For I was an hungered, &c.— Or, I was hungry: and so Matthew 25:42. In Matthew 25:36 instead of, And ye visited me, Heylin and Doddridge read, And ye looked after me: επισκεψασθε με, which signifies in general to take the oversight and care of any thing; an office which requires diligent inspection and attendance, Compare James 1:27. And it strongly intimates, that such an attendance on the poor in their illness, is a very acceptable charity, and is what many may have an opportunity of doing, who have very little money to spare. Our Lord's words may be thus paraphrased: "In the whole of your conduct you have imitated the goodness and benevolence of my Father; and therefore I now declare you blessed and beloved of him, and appoint you to inherit his kingdom. Moreover, that you may know how acceptable acts of kindness and charity, flowing from genuine love, (for the motive must be good,) are to me, I assure you that I reckon every thing of this sort as done to myself. It was I who was hungry and thirsty; a stranger, and naked, and sick, and in prison. It was I whom you clothed, and lodged and visited, and comforted; coming to condole with me in my sufferings, and to relieve my necessities in confinement and afflictions," See the next note.
Related Commentaries of Matthew 25:35
Matthew 25:35-36
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.