The Least Of These

The more I read The Christian Post, the more I think that the people who run it are more committed to ideological 21st Century American Conservatism than they are the Bible.  Here’s yet another example of wooly thinking that emanates from their contributors.   Rather than dissect it in full, I’ll offer some representative remarks. 

“Notice that in Matthew 25:40 Jesus said, “… inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to Me.” So the “least of these” are His brethren.”

Who are Jesus’ brethren? Hebrews 2:11 answers, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” 

Romans 8:29 calls Jesus “the firstborn among many brethren.” 

1 John 3:13-14 counsels us “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you,” but “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.”

These four statements are bundled together & exposited as if the term “brethren” means the same thing each time. 

These texts have 4 different authors.  Just because these texts deploy the term “brethren” it doesn’t therefore follow these authors all mean the same thing.   In using Hebrews to interpret Matthew, the author, John Doane, has committed semantic incest. Whether or not he’s correct about the meaning is irrelevant.   It’s still exegetically fallacious to deploy one writer’s text to interpret a different writer or even the same writer. 

What do Matthew, Hebrews, Romans, & 1 John mean independently of one another?  In order answer properly, the expositor should interpret these 4 texts independently if possible — then harmonize them.   

There are exceptions to this rule.   If one text follows the same outline & content of another so that one is a commentary on the other, using Paul to interpret Moses, to take just one example, is warranted.  Is Hebrews a commentary on Matthew 25?  No; then why do we need Hebrews 2 to understand Matthew 25?

In Hebrews 2:11 the brethren are those who are sanctified.  They are members of the congregation.  They are representationally in (therefore united to) Christ.   His brethren in 2:16 are Abraham’s offspring.   The text draws no distinction between inward members of Abraham & outward members. 

Romans 8 also defines brethren through the language of union with Christ.  In Romans 8:29, the Elect are particularly in view.  

According to 1 Corinthians 15, both the Just & Unjust  are united to Christ or else the members of neither group would be resurrected from the dead.   

1 John 3 analogizes from Cain & Abel to our own love for the brothers.   Cain murdered his biological brother.  We are told not to be like Cain.   We should love Abel insofar as believers are in Abel, but where does the text indicate we ought to hate Cain by putting ourselves first?  Nowhere.   We ought to love our own & others.

Isn’t the author supposed to be answering the question “Who are the ‘brethren,’ in Matthew 25?”  Pay close attention — he takes us on a tour through 3 different books of the Bible & never once tells us how Matthew defines the term?  

Matthew 25:31 - 46 is parallel to Matthew 7:21 - 23.   What does Yeshua say about failure to paraclete people other than ourselves, especially if we refuse to do because they are our enemies?  Matthew 5:41 - 48 comes to mind.   

Why is this important? First of all, this passage from Matthew should not be used for virtue signaling, to drum up support for one’s favorite charity, or to promote a government program. Our salvation is never based on our works, however good they may seem.

It’s as if the author has yet to grasp the 3 uses of the Law! The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:24 - 33 reminds us that people experience anxiety about the necessities of life, like food, clean water, & clothing/shelter.    

Reading the text as if the 3 uses of the Law & Gospel are irrelevant results in a reductionistic perspective that conduces to a species of works righteousness, as if all we need to do is accomplish our quota of spiritual duty (rigamorole) & God will provide.   On the contrary, the text teaches that ecclesiastical institutions & secular governments have a moral responsibility to address these issues in order to alleviate anxiety about the fundamentals of life so that all living beings — and the Created Order generally — can thrive & survive. 

The author also draws attention to his own reductionistic view of Matthew 25 & Matthew 6 by accusing his rhetorical opponents of virtue signaling if they dare point out what Matthew 6 actually has to say about resource development, distribution, & consumption.   

Secondly, notice that the passage in Matthew 25 is part of the so-called Olivet Discourse starting in Matthew 24 where Jesus spoke to his disciples in private. In that context, Matthew 25: 31-46 gives His brethren, His disciples, a way to distinguish between others “blessed of My Father” (v. 34) and those deserving of “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41).

Mr. Doane seems to be reasoning from Matthew 24’s statement that Yeshua taught these words privately to the disciples to a definition of “the least of these, my brethren” as those who experience unjust literal privation of goods  and who are also His disciples.  I’m unclear on how that follows. 

Matthew 25 draws on the text of Genesis in which judgment came to those who were marrying & given in marriage.   The setting is the time of the Noahic Covenant.  With whom was Noah’s Covenant made?  According to Genesis 9, it is with all living things.   

On what basis does the text of Matthew 25 draw distinctions between the sheep & the goats?  On the basis of whether or not they intellectually believe in Christ or are regenerate, justified people?  No, the Lord draws distinctions between those who paracleted Him via their love for those who are the least of these in particular & their neighbor in general.   Those on the left appear to be believers as well as unbelievers who are told to depart into exile.   Too often this text is treated as if it only applies to the final judgment at the end of the Age, when Christ returns.  In truth, it applies to the judgment at the end of every age, properly defined as the covenantal cycles & any other time in which the Lord might choose to yank our souls up into heaven via pneumatic exchange in order to get our attention.  

Our priority is always our own household (1 Timothy 5:8) and our brothers and sisters in the household of faith (Galatians 6:10). When we help our persecuted brothers and sisters we exhibit our love for Christ, since Christ dwells within each believer (Colossians 1:2 and 1:27). Unbelievers do not have that love, because suffering for the name of Christ is foolishness to them. It is God Himself who puts that love into our hearts, so it is no cause for boasting.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Where does this text instruct us to prioritize our households before those of others?   The focus is on the qualifications for elders & deacons.    The text enjoins us to practice a degree of equity.   We ought to do our best to provide for our relatives in general & our own household in particular, given the bare fact that the world is watching.   

When the Bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22), that doesn’t mean that we are to love our own first then others.  It means that we are to remember that as sinners, we habitually put ourselves before God & other people, therefore the cure for that sort of selfishness is that we are to love each other before ourselves.  At the corporate level, we are to put other households before our own — not the other way around.   In other words, the paraphrase RC Sproul, we ought to live our lives with JOY - Jesus, Others, Yourself in that order (Philippians). 

The text also speaks to the ecclesiastical use of the Law & Gospel.  Churches aren’t commanded here to prioritize their members first then all others second.   That would be favoritism, as if the citizens of mighty Rome come first & their vassal states are next, with the slaves at the bottom of the barrel. Likewise, Governments are to behave in a similar fashion.  

The prioritization of the household/member/citizen over the least of these in general is the way gluttony & injustice operate in families, ecclesiastical institutions, & whole societies.   As time marches on, whole communities of people are systematically marginalized, resulting in God’s judgment — a judgment in which we are commanded to replicate & restore to those we have wronged.  That’s what Matthew 5:41 - 48 is addressing. 

God bless us all, each & every one, and “Go & sin no more.”