Gathering the Wheat from the Tares

As official opposition to Jesus Christ's ministry grew, he taught for a time using only parables (Mark 4:34). Through simple stories of everyday objects and situations, the Master Teacher openly shared divine truths that went undetected by his oppressors (Bible Dictionary, "Parables").

Many of Christ's parables teach about the kingdom of heaven. This is, in itself, a masked reference to his church. The kingdom of heaven, Christ said, is like a mustard seed, leaven, a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great price and a fishing net. Each analogy subtly prophesies of the growth of the church from a seed to a great tree, from kneaded dough to a risen loaf, from an empty net to one that "gathered of every kind" (Matthew 13:47).

Christ also understood that growth would not come without opposition. In the parable of the wheat and the tares, he prophesies about the spreading of falsehood and wickedness, apostasy, and the eventual gathering of the elect prior to Christ's return in the latter days. He taught:

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.

The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matthew 13:24-30).

Most people in ancient Israel would have been very familiar with the process of growing and harvesting wheat. It is, in a way, a purifying process as cut wheat is bound in bundles and left to dry in the field, pounded and threshed to separate the seed heads from the stems, and then winnowed or dropped on a breezy day to separate the heavier grain from the useless chaff. When the wheat is harvested, the field is burned to eliminate weeds, discard leftover straw, control pest populations, and prepare for a new crop.

Despite their familiarity with harvesting wheat, Christ's disciples struggled to understand the gospel principles in the parable. When the crowds and Pharisees were gone, they asked the Lord for an interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares.

The Lord explained that the field represented the world. Christ and his servants, the apostles, would sow good seeds as they taught the gospel throughout the nations of the world. After the seed was planted, "as men slept," there would be a great apostasy that would introduce tares in the field.

Tares are a weed that looks like wheat until it matures. They have a bitter taste and cause dizziness and vomiting if eaten separately or when mixed with bread (McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 1:296). The tares represent evil doctrines and those who spread them.

In the latter days, at the time of the harvest, the wheat, or the righteous, will be separated from the tares. The Lord explained to the Prophet Joseph Smith:

Behold, in the last days, even now while the Lord is beginning to bring forth the word, and the blade is springing up and is yet tender-- Behold, verily I say unto you, the angels are crying unto the Lord day and night, who are ready and waiting to be sent forth to reap down the fields; But the Lord saith unto them, pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also. Therefore, let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest is fully ripe; then ye shall first gather out the wheat from among the tares, and after the gathering of the wheat, behold and lo, the tares are bound in bundles, and the field remaineth to be burned (D&C 86:4-7).

As the Lord prophesied, we live in a time when wheat and tares are growing together in every corner of the world. In "a wheat and tares world," Elder Neal A. Maxwell once noted, "lust openly parades as love, license cleverly poses as liberty, and raucous sounds mockingly masquerade as music" (April 1993). Rather than talking with our neighbors, we watch talk shows and use social media in solitude. Legislation and violence are used against women and children to protect personal profit and convenience rather than to defend women and children. Many people turn to drugs and alcohol to "tune out" the world rather than striving with faith to overcome it. It can be especially difficult to tell the difference between a wide variety of religious teachings and beliefs that often cite the same scriptures.

With eyes to see and ears to hear, there are many gospel principles we can learn from the parable of the wheat and the tares. We can learn about waiting on the Lord's timing and the urgency of growing our faith. There are lessons about judgement, obedience, patience, and living with others in our church congregations. Perhaps most important is the work of gathering, assigned to the Lord's latter-day apostles, in which we are allowed to participate.

As wheat is gathered out of the field, so Christ prayed in gratitude that our Heavenly Father had given the Holy Ghost to those chosen "out of the world... because of their belief in [Christ]" (3 Nephi 19:20). He continued, "Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou has given me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may be purified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them" (3 Nephi 19:29).

Christ offered a similar prayer for his disciples in Jerusalem. He repeated and clarified in that prayer that he prayed "not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil" (John 17:15). He prayed for unity, joy and sanctification through the word of God "that they may be made perfect in one" and "be with me where I am" (John 17:6-24).

