Worst That Could Happen?

 

📖Scripture:

“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. 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 place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left… 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’… And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31–33, 41, 46

🔎Examination:

King Jesus ends the Olivet Discourse with an unflinching scene: the enthroned Son separates sheep and goats. This is not parable but prophecy. The criterion is not religious self-branding but a life that reveals union with the Shepherd. Works here are evidentiary, not meritorious: the righteous are those already known by the King (Matt 7:23; John 10:14). The saints’ care for Christ’s family members displays a prior reality—resurrection life pulsing through the Body. Final judgment consummates God’s relational presence: the righteous enter unbroken communion; the rebellious are banished from His favorable presence (2 Thess 1:9).

Just as a loving mother will warn a child not to touch a hot stove... King Jesus warns us of the consequences of suppressing the truth in wickedness (Rom 1:18-21). This exposes the flawed thinking of many who ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Those who rely on their “good works” (filthy rags) remain goats because they refuse to be born again. This unmasks the lies of sentimental universalism and annihilationism: the Judge speaks of “eternal punishment” contrasted with “eternal life.” 

Hell is not a religious scare tactic; it is the Eternal King’s verdict upon those who loved darkness and despised the Son (John 3:19). Every other ideology, not merely traditional “religious” varieties, is a counterfeit gospel; they all crumble before Christ and the WORD. Atheism's denial, Agnosticism's false searching, Islam’s works-weighing scale, Rome’s treasury of merit and purgatorial schemes, cultic theologies that deny eternal punishment, and therapeutic mantras that declare everyone “basically good”... they all oppose and contradict the LORD of glory.

Notice the ecclesial/familial emphasis: “the least of these brothers of Mine” most naturally points to Christ’s disciples (Matt 10:40–42), the members of His Body & Bride. The test is not generic philanthropy, paying it forward, or random acts of kindness... but concrete allegiance to Jesus as expressed in sacrificial care for His people as members of the Body & Bride of Christ. Identity precedes participation: sheep act as sheep because of who they ARE… they belong to the Shepherd… their identity/baptism is in Christ. They gather with the saints, though it costs; they grow under the Word, though it confronts; they give themselves away, though painful; and they go on mission, though it offends. Goats mimic externals, but they cannot manufacture adoration and union with the Good Shepherd.

Therefore, the call is not to manufacture merit but to examine whether we are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5) and to live congruent with our confession (literally "one word"). The saints fear the LORD without panic because judgment day has already broken into our present reality in Christ (John 5:24). We await that Day with sober joy, letting its clarity purge hypocrisy, slander, and envy now (1 Pet 2:1) and enflame tangible phileo and agape-love for Christ in manifest love for His Body & Bride.

🤺Action:

• Does my week/life show true allegiance to Christ’s brothers and sisters in a local, covenanted, Bible-believing, WORD-craving church?

• Read aloud: 1 John 3:14-18; Hebrews 6:10-12; Matthew 10:40-42.

• Do you truly love Christ by loving His people… even more than your autonomy?

🧠Reflection:

The Shepherd-King will separate. Let the certainty of that Day cleanse your compromises and forge your compassion in and through the WORD of God. Live today, and always, as a sheep belonging to the Good Shepherd… one who will stand at His right hand, radiant in His mercy and zealous for His Name that is above every other name!

Click on the following link for a short video version of today's post:

https://youtube.com/shorts/TiaOvfoHHeE?si=LRpMRmucmKpKza5r

Blessings & love,

Kevin M. Kelley
Pastor
BigIslandChristianChurch.com