26. The Separation of Sheep and Goats

Today, we continue to study the teaching of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46. And this is the last section of the Lord’s teaching in the great section of teaching from Matthew Chapters 24-25. This last section is not really a parable. It has parabolic or metaphorical language in it, but it is not really a parable. It is the description of the Judgment in very vivid terms.

This picture of what happens at the final Judgment is a very vivid one drawn for us by the Lord Jesus. Let us briefly survey this passage to clarify some main points before we go on to the subject of this passage.

Notice first in verse 31, that the Lord Jesus’ first coming was one of self-abnegation, that is, one in which he humbled himself. He was born, as we always remember at Christmas, not in a palace for glory, but in a stable for animals. But as we notice from verse 31, when he comes again, it will be in glory. The words, “glory” or “glorious” occur twice in this verse.

Notice also that when he comes again, he will come with his angels. In marked contrast, there is the devil and his angels in verse 41. Here we find two contrasting parties, Christ with his angels, the devil and his accompaniment of angels. These two groups also define the contrast between the sheep on the one hand, and the goats on the other. So there are basically only two main groups: the devil and his angels and the goats who go to them on one side, and Christ and his angels and his sheep on the other side.

Now verse 32 speaks about all the nations which will be gathered before Christ at the Judgment. As Matthew 24:14 says that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to every nation, there will be people from all nations standing before Christ at this trial.

First, there is a gathering, and there will be a separation of the sheep from the goats. Now the farmers in Palestine had the sheep and the goats mixed together, roving around to graze in the pastures. But at the end of the day, the shepherd would separate the sheep from the goats. The Judgment is at the end of this day of salvation, as it were.

The reason for this separation of sheep and goats has to do with their characters. The sheep stay out in the open because they huddle close together body to body, so they are able to keep each other warm. But goats are complete individualists. They don’t huddle together, not unless you drive them together by some external force, because given their choice, they all like to do their own thing. So goats tend to separate from each other. In fact, goats like to stay away from each other. The result is, of course, they cannot keep each other warm; and in the night, they have to be placed under shelter to keep warm. That is the reason the Palestinian shepherds would need to separate the goats from the sheep at the end of the day.

There is also an interesting contrast in the picture here. In Palestine, the sheep are white as in most other places. Interestingly enough, for some reason, the type of goats they breed in Palestine are black ones, whereas there are white goats also in the West and other places. That in itself gives an interesting mental picture of the visible difference between the white sheep and the black goats.

Verse 33 speaks about the right hand and the left hand. The right hand is the traditional place of honor. Even in China, the traditional place of honor is to be on the right hand.

And verse 34 speaks about “the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world” and this indicates that the kingdom of God was not some kind of afterthought, but that it was part of God’s eternal purpose. Even from the time when He created the universe, the kingdom was already in His mind. This indicates the very purpose for which He brought creation into being. It was to establish a kingdom in which His righteousness dwells and where His character will be manifest. So when this term, “before the foundation of the world” is used, it expresses this notion that the kingdom of God was part of God’s eternal purpose for the creation in general and for mankind in particular.

In verses 36 and 38 there is “I was naked and you clothed me,” and it is important to understand that “naked” in the Bible does not literally mean that you don’t have any shred of clothing on. Rather, “naked” in the Bible is the idiom for being inadequately dressed as in the case where your outer garment is taken away. The outer garment is very, very important in Biblical teaching, and when you don’t have your outer garment, you are described as being naked, because that outer garment was almost like the skin that you live in.

The outer garment could sometimes be taken away, but only in the most exceptional circumstances. For example, you might, if you have no other means of fulfilling your pledge, give your outer garment, the outer long coat as a pledge. But so important was this garment, that Jewish law required that it be returned to the owner, when the sun goes down in the evening, because they used it as a blanket at night for sleep. Without this outer garment at night, you could easily get sick for lack of cover, because although the climate in Palestine is fairly warm, it does get cold at night, too.

But “naked” also refers to a person being in rags due to poverty. Even though he had an outer garment, he could still be said to be “naked” because he was in a very ragged condition. These are terms that one needs to understand.

