Knowing Him Daily

20.June.2026

There is a parable Jesus told that does not leave room for interpretation, and it has been on my heart, partly because of a song by Keith Green that takes this exact passage and turns it into a dramatic, almost theatrical confrontation, complete with biting humor aimed at people who try to claim ignorance, people who ask whether they should send an angel out for a hamburger and a coke because surely Jesus could not have actually been hungry around them.

It is funny until it is not.

Jesus describes the moment He returns and separates the nations: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.” Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭31‬-‭33‬

Sheep on one side. Goats on the other. No middle group, no partial credit, no room for the well intentioned bystander.

To the sheep He says: “for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’” Matthew‬ ‭25‬:‭35‬-‭36‬

And when they ask when they ever did any of that for Him personally, He tells them that whatever they did for the least of His brethren, they did unto Him.

Then comes the part that should might shock some, because to the goats He says the same list in reverse: “for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’” Matthew 25:42-43 Not a sin of cruelty, but a sin of nothing, of walking past, too busy, too inconvenienced, too unsure it was ever really their problem to solve.

The Samaritan in Luke understood this when he stopped for a man everyone else had stepped over: “When he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds.” Luke 10:33 He saw him,  and he went to him. Two priests before him had also seen him and kept walking.

Paul wrote: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Galatians 6:10 The opportunity is already in front of you more often than you realize, and James will not let us off the hook about what faith without action actually is: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James‬ ‭2‬:‭17‬

The only difference between the sheep and the goats in that passage is not what they believed. It is what they did, and what they didn’t do.

I have put the link to the video of Keith Green performing the song I referenced below, and I am fairly certain, once you hear it you will not forget it. https://youtu.be/Ix8ddosjg-k?is=tOIs1Ln5nLKmUQrs

Make today count and see you tomorrow.