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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’
Mat_25:40
I. Brotherhood.—The great truth of the Brotherhood of men gripped the mind of the first believers; and well it might. They loved to call themselves brethren, and well they might. Often yielding allegiance to the faith at the expense of the snapping of all earthly ties of blood-relationship (fathers and mothers, wife and children left), they found the ‘manifold more’ in the wider bond of the spiritual family.
II. Equality.—From fraternity we glide into equality. About which latter, a word. In our relation with our God we are equal. But we may not reason from this that we are equal in our mutual relations with each other. Bring back the early Christian communism, it could not last longer than it has lasted. Make men equal to-morrow—‘let us all have one purse’—they would commence diverging the day after. What Christianity does is not to cancel the lowly lot, but to raise and adorn it. Our subject is not ‘no needy in Christ,’ but ‘Christ in the needy.’ Blessed Saviour, how dost Thou assert Thyself in Thy gracious condescension! Never a lowly act of love and help for one of Thy least ones, but is counted by Thee as done to Thyself.
III. Ministering to Christ.—Men’s chances of ministering to Christ were meagre and often missed. May it be given to us to fill up that which is behind. Something we—ay, the least moneyed of us—many do to turn these prisoners of despondency, perhaps of despair, into ‘Prisoners of Hope,’ pointing their drooping hearts to ‘the stronghold’ on which they have long ago turned their backs. Christ in these!
—
Bishop Alfred Pearson.
Illustrations(1) ‘A passage from The Heart of Midlothian has a distinct bearing on this passage in Matthew: “Alas! it is not when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other peoples’ sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we are for righting our ain wrangs and fighting our ain battles. But when the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the body … and when the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low … O, … then it isna what we hae dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we think on maist pleasantly.” ’
(2) ‘O that we may feel now the truth that came too late to Amos Barton, in the story, as he stood beside the cold body of his sainted wife: “She was gone from him and he could never show his love for her any more, never make up for omissions in the past by showing future tenderness.” Oh, the bitterness of that midnight prostration upon the grave.… “Milly, Milly, dost thou hear me? I didn’t love thee enongh—I wasn’t tender enough to thee—but I think of it all now.” Yes, it is very touching and very sad. But how much more sad—sad beyond all sadness—to have to say at last, “O Saviour, I never did anything out of love to Thee.” ’