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After many years of attending Protestant churches, a friend of mine recently converted to Roman Catholicism. Rather than being a rash decision, this came too after much study and consideration. One of the main objections was against the Reformation doctrine of sola fide (that an individual is justified by faith alone).

Following numerous conversations about how we should understand the teaching of the apostle Paul in relation to the epistle of James, we focused on the teaching of Jesus. Catholic apologists often point to Jesus’ parable of the ‘sheep and the goats’ in Matthew 25:31-46 as a proof text for the Roman dogma that justification is by faith and works.

Clearly, those who are Christ’s ‘sheep’ act differently to those who are ‘goats’ and remain outside His flock. The key characteristic Jesus says, is how they related to Him. When He was hungry, they fed Him; when He was thirsty, they gave Him something to drink; when He was a stranger, they invited Him in; when He was naked, they clothed Him; when he was sick, they looked after Him; and when He was in prison, they came to visit Him (Matthew 25:35-36). In contrast, those who are ‘goats’ and subsequently those who experience God’s judgment, are those who never loved Jesus.

Who are ‘the least of these’?

But this immediately raises the question – when do we today interact with Jesus in any of these ways, particularly since He has bodily ascended into heaven? The answer Jesus gives is, ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matthew 25:40). It’s not how we related to everyone on earth—if that were so then all social workers would be saved—but specifically how we responded to other believers.[1] As Calvin writes:

Only the faithful are expressly commended to our pity here. Others are not to be altogether scorned, but the nearer each approaches to God the dearer He should be to us. Though there is a common tie that binds all the children of Adam, the mutual link between the children of God is more holy. Since those who belong to the household of faith are properly put above the outsiders, Christ specifically names them.[2]

Jesus teaches essentially the same thing in Matthew 18. There He talks about becoming like a ‘little child’ to enter the kingdom of heaven. Someone who is so humble and trusting that they rely completely on God and not themselves. But then He goes on to warn that if anyone causes one of these ‘little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck or to be drowned in the depths of the sea’ (Matthew 18:6).

Once again, Jesus is not simply warning against the abuse of children per se. What He is specifically warning against here is causing a Christian believer, a little one who believes in Him, to stumble or sin. That is how goats—those outside the kingdom—are tempted to treat those who belong to Christ’s flock (John 10:7-11).

Loving the ‘least of these’

Christ’s church is full of different kinds of people, some being easier to bear with and love than others. In any congregation there are Christian brothers and sisters whom we might even consider as being ‘the least’, perhaps in terms of their influence or maturity, however, they are still united to Christ. And as members of His body, how we relate to them is exactly the way we relate to Jesus. As the apostle John writes:

‘Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him’ (1 John 2:9-11).

Unfortunately, we all know many people who say they ‘believe’ in Jesus but want nothing to do with anyone in His church. Even if they have nothing personal against someone, they just don’t have the time or inclination to spend with those who worship Christ. Hence, rather than being an indication that there is something wrong with the church, it’s actually a sign that there is something wrong with them. i.e. they’re not actually saved. They believe as the Devil believes, intellectually affirming what is true, but not having had the truth actually transform their lives.

Saving Faith Works

The Westminster Confession of Faith has a very helpful summary of the usefulness of good works in this regard:

These good works, done in obedience to God’s commands, are the fruits and evidence of a true and living faith. By them believers –

• Reveal their gratitude (Psalm 116:12-13; 1 Peter 2:9)
• Strengthen their assurance (1 John 2:3, 5; 2 Peter 1:5-10)
• Build up their fellow-believers (2 Corinthians 9:2; Matthew 5:16)
• Beautiful the profession of the gospel (Titus 2:5, 9-12; 1 Timothy 6:1)
• Silence opponents, and (1 Peter 2:12, 15
• Glorify God (Philippians 1:11; John 15:8)

Whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus for good works; so that having their fruit to holiness they may have the outcome of eternal life.[3]

Clearly, in a Reformed understanding, good works play a pivotal role, not in securing one’s salvation but in demonstrating it. And one of the main evidences that one is saved concerns how we relate to other believers. Do we love them or despise them? Do we care for them or neglect them? Do we belong to the sheep or to the goats? As Michael Wilkins writes:

