not. Is every piece of kindliness to the distressed, from whatever motive, and by whatsoever kind of person done, regarded by Him as done to Himself? To say so, would be to confound moral distinctions, and to dissolve all righteousness into a sentimental syrup. The deeds which He regards as done to Himself, are done to His ‘brethren.’ That expression carries us into the region of motive, and runs parallel with His other words about ‘receiving a prophet,’ and ‘giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones,’ because they are His. Seeing that all nations are at the bar, the expression, ‘My brethren,’ cannot be confined to the disciples, for many of those who are being judged have never come in contact with Christians, nor can it be reasonably supposed to include all men, for, however true it is that Christ is every man’s brother, the recognition of kindred here must surely be confined to those at the right hand. Whatever be included under the ‘righteous,’ that is included under the ‘brethren.’ We seem, then, led to recognise in the expression a reference to the motive of the beneficence, and to be brought to the conclusion that what the Judge accepts as done to Himself is such kindly help and sympathy as is extended to these His kindred, with some recognition of their character, and desire after it. To ‘receive a prophet’ implies that there is some spiritual affinity with him in the receiver. To give help to His brethren, because they are so, implies some affinity with Him or feeling after likeness to Him and them. Now, if we hold fast by the universality of the judgment here depicted, we shall see that this recognition must necessarily have different degrees in those who have heard of Christ and in those who have not. In the former, it will be equivalent to that faith which is the root of all goodness, and grasps the Christ revealed in the gospel. In the latter, it can be no more than a feeling after Him who is the ‘light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.’ Surely there are souls amid the darkness of heathenism yearning toward the light, like plants grown in the dark. By ways of His own, Christ can reach such hearts, as the river of the water of life may percolate through underground channels to many a tree which grows far from its banks.

III. Note the surprises of the judgment.

The astonishment of the righteous is not modesty disclaiming praise, but real wonder at the undreamed-of significance of their deeds. In the parable of the talents, the servants unveiled their inmost hearts, and accurately described their lives. Here, the other side of the truth is brought into prominence, that, at that day, we shall be surprised when we hear from His lips what we have really done. True Christian beneficence has consciously for its motive the pleasing of Christ; but still he who most earnestly strove, while here, to do all as unto Jesus, will be full of thankful wonder at the grace which accepts his poor service, and will learn, with fresh marvelling, how closely He associates Himself with His humblest servant. There is an element of mystery hidden from ourselves in all our deeds. Our love to Christ’s followers never goes out so plainly to Him that, while here, we can venture to be sure that He takes it as done for Him. We cannot here follow the flight of the arrow, nor know what meaning He will attach to, or what large issues He will evolve from, our poor doings. So heaven will be full of blessed surprises, as we reap the fruit growing ‘in power’ of what we sowed ‘in weakness,’ and as doleful will be the astonishment which will seize those who see, for the first time, in the lurid light of that day, the true character of their lives, as one long neglect of plain duties, which was all a defrauding the Saviour of His due. Mere doing nothing is enough to condemn, and its victims will be shudderingly amazed at the fatal wound it has inflicted on them.

IV. The irrevocableness of the judgment.

That is an awful contrast between the ‘Come! ye blessed,’ and ‘Depart! ye cursed.’ That is a more awful parallel between ‘eternal punishment’ and ‘eternal life.’ It is futile to attempt to alleviate the awfulness by emptying the word ‘eternal’ of reference to duration. It no doubt connotes quality, but its first meaning is ever-during. There is nothing here to suggest that the one condition is more terminable than the other. Rather, the emphatic repetition of the word brings the unending continuance of each into prominence, as the point in which these two states, so wofully unlike, are the same. In whatever other passages the doctrine of universal restoration may seem to find a foothold, there is not an inch of standing-room for it here. Reverently accepting Christ’s words as those of perfect and infallible love, the present writer feels so strongly the difficulty of bringing all the New Testament declarations on this dread question into a harmonious whole, that he abjures for himself dogmatic certainty, and dreads lest, in the eagerness of discussing the duration {which will never be beyond the reach of discussion}, the solemn reality of the fact of future retribution should be dimmed, and men should argue about ‘the terror of the Lord’ till they cease to feel it.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Subdivision 3. (Mat 25:31-46.)

The day of manifestation.

Thus Israel and the professing church have been before us in their relation to the coming of the Lord; and now we have the Gentiles similarly, - the judgment of the living nations, when, having come, and His throne established upon the earth, He casts out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and those that work iniquity - a judgment not to be confounded with the final judgment of the "great white throne," which is a judgment of the wicked dead alone.

