When Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (CSB), who exactly is he talking about?
Some want to equate “the least of these” with all poor everywhere, and certainly God wants us to care for all the poor. But here in this parable, he is specifically talking about poor Christians. Whenever Jesus uses the language of “little ones” in Matthew, he’s always talking about his followers. The term “least of these” is simply the superlative form of “little ones,” which is one of Jesus’ favorite phrases for his disciples (see Matthew 10:42; 12:50; 18:6, 10, 14).
Take a minute to let that sink in: When you do kindness to one of Jesus’ brethren in need, Jesus considers it as if done to him, and when you ignore one of his followers, he takes that personally, too.Read More
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