The Day of Judgment (Mt. only). Though the nations are gathered before the Son of Man as judge, they pass into the background in the trial which is really that of the Christian Church, unless indeed the assumption is that all the nations have become Christian ere the Judgment. For the sheep and the goats cf. Ezekiel 34:17 ff. Note the sudden transition to the title King (Matthew 25:34). Have we here another adaptation to the Parousia of a parable in which originally the King was the central figure, or simply the development of a passage like Enoch 62f.? For the test cf. Matthew 10:40 ff., Matthew 18:5; it even goes beyond these sayings, for in my name is not here required. The act of love is all-sufficient, yet it is in Christ's name, for Christ's sake, that Christians have ever since so acted. For an OT parallel cf. Isaiah 58:7. The best rabbinical thought placed performance of kindnesses above mere almsgiving. The visiting of prisoners may point to a time when persecution had set in. From the principle of the worth of every human being as a brother of Jesus, a child of God, laid down in Matthew 25:40, have sprung all the Gesta Christi, the achievements of Christianity in the sphere of philanthropy, education, the uplifting of the despised and downtrodden, the ingathering of the outcast. See further, p. 670.
Matthew 25:32. The idea is that of a universal resurrection for judgment (cf. Daniel 12:2).
Matthew 25:34. prepared for you implies foreknowledge and election (cf. Matthew 20:23), yet the following verses assume human responsibility.
Matthew 25:40. This picture of the Messiah as full of human love and sympathy is unknown to the warrior-king of Jewish Apocalyptic.
Matthew 25:41. The punishment of fire (cf. Matthew 3:10) is not prepared for you, but for the wicked angels.