In verse 41, the Son of man said to the goats on the left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed.” “You cursed” means you who are under God’s judgment, in terms of Old Testament language. It is not swear language saying something bad. It is simply a statement of fact.

“You cursed” is a statement of fact that they are under God’s curse. To be under God’s curse in terms of Old Testament language, means that they are under the judgment of God.

It is in contrast to “you blessed of my Father” in verse 34, that the Lord Jesus says to the sheep who are on the right hand side. These are blessed; the others are cursed, that is, under God’s judgment.

This point is very important to understand, because this word “cursed” is used very often in the Old Testament, and it is always used in connection with those who disobey God’s command. In this connection, let us read a few passages from Deuteronomy, that you may see clearly how powerfully this matter is stated.

In Deuteronomy 11:26-28 we read:

Notice both these words, “blessing” and “curse” here, which occur in the Lord Jesus’ teaching on the separation of the sheep and goats at the Judgment. The blessing is for obedience to God, and the curse is for those who disobey God. This is very characteristic of the language of the Old Testament, and Deuteronomy in particular. Now this comes out very forcibly for example, in Deuteronomy 28:15-19, which is a list of curses for disobedience to God.

You cannot find a more complete and more comprehensive list than that, and that is exactly what happened to these people who are described as goats. Now I have spent time on this point, because it is extremely important for understanding this passage.

The goats are people who, whatever they may have professed with their mouths, failed to obey God’s commands, whereas the sheep are those who did fulfill the commands of God in their lives. This point is very clear from Scripture. When Adam sinned, he immediately came under the curse in Genesis 3:14. Curse always has to do with sin or disobedience.

Having said all this, we are now in a position to consider who are represented by the sheep, and who are represented by the goats. Who the sheep are is very easy to understand, because both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the sheep is always a picture of God’s people. There is no need to spend much more time on that.

How are we to understand the goats? Are goats a picture of non-Christians? Or are they a picture of Christians of a certain kind? Who do the goats represent? Let us notice several points in answer to this question first.

Although goats and sheep are quite different in character, they are of the same family, rather like eagles and vultures. Eagles and vultures are of the same family, too, but they are entirely different in character. So in Chinese, you would say that a sheep is a “mian yang” (绵羊), whereas a goat is a “shan yang” (山羊). They are both of the “yang” (羊) family, that is, of the sheep family. Of course, to say that a goat is a “shan yang,” a mountain sheep is not quite accurate, but for lack of a better term, that is what it is called in Chinese. It is not as though goats only graze in mountains and sheep only graze in valleys, so you call one a “mountain sheep” and the other a “valley sheep”. In fact, they graze in the same field. The distinction is only in name, not because they are distinct in the different areas they graze.

The second thing to notice is that they belong to the same shepherd. They are often led by the same shepherd to graze in the same field. You will notice that both the sheep and the goats address the Lord Jesus as “Lord” with no distinction whatsoever. The sheep address the Lord Jesus as “Lord” in verse 37: “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” Then in verse 44, the goats also address him in exactly the same way, “Lord, when did we see you hungry?” Now a non-Christian would hardly address the Lord Jesus as “Lord” in exactly the same way as a Christian does. The very fact that they both address the shepherd by the same term, and they both belong to the same shepherd, indicate clearly that “goat” is another term for Christians. There is no way one can get around that.

Just as there was a faithful servant and an unfaithful servant, they were both servants, only one was good, one was bad. So also, you will find that there were ten virgins, and they are all virgins, only that five were wise and five were foolish. Now this point makes it plain that the sheep and goats are of the same family, but of a different character. The words, “good”, “bad’, “wise”, “foolish” all describe character. So it is quite clear that the continuing parallel from good servant and bad servant, wise virgins and foolish virgins, now continue into the picture of the sheep and the goats. In each case, the same kind of people—Christians, disciples—is being portrayed.

The whole Judgment in this passage is based on one thing alone, namely, whether or not they cared for what the Lord Jesus calls, “these my brethren.” This is the third point we need to consider, as we ponder what the goats mean here.

Now clearly, a non-Christian can hardly be judged on the basis of whether or not he visited a Christian in prison; or whether or not he actually fed a Christian when hungry. How are you going to judge a non-Christian on that basis? To judge a non-Christian on that basis would have no meaning, because under no imaginable circumstances would a non-Christian for any intelligible reason go and visit a Christian in prison. Most likely, he is the one who put him in prison. If he visited him, it would only be to beat him up, not in order to comfort him.

