Matthew 25:38Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For the Lord does not hunger in His own being, but in His faithful followers; He does not thirst in Himself, but in those who are in need. The Lord is not unclothed in His essence—He provides garments to everyone—but in His servants, He experiences their nakedness. The Lord does not suffer illness in Himself, for He has the ability to heal all afflictions and conquer death, but He identifies with His servants’ suffering. The Lord is not a stranger in Himself—He possesses heaven and earth—but He becomes a sojourner through His servants. Similarly, the Lord is not imprisoned in Himself—He possesses the power to liberate anyone from affliction—but He associates with His saints in their imprisonment. Now you can observe, beloved, how the saints share in this experience: just as they endure these trials for the sake of the Lord, so does the Lord share in their sufferings, standing alongside them.

Yet, in His remarkable kindness, He lowers Himself to the role of a debtor, inviting you towards charity and, through that charity, to eternal bliss. He borrows even the most insignificant elements, the dust and the decay you call earthly possessions, so that He may, without compromising His justice, repay you with true goodness, incorruptibility, and joy—blessings beyond your wildest dreams. Nicephorus, Archbishop of Astrakhan, notes that the Lord refers to the impoverished as His brethren because He has genuinely shared in our humanity; He became Man, sanctifying human nature. Therefore, He is not ashamed to call them brethren, as He states, I will declare Your name to My brethren (Hebrews 2:11). He refers to them as lesser brethren in light of their humble circumstances, reflecting His own humility in obediently submitting to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

St. Philaret remarks on the simplicity of this path and the vastness of its reach. What may seem a humble act, such as offering a crumb of bread, grants you access to the kingdom; by clothing the naked with temporal garments, you receive an eternal mantle of truth. When you greet a stranger or visit the sick or imprisoned, you are, in those very steps, approaching the right hand of the Judge who comes in glory, joining the assembly of the blessed in the heavenly realm. When you extend loving comfort to a beggar with your charity, you are assisting the Lord in caring for that beggar, even in acts that seem small and inconsequential. This is how your kindness to the poor is received by the Lord. Redeemed by the great Savior, you become an instrument of salvation, a humble savior to the least of these, and perhaps, if it is appropriate to say, a benefactor of your Savior as He declared, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. However, such a blessed condition is reserved for those who act wisely and with compassion. A charitable act void of genuine heartfelt engagement with the needy is like a body without breath. Reflect on the words from the Just Judge: inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me. If you assist the unfortunate solely because you perceive their suffering as pitiful, you are merely responding with natural compassion. To ensure that your charitable actions are spiritually meaningful and worthy of Christ, you must recognize in the afflicted one a lesser brother of His. In embracing this perspective, the heart of a Christian will undoubtedly reflect, What a joy it is that my gratitude and love for Christ can be shown to one whom He considers His lesser brother. Since for you Christ descended from the heavenly throne to this earth, faced a grueling human existence, suffered and died, will you not also descend to His lesser brother, regardless of how deep his despair or degradation may be? Would it not be fulfilling to not only alleviate his poverty with your abundance but also to share in his suffering and provide relief? Thus, for deeds of compassion to be pure, worthy of the Lord, justified, and truly blessed, they must be performed as acts of service to the Lord Himself, through the agency of humanity.

Some may mistakenly believe that only acts of mercy will be required at the Last Judgement, implying that no other disciplines such as fasting, prayer, or repentance are necessary for salvation. Do not deceive yourself, dear ones, with this notion; it is a deception of the enemy. Remember, acts of mercy will indeed be pleasing to God and contribute to your salvation only when they arise from profound humility of spirit, so that you do not regard them as virtuous or assign value to your actions, much like the righteous will be astonished at the mercy shown to them by the Judge. Should you attach worth to your good works, you must understand that they will lose all merit in God’s sight. To truly learn Christian mercy—the kind of mercy for which one hopes to receive God's mercy—you must first cultivate spiritual poverty, mourn your sins, foster a meek heart, and earnestly desire God's righteousness and justification through Christ. Only then will you be able to offer to God acts of mercy that are genuinely salvific. St. Philaret wonders if there will be people who shy away from this straightforward and rewarding path, too lazy to pursue it. Reason might argue that this is improbable, yet sad experience reveals it is common among many. Oh, poor wayfarers of the earth! Where shall we go if we do not follow the path of Christian charity towards the essence of Christ? For before us lie only two roads: one leads us closer to Christ, while the other takes us further away from Him.

Acts of love and mercy shown to others will be held in the highest regard at God's judgment, where those who extend mercy to the least among their brothers will be recognized by Christ as having ministered to Him, whereas those who lack mercy towards their neighbors will be deemed merciless to Christ Himself during this divine evaluation. This fearful, cosmic judgment will be the conclusive reckoning that determines the eternal fate of every person. Initially, once the Son of Man appears in divine splendor and is accompanied by His holy angels, gathering all nations before Him, He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous, placing the righteous on His right and the unrighteous on His left. Subsequently, the Lord will invite the righteous into the eternal joy that has been prepared for them by God since the beginning of time, while the unrighteous will be eternally severed from His presence and cast into everlasting fire, destined for continuous torment, prepared for all those who oppose God, particularly the devil and his angels.

Surprised when their acts of kindness are highlighted as extraordinary, they, with the same humility and genuine astonishment, will respond to Christ at the Last Judgment, ‘Lord, when did we encounter You? When did we see You in hunger and feed You? Thirsty, and give You drink? When did You come to us as a stranger, and we took You in? When did we clothe You when You were naked? When did we see You sick or imprisoned, and come to visit You?’ And the King will reply to them (Matthew 25:40): ‘Indeed, you did not attend to Me directly in any of these ways; however, did I not tell you that receiving one of these little ones is akin to receiving Me? You did not turn away from anyone who sought your assistance in My name; you fed the hungry, quenched the thirst of the needy, clothed the bare, embraced the stranger, and cared for the sick and those in prison; all the goodness you extended to the poor, the downtrodden, and those who were suffering—this you did as if it were for Me. Go forth and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven!’