When Did We?

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

"All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;

and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;

naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink?

'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?

'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the (AO)eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;

I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'

"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:31-46

When did we....? The significant question. For the one it was used to deflect the problem by saying when did we see something and not do it? When did we not do? For the other it was a declaration of concern as in: when did we do such things?

See true faith does things that are significant to Jesus without realizing that it is doing anything important at all.

James sums it up this way:

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. James 2:26

As surely as there are things like, a beating heart and taking a breath, that take place in the body simply because it is alive so, a reborn individual will do things to serve others simply because it is an out-flowing of the love within him/her.

Does your heart lean toward the plight and the needs of others? Do you see a hurt and want to comfort? Do you see a struggling family and run away or run toward the need?

The single marker of how our hearts respond to need and hurt is the most dependable indicator of our security in Jesus!

If you look at your life and see mostly a life of working and living for yourself or our own family and you claim to be a follower of Jesus you must revisit what He has to say to you right now.