Thursday, March 10, 2011

Why the Works?

Why works?

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? (Mt. 25: 37- 39)

It is not the work here that we must focus on, but the heart attitude that we keep hidden deep within us. The parallel verse, v. 44, we see that both the righteous and the unrighteous produced the same works. Both were told the same thing, that what we do to others, we do to Christ. The key to this parable, I believe, is that the works reveal the motives. They reveal the hidden intent of the heart--the “inner self”. Works become much more useful and important when we see this, and we can learn from them ourselves. The nations did not know when they did this to Christ, neither side knew, yet they discovered that how we treat our fellow man speaks much of the true “us”. Some did the works to obtain spirituality, while others did them because they were spiritual minded. Works do not merit anything, on the contrary, they reveal much. We must all ask ourselves if what we do is done to the glory of God, or in hopes of obtaining glory from God. Both were challenged, but only one side was rewarded. Let us make an effort to “be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake has forgiven us (Eph 4:32, not direct quote) A few verses down from our text verse in Matthew, our Lord says “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Mt. 25:40)

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