To those who see in Scripture but one general resurrection of saint and sinner at the last day, with one general judgment in which the righteous will be manifested and separated from the wicked, the scene that the Lord puts before us here seems naturally to picture what is in their own minds. If their view be right, it is, of course, quite clear that it must picture it; and this it is to which we must confine our attention here: does it indeed represent a judgment of all the generations of men; Jew, Christian; heathen, dead and living, at the end of the world? Is this what it states or what it implies? If so, we must heartily and unreservedly accept this, assured that it will be found, of necessity, in conformity with all other scriptures; and that if it plainly declares this, we may accept it even without going further. But it must plainly declare it.

Now the coming of the Son of man in His glory with all His holy angels with Him, we have already seen in its relation to Israel, and to the prophecy of Daniel, to which our Lord Himself directly points us. In Daniel He comes to receive a kingdom which He shares with the "saints of the most high" and which stands for ever; first of all, breaking in pieces and consuming the kingdoms of the earth (Dan 2:34-35). There surely can be no doubt, except to those entirely prepossessed with other thoughts, that this is a kingdom yet to be set up. To speak of the saints reigning now is a thought utterly foreign to Scripture. It is to the overcomer that the Lord promises that he shall sit with Him on His throne, even as He also overcame and is set down with His Father upon His throne (Rev 3:21). Who could sit with Christ upon the Father’s throne? And notice He is speaking in this promise as Son of man; walking in that character among the candlesticks (Rev 1:13). If Christians "reign as kings without" the apostles, (who certainly never did) it is a rebuke simply to mention it (1Co 4:8).

Thus the Kingdom in Daniel is the Kingdom for which still we wait, introduced by that personal and manifest coming in the clouds of heaven of which Matthew (as well as Daniel) speaks, and it is when the Son of man so comes and sits on the throne of His Kingdom that the nations are gathered before Him in the manner spoken of here. There is no hint of resurrection here, and for a good reason. The first resurrection has already taken place before His appearing, for when He appears, we shall appear with Him in glory (Col 3:4). This is indeed a truth which Matthew does not reveal to us, though we have seen the living saints called forth to meet the Bridegroom. But it is a thing made known afterwards to Paul "by the word of the Lord," that the dead saints are to join this blessed company and rise to "meet the Lord in the air," together with them (1Th 4:14-17). Thus it is plain why there is no mention of resurrection after He is come, and that there could not be any. The wicked dead are yet in their graves, and will only come forth after the millennium is at an end, to stand before the "great white throne" for judgment (Rev 20:5; Rev 20:11-13). The company gathered before the Son of man when He appears and sets up His throne on earth, is simply of living men who have never died, and of Gentiles only.

The judgment is a selective judgment, - the righteous separated from the wicked, the "sheep from the goats." But the saints alive or dead of the present or the past dispensations, will not (as we have seen) stand in such a promiscuous assemblage, to be picked out from the rest by the judgment of their works. The first resurrection will have separated them wholly and for ever. Raised or changed, the saints caught up to meet the Lord in the air will be already in His likeness (1Co 15:42-44; 1Co 15:52). Give account of themselves they will, and their works will be appraised for suited recompense, but personally into judgment they cannot come (Joh 5:24, R.V.). Thus it should be absolutely clear that they are not among the mingled company which the King judges here.

But a difficulty arises in the mind immediately - one of those difficulties by which, if fairly met, we are led on to fuller apprehension of the truth itself. It may be naturally asked, if the Lord thus takes away to Himself all the living saints before His appearing, how can there be any "sheep" to put upon His right hand when the Son of man appears? What are they who now are welcomed by the King, as blessed of His Father, to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world?

A similar question, it will be remembered, is asked of John in Revelation (Rev 7:13) by one of those elders whom he has seen in heaven; sitting upon thrones around the throne of God, and heard singing the song of redemption in the presence of the Lamb (Rev 5:7-10). Here is another company, distinct from these, as also from the 144,000 sealed out of the tribes of Israel, just before seen. They are Gentiles, "out of every nation and tribe and people and tongue," with blood-washed robes and palms in their hands, and the elder asks, "Who are these? and whence do they come?" He asks, and has himself to answer: "These are they who come out of the great tribulation" - not simply "out of great tribulation," which might apply very generally to Christians, but out of the tribulation of which Daniel and the Lord in Matthew speak. Thus they are a company precisely defined and limited, and to the very time of the prophecy before us, - a time in which, if we compare the scriptures, Christianity in the true sense of that term is taken from the earth. Once more, Jew and Gentile, even in blessing, form distinct companies; temple-worship is again going on, till the abomination of desolation stands in the holy place; it is in short that "end of the (Jewish) age," which is nothing else than the cut-off end of Daniel’s seventy weeks, - the last week.

