Mathew 25 Church
A Word on Church Reform
Matthew Chapter 25 is a chapter
in the New Testament that describes what will happen when Christ returns. It
states that He will separate the sheep from the goats. It appears that this
judgment is not the Great White Throne judgment, where the lost are judged.
This judgment is the judgment of the nations. It seems to be a judgment of
people who assume they are right with Christ. The sheep enter into the kingdom,
and the goats go into fire. There are many verses that speak of this judgment.
The criteria in this judgment will
be based upon how people have treated others. It will be based upon their
charity, or love in action. In the Chapter Jesus 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.” --- (Matt 25:40)
He takes it personally. Now we can
say all kinds of things about Matthew 25. First, we can say that we are saved
by grace, not by works. Our salvation is not based upon what we do, but upon
what Christ did for us, and because we know Him, and He knows us.
This is true. But, it’s also true,
that if we know Him, and He knows us, we will do the things He calls us to do.
Not saying we won’t fail, or sin, but we will have an abiding desire to help
and love others, which leads to action. This is the Fruit of The Spirit that
grows in us. This is our warfare, our duty. It becomes who we are; if we are
really saved.
If you'll notice the
goats in Matthew 25, never knew Him. They were not really
born again, or saved. This can be seen in other verses where Jesus tells
us
that many religious people will think they are saved, but are not. It’s
not
about works, it’s about being washed in the Blood, confessing Him as
Lord, and
letting the Spirit work in you and through you to teach, and tell others
about Jesus. Saving people for eternity is the goal of everything we
do.
There are justifications that people
will give based upon the wording of Matthew 25 above. Some will claim that since
it says “My brethren.” Jesus is talking about the Jewish people, and that this is a
judgment against people or nations who have mistreated Israel. Another view could
be that it’s referring to Christians, because we are grafted into Israel, and
become His brethren, and we are also His spiritual brothers. This justification
attempts to leave out the gentile or the unbeliever as someone we do not need
to show charity to. It’s an attempt to create a loop hole. But, all of
scripture works against this concept. We are to show charity to those around
us, even our enemies.
Another justification is that this
is a judgment of nations not individuals. But, the actions of nations are made
up of the actions of individuals. We can see this when God is talking to
Abraham about Sodom. Abraham says, “Will you destroy it if there are 10
righteous?” (Gen. 18:16-33) There were not any righteous in the city,
righteousness comes by believing God. Not believing in God, but believing what
He has told us. Turning to Him, and confessing Jesus as the Lord, trusting Him.
(Rom. 4:1-12) No one in that city, except for Lot put their faith in God. But,
this shows that the Faith of individuals can save or affect nations. If only 10
righteous people existed, God would have spared all of them. The actions of
individuals matter.
Some will claim that this judgment is
describing how God will treat the Nations who do not support the nation of
Israel, during the tribulation period, or the time of Jacobs’s trouble. We are
called to support the nation of Israel and are blessed for doing so, but as
shown above, this verse has more meaning than that.
But, let’s assume that every
justification that is given by people who do not want to hear the truth of this
verse is true. It still doesn’t change the fact that we are to love our
neighbor, and that God is serious about it. Those who do not, regardless of how
you justify or explain it will be thrown into the Lake of Fire with the Devil
and his angels; because, that is who they have followed. Satan. Now, do not get
me wrong. I am not making a political statement here. I’m not claiming that our
nation needs to adopt certain socialistic or globalist ideologies. Or that churches need to adopt a social gospel. Those things
are from the spirit of antichrist, in order to build the Kingdom of the
Anti-Christ.
What I am referring to is that
individuals and churches need to make a serious effort to change the foundation
of church activity from entertaining music and constant milk filled teaching, to one of charity. The
seriousness of Matthew 25 warrants that. Of course, we need to worship and
teach, but charity and evangelism should be the basis for everything. Matthew
25 does not say that Jesus sends the goats into the Lake of Fire because they
didn’t sing the right songs, or raise their hands high enough, or go to church
to listen to sermons. Churches and individuals have placed too high of an importance
on music instead of on charity. It needs to be flipped.
