Matthew 25 — salvation by works?

[Multicolored Lemur]

Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 25 - King James Version

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their...

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31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.


(King James Version)

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I like the parts I put in Boldface. It’s basically saying, treat a stranger as a member of your family [although family members can be a handful, too! ].

But, then again, the threats of hell fire kind of takes the bloom off the rose!

 

[AgnosticBoy]

My points are more about approach than on validity.

I can see how someone can argue that the passages you highlighted is an endorsement of salvation by works, but we can't go by that one passage. For starters, it doesn't help explain verses that seem to support salvation by faith, like Ephesians 2:8-9:

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

So in conclusion, if we just consider the passages you bring up in isolation, then sure, we can argue that we are saved through works. But if we look all of the relevant information on the subject, then you're left with a contradiction, or an incomplete picture that might potentially fit within the saved by faith view.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

I think the big conflict on salvation through works vs. faith is sin. To do sin involves work. If you say works don't matter, then a lot of people are gonna think that sin is then okay.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

For starters, it doesn't help explain verses that seem to support salvation by faith, like Ephesians 2:8-9:

So, this is Saint Paul taking a very definite “saved by grace” viewpoint. With the 4 Gospels, it seems like it’s not always that clear.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

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A lot of human writings will have contradictions. In fact, it sometimes adds to the tension of a work. So yes, I think the Bible should be treated with the same respect as Shakespeare, no more, no less.

PS I am NOT a Shakespeare expert.

 

[Multicolored Lemur]

I think the big conflict on salvation through works vs. faith is sin.

The big one is sex. For example, I can remember when I started “masturbating all the way” at age 14. I felt tremendous guilt. And it really threw me for a loop that I couldn’t seem to stop. [this was during my evangelical Christian period!]

So yeah, I’d want books, TV, and movies to give realistic advice on masturbation. And I think we can do better than religious teachings, easy as pie!

The other big sex issue is adultery vs. faithfulness. Yes, I want older people to give realistic advice on this, too. And I want to avoid or at least address the trap of “preaching a negative” and therefore making it more exciting.

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Another big ethical issue are jobs which expect you to lie, especially sales jobs. Big issue. I’ll just say now that some sales jobs — the ones which always seem to be advertising for new employees! — also will cheat their employees [technically “a job,” but if you don’t really get paid, I kind of wonder! ]