In it we see the "everlasting gospel" going out (Rev 14:6-7), declaring (gospel as it is) "the hour of God’s judgment" to have come; and here the instrumentality used is, no doubt, Jewish. Thus we can understand the special character of the judgment itself which turns entirely upon how men have treated the King in His "brethren," the time being that in which "His brethren," instead of being separate, as while the natural promises and privileges were in abeyance, have returned, as Micah prophesies they will, unto the children of Israel (Mic 5:3). Even the apparent ignorance, on the part of the righteous, of the glorious King can in this way be accounted for; because it is only when they look upon Him whom they have pierced that the veil drops completely off Israel’s own face (Zec 12:10; Zec 13:6). No wonder if the Gentiles, turned by their means to God, should not be in advance of the ministry they have received.

Thus there is fullest harmony; and we see that this last week is indeed a seed-time for Israel and the earth. Before it begins, the Lord has called His saints of the past and present up to Himself, and removed the candlestick of Christianity from the earth, spuing out, as in the threat to Laodicea, the mere lukewarm profession. Darkness then covers the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but the light begins to rise upon Israel, the morning (stormy as it is) of an unending day (Isa 60:1-22:

There needs not much more to be said of this closing part of the Lord’s prophecy. For the righteous there is eternal life, death being for them completely abolished. They "go into eternal life," - which is not yet said even of the Christian; and the immensely lengthened life of that time Isaiah witnesses (Isa 65:20-22). On the other hand the wicked go away into eternal punishment - the fire prepared, not for man but "for the devil and his angels." They share the portion of those to whom they have chosen to unite themselves. All Scripture declares, with this passage, that it is strictly eternal.*

{*See for a full discussion, "Facts and Theories as to a Future State".}

I do not know of another scripture which treats definitely of such a sessional judgment of the Gentiles as that which the Lord puts before us in this prophecy. The fiftieth psalm seems about as unique with regard to a similar judgment in Israel, when Jehovah having come and shining in glory out of Zion gathers before Him the covenanted people, and when there are, apparently, as here among the Gentiles, the wicked whom He addresses. Psalm fifty-one follows with a general confession on the part of the nation; who own their guilt in the rejection of Christ (see "Notes"). But the Lord’s words in Matthew, in accordance with the character of the New Testament generally, bring in more clearly the eternal consequences.

In general the judgment of the nations when the Lord appears is set" before us, as even in Revelation (Rev 19:1-21), as a smiting with the sword. In the symbolic language of the Apocalypse, Christ is pictured as a Warrior upon a white horse, whom the "armies in heaven" follow. The beast and the kings of the earth and their army are gathered together to make war with Him that sits upon the horse, and with His army. The beast and false prophet are taken and cast alive into the lake of fire; while those that follow them are slain with the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Him who thus manifests Himself as the "King of kings and Lord of lords." Taken with arms in their hands, in open rebellion; there is no need of judicial inquiry in such a case. But, undoubtedly, with the "rest of the dead" (Rev 20:5) they await the judgment of the "great white throne" for their measured out award. And this marks a wide difference between the selective judgment of Matthew and the distributive judgment which closes up the record. That in Matthew, being simply selective, requires but the one point to be raised - for Christ or against? While that of the great white throne, being judgment according to their works, requires the whole life-history to be brought into account. As forming no part of the "first resurrection," the "resurrection of life," all is settled for these as to the company with which they stand: it is of the "few stripes," or the "many" that alone there is question.

An Old Testament prophet confirms with his testimony that of Revelation. "And it shall come to pass in that day," says Isaiah (Isa 24:21-23), "that Jehovah shall punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days they shall be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed: for Jehovah of hosts shall reign in mount Zion; and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously."

Revelation shows us both the punishment of the "host of the high ones on high," as implied in the binding of Satan (Rev 20:1-3) and casting him into the abyss, and that of the "kings of the earth upon the earth." But the great assize is not then. The millennium intervenes before their "visitation" comes, and final judgment. The Old Testament doctrine is in necessary harmony with the New and with the so-called "premillennial" interpretation of it.

The Old Testament also shows us Gentile nations outside of the empire of the "beast" and his associates, - the "Latin" nations. "Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal" is neither in the empire, nor in alliance with it; and the names given and the powers connected, show not obscurely Russia and the east (Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29). Daniel’s "King of the north" is as certainly Greek, all through his closing chapters; and his position and might, which is not his own (Dan 8:24) suggest that his connection is with the colossus at his back. All these are to find Jerusalem "a burdensome stone" to them, and meet their judgment at the day of the appearing of the Lord.

But these are the banded armies, behind which are the nations themselves; and we hear of spared ones sent to them (Isa 66:1-24: And so His Kingdom still extends, not by a sudden revelation; as we might expect, and divine power alone, but by the aid of human instruments, with an economy of that which at such a time we might think would cease to be held for miracle, instructive to realize.