Gathering the righteous out of the world is clearly more than baptizing them into any particular church. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught that "even in the Church the tares are to be found. It is the tares which are to be gathered up and burned from all over the world, but those in the Church will also be gathered out and find their place in the fire. The Savior also bore witness of [this. When] speaking to the Nephites he said: 'For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from my people, O house of Israel' (3 Nephi 21:20)" (Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:354.).

Wheat is not gathered into the barn for the barn's sake, but for its own preservation and the glory of the owner of the farm-- the householder. Paul taught that God "might gather together in one all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1:10). We are gathered as we believe in Christ, repent of our sin, covenant through baptism for the remission of sins, and are sanctified by the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the way we may be "made perfect in one" and with the Lord where he is. 

The ancient American prophet Moroni admonished: "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ... And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot" (Moroni 10:32-33).

In the multi-step process of harvesting the faithful, temple ordinances further separate the righteous from the world. Through additional covenants to live the laws of obedience, sacrifice, the gospel, chastity and consecration, our hearts and minds are instructed to greater unity, joy and sanctification. We are encouraged to discard the chaff in our lives that we may be among the Lord's chosen-- clearly distinguishable from the tares of the field and gathered up before the field is burned.

Christ taught these doctrines in a simple parable about harvesting wheat. He invited his disciples to help plant good seeds and he invites us to join in the harvest.

"Therefore," he declared, "if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul" (D&C 4:3-4).

Lost and Found

"Black Sheep" by Julie Rogers

In the fifteenth chapter of Luke, as elsewhere in the New Testament, orthodox Pharisees murmured about Jesus Christ's interactions with sinners. They disapproved of his willingness to receive and share a dinner table with those they considered unclean and lost souls.

Christ responded to the Pharisees' criticism in this instance with three parables. In the first, a shepherd leaves his flock of 99 sheep to find one that had wandered off. The second parable is about a woman who lit a candle and cleaned her house to find a coin that she had lost. Finally, the Parable of the Prodigal Son tells of a son who wastes his inheritance with riotous living but is received with joy when he returns to his father's house.

Each of these parables is really about lost souls. It is instructive to note that the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son were each lost in a different way. The sheep wandered from its flock, perhaps not even noticing it was drifting from the others until it couldn't easily find the way back. The coin was lost because of the neglect or insufficient caution of someone else, not unlike the effect a wayward parent may have on their children. The Prodigal Son rejected his father's counsel and became lost through his own rebellion.

The parables illustrate how the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son were also found in different ways. The sheep that wandered into the wilderness was in the stewardship of a shepherd. "Wilderness" in the scriptures is often symbolic for "the world". The Joseph Smith translation of these verses clarifies that the shepherd left his flock of sheep in a safe place (not in the wilderness) and then went into the wilderness to search for the lost sheep. In a similar way, we may have opportunities to minister to those in our stewardship who have drifted away from gospel activity. Our efforts will be to bring those who are lost in worldly living back into the relative safety of the church. With this story, Christ is directly admonishing the Pharisees, who had a direct ecclesiastical responsibility for the lost souls they so disdained.

In the second story, the woman who lost a coin put nine other coins in a safe place before searching for her missing piece of silver. In this case, the woman was directly responsible for losing one of the coins and finding it required more light and a cleansing process. If we lead others away from Christ, we must repent and do all we can to restore their faith and standing before him. As we seek the Savior's influence in our lives he can provide direction and inspiration that will help us find those we have lost. This story was also an invitation to the Pharisees to search within themselves and fill their lives with light so they could find truth.

Finally, the Prodigal Son had to search within himself until he "came to himself" and desired to return to his father. He had known what was right and chose to waste his inheritance living contrary to that knowledge. It also had to be his choice to humbly return to the home of his father.

In every case, there is rejoicing when what was lost is found. "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth," the Lord taught as a lesson of the lost sheep's return to the flock. When the woman finds the lost coin, she rejoices with her neighbors and the Savior says that the angels of heaven rejoice as well. Those angels exult because of their devotion to the Savior, but also because they are our friends and family, our parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters. Of course they rejoice, just as the Father rejoices at the return of the prodigal son and hosts a celebration in his honor.