God tells Israel, “ I
hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn
assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat
offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of
your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as
waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”--- (Amos 5:21-24)
If we are not doing what God wants
us to do, then He does not want to hear our worship. Our worship of Him comes
through our service to Him and others, not by standing in a building singing
songs. That is not real worship. We worship Him with our lips, but our hearts
are far from Him. (Isa. 29:13, Matt. 15:18, Mark 7:6)
God does not want us sitting in
churches singing praises to Him while there are people down the street in need
who are going to hell. He doesn’t care about our gatherings, while families are
breaking up and cannot afford the basic needs of life in this culture. How
about instead of building mega churches, we build mega homeless shelters, or
free colleges, or mega job centers. We complain about the cost of government
public aid, but public aid exists because the church is not doing its job. The
poor is not going to go away just because we refuse to help them, because we
think they sin too much. Jesus says in Matthew, that in the last days, “because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matt. 24:12) Do not let your love for others grow cold.
How many times have you failed God? How many times have you promised to do
better? Has God given up on you? Quit worrying about someone taking advantage
of you. How many times have you ripped off God? Can you ever pay Him back for
what He has given you?
God lets the sun shine on the just
and the unjust, we are to do the same. When Jesus returns he will judge. There
will be people in that judgment who think they are saved but are unwashed, they
have no garment, they have no talents to give the King, and they have no oil.
You can twist or justify yourself all you want to, but these verses are clear.
There will be those who think they are saved, but are not. Jesus said that Love
fulfills God’s law. If you’re saved, charity will flow from you.
So,
what does a Matthew 25 church
look like? Well, a group of people would get together to form a church
and that
church will be based upon helping Christians and those in the community.
They
will be built around food pantries, homeless shelters, clothes closets,
helping
repair people’s houses, disaster relief, classes to teach basic living,
visiting and praying for the sick, helping people pay bills, fundraising
for
causes, providing places to gather instead of bars, helping families,
and on
and on. Any sort of charitable ministry you can imagine. That would be
the
church; it’s all about charity and service, for the purpose of showing
God’s
love and telling people about Jesus so they will be saved. We must
always remember that the purpose of it is salvation. We do not want our
charity work to become like so many other Christian charity groups that
have turned away from teaching the Gospel, while helping the others.
But, what about worship? We would
worship before we go work in our ministry, before we open the food pantry,
before we go visit the sick. We will have a praise service when we come back
from the jails and the streets after preaching. We will sing praises outside
the courthouses, and the statehouses as we call for national repentance, and
for these governmental entities to turn to God’s Law. That’s how and when we
worship. What if instead of putting the 10 commandments on the court house
lawn, maybe we should stand there and sing praises, while preaching the Gospel?
What about teaching? We will have
classes or sermons that teach believers how to wage spiritual war, and serve God, and
others. We will have preachers who are famous for the amount of families they
have helped rise up from poverty, instead of the number of watered down books
they have sold. They will be famous for leading people to Christ, instead of
for inventing some new doctrine that scratches peoples itching ears. On Sunday
morning, they will be praised for the number of believers who follow them out
into the community to help people and preach the Gospel, instead of for the number of goats falling
asleep in the church pews.
Christ is returning. The church
needs to judge itself, that we be not judged with the world (1 Cor. 11:31-32) we
are saved by Grace, but we need to step up. God’s Spirit bears witness with our
spirit that we are His. (Rom. 8:16) How
does that happen? When we are stepping out to follow and serve Him, He shows us
that we are His, because our flesh would never have done the things we are now
doing, and He is there feeding us, and growing us, and giving us more of
Himself. Listen to His Spirit, as he leads you to go do things for the Kingdom.
Trust Him.
When we sit and do nothing
for the Kingdom, we start to wonder and
doubt. We become spiritually starved. Like Paul said, "If they will not
work, neither shall they eat." We grow in Christ and faith by going out
and serving and trusting Him.
Take up the Cross and follow Him. Do everything in His name.
-----
Bio: Chris Bunton is a writer, poet and blogger from Southern
Illinois. He has published in several magazines, and has written a
poetry eBook called “Against the Man” and an Addiction Recovery eBook called “Made Free: Overcoming Addiction“ His newest book is called “The Future is Coming” and is a collection of dystopian short stories.
Follow Him on Medium: https://chris-bunton.medium.com/
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Photo by the author Pere Marquette cross in Pere Marquette State Park.