Christianity, it must be remembered, has entirely passed away. The true saints in Christendom having been taken up to meet the Lord in the air, those that have refused His grace while the day of grace continued, have been given up to strong delusion; to believe the lie of Antichrist (2Th 2:8-12). These swell the ranks of the followers of the beast and false prophet; and their doom is fixed (Rev 14:9-11). But the mercy of God still finds its objects, those whom divine wisdom and love may count never to have really had the truth before them, so as to have rejected it, and to these, as well as those outside all profession; the everlasting gospel may bring salvation yet. To the Old Testament prophets Christianity is a thing unknown, and in their writings we must not expect to find it. The book of Revelation it is that adds all this to the Old Testament.

Among the nations outside of the Latin powers, it would seem that the same power of delusion will work in gathering after "false prophets," if not after "false Christs." The Lord warns of these in that day, as if there were more than the one special form of Antichrist which we find in the land of Israel. Satan has usually more than one device, and although never really "divided against himself," can work upon men by deceits of diverse kinds. Thus the Grecian king of the last days, - quite distinct as he is from the more conspicuous form of evil, - is spoken of as a king "of bold countenance, and understanding dark sentences" and who "stands up against the Prince of princes." This is usually taken to be Antiochus, or else Mohammed; but both are negatived as the complete fulfilment by the time specified for the fulfilment by the interpreting angel, "for the vision belongeth to the time of the end," "the end of the indignation" - of God against Israel, - "the appointed time of the end" (Dan 8:17; Dan 8:19, R.V.). Such expressions a comparison with what we have had in Matthew should make absolutely clear.

How little we realize what "he that restraineth" (2Th 2:7, R.V.) is keeping back, and the flood-tide of evil ready to roll in; when in righteous compensation for the refusal of God’s fullest grace, "he is taken out of the way." It is surely the Spirit of God as now working out His purposes as to the Church, that is the restraining power. He alone is competent for it. But the wearing out of divine patience is already manifesting itself for those that have eyes to see. The fearful "end" is not far off.

It is the "cutting off" of the Gentile church, which the apostle at the beginning distinctly threatened (Rom 11:21-22), and thus the absence of Christianity from the world when Old Testament prophecy resumes its now suspended course of fulfilment, which necessarily baffles every interpreter who does not recognize this. For he must in that case necessarily bring in what he looks for, and apply what relates to Israel wholesale to the Christian church. It must be so: for while the Church is the object of God’s favor upon earth, the Jews (nationally) are "enemies for your sake" (Rom 11:28). Christianity and Judaism cannot go on together; and the "end of the age," the Lord’s prophecy here shows fully to be Jewish. For this to come, the Church, as well as the Holy Spirit indwelling her, must be taken out of the way; and "then" only "shall that wicked one be revealed," who for this reason cannot be the papacy, for it will have then no Christian "temple of God" to "sit in" (2Th 2:4). Any neglect of landmarks so definite as these must work confusion as to the interpretation of prophecy.

Thus the "everlasting gospel" sent out to the nations (Rev 14:6-7) is applied without question to the missionary labors of the present day, although we may be thankful to know that the devoted men who give themselves to this blessed work, could scarcely find their Christian evangel in the words of the angel there, and most certainly do not say, what is so characteristic of the time to which it really refers, "the hour of His judgment is come." They say on the contrary, and rightly, with the apostle, "Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation."

But upon all this here is not the place to enlarge further. We pass on to very different themes from this.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:31-46 This is a description of the final judgment of which Jesus had been warning (see 7:13-27; 8:10-12; 11:20-24; 12:38-42; 13:24-30, 36-43; 16:24-28; 24:37–25:30).

25:31 To sit upon his glorious throne is here a posture of judgment (see 19:28; 22:44; Dan 7:13-14).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 25:31. Ἐν τῇ δόξῃ Αὐτοῦ, in His glory) concerning which so many things have been foretold.—καὶ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ἄγγελοι μετʼ Αὐτοῦ, and all the holy angels with Him) We must not here suppose ἔλθωσι, shall come, to be understood; but the nominative must be taken absolutely according to the Hebrew idiom, and rendered, all the angels accompanying Him.—πάντες, all) Add all nations from Mat 25:32. All angels; all nations. How vast an assembly!—τότε, then) As has been foretold. The disciples thought that this would take place immediately.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_25:31 ff. It is unnecessary to suppose that this utterance about the judgmentan utterance taken, like the preceding, from the collection of our Lords sayings (λόγια)should be immediately connected with Mat_24:30 f. (Fritzsche, de Wette) or with Mat_24:51 (Ewald). The coming of the Messiah and His judicial dealing with His servants had been portrayed immediately before, and now the prophetic glance extends and takes in the judgment of all nations,a judgment which is to be presided over by the Lord when He returns in His glory. This is the grand closing scene in which the eschatological predictions are all to be realized, and depicted too with a simplicity and beauty so original that there is but the less reason for imagining that this discourse about the judgment is the product of the apostolic period (Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Scholten, Wittichen, Keim).