There is no doubt whatsoever that “these my brethren” mean Christians, because without any exception, “brethren” in the Bible always refers to Christians. That is why Christians call one another “brothers and sisters.” We are members of the same spiritual family. The Lord Jesus said, “Who is my brother, or my sister, or my mother, but he who does the will of my Father.” So “brethren” refers to those who do God’s will, and in this case, that of course, refers to the sheep who do God’s will. And that connects to the point that those who are blessed are those who do God’s will, who obey His commands, as in Deuteronomy.

The meaning of this passage begins to emerge very clearly that the whole Judgment is based upon whether the brethren were loved or not loved. In the case of the goats, they did not love the brethren. In the case of the sheep, they loved the brethren.

The Lord Jesus also says, “the least of these.” In Greek, “least” and “little” is the same word; the only difference is in the suffix in terms of the superlative and the comparative. Unlike English, “least” and “little” is somewhat a different word.

Once you have got all this together, you are beginning to see the meaning of this passage. Here I pick a number of points, and the first is this. In this section of the Lord Jesus’ teaching, there is a very definite presupposition, and once we perceive what that presupposition is, the whole passage of the Lord’s teaching becomes absolutely clear. The presupposition is that, in the Lord Jesus’ teaching concerning God’s church, mutual love and mutual concern is of the very essence of this new society of God’s people, the body of Christ. I wonder if you grasp this point. That is to say, as the Lord Jesus taught, to love one another in the church is a command, and a command is not optional. Therefore the failure to love one another brings with it the most severe consequences, as this parable brings out. Not to obey that command is to break the whole law. The Lord Jesus taught this very clearly: “The whole law is summed up in: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40) That means to say, if you break the last part of this command, “you have broken all commandments; you are in complete rebellion and disobedience to God.

This has been made so absolutely clear in the Lord Jesus’ teaching in John, for example. In John 13:34 he says, “I give you a new command­ment, and that commandment is that you will love one another. It is a command. I don’t give you any choice in this matter.” You cannot say, “I don’t want to love that guy because I don’t like his style, I don’t like his background, I don’t like his personality, I don’t like his looks.” We don’t have the choice. The Lord Jesus says, “I give you a command, and it is that you will love one another.” In verse 35 of that same chapter, he says, “Hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples because you love one another.” The one characteristic element of this new society is an unconditional love for one another. Unconditional means I don’t choose to love a person because of certain conditions, that I like his hairstyle, I like his looks, I like his personality. I have no choice. I am commanded to love and that is it.

In John 14:15, the Lord Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commands” which also means that those who don’t keep his commands are people who don’t love him, no matter what their mouths may profess. In the teaching of the Lord Jesus, love is defined in terms of action, not in terms of feeling. I may not feel any love for a person, but that doesn’t matter. The command as I receive it from the Lord Jesus is action; that is, if he is in need, I help him whether his face is pleasing to me or not, whether his personality is pleasing to me or not. I am under obligation to love my brother, to help my brother. Whether I feel any love or not is beside the point. I have to stand by him under all circumstances. And if I fail to do that, I have broken God’s command. When we break God’s command, we come under the curse, “Depart from me, you cursed” (Matthew 25:41), as in Deuteronomy 28:15. The people who fail to obey God’s command taught by His Christ are cut off from God. In the Bible, faith and obedience are inseparable; they are virtually synonyms. Faith that is not obedience is not Biblical faith. That is why we define faith in terms of “commitment”, because obedience itself is a commitment. Faith in Biblical terms is: “I am committed to obey Him.”

Now once we understand these presuppositions, this whole parable becomes very, very clear. The reason why we often fail to understand this section of the Lord’s teaching is because we don’t understand the non-optional character of love in the church: “I have no choice but to love.” In other words, you either don’t become a Christian, or if you do become a Christian, you have committed yourself to love every disciple in the church of God, not only in this church but in any church where they are truly Christians. I have no option but to love. Failure to do so, as this section of the Lord Jesus’ teaching tells us, brings the most fearful consequences.

