Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 25:46

"And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life." — Matthew 25:46 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: Some deceive themselves, saying that the fire is indeed called everlasting, but not the punishment. The Lord, foreseeing this, sums up His sentence in these words.¹

Origen of Alexandria: Observe that while He first put the invitation, “Come, you blessed,” and after that, “Depart, you cursed”—because it is characteristic of a merciful God to record the good deeds of the good before the bad deeds of the bad—He now reverses the order. He first describes the punishment of the wicked and then the life of the good, so that the terrors of the one may deter us from evil, and the honor of the other may incite us to good.

St. Gregory the Great: If someone who has not given to others receives such a heavy punishment, what will he receive who is convicted of having robbed others of what is theirs?²

St. Augustine of Hippo: Eternal life is our chief good and the goal of the city of God, of which the Apostle speaks, And the end everlasting life (Romans 6:22).³ However, because “eternal life” might be understood by those who are not well-versed in Holy Scripture to also mean the life of the wicked—due to the immortality of their souls or their endless torments—we must define the goal of this City. The goal, in which our chief good will be attained, must be called either “peace in eternal life” or “eternal life in peace,” so that it may be understood by all.

That which the Lord spoke to His servant Moses, I AM THAT I AM (Exodus 3:14), is what we will contemplate when we live in eternity. For the Lord says, This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God (John 17:3). This contemplation is promised to us as the goal of all action and the eternal perfection of our joys, of which John speaks: we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).⁴

St. Jerome: Let the thoughtful reader observe that the punishments are eternal, and that the life that continues on has, from that time forward, no fear of falling.

St. Gregory the Great: Some say that God offered empty threats only to deter people from sin. We answer that if He threatened falsely to check unrighteousness, then He also promised falsely to promote good conduct. Thus, while they go out of their way to prove God is merciful, they are not afraid to charge Him with fraud.⁵

But, they urge, finite sin ought not to be punished with infinite punishment. We answer that this argument would be just if the righteous Judge considered only people’s actions and not their hearts. Therefore, it is part of the righteousness of an impartial Judge that those whose hearts would never be without sin in this life should never be without punishment.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The justice of no law is concerned with ensuring that the duration of a person’s punishment should be the same as the duration of the sin that brought the punishment upon him. No one has ever held that the torment for someone who committed murder or adultery should be limited to the same amount of time it took to commit the act.⁶

When a person is punished with death for some enormous crime, does the law measure the punishment by the time it takes to execute him? Or does it not rather measure it by the fact that they remove him forever from the society of the living? And when fines, disgrace, exile, or slavery are inflicted without any hope of mercy, do they not seem like eternal punishments in proportion to the length of this life? They are not truly eternal only because the life that suffers them is not itself eternal.

But some ask, “How then is it true what Christ says, with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matthew 7:2), if a temporal sin is punished with eternal pain?” They do not realize that this is said not in reference to an equal period of time, but to the retribution of evil—that is, that he who has done evil should suffer evil. Mankind became worthy of everlasting evil because he destroyed in himself the good that could have been eternal.

St. Gregory the Great: But they say that no just person takes pleasure in cruelty, and that a guilty servant was flogged to correct his fault. So when the wicked are given over to hell fire, for what purpose will they burn there forever? We reply that Almighty God, since He is good, does not delight in the torments of the wretched. But because He is righteous, He does not cease from taking vengeance on the wicked. Yet the wicked do not burn without a purpose: namely, so that the righteous may acknowledge their eternal debt to divine grace when they see the wicked suffering for eternity a misery which they themselves have escaped only by the assistance of that same grace.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But, they assert, no one can be simultaneously capable of suffering pain and incapable of death. It is true that one can live in pain, but it is not necessary that the pain kill him. For not even these mortal bodies die from every pain. The reason some pain causes death is that the connection between the soul and our present body is such that it breaks under extreme pain. But in the age to come, the soul will be united to a body in such a way that no pain will be able to overcome that connection.⁷

Therefore, it is not that there will be no death, but that there will be an everlasting death. The soul will be unable to live, since it is without God, and yet it will be equally unable to rid itself of the body’s pains by dying. Among these opponents of eternal punishment, Origen is the most merciful. He believed that the Devil himself and his angels, after sufferings proportioned to what they deserve and endured for a long time, would be delivered from those torments and reunited with the holy angels.