It is usual to understand those who are being judged as representing men generally, Christians and non-Christians alike (see, among modern expositors, Kuinoel, Fritzsche, de Wette, Lange, Weizel, as above, p. 603; Kaeuffer, de ζωῆς αἰων. not. p. 44; Hofmann, Schriftbew. p. 645), Bleek arbitrarily assuming that the evangelists have extended the application of what originally referred only to Christians. On the other hand, Keil (in the Opusc., ed. Goldh. p. 136 ff., and Anal. 1813, III. 177 ff.) and Olshausen, as well as Baumgarten-Crusius, Georgii in Zellers Jahrb. 1845, p. 18 f.; Hilgenfeld, Weizsäcker, Volkmar, Keim, Wittichen, Auberlen, Cremer, understand all who are not Christians to be referred to, some of them, however, expressly excluding the Jews. But non-Christians could not have been intended, because it would be improper to say that the Messianic kingdom has been prepared for such, to say nothing of the ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, Mat_25:34, in which the idea of the ἐκλεκτοί is exclusively involved; further, because it would be no less improper to suppose, without more ado, that non-Christians are intended by the οἱ δίκαιοι of Mat_25:37, which latter we are not at liberty to understand in a generalized sense, but only as equivalent to the elect; again, because those things which Jesus represents (Mat_25:35-36; Mat_25:40) as manifestations of love toward Himself cannot possibly be conceived of as done by those who, nevertheless, continued to remain outside the Christian community; finally, because both sides of the assemblage use such language (Mat_25:37 ff., Mat_25:44) as compels us to acknowledge their belief in the Judge before whom they now stand. Their language is the expression of a consciousness of their faith in the Messiah, towards whom, however, they have had no opportunity of displaying their love. If the Messianic felicity were here adjudged to pure heathens according to the way in which they may have acted toward Christians (Hilgenfeld), this would be to suppose a remarkable toleration (Keim) altogether at variance with the whole tenor of the New Testament, and such as even Rev_21:24 (see Düsterdieck on that passage) does not countenance,a humanity which does not need faith, because it compensates for the want of it by its love (Volkmar, p. 546). If, after all this, we cannot suppose that a judgment of non-Christians is here meant, we may even go still further, and say that non-Christians are not included at all, and so we must also reject the view usually adopted, since Chrysostom and Augustine, that what is here exhibited is a judgment of all men, believers and unbelievers alike. For, so far from the mention of the divine ἐκλογή, Mat_25:34, or the idea of the δίκαιοι, Mat_25:37, or what Jesus says at Mat_25:35, or the answer of those assembled before the Judge, Mat_25:37; Mat_25:44, or the entire omission generally of any distinction between belief and unbelief, harmonizing with the notion of a mixed body consisting of Christians and non-Christians, they entirely exclude the latter. We should therefore return to the very old view (Lactantius, Instit. vii. 20; Jerome, Euthymius Zigabenus), which, though it had been neglected in consequence of the prevalent eschatology, was preserved by Grotius, the view, namely, that what Jesus is here depicting is the judgment of Christians: περὶ τῶν Χριστιανῶν δὲ μόνων ὁ λόγος ἐνταῦθα, Euthymius Zigabenus, who proves this, above all, from Mat_25:35-36. All the points previously adduced as arguments against the other explanations combine to favour this view. It is confirmed by the whole fundamental idea on which the Judges sentence turns (the determining principle being the love manifested toward Jesus), by the figure of the shepherd and his sheep, and finally, and at the same time somewhat more definitely, by the fact that those who are being judged are called πάντα τὰ ἔθνη. For the latter words are not intended to limit the reference expressly to the Gentiles, but they are to be taken as assuming the realization of the universality of Christianity. by the time of the advent when all the nations of the earth (ἔθνη, as expressing the idea of nation, does not exclude the Jews; comp. Mat_28:19, Mat_24:9, and see on Joh_11:50) will have heard the gospel and (to a proportionable degree) received Christ (Mat_24:14; Rom_11:25). Jesus, then, is here describing the universal judgment of those who have believed in Him, in whom, as they will be gathered around His throne, His prophetic glance beholds all the nations of the world (Mat_28:19). Comp., for the judgment of Christians, 2Co_5:10; Rom_14:10. The judgment of unbelievers (1Co_15:23; 1Co_6:2; comp. on Mat_19:28), who are not in question at present, forms a distinct scene in the universal assize; and hence in the preceding parable also the reference is to His servants, therefore to believers. Neither here nor in the passages from Paul do those different judgment scenes presuppose anything in the shape of chiliastic ideas. The Messianic judgment is one act consisting of two scenes, not two acts with a chiliastic interval coming in between. See, on the other hand, Mat_13:37 ff.

πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι] omnes angeli, omnes nationes; quanta celebritas! Bengel.

τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων] sheep and goats (Sir_47:3; Gen_38:17) are here represented as having been pastured together (comp. Gen_30:33 ff.). The wicked are conceived of under the figure of the ἔριφοι, not on account of the wantonness and stench of the latter (Grotius), or in consequence of their stubbornness (Lange), but generally because those animals were considered to be comparatively worthless (Luk_15:29); and hence, in Mat_25:33, we have the diminutive τὰ ἐρίφια for the purpose of expressing contempt.

For the significance attached to the right and left side (Ecc_10:2), see Schoettgen and Wetstein on our passage. Hermann, Gottesd. Alterth. § xxxviii. 9 f. Comp. Plat. Rep. p. 614 C; Virg. Aen. vi. 542 f.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 25:31-46 . The Judgment programme . Much diversity of opinion has prevailed in reference to this remarkable passage; as to the subjects of the judgment, and the authenticity of this judgment programme as a professed logion of Jesus. Are the judged all mankind, Christian and non-Christian, or Christians only, or non-Christian peoples, including unbelieving Jews, or the Jewish people excluded? Even as early as Origen it was felt that there was room for doubt on such points. He says ( Comm. in Ev. M. ): “Utrum segregabuntur gentes omnes ab omnibus qui in omnibus generationibus fuerint, an illae tantum quao in consummatione fuerint derelictae, aut illae tantum quae crediderunt in Deum per Christum, et ipsae utrum omnes, an non omnes, non satis est manifestum. Tamen quibusdam videtur de differentiâ eorum, quae crediderunt haec esse dicta.” Recent opinion inclines to the view that the programme refers to heathen people only, and sets forth the principle on which they shall be judged. As to the authenticity of the logion critics hold widely discrepant views. Some regard it as a composition of the evangelists. So Pfleiderer, e.g. , who sees in it simply the literary expression of a genial humane way of regarding the heathen on the part of the evangelist, an unknown Christian author of the second century, who had charity enough to accept Christlike love on the part of the heathen as an equivalent for Christian faith ( Urchristenthum , p. 532). Holtzmann, H. C., also sees in it a second-hand composition, based on 4 Esdras 7:33 35, Apoc. Bar. 83:12. Weiss, on the other hand, recognises as basis an authentic logion of Jesus, setting forth love as the test of true discipleship, which has been worked over by the evangelist and altered into a judgment programme for heathendom . Wendt ( L. J. , p. 186) thinks that the logion in its original form was such a programme. This seems to be the most probable opinion.

Mat 25:31 . ὅταν δὲ , the description following recalls Mat 24:30 , to which the ὅταν seems to refer.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A lively setting forth of the everlasting judgment which is to come.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 31. When the Son of man shall come] This must be understood of Christ's coming at the last day, to judge mankind: though all the preceding part of the chapter may be applied also to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Holy angels] The word αγιοι is omitted by many excellent manuscripts, versions, and fathers. Mill and Bengel approve of the omission, and Griesbach has left it out of the text. It is supposed by some that our Lord will have other angels (messengers) with him in that day, besides the holy ones. The evil angels may be in attendance to take, as their prey, those who shall be found on his left hand.

The throne of his glory] That glorious throne on which his glorified human nature is seated, at the right hand of the Father.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(31) When the Son of man shall come.—We commonly speak of the concluding portion of this chapter as the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, but it is obvious from its very beginning that it passes beyond the region of parable into that of divine realities, and that the sheep and goats form only a subordinate and parenthetic illustration. The form of the announcement is in part based, as indeed are all the thoughts connected with the final Advent, upon the vision of Dan_7:13. The “throne of His glory” is that which He shares with “the Ancient of Days,” the throne of Jehovah, surrounded with the brightness of the Shechinah.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When the son of man shall come in his glory,.... What is before signified in the two preceding parables, is here clearly and distinctly represented without a parable: and it should be observed, that as the foregoing parables only regard the Gospel church state, and the ministers and members of it, good and bad, or all sorts of Christian professors; so this account of the last judgment only concerns them; for though all men that ever have been, are, or shall be in every nation under heaven, from Adam to the last man that will be born, will be judged; yet the part or it here described, though it gives a general and lively idea of the whole, only regards the judgment and final state of such who have made a profession of the Christian religion. The judge himself is first described, who is said to be "the son of man"; a name by which Christ is frequently called, and by which he styles himself in his state of humiliation; expressing both the truth of his human nature, and the meanness of it in that state: but as despicable as he appeared then in human nature, in the form of a servant, a man of sorrows, despised by men, and subject to sufferings and death; yet when he comes again, it will be in another guise manner: he will appear "in his glory"; in the glory of the only begotten of the Father, in the glory of his proper deity, in the glory of all the perfections of the divine nature; which glory was, in a great measure, and from most persons, hid in the days of his flesh, though he was in the form of God, and equal with him. He will also come in his mediatorial glory, which he had with the Father before the world was, and with all the honour, power, and authority of the judge of the whole earth, to execute judgment upon men; and in the glory of his human nature, of which his transfiguration on the mount was a pledge and emblem,

And all the holy angels with him; which splendid retinue will add to the glory of his appearance; and who will accompany him not merely, or only as his attendants, to make the solemnity more grand, pompous, and magnificent; but as ministering spirits, who will be employed by him in gathering all before him, separating the wicked the good, and conducting each to their several apartments of bliss or woe: and when he thus appears,

then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; or glorious throne, upon the clouds of heaven, where he will sit as judge, and be visible to all.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

Ver. 31. And all the holy angels with him] He shall not leave one behind him in heaven. Oh! what a brave bright day must that needs be, when so many glorious suns shall shine in the firmament, and among and above them all the Sun of righteousness, in whom our nature is advanced above the brightest cherub.

