Loving the Least

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation 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, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit 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? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire 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, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

-Matthew 25:31-46

Who is the least? When you think about the word “least” you probably think of the homeless, or those who are in deep need, the ones in society that are forgotten. But let’s rethink this definition. Think to yourself about who is the least in your life. It may not be the person who you think of being the least, in regards to the time you give them, or who you think of as unimportant. The least maybe the person who you look down on, someone whom you resent, or the one you despise the most. For example, some might regard the powerful executive who has all the world has to offer as the least. Others might think of those who are living in a bad part of town as the least. While others might think of a person of a lower education, and some might think of the CEO of their company as the least. Each one of us has people we view as the least. It may be the person who you can’t stand to be around, or a person who you think needs to grow up. We need to expand our thoughts on the idea of who is the least. Because when we just think the least are those who possess little, then we forget about those who we truly see as the least.

So how do you figure out who you truly consider the least in your life? Think about those who you don’t want to spend time with, those who you look down on, those whom you resent, these are most likely those you truly consider the least. It could be a member of your family that you see every day. They could be the person who you pass by on your way to work, or the store clerk at the grocery, or the well dressed man at the coffee shop. Who do you pay the least attention to throughout your day? Or who do you think about the most, but in a negative way? Who is someone you have not forgiven that you see as the least, because they have hurt you. Or the person you resent because they show little regard for you, or the person who sees you as the least. As you can see, there are probably many people in our lives we consider the least. Another way of thinking about this is to look at who you refuse or don’t want to serve the most; they might be the least in your life. There are people we think don’t deserve our time or our service because we see them as the least.

The difficult part of Matthew 25:31-46 is that our service or lack of service to the least is a mirror image of how we love God. I never thought of it until a friend pointed it out to me one day as he read the section of Scripture. It made me think about those in my life that I considered the least. It wasn’t those who had little, it was those who had plenty that I considered the least in my life. I could have compassion for those who were hurting, those who have lost much, or who never had much in their lives, but what about those who had it all in regards to the world? The rich, the good looking, those who have what we want, these were the ones I looked down on. The ones I thought little of when it came to the Gospel.

Who needs to hear the Gospel more, the rich or the poor, the disadvantaged, or the advantaged? The answer is they both need it, no matter where we are in life, we need God. Instead of serving one section of society, we need to serve all who are in need of Christ love. Not just those who we think are the most important, but also those who we see as the least.

But how do we live it out!! It’s easy to get discouraged, or feel like we failed, but that is how we will feel if we become overwhelmed by those whom we have not loved in a biblical way. When we start to see how little we truly love, we can’t become discouraged because we can’t live it out perfectly. No one can live it out perfectly because we are fallen, sinful people.  The idea is to start small, to begin to love those around us differently, biblically, through the power of the Holy Spirit. We will all fail, we will all fall short, and we will all live selfishly. The idea is to open our eyes to a new way of loving one another, but this doesn’t mean to think we have to be perfect every day, because we won’t. The idea is to make a start, for example, think of someone in your life that you can begin with, and work on one person at a time. When I think about Jesus living out this kind of love, it was one person at a time. He loved the women at the well, Zacchaeus, Peter, Nicodemus, the adulterous women, Mary Magdalene, and many more. He didn’t write down a list of all those He needed to love; He just loved those who were in front of Him at the time. The same is true for us; all we need to do is love those who are in front of us, one person at a time. If we think about all those whom we have loved very little, and think about how we have failed, we will feel condemned and give up, that is exactly what Satan wants you to do. And if you try to love others biblically without the Spirit’s work, then you will fail also. In our own strength we love very little, and if we try harder, and look at all we have to do we will fail also. Jesus said to live one day at a time, and it is also true with people, love one person at a time.