This brings us to the second point: Sheep and goats are of the same family, but are of different character. It is not in our character to love. Are you by nature someone who can love? Not really. It is not in human nature to love. To love another person is something that requires a transformation of character. We cannot love without such a change in our character.

Juan Ortiz, the Argentinian pastor wrote a book called, The Call to Discipleship. In it he said, “There are plenty of sheep in Argentina, and they always huddle with their heads together as though they are in conference, and are like one body. No wonder they can keep each other warm in the cold. There are also plenty of goats in Argentina, and the goats have their backs to each other, bucking—putting their horns down ready to ram them at each other—and kicking. The goats are individual­ists. They have their backs to one another. They show no interest in one another whatsoever. If they ever put their heads to each other, it is because they want to get their horns at each other. The rest of the time, they turn their backs to each other, and even then they are kicking one another.

So there is a marked difference in character between the two. You can see that the servants belong to the same household, but their characters are very much different; and we are talking about a fundamental difference of spiritual character. One is described as good, one as bad, one is faithful, one is unfaithful. So it is also within the church. We don’t want Christians who are all uniform in character, in the sense of personality. If every Christian behaves exactly the same, every Christian combs his hair in exactly the same style, what you will have is a whole army of puppets; you would not be able to tell who is who. Everybody wears the same dress, and you would not be able to distinguish. So everybody will have to wear a nametag before you can identify each person, because everyone looks alike.

Uniformity of personality or behavior is not what the Bible is talking about, but it requires that all Christians have the same divine nature of love. How people love is quite different. One person expresses his love in this way, and another person expresses his love in another way. But the essential thing is that fundamentally, there is love. Loving one another is not optional in the Scriptures.

Now one important question to ask is, if all Christians have the same divine nature of love, then how can the goats be Christians at all? Notice carefully that there are goats and wolves. In the Bible, non-Christians are depicted as wolves, and when wolves are converted, they undergo a change of character. Unfortunately, many “Christians” are not sufficiently changed, so that so much of the old nature is still present in them, whom I described as “goats.” Their conduct is still one which is very much the character of the non-Christian. That is to say, they are spiritually foolish, they don’t discern spiritual things; they are described as “unwise”, as “bad”, that is, they are disobedient to God, unfaithful to God. These are characteristics of the non-Christian still present in the life of the Christian!

This means we must allow God to continue to transform us. We must let God so work in us that we don’t stop at a certain stage. There are so many Christians today, who have stopped, and not progressed beyond the initial stage of conversion. They have become Christians; they have become a little different but the complete change is not yet there. They have kept the old character, and this is going to result in big problems.

How is this vital change that we need brought about? This change is brought about by two things: first, the power of God coming into your life and making you a new person; secondly, the Word of God renewing our thinking.

If you stop at that “instant change,” as it were, you might only end up being a goat, because there has to be the continuing process of the change of thinking. A passage that I like to refer to very frequently is Romans 12, and Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Our thinking has to be constantly renewed.

Now how is our thinking renewed? It is renewed or changed by the Word of God. What can change our thinking but the Word of God? As I study His Word, His Word is changing my thinking, and the result is that as my thinking changes, I am being transformed, and I have to keep on with this process of transformation. As the Word of God is changing my thinking, step by step, I take on the fullness of God’s character. And people who are willing to follow the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God to come to God, are described as “sheep.”

Clearly, parabolic language cannot portray everything, but what it portrays here is that there are certain “Christians” who belong to the same family of the sheep, the church, and yet their characters are not changed enough. Goats are quite aggressive, but they are not dangerous and destructive both to one another, or even to the sheep. After all, sheep and goats can be mixed together, and the sheep will not be harmed by the goats, but a wolf will. Now we need to grasp this point.

I tend to think that many “Christians” today, are goats, as it were, not so much by choice but by lack of teaching. Or if they have the teaching, they have not spent enough time in meditating upon the Word of God. So how can they change if they are not taught the Word of God? This is worth remembering when you meet a “Christian” who is exceptionally aggressive, very individualistic, very difficult to approach or to communi­cate with. It’s because that so-called “Christian”—and maybe a very genuine “Christian”, as he has gone through some conversion exper­ience—has not yet had his way of thinking changed. Therefore, although he is a “Christian,” he still behaves to a great extent like a non-Christian.

