Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity (1891)

Matthew 25:31-46 Faith and love are the two chief parts in Christian life, you can't have one without the other, one cannot occur with the other, neither can replace the other. The right distinction between faith and love is so important that where one is able to drop them, Christianity herself is betrayed. It is necessary that one again promotes this doctrine. We have an instruction for that purpose in our Gospel. Faith and love in the last judgment; 1. Faith prepares us, through which we are heirs of the kingdom; a. the Day of Judgment will be a day of separation of the wicked from the good, the righteous from the unrighteous, once tares and wheat, hypocrites and true Christians, were side by side in the external Church until the end of the world. Judgment will begin with this distinction, when all nations will be gathered before the Son of Man. No investigation, no interrogation will be necessary with it; because the Lord knows His own and He will separate them from one another, not according to what they have done, but according to who they are, sheep and goats, the blessed are blessed through Christ1, by faith2, and those are cursed because they are without Christ and without faith; the righteous ones are justified by faith3, and those who are not4, b. the Day of Judgment will be the day of entering of all the saints according to body and soul into the kingdom of glory that they themselves did not prepare, but is prepared for them from the beginning of the world; this is not prepared for them, but they should inherit it as children of God, their Father, of Whom it is written: "And if we are children, then we are heirs", and "you are all sons of God by faith". So faith and unbelief is handed out in the Day of Judgment according to faith and unbelief5, c. it is necessary to be prudent that we continue in the faith, in order that we may be found blameless on that day; nothing, no work and deed, is able then to replace faith. As there will be only two classes, that comes at the right and the left, and no one from the one to the other, everyone then belongs to one of the two classes; therefore everyone should examine themselves and watch!6

1 2

Ephesians 1:3. Galatians 3:9. 3 Romans 5:1, 3, 28. 4 Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 37. 5 Matthew 25:34, 41, 46. 6 Matthew 25:32-33.

2. Love works in us, through which we have witness of faith; a. the Day of Judgment shall be a day "of the revealing of the righteous judgment of God, which He will render to each one according to his works"7, inasmuch as the judgment shall be a public judgment, that even angels and men and devils shall make public, that God is no respecter of persons, that those, to whom the kingdom is given, really have been other people even here in life as those who must enter into eternal fire, and that those who are lost really are lost by their own fault, after they have not respected the order of God that whoever believes shall be saved, whoever does not believe will be condemned. So the judge will call up the witnesses for faith and unbelief, the works of love, through which faith was active, and the infallible proofs of the lack of love, from which unbelief is apparent8; b. this testimony will serve . to the glory of God Who exalts Himself in His grace and His righteousness, because the faithful are saved, who know to say from no merit or no worthiness on their part9, but the self-righteous must be put to shame, whether they still boast before God10; . for the justifying of the children of God before those of whom have been suspected, blasphemed and reviled here in life and otherwise persecuted11, c. therefore we should do diligence in this life in all kinds of good works, be aware of every opportunity, so many things offered to us ("hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, prisoners") and redeem the time; for we well know that, but not when, the Son of Man will come in His glory; even patiently wait, if we must learn scorning and persecution, and the world does not provide us the same, in order to escape its enmity; because there comes a time when the godless world is condemned and the despised children of God come to honor.12 A.G.

7 8

Romans 2:5-6. Matthew 25:35-36, 42-42. 9 Matthew 25:37-40. 10 Matthew 25:44-45. 11 Matthew 25:45. 12 Matthew 25:31, 46.