In the end, the sheep, the coin and the prodigal son are all restored to the place where they had been before they were lost. Unlike the sheep and the coin however, the father of the prodigal son explains to a more faithful posterity that the prodigal's inheritance cannot be restored. This cautionary note seems to say that though we may repent in the spirit world after death, our inheritance cannot be restored at that point. We may live with God again, a fact worth great rejoicing, but we cannot inherit eternal life nor inhabit the highest degree of His Celestial Kingdom. In the parable, the son who had been faithful and kept his inheritance is told that he will inherit "all that [the Father]" has.

The Lord taught Abraham, "And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever" (Abraham 3:26). In the context of this verse, our mortal lives are our second estate. We can waste them with a Vegas lifestyle or addicted to various things, like the prodigal; but life can also slip away into distraction and passivity, indecision and apathy. It isn't enough to not be bad-- we must be good, like the faithful son who worked for his father all of his life.

The three parables about the lost speak to each of us as both sinners and rescuers. At times, all of us begin to wander from what we know is right. Perhaps we do not pray or study our scriptures for a time. We rely too heavily on ourselves and what we want to do. We are offended by someone at church or choose to do things we know are wrong because they seem fun or pleasurable or impressive to others. We are all charged of God with seeking for those who are lost.

This is true socially and within ourselves. In the depths of our hearts, we sometimes find that individual elements of our testimonies of the gospel may be lost for a time. If we do not fast or pray, we may lose our testimonies of the power of fasting and prayer. Sometimes elements of our testimonies may drift almost undetected. At other times, we may consciously battle with difficult questions about church history, gospel doctrine, life challenges or current events. It is in these times that we most need to light a candle in our lives, repenting and inviting Christ's presence to shine more brightly within us so we can see clearly to find what we have lost.

The Lord calls all of us to watch after those in our stewardship. Whether sharing the gospel with those wandering without a knowledge of the truth or finding those who have wandered, great joy is in store for those who do the Lord's work.

"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;" the Savior said. "Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" (D&C 18:10, 14-16).

Christ invited the Pharisees to seek after the lost so that one day they could rejoice together at the Lord's table. He invites us to continue his work so that we can join Him and his angels when they kill the fatted calf for a great celebration of our return into His presence.

The Gardens of Our Hearts

There are many times in scripture when you and I are compared in metaphor to the trees of an orchard or the grain of the field. One such occasion is in the third chapter of Matthew when John the Baptist preaches in the wilderness of Judea. John's growing popularity had become a concern for the ruling classes who had gained power and wealth by subjecting the people to often ridiculous additional rules and regulations cloaked as inspired additions to the Law of Moses.

Speaking to these ruling classes, but also to all of us, John declared: "If ye receive not [the preaching of him whom God hath sent] in your hearts, ye receive not me; and if ye receive not me, ye receive not him of whom I am sent to bear record; and for your sins ye have no cloak. Repent, therefore, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance" (JST Matthew 3:34-36).

Like a tree or a staff of grain, each of us bears the fruit of our labor. Worthy actions and desires are equivalent to good fruit in the metaphor. John reminds us that true repentance includes receiving God's word in our hearts and then changing our actions so that we may again be worthy of the Lord's harvest. Lest we think we can repent half-heartedly or offer impure fruits to the Lord, John reminds his listeners that "the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Matthew 3:10).

A lot can be and has been said about how we can change our actions, but John's repentance flowchart dictates that we focus first on planting the right seeds in good ground or, in other words, cultivating righteous desires in our pure, receptive hearts. This is also the focus of another agrarian metaphor, the Parable of the Sower, which Christ shared with an audience similar to John's. In the parable, which could also be called the Parable of the Soils, a sower goes out to plant seed in his field. Some of the seed falls into the road, some onto rocks, some into patches of weeds and some onto good ground where it can grow strong and bear fruit.

Two of the soils in this parable-- the rock and the road-- are hard and impenetrable. People with similarly hardened hearts may appear do everything right on the surface, but ultimately are unable to produce good fruit because they lack the depth of conviction and the ongoing spiritual nourishment to support their testimonies through tough questions or a difficult season in life.

Likewise, if we plant desires in our hearts that are not consistent with the word of God, even if they seem to be good at the time, we may find one day that the fruit we hoped to grow has been suffocated by other plants. The Savior taught that "where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also" (Matthew 6:21). We cannot plant our fields with corn and then be surprised when there's no wheat to harvest.

