In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus tells what it will be like when he comes with his angels and sits on his throne. All the nations will be gathered to him and he will separate them as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. In this analogy the sheep are his people and the goats are not. To the sheep he says,
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
The righteous will say, “When did we see you like this?”. Jesus will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not cloth me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
They will say, “When did we see you like this?”. And Jesus will respond, “Whatever you did not do for the least of these you did not do to me”.
Jesus said, talking about himself, “I was sick, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was naked”. Jesus was the one in need. This is how close he is to the broken. Their brokenness is his brokenness. Their lack is his lack. It’s important to note who was credited as the one who helped him? It was the righteous. It was the people of God who looked after those in need. Meaning, perhaps the people on the left (the goats) thought to themselves, “God will take care of those people,” and then went about their business. God’s love is expressed through his people, so if his people don’t show up, then those in need are still in need.
Neither group of people looked at those in need and thought that they were helping Jesus. They both said, “When did we see you like this”. But the group on the right saw these people from a different perspective and helped them. They were proved righteous by their deeds. Their deeds didn’t make them righteous. Their righteousness was expressed in action.
I am a huge proponent of growing in knowledge and understanding, cultivating correct information and uprooting the incorrect. But there is something so simple about how these two groups were separated. The separation was based off of love expressed through action. I think this is what John meant when he said in 1 John 4:20-21,
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”