How we treat the Lord

Today's scripture mastery verse is Matthew 25:40

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Here we read what Christ said to his disciples just after giving the parable of the sheep and the goats.  In this parable, the sheep are those who are on His right hand, and who will inherit the kingdom from the Father.  The goats, on the other hand, are those who are on His left hand, and will be cast out of His presence. 

We learn that to be considered his sheep, we must treat others with charity.  We must serve those who are in need.  We must feed the hungry. We must visit the lonely.  We must help the oppressed.  In short, we must be kind to others.  One thing that I noticed when I studied this parable, is that Christ doesn't take in to account if the person who is suffering "deserves it" or not.  After all, most who are in prison probably made bad choices, yet when we visit and comfort them, we are "doing it unto Christ."  I believe that this also applies to those who may have offended us, and then later come on hard times.  We should do, as Christ taught in Luke 6:28:

 27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.

 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

If we don't show kindness or give a helping hand to those who are suffering and in need, we will be considered as the goats.  If we don't help those around us, it is as if we refused to help Christ himself. . .The consequences of that seem much worse to me than to hold out, and not offer our help to those who may have wronged us, or who it may be inconvenient to help or comfort.

The key here is to develop Charity, which is the pure love of Christ.  There are many scriptures that teach us about charity.  If you are interested, here is a reference to many of them: Charity