Elder Ardern recently reminded us that planting the right seeds in our hearts requires our attention and intention. "With the demands made of us," he said, "we must learn to prioritize our choices to match our goals or risk being exposed to the winds of procrastination and being blown from one time-wasting activity to another" (A Time to Prepare, October 2011). If we truly desire the things of God, we may find it necessary to do a little weeding from time to time to keep our growth on track.

Finally, the prophet Alma expounded how to plant the right desires in our softened hearts. "If ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart," he taught, "behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves-- It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me" (Alma 32:28).

He continues, "If ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst" (Alma 32:41-42).

In the words of Elder Oaks, our "desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. The desires we act on determine our changing, our achieving, and our becoming" (Desire, April 2011). The desires we plant in our hearts determine the fruit we will eat now and in eternity.

Each of us has many desires competing for our attention each day. Some, such as desires to meet physical needs, may be strong without much effort from us. Others depend more heavily on our nurturing. In all cases, the desires we consider most important are most likely to be transferred into action. This includes overriding compelling physical desires to go camping, to fast or to work through the night; or allowing unrighteous desires to overcome our want of health, honesty or virtue.

Of course, ultimately we decide what desires are allowed to take root in our hearts; but the Lord has promised that we will yield the fruits of what we plant. "A just God," Alma taught, "granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life" (Alma 29:4).

From the farmer's point of view it may seem obvious that planting the right seeds in good ground is essential to yielding a profitable crop, but very few inherit such conditions. What do we do when we find patches of rocky or weed-filled ground in our garden? How can a person change what they treasure or have already planted in order to eventually harvest that field of wheat or orchard of delicious fruit?

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Robert Butchart moved from Ontario to Vancouver Island, Canada. He was among the first to develop and sell cement that could be packaged in sacks rather than barrels and Vancouver Island's rich limestone deposits were an integral part of his formula. He constructed his first quarry and cement plant in 1904 and would soon become a primary supplier of cement to rapidly developing cities from San Francisco to Seattle.

Robert's wife, Jennie, was the company's chemist. She was also a homemaker who cared very much for the sweet peas and roses planted at her family home near the quarry. As the limestone deposits were exhausted, Jennie determined to create something of beauty from the enormous pit that mining had left behind. She had tons of topsoil carted in to line the bottom of the abandoned quarry. Then she began to plant.

Jennie Butchart planted terraced flowers, white poplars and Persian plums. As more deposits were exhausted, she planted a Japanese garden and ivy that climbed up the quarry walls. She planted Tibetan blue poppies, California Redwoods, a private garden, a rose garden and two Italian gardens. Robert collected ornamental birds for the gardens and began assigning cement plant staff to help with weeding and maintenance. Little by little the garden grew and with growth came notoriety.

Today, Butchart Gardens is one of the five most renowned gardens in the world. 550 staff care for the 55-acre garden that receives more than a million visitors annually from around the world. Tourists come to tour the gardens, to take in an outdoor symphony concert or fireworks show, to ride the carousel with their kids and to enjoy the wonderful and awe-inspiring natural scenes unique to Butchart Gardens.

We may feel at times like our hearts, in whole or in part, are as hard and empty as an exhausted mining quarry. It may seem impossible to grow anything good or that all or part of us is just destined to be an empty limestone pit. While these feelings may be very real for us and even duly justified, they are tragically limited in their scope. We too often see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today; but our Heavenly Father, Elder Wirthlin has taught, sees us in terms of forever. Like Jennie Butchart, He looks at the empty hole in our hearts, sees the majestic gardens we can grow and then makes it possible for us to start planting.

Inevitably, we will all have to lay down some new soil from time to time. We do this as we decide we want to want to. In Alma's words, "behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words" (Alma 32:27). We break apart the stony ground and prepare it for planting as we set aside our cynicism in order to hear and feel the testimonies of the faithful.

The scriptures speak about this change in terms of what we seek. "When people [in the scriptures] are described as 'having lost their desire for sin,'" Elder Oaks has taught, "it is they, and they only, who deliberately decided to lose those wrong desires by being willing to 'give away all [their] sins' in order to know God." The Lord has taught that we should seek earnestly the best gifts (D&C 46:8) and that we will find what we diligently seek (1 Nephi 10:19) and consistently pursue.