But we should reiterate that these good deeds are not the works by which one enters the kingdom; they are the substantiation of the kind of kingdom life that has been produced through the transformation of the heart of his disciples through regeneration. Their works of caring for the needy among them will confirm that they belong to Jesus. Otherwise they are not truly his sheep, because they have not been born again by the Spirit of God.[4]

But back to the Roman Catholic interpretation of salvation. If Jesus were teaching here that an individual is saved by faith and their good works then how many times would an individual have to visit Christians in hospital or give them something to drink? The question itself is completely foreign to the passage. Because it’s not the number of times an individual does such a good work but whether or not the good works are even there at all! For loving ‘the least of these brothers of mine’ is something which goats characteristically never do. As Donald Hagner explains:

The time of the great judgment wherein the righteous and the unrighteous are finally separated will arrive with the glorious coming of the Son of Man. All the nations of the world—that is, every individual of those nations—are to be judged on the basis of their treatment of disciples of Jesus. This perhaps surprising statement points at once to the unique relation between Jesus and those who follow him and to the supreme importance of the mission and message of the church to the world. To treat the disciple, the bringer and representative of the gospel, with deeds of kindness is in effect to have so treated Jesus. Conversely, to fail to meet the needs of the Christian missionary is to fail to meet the needs of Jesus. There is thus a most remarkable bond of solidarity between Jesus and his disciples. Although disciples are naturally also called to do good to all people (cf. Matt.9:13; 12:7), deeds of kindness must begin with brothers and sisters of the faith, with the church (cf. Gal 6:10).

Although sometimes understood as confirming a salvation by works, this passage need not be understood as incompatible with the gospel of the kingdom as a divine gift. The apostle Paul, the champion of grace, can also stress the significance of good works (see esp. Gal 6:7-10; 2 Cor 5:10). Matthew does stress the importance of righteousness as good deeds, but as a part of a larger context in which God acts graciously for the salvation of his people. The deeds of mercy in the present passage are symbolic of a deeper reality, and as Gray notes, “the main point of the parable is the acceptance or the rejection of the Christian faith”.[5]

Truly Knowing Jesus

Jesus teaches a similar truth in His Sermon on the Mount where He warns that many will say to Him on the day of judgment: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? But Jesus reply will be, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:22-23)

Notice that those who will be turned away on that day are not those who didn’t perform enough good works and so failed to be ultimately justified. It’s that they never knew Jesus at all and never received His justification. They performed all kinds of religious acts, but they never had a saving relationship with Him through faith to begin with. Once again, it was intellectual and superficial such that they had not been ‘born again’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This is also how Protestants understand James when he says that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone (James 2:24). Because while we are justified by faith apart from works, a faith which is genuine will prove that it is alive by producing good works. Speaking theologically, justification and sanctification can never be divorced but go hand in hand. As John Calvin explains:

[A]s Christ cannot be torn into parts, so these two which we perceive in him together and conjointly are inseparable—namely, righteousness and sanctification. … But if the brightness of the sun cannot be separated from its heat, shall we therefore say that the earth is warmed by its light, or lighted by its heat? Is there anything more applicable to the present matter than this comparison? The sun, by its heat, quickens and fructifies the earth, by its beams brightens and illumines it. Here is a mutual and indivisible connection.  (Calvin, Institutes 3.11.6)

All of which to say is Jesus is not teaching in Matthew 25:31-36 that believers are justified by faith and works but that their love for those who love Him demonstrate that they have indeed received His love. What is the evidence that someone is saved? It’s that they love those who love Christ.[6]

– Mark Powell

[1] See Grant R. Osborne, Matthew (Zondervan, 2010), 1274.

[2] John Calvin, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark & Luke and James & Jude (Eerdmans, 1972), 117.

[3] WFC Chapter 16, Paragraph 2.

[4] Michael J. Wilkins, The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew (Zondervan, 2004), 810-811.

[5] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 14-28 (Zondervan, 1995), 550-551.

[6] See also Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 16:22.