Matthew 25:31-46

Because the passage is rather long, I shall not type it all out. So click on the link to read it.

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

...

⁴⁴"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

⁴⁵"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

⁴⁶"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I remember when I first read this passage I thought of stuff like, just being nice to the homeless by maybe giving them food or giving them some money. I thought it meant stuff like being hospitable to people around me and stuff. I mean, it's easy to do these things to people you love; your friends and family.

But how about people you don't like; people you don't love?

It just suddenly struck me today that the challenge here wasn't to your loved ones, it wasn't to the pitiful but (for me) it's really to the people that I don't like, the people I have yet to love. The people who do things that really disgust me, the people who simply annoy me.

So I guess, it's really something to think about. Because it's really easy to go, oh I've done this and this and this for a friend, or for a person in need. Which then means I have done this for God, blah blah blah. But it's not easy to say the same thing for someone we dislike?

So yeah. Something to ponder over.