<p>25:45<em> Then he shall answer them, saying: Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of these least, you did not do it to me</em>- See on :40&nbsp;<em>The least</em>.</p><p>Many of those who ungraciously storm out of fellowship with the rest of the body, do so because they complain that other believers are weak, unloving, hypocrites, don't practice what they preach etc. And in many ways, their complaints are true (seeing that the Lord came to heal those who need a doctor rather than shake hands with the healthy). And again, Paul has a comment on this situation. He says that those parts of our bodies &quot;that seem to be weaker... that we think are less honourable... the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty... with special honour&quot; (NIV). The private parts of our bodies are the parts we are most sensitive to, although on the outside they seem weak and hidden. And so Paul reasons that the weaker parts of the ecclesial body should be treated the same. The Greek for &quot;feeble&quot; (1 Cor. 12:21) is used (notably in Corinthians) to describe spiritual weakness: Mk. 14:38; Rom. 5:6; 1 Cor. 8:7,10; 9:22; 11:30; 1 Thess. 5:14. And in some ways, we are all &quot;weak&quot; (1 Cor. 1:27; 4:10).&nbsp;So those we perceive (&quot;that seem to be... that we think&quot;) to be spiritually weak in their external appearance, we should be especially sensitive towards. Significantly, the &ldquo;sick&quot; (s.w. &quot;feeble&quot;) in the parable of Mt. 25:44 are the &quot;least&quot; of Christ's brethren, the spiritually weakest; and at the day of judgment, the rejected are condemned because of their attitude towards these spiritually weakest of Christ's brethren. As John realized the tendency of some to think they could love God without loving His Sons,&nbsp;so Paul tackled the same problem at Corinth. He reasons that &quot;the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee... if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if they were all one member, where were the body?&quot; (1 Cor. 12:21). He knew that some would want to go off on their own, and he shows that such behaviour would suggest that they alone were the whole body. He knew that some would think that they had no need of other parts of the ecclesial body; he saw that some would feel that they were so inferior to others that they had no place in the body. All these are reasons why believers push off on their own. But notice that Paul doesn't actually say 'the eye&nbsp;<em>shouldn't&nbsp;</em>say to the hand, I have no need of thee'; but rather &quot;the eye&nbsp;<em>cannot</em>&nbsp;say to the hand...&quot;. Although some may say or feel this, ultimately, from God's perspective, it's simply not valid. Christian disillusion with Christianity&nbsp;mustn't lead us to quit the body. The same logic applies to those who think that the body of Christ is divided; ultimately, there is one body, and from God's perspective this is indivisible. The divisions only exist in the minds of men. Those who say that they don't need fellowship with their brethren &quot;cannot say&quot; this, according to Paul. If they continue on this road, ultimately they declare themselves not of the one body of Christ; although I trust there are many brethren who have done just this who may still receive God's gracious salvation. &nbsp;</p><p><em>&quot;</em>Of these&quot; suggests that the righteous are present and visible at the time of the verdict given to the goats. Again we see the public dimension to the judgment process.</p><p>A telling chronology is suggested by putting together a few Scriptures. The foolish virgins will knock on the door, as it were, and be told by the Lord &ldquo;I know you not&rdquo; (Mt. 25:12). Lk. 13:27 says that He tells the rejected&nbsp;<em>after</em>&nbsp;they have justified themselves to Him: &ldquo;I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity&rdquo;. Mt. 7:22,23 describes a dialogue in which the rejected justify themselves by listing their good works, and the Lord will profess unto them: &ldquo;I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity&rdquo;. All their good works He will see as works of sin, because they were not of faith. Mt. 25:41-45 gives more information: the rejected are told &ldquo;Depart from me&rdquo;, but they argue back with self-justification, and then they are told that they had not shown love to the least of Christ&rsquo;s brethren, and are sent away to punishment.</p>