If you are one of those people, let this passage of the Lord Jesus’ teaching go to your heart, because it is warning you that if you keep that kind of character, you will not be able to love. And if you are not able to love the brethren, you are going to be in serious trouble with God.

The stress in this whole passage is on character, and this matter of character is clearly stressed by a very surprising element. The Lord Jesus says to these sheep that they fed him, clothed him, and visited him in prison, when they fed, clothed and visited one of the least of the brethren. So they were surprised by this and say, “When did we do this? I don’t remember having gone to visit you in prison. I don’t remember having fed or clothed you.” And the Lord Jesus says, “Insofar as you did it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me.” Now a Christian who has been taught by the Word of God knows that what he does to another Christian, he has done to the Lord. That should not be the surprise. How come they cannot recall they have done any of these things? This stresses again, the element of character which is so central to this passage. You see, you generally cannot remember what you do, because it is your character to do it. You don’t keep an account of these things, because it is natural for your character to do it.

A person helps people because his character is so, and does not keep an account of all the people he has helped. He doesn’t keep an account of how much money he has given or spent on others. because it is his nature to love people. And because he doesn’t keep an account, he doesn’t remember these things. You remember the things that you write down, but if you don’t, you cannot remember what you did before after some time. Sometimes, when you thank a person for the kindness he showed you some years ago, he would say, “Oh, did I do that for you? I don’t remember.” When he answers like that, you know that he did this kindness to you not because he was trying to chalk up some credits for himself, but he did it because of the new nature within him.

Some day, you might thank me for having done something for you, and I might say, “Did I do that for you? I can’t remember.” So don’t come to the conclusion, “He’s a wonderful guy!” It’s just that I cannot remember. Sometimes, we don’t remember because our memory is not so good. It doesn’t necessarily prove that we are so loving.

Where there is a genuine character of being loving, you will find that time and again, people did not remember the good things that they did for others. It is simply part of what they are always doing for others. This again stresses the fact that it is very much in their character to be loving, and the Lord Jesus brings out this element of character in this beautiful way. You can call it “un-self-conscious love.” You are not conscious of it; you did it because you were constrained by the love of God. You did it because that is the way you have become by the grace of God.

This also answers the question, Does this parabolic teaching (because it is not strictly a parable) teach salvation by works (by our human effort)? Do we save ourselves by visiting people in prison, or by giving people money so that they have food or clothing? If we have understood this matter of character, we will already know the answer to this question. The point is not that we merely did these things, but that we did them un-self-consciously because our character is so. And our character is so because God has transformed us into a new creation.

In Scriptural teaching, we are saved through the transformation of our character, by becoming a new creation. As Paul says, “A faith that works by love” (Gal. 5:6), i.e., a faith which expresses itself by works. Know that this love is a most important indicator. This is what the apostle John says in 1 John 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.” How do we know we are new, and have God’s life in us? Because we love the brethren. How do you know whether you have entered into life? You will know it because you find that you have a real love for the brethren, for fellow Christians. You are willing to love them not by just saying some words, but in a practical way. That is why as in 1 John 3:17, when we see our brother in need, of course, we will help that person. When we see our brother is hungry, of course, we will feed him. If he is cold, of course, we will clothe him. If he is in jail because of his witness for God, of course, we will visit him. There is no question about that. We pass from death to life because we love the brethren.

Notice also, the non-Christian is not in the purview of this section of the Lord Jesus’ teaching. The Lord Jesus says: “Insofar as you have done it to the least of my brethren, you have done it to me.” He did not say do it to the non-Christian, but to the brethren. Of course, the conclusion is not that the Christian doesn’t love the non-Christian. What it means is that to love the brethren is the minimum standard required. The point is, if you cannot love a fellow-Christian, how can you love a non-Christian? If you cannot love a member of your own family, how can you love somebody who is not a member of your family, whom you don’t even know? Therefore the minimum standard is, if you can love a fellow Christian, you can certainly love a non-Christian.

