Unto them on the left hand. The sentence on these is comprised in Matthew 25:41-45. It is conveyed in terms parallel to that on the righteous; but how infinite the difference! Depart from me! Not "Come!" (Matthew 25:34). What a world of misery is contained in this word, "Depart"! As the light of God's countenance is happiness, so banishment from his presence is utter woe. What it implies we know not; we will not attempt to imagine. God preserve us from ever knowing! Ye cursed. He had called the righteous, "blessed of my Father;" he does not term these, "cursed of my Father," because God willeth not the death of a sinner. "Not he laid the curse upon them, but their own works" (St. Chrysostom, in loc.). It was no part of God's design that any of his creatures should suffer this misery. "God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things, that they might have their being …but ungodly men with their words and works called death unto them" (Wis. 1:13, etc.). Into everlasting fire ( το Ì πῦρ το Ì αἰω ìνιον, the fire which is even lasting). To the poignant regret for the loss of happiness and of the presence of God there is added physical anguish, expressed metaphorically by the term "fire." This is called everlasting, and however in these days of compromise we may seek to minimize or modify the attribute, it was so understood by our Lord's hearers (see below on Matthew 25:46). Prepared for the devil and his angels. This region or sphere of torment was not, as the kingdom of the righteous, prepared for man originally; it was particularly designed ( το Ì ἡτοιμασμε ìνον) for Satan and his myrmidons (see 2 Peter 2:4, 2 Peter 2:9), and will not be perfected till the last judgment (Revelation 20:10). There is no hint of its being remedial or corrective; and what it is to the devil it must be to those who share it with him. It is man's own doing that he is unfit for the company of saints and angels, and, having made himself like unto the evil spirits by rebellion and hatred of good, he must consort with them and share their doom. It seems as though there were no proper place for man's punishment; there is no book of death corresponding to the book of life (Revelation 20:12, etc.); the wicked are in an anomalous state, and, shut out by their own action from their proper inheritance, fall into the society of demons. How to reconcile this destiny, which seems inconceivably terrible, with God's mercy, love, and justice, has always proved a stumbling block to free thinkers. It is, indeed, a mystery which we cannot understand, and which Christ has purposely left unexplained. We can only bow the head and say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25).
The Lord gives the ground of the sentence, which proceeds on the same terms as the former one. The crimes for which these souls are punished are those of omission and negligence; they failed to per form the most elementary duties of charity and brotherly love which conscience and natural religion enjoin; they had lived utterly selfish and unprofitable lives. If sins of omission are thus punished, we may infer that positive transgressions shall meet with still heavier retribution.