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Mat_25:37 ff. Not mere modesty (not even, according to Olshausen, unconscious modesty), but an actual declining with humility, on the ground that they have never rendered the loving services in question to Christ Himself; for they do not venture to estimate the moral value of those services according to the lofty principle of Christ’s unity with His people, Mat_18:5, Mat_10:40. The Lord Himself then explains what He means, Mat_25:40. Hence it does not follow from this passage that these δίκαιοι “have not as yet been consciously leading the New Testament life” (Auberlen, Cremer). Bengel well remarks: “Fideles opera bona sua, impii mala Mat_25:44, non perinde aestimant ut judex.”
πότε σὲ εἴδομεν ] three times, earnestly, honestly.
ἐφʼ ὅσον ] in quantum, inasmuch as; see on Rom_11:13.
ἐποιήσατε ] ye have done it, namely, the things previously mentioned.
ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἀδελφῶν μου τῶν ἐλαχίστων ] to a single one of these my brethren, and that of the most insignificant of them. Those words, which are referred by Keil, Olshausen, Georgii, Hilgenfeld, Keim (see on Mat_25:31 f.), to Christians in general; by Cremer, to the elect; by Luthardt, to the Christian church in its distress; by Auberlen, to their poor miserable fellow-men (comp. de Wette, Ullmann in the Stud. u. Krit. 1847, p. 164 ff.),—do not admit of being also referred to the apostles (Mat_28:10; 1Co_4:13), to whom, as surrounding His judgment-throne, Christ is supposed to point; for the amount of love shown to the apostles cannot be taken as the universal standard of judgment; and though the apostles themselves, appearing here, as they do, in their relation to the rest of Christians, may well be called the brethren of Christ (Mat_28:10; Joh_20:17); yet they would certainly not be described by Him as the least of such brethren. No; as during His earthly life Christ is always surrounded by the obscure and despised (the poor, the humble, publicans and sinners, and such like), who seek their salvation through Him; so He also represents Himself as still surrounded by such as these on the occasion of the judgment (comp. Ewald, p. 420). In consequence of their longing after Him, and of their love for Him, and the eternal salvation to be found in Him (as ἠγαπηκότες τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν αὐτοῦ , 2Ti_4:8), they here come crowding around the throne of His glory; and to these He now points. They are the πτωχοί , πενθοῦντες , πρᾳεῖς , δεδιωγμένοι of the Sermon on the Mount, who are now on the point of receiving the promised bliss.