If we were judged by whether or not we love the non-Christian, we will be judged by a higher and more difficult standard. So we are judged by the lower standard of loving, whether you are able to love even a fellow Christian, those in our own church that we know and can care for. If you don’t care for those in your church, why would you care for the person out on the street, the non-Christian that you don’t know? You will not care for him if you don’t even care for the person you know. You are going to be judged in this way.

Let us come to the last point: this love must be expressed. As we said, love is not a feeling but an expression, an action. And this brings us to the conclusion as the Lord Jesus said in John. 13:35, “Hereby shall all men know that you are my disciples because you love one another.”

Do people know that we are Christians because we love one another, or just because we carry a big Bible around? The Lord Jesus did not say, “People are going to know that you are a Christian because you wear a black suit, or because you say you don’t drink, or because you say you don’t smoke.” None of this has to do with being Christian. The only mark of a Christian is that others can see your love for one another, not because you carry a big Bible, not because you talk pious language.

How do people know that you love one another unless they can see that love? How do you make love visible? The Bible tells us that you don’t let your right hand know what your left hand does when you give money to others. So if people don’t know that you have given money to a brother or sister, how can they know you love them since that part is secret? Feeding the hungry may or may not be possible for others to see, because if you give them something, you may or may not let them know that you have given that to them. That doesn’t become visible. How can this love become visible? Of course, it becomes visible if you visit them in prison, especially if you risk your life to visit the person in prison, because by visiting the person in prison, you might end up in prison, too.

Now this point of making love visible as a testimony to the world is something I find very important. We know that we are to love one another; we also know that we are to love one another visibly so that the world knows.

But we cannot love one another visibly by giving money to one another because we don’t make any display of that. We will help them as much as possible anonymously. So how does love become visible in this society in which nobody is put in prison for being a Christian? How are you going to visit him in prison? How can you make love visible in this society in North America, in which people are not hungry for the most part, and where people are not going around badly dressed, so that you can buy a coat for them? Most people are getting on reasonably well. There are some who are relatively in need, but most can get by.

So how do people know that we are the Lord Jesus’ disciples? We are to love, and we are to make our love visible. I would like to mention this point, because some of us still find loving one another visibly very difficult to do. For example, among Christians today, the practice of showing our affection and concern for one another visibly, by embracing in public, has completely disappeared for the most part. I notice that even some people in our church still find it very embarrassing to express love for another in this way. Why? How are we going to fulfill the Lord Jesus’ commandment so that all people will know? We want to obey his commandment and obey it to every detail, to let people know that we love one another. And I find that this is the only way we can do this nowadays, that we can show our love and our concern to one another publicly, that people may see and think, “Ah, these are Christians! Look, how much they love one another!”

I think that it was very beautiful at the railway station the other day. There were all these people standing by and watching all of us love one another, by hugging one another as the Training Team was preparing to get on the train. Sometimes, people are so surprised because they are not used to seeing such love. But that is the way we are going to show that we are a new society of people who visibly love another.

Let us conclude for today with this lesson clearly in our minds. This teaching of the Lord Jesus stresses that our love for one another is non-optional. At the Judgment, he is not going to ask, “Which day were you baptized? Produce a baptismal certificate before I let you into the kingdom.” He is not even going to ask you questions such as, “How orthodox is your faith? Do you believe in the Nicene Creed? Do you believe in the Baptist Confession? Which church do you go to? Is it a very good church?” He is interested in none of these. The only question he is going to ask is, “Did you love my brethren? Did you care for them in their need?”

So, don’t worry about whether you can bring your baptismal certificate with you. It is not going to do you any good. Those who were recently baptized may probably be wondering when they will get their baptismal certificates. You can have your baptismal certificate any time you need it, but don’t hang it up on the wall as a piece of decoration. Normally, we don’t issue these certificates unless it is required for some legal purpose. That certificate will not do you any good anyway when it comes to that Day, because only one thing will matter on that Day: whether you have fulfilled the Lord Jesus’ teaching of God’s command to love.

Now we know these things, but the problem lies in whether we do them. The Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are you when you know these things and do them” (Lk. 11:28). If we could only constantly fulfill his command to love one another in our lives, we will experience a new depth of quality of the Christian life, and a depth of power that we may not have fully experienced yet.