Upon the throne of his glory] Perhaps upon his angels, who are called thrones, Col 1:16, and possibly may bear him aloft by their natural strength, as on their shoulders.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When the Son of man ... - This is in answer to the question which the disciples proposed to Jesus respecting the end of the world, Mat 24:3. That this refers to the last judgment, and not, as some have supposed, to the destruction of Jerusalem, appears:

From the fact that it was in answer to an express inquiry respecting “the end” of the world. “All nations” were to be assembled, which did not take place at the destruction of Jerusalem. A separation was to take place between the righteous and the wicked, which was not done at Jerusalem. The rewards and punishments are declared to be “eternal.”

None of these things took place at the destruction of Jerusalem.

In his glory - In his own proper honor. With his glorified body, and as the head and king of the universe, Act 1:11; Eph 1:20-22; 1Th 4:16; 1Co 15:24-25, 1Co 15:52.

The throne of his glory - This means, in the language of the Hebrews, his glorious or splendid throne. It is not to be taken literally, as if there would be a material throne or seat for the King of Zion. It expresses the idea that he will come “as a king and judge” to assemble his subjects before him, and to appoint them their rewards.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Our Saviour having spoken much before of his spiritual kingdom, which he exerciseth in his church, cometh now more plainly to tell them what kind of a kingdom he should further set up and exercise in the end of the world; far different from that which the Jews dreamed of, and his own disciples seemed to have some expectations of.

When the Son of man, he who now appeareth to you in the form of a servant, and only as the Son of man, shall come in his glory, a glorious manifestation of himself; he now appeareth clothed with flesh, but he shall appear in his glory, and all the holy angels with him; he shall come with ten thousand of his saints, Jud 1:14, with his mighty angels. 2Th 1:7. Then shall he sit (after the manner of great princes) upon the throne of his glory; he shall appear in great splendour: and before him shall be gathered all nations, that is, all persons that ever were or at that time shall be in the world; the quick and the dead, Act 10:42 2Ti 4:1; 1Pe 4:5. He shall send forth his angels, and say to them, who are his reapers, Mat 13:30, Gather together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn. He by his angels shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd, who feedeth both sheep and goats together, at night separateth them one from another. So the saints of God, who are like sheep for whiteness, gentleness, innocency, and feed in this world together with stinking and lascivious goats, the wicked of the world, compared to goats for the filthy qualities by which they resemble them; yet at the day of judgment Christ shall separate them.

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand. The right hand is the place of honour and dignity, and the place for favourites: then Christ shall exalt his saints to great honour and dignity, and show them his favour.

But the goats on the left; wicked men shall rise to shame and contempt. The right hand men of the world shall be at the left hand of Christ. It shall be then seen, that because they are people of no understanding, he that formed them will show them no favour.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him - With what majesty and grandeur does our Lord here speak of himself Giving us one of the noblest instances of the true sublime. Indeed not many descriptions in the sacred writings themselves seem to equal this. Methinks we can hardly read it without imagining ourselves before the awful tribunal it describes.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Son of man (See Scofield "Mat 8:20").

angels (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Last Judgment.

v. 31. When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory;

v. 32. and before Him shall be gathered all nations. And He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

v. 33. And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.

The reckoning as it will finally be made is here described; for the day of doom is inevitable. Another impressive passage, awesome in its very simplicity, in the absence of all seeking for effect. He who was within two days to celebrate His last Passover on earth and then to be crucified, here fitly sets forth the glory of His triumph, as Jerome remarks. In glory, the glory of heaven, the glory of His Father, the glory which was His before the world began, before He entered into the weakness and lowliness of our sinful flesh, He will come, accompanied by all the angels, as His messengers, ministers, and courtiers. Through their services He will cause all the nations of the world, both Jews and Gentiles, to be assembled before Him. He will then set each kind of people in a separate place, in the same way as the shepherd keeps the sheep separated from the goats, the one division being placed on the right side of the throne of glory, the other on the left. Note: There are only two divisions on the last day; no social distinctions, no preference by rank and wealth, no neutral people; in one or the other of the two assemblies every person in the world will find himself, inevitably, without escape, in the one case; with no desire to escape, in the other. That is the first act of the Judgment, the separating, the fixing of an impassable gulf. The sheep are those that followed the great Shepherd, Jesus, willingly, that heard His voice, the believers; the goats are those that refused obedience to His gentle rule, that were disobedient to the Gospel, the unbelievers, the hypocrites among the Christians, the entire godless world.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From hence to the end of the chapter, we have a draught and scheme of the general judgment.