When we have prepared our hearts and aroused our faculties to live the teaching of the gospel the best we can, our desires will sprout and begin to grow. We will begin to see how paying tithing, serving others and living the commandments beautifies our lives. We will defend time dedicated to studying the scriptures, serving others and building family relationships against even the most appealing intrusions and continue to nourish righteous desires through our faith and persistent effort.

"What we insistently desire over time is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity," Elder Maxwell has taught. "Only by educating and training our desires can they become our allies instead of our enemies" (According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts, October 1996). Every day the world will try to influence our desires to buy something, click on something, play something, read or watch something. We must consistently seek to refine, purify and elevate our desires; to train them to be wheat instead of turning to corn.

As we plant more of the word of God in our hearts, we will be increasingly able to see what the completed garden will look like. The vision of what we can become will increase our desire and power to act enormously. Like Jennie Butchart, we will want to plant more gardens and to share what we have found with others. The transformation in our hearts will be as if we had been born again.

Along the way, we will learn a simple formula that will help us receive the blessings we seek from the Lord. The formula is recorded by Enos, among many others, who prayed "with many long strugglings" for his cousins, the Lamanites, "and labored with all diligence" to that end. The Lord recognized Enos' desires and efforts. "I will grant unto thee according to thy desires," the Lord responded to Enos' prayers, "because of thy faith" (Enos 1:11-12).

It is by grace we are saved after all we can do; and it is the faithful combination of our righteous desires and diligent efforts that will yield the blessings of the Lord, including the fruits of repentance, peace and prosperity that will enrich our lives on earth and forever after. "Let us remember," Elder Oaks taught, "that desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions. In addition, it is our actions and our desires that cause us to become something, whether a true friend, a gifted teacher, or one who is qualified for eternal life."

Don't Be A Goat

In Matthew 24, Christ outlines several of the signs of his Second Coming. This chapter is significant enough to our day that the Joseph Smith translation of Matthew 24 is published in the Pearl of Great Price as Joseph Smith--Matthew.

The very next chapter, Matthew 25, contains three parables used to teach the same principle of preparedness. Just as we see Matthew 24 as a significant chapter at least partially because of its repetition, the repetition of the principles taught in Matthew 25 should be seen as an indication that these principles are significant to our salvation.

The first of these parables is the parable of the ten virgins. Elder Oaks pointed out in 2004 that these virgins were all invited to the feast, an indication that these virgins are symbolic of the members of the Church prior to the Second Coming of Christ. Of ten virgins waiting for admittance to a wedding feast, only five of the virgins in the parable were prepared with enough oil for their lamps to enter the feast when the bridegroom came. The other five, who had gone to get more oil, were denied entrance upon their return. This parable concludes with the warning to, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 25:13).

The second parable is the parable of the talents. In this parable, a man gives each of his three servants a respective number of talents. When he returns, he is pleased to find that two of his servants have doubled their allotment. The third, unprepared servant had done nothing with the talents he had been given and is chastised for not even collecting the interest on the investment given to him. The talent of the third servant is then given to the first with the warning that unprofitable servants will be cast into outer darkness.

Finally, we read that Christ shall come again he will divide the sheep from the goats. The sheep, as metaphors for the faithful who were prepared for Christ at his coming, will then inherit the kingdom of God while the unfaithful, unprepared goats will go away into everlasting punishment (v. 34, 46).

In the third parable encouraging us to be prepared for the Second Coming, Christ teaches us what we must do. That is, Christ teaches us how to be a sheep instead of a goat. After teaching that he will separate the sheep from the goats and put the sheep on his right hand, he says:

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: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 


This is, then, the key. Service to Christ is how we can be prepared for the wedding feast, multiply our talents and be counted with the sheep. To be absolutely clear, Christ continues:


Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 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.


The point here is one with which we are all familiar. Those who will be saved in the Kingdom of God will not be the selfish, but the servants. As we are willing to serve Christ by serving those around us, we will be prepared for the Second Coming of Christ and will be on his right hand. This is a task that is within our grasp-- if you just have the wisdom to not be a goat.