There may be no more quoted verse these days than Matthew 25:40. “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'” Hardly a week goes by without a plea from some Christian leader or politician to think of “the least of these”, which usually entails some new program for the poor or seemingly oppressed.
But, as many people have pointed out before, the text refers to “the least of these my brothers.” (Granted, verse 45 gives the “not” version of verse 40 and does not include “my brothers”, but the context from verse 40 surely carries over to our understanding of verse 45.) Jesus does not teach that whatever we do for anyone in need anywhere we do unto him. He teaches something a little different, and more consistent with the rest of the New Testament. Namely, that when we show care for members of Christ’s body (his brothers and sisters), we are showing care for Christ himself.
With this correction in place, let me hasten to add two other points.
1. Scripture does teach elsewhere that we should have compassion on those outside the church. The parable of the Good Samaritan is a powerful illustration of how we must not turn a blind eye to the needs in our path, no matter how unlike us the needy one may be. “We ought to do good to everyone” is Bible truth; though we should remember that we are to do good especially to those who are of the household of faith (Gal. 6:10).
2. While I admit it can be annoying to hear “the least of these” employed as justification for almost any expansion of the federal government (as if statist solutions are always, or even often, the best way to create jobs and lift people out of poverty), conservatives need to be careful that they are not right on their exegesis for all the wrong reasons. There’s nothing attractive, or biblical, about proving (correctly) that “the least of these” refers to other Christians and then going on our merry way not caring about the non-Christian poor (or probably the Christian poor for that matter).
There’s no reason Christian leaders should be allowed to co-opt Matthew 25:40 to support government programs that require more than one out of context verse to back them up. But neither is there any reason for Christians to be smug about being “righter” than those who are often more sincerely concerned about and engaged in helping the disadvantaged and the needy.