But for these and other teachings, Origen was deservedly rebuked by the Church. His apparent mercy was misguided, as it created for the saints real pains in which their sins were to be expiated, and a fictitious blessedness, since the joys of the good would not be secure and endless.

In a completely different way, the mercy of others errs because of their humane sympathies. They think that the sufferings of those condemned by this sentence will be temporary, but that the happiness of those who are eventually set free will be eternal. Why does their charity extend to the whole human race, but dry up when it comes to the angelic race?

St. Gregory the Great: But some ask, “How can they be called saints if they will not pray for their enemies whom they see burning?” They do indeed pray for their enemies as long as there is any possibility of converting their hearts to a fruitful repentance. But how can they pray for them when any change from their wickedness is no longer possible?

St. Augustine of Hippo: Some promise liberation from punishment not to all people, but only to those who have been washed in Christ’s Baptism and have been partakers of His Body, no matter how they have lived. They do this because the Lord says, If any man eat of this bread, he shall not die eternally (John 6:51). Again, others promise this not to all who have Christ’s sacrament, but only to Catholics, however badly they have lived, who have eaten Christ’s Body not only in sacrament but in truth (since they are established in the Church, which is His Body), even if they should afterward fall into heresy or pagan idolatry.⁸

Still others, because it is written, He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:13), promise this only to those who persevere in the Catholic Church, believing that by the worthiness of their foundation—that is, their faith—they will be saved by fire. The Apostle opposes all of these when he says, The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, uncleanness, fornication, and the like; of which I tell you before, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Whoever in his heart prefers temporal things to Christ does not have Christ as his foundation, even though he seems to have the faith of Christ. How much more, then, is someone who has committed unlawful things convicted of not preferring Christ, but of preferring other things to Him? I have also met with some who thought that only those would burn in eternal torments who neglected to give alms in proportion to their sins. For this reason, they think that the Judge Himself mentions nothing else He will inquire about except the giving or not giving of alms.

But whoever gives alms worthily for his sins begins first with himself, for it would be improper for him not to do for himself what he does for others. For he has heard the words of God, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Matthew 22:39), and likewise, Be merciful to thy soul in pleasing God (Ecclesiasticus 30:24).

How can he who does not give his own soul this alms of pleasing God be said to give alms appropriate for his sins? The reason we are to give alms, then, is so that when we pray for mercy for past sins, we may be heard—not so that we may thereby purchase a license to continue in sin.

And the Lord forewarns us that He will place alms that were given on the right hand, and alms that were not given on the left. This is to show us how powerful alms are for removing former sins, not for giving impunity to a continued life of sin.

Origen of Alexandria: It is not only one kind of righteousness that is rewarded, as many think. In whatever matters anyone follows Christ’s commands, he gives Christ food and drink, for Christ always feeds upon the truth and righteousness of His faithful people. So we weave clothing for a cold Christ when we take up wisdom’s web, instill it in others, and clothe them with bowels of mercy. Also, when we prepare our hearts with diverse virtues to receive Him or those who are His, we take Him in as a stranger into the home of our heart. When we visit a brother who is sick in either faith or good works—offering doctrine, reproof, or comfort—we visit Christ Himself. Moreover, this world is the prison of Christ and of His people, who live here as if chained in the prison of natural necessity. When we do a good work for them, we visit them in prison, and Christ in them.

1. de Fid. et Op. 15
2. Mor. xv, 19
3. City of God, book xix, ch. 11
4. de Trin. i, 8
5. Mor xxxiv, 19
6. City of God, book xxi, ch. 11
7. City of God, book xxi, ch. 3
8. City of God, book xxi, ch. 19, 20, etc.