This parable has been expounded as an encouragement for Christians to do good works like those of Mother Teresa. While social/humanitarian ministry to the poor and needy is good, this is not the teaching of this parable of Jesus in Matthew chapter 25.
The context of the parable is time of the Great Tribulation for the Jews and the believers among the Gentiles {the Tribulation Saints}. During this period of three and a half years the Antichrist will persecute Jews and those Gentile believers who do not have the Mark of the Beast on their foreheads. It is a terrible time for the Jews, whom Jesus calls His brethren, in the phrase "the least of My brethren". It will be a crime to give a drink of water to a Jew; an offence to feed a hungry Jew or to visit a sick Jew in the hospital. The illustration : Corrie ten boom, the Dutch Christian lady, in the book "The Hiding Place" describes how her sister and she sheltered Jews in their house during the Second World War.
The Antichrist government will punish anyone doing any act of good to the persecuted Jews and the Tribulation believers. This is the correct exposition of this parable.
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