Where observe, the person judging, the Son of man; the persons judged, good and bad; the one called sheep, for their innocency and meekness; the other goats, for their unruliness and uncleanness.

Observe also, The manner of his coming to judgment, most august and glorious: glorious in his person, glorious in his attendance.

Learn, That Christ’s appearance at the great day to the judging of the world, will be a splendid and a glorious appearance: He will come with power, and in great glory, in regard of the dignity of his person, and the quality of his office, and the greatness of his work. He will appear as a king in the midst of his nobles, to take off the scandal and ignominy of the cross, and as a recompense for his abasement and humiliation, to strike the hearts of his enemies with dread and fear, and to fill the souls of his people with joy and confidence.

Let us therefore propound it to our faith, to believe it; to our fear, to tremble at the thoughts of it; to our hope and love, that we may expect and wait, look and long for it.

Observe farther, The work of this Judge: he shall first gather all nations.

Learn, That at the general judgment all that have lived shall be summoned to the bar of Christ: persons of all sects, of all ages, of all nations, of all conditions; having gathered them together; he shall next separate them, as a shepherd his sheep.

Thence learn, That though there be a mixture and confusion of the godly and the wicked here, yet at the day of judgment there will be a separation made betwixt them, and they shall never come together more.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory. Compare 1 Thess. 4:14–18; Rev. 20:11–15. The glorious coming at the end of the world is meant. See Matt. 24:30. The throne of his glory. See Rev. 20:11, for an account of the great white throne upon which sat the divine Judge from whose face heaven and earth fled away. An earthly judge was wont, in pronouncing judgment, to take his place on the “judgment seat,” a kind of judicial throne (John 19:13).

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus begins to tell his disciples how he will judge people when he returns at the end time.

the Son of Man

Jesus is speaking about himself in the third person. (See: First, Second, or Third Person)

Before him will be gathered all the nations

This can be stated in active form. AT: "He will gather all the nations before him" (See: Active or Passive)

Before him

"In front of him"

all the nations

Here "nations" refers to people. AT: "all people from every country" (See: Metonymy)

as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats

Jesus uses a simile to describe how he will separate the people. (See: Simile)

He will place the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left

This is a metaphor that means the Son of Man will separate all people. He will put the righteous people at his right side, and he will put the sinners at his left side. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Son of Man

glory

angel

throne

nation

shepherd

ewe

goat

right hand

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

31–46. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

31. ἅγιοι, omitted before ἂγγελοι (אBDL and others). A heads the evidence for the retention of ἅγιοι.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31-46.] The final judgment of all nations. Peculiar to Matthew. In the two former parables we have seen the difference between, and judgment of, Christians—in their inward readiness for their Lord, and their outward diligence in profiting by his gifts. And both these had reference to that first resurrection and millennial Kingdom, the reality of which is proved by the passages of Scripture cited in the notes above, and during which all Christians shall be judged. We now come to the great and universal judgment at the end of this period, also prophesied of distinctly in order in Rev 20:11-15—in which all the dead, small and great, shall stand before God. This last great judgment answers to the judgment on Jerusalem, after the Christians had escaped from it: to the gathering of the eagles (ministers of vengeance) to the carcase. Notice the precision of the words in ver. 31, ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ—the ὅταν setting forth the indefiniteness of the time—the δέ the distinction from the two parables foregoing; and τότε, to mark a precise time when all this shall take place—a day of judgment.

Compare for the better understanding of the distinction, and connexion, of these ‘two comings’ of the Lord, 1Th 4:16, 1Th 4:17, and 2Th 1:7-10.

This description is not a parable, though there are in it parabolic passages, e.g. ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμ. κ.τ.λ.: and for that very reason, that which is illustrated by those likenesses is not itself parabolic. It will heighten our estimation of the wonderful sublimity of this description, when we recollect that it was spoken by the Lord only three days before His sufferings.

ἐν τῇ δόξ. αὐτ.] This expression, repeated again at the end of the verse, is quite distinct from μετὰ δυνάμ. κ. δόξ. πολλῆς ch. 24:30: see Rev 20:11. This His glory is that also of all his saints, with whom He shall be accompanied: see Jude, ver. 14. In this his coming they are with the angels, and as the angels: see Rev 19:14 (compare ver. 8): Zec 14:5.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

31. But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He shall sit upon the throne of His glory.] Cf. on 16:27, 19:28; Briggs, Messiah of the Gospels, p. 225.

(L)

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.