“Then will the righteous answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and fed you, or thirsty, and gave you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and took you in, or naked, and clothed you? And when did we see you sick, or in prison, and came to you?' ”
Being blessed by His Father these are now ‘the righteous', those who are accepted by Him and delivered from judgment, and made righteous by His saving power. This is evidenced by the fact that they have been placed on His right hand side. They are the forgiven (Matthew 6:12; Matthew 18:27; Matthew 18:33) and are the ransomed (Matthew 20:28). They have been saved from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Compare also Matthew 13:43 where the righteous are those who are saved and who shine forth in their Father's kingdom; Ezekiel 18:5-9 where ‘the righteous' do such things as are described here and are also ‘careful to observe all My ordinances'. There too they will find ‘life' (compare Matthew 25:46).
They express their surprise at His words. They were unaware that they had done anything special for the King. We must not take this too literally. When the righteous come before the King they will already be aware of this for if nothing else they will remember these words. The purpose of them here is in order to stress the facts. These people have not done these things in order to earn merit, they have simple behaved in this way because this is the kind of people into which God has made them (Philippians 2:13). They are demonstrating that they have really been blessed by God in such a way that it has transformed their lives (Matthew 5:3-9).