For. Jesus here gives the reason which influences him in conferring this great boon on "the sheep" of his flock. He instances certain works of mercy which they performed during their earthly pilgrimage, as examples of the kind of acts which he deems worthy of eternal reward.
It is not that he regards no other with favour, but these six works, as they show the temper and virtue of the door, are taken as the type of those which are approved. They are proofs of self-denial, pity, sympathy, charity; they demonstrate that the doer has something of God in him, that according to his lights he possesses and has exercised the supreme grace of love.
The Lord confined himself to one detail; he does not disparage other requirements necessary for salvation, as faith, prayer, sacraments, chastity, truth, honesty; but he looks on one particular class of works as the great result of all the aids and provocatives offered by his Spirit, and herein sets forth the principle by which judgment is guided, and which can be applied universally.
The Judge asks not what we have felt or thought, but what we have done or left undone in our dealings with others. "It is plain," says Bishop Bull ('Harm. Ap.,' diss. 1.5. 4), "that our works are considered as the very things on account of which (by the merciful covenant of God through Christ) eternal lifo is given us."
He quotes Vossius ('De Bon. Op.,' 10): "It is asked whether a reward is promised to works as signs of faith? Now, we conceive they say too much who suppose it promised to works as deserving it, and that they say too little who think it promised to them only as signs of faith.
For there are many passages of Scripture where it is shown that our works, in the business of salvation, are regarded as indispensably requisite, or as a primary condition, to which the reward of eternal life is inseparably connected."
I was an hungred, equivalent to "very hungry" (Matthew 12:1). Christ enumerates the chief of what are called the corporal works of mercy, omitting burial of the dead (see on Matthew 25:36). We may note here an argument a fortiori: if such simple acts (comp.
Matthew 10:42) meet with so great a reward, what shall he the portion of those who are enabled to rise to more perfect obedience and higher degrees of devotion and self-sacrifice? Ye took me in ( συνηγα ìγεσε με) i.
e. into your houses, received me with hospitality, or as one of your own family. We have instances of such hospitality in Genesis 18:3; 19:20, 19:21; and of this use of the verb συνα ìγειν in 2 Samuel 11:27, Septuagint.
Why Christ speaks of himself as receiving these ministrations is explained in verse 40.