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Some believe that the judgment told about in Matthew 25 is a judgment of nations; however, the passage and its context give ample evidence that it is a judgment of individuals. First, notice the passages preceding this account—they are definitely speaking about individuals, and it seems as if Christ is giving this account to further expound on those sections. Secondly, notice verse 25: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” How can nations—apart from the individuals they are made up of—go away into everlasting punishment? With the “judgment of nations” idea aside, it becomes rather unlikely that this judgment is separate from the judgment described in the end of Revelation 20.

Many times we seem to view Matthew 24 and 25 as comprised of several separate accounts—the great destructions in the beginning of 24, the warnings about preparation in the end of 24, the parable of the ten virgins at the beginning of 25, the parable of the talents in the middle of 25, and the great judgment at the end of 25. While these verses still teach us many good lessons, there are evidences in these two chapters that the teachings were spoken as one extended, connected discourse—24 doesn’t really have any good dividing place, and the two parables in 25 begin with Then and For. The two chapters do, however, flow together very well. If we view these sections the way they were spoken, we may be able to understand them better.

Chapter 24 begins with the disciples coming to Jesus and trying to show Him the temple. But He responds that all this will be thrown down, so they come to Him later to ask Him about this great destruction, and the sign of His coming and the end of the world. He responds by basically taking them on a sweeping tour of world history from the time that He was speaking to the end of the world, specifically pointing out three important events: the destruction of Jerusalem, the Second Coming, and the Judgment. There seem to be hints in His dialogue that the destruction of Jerusalem (which isn’t necessarily the destruction under Titus in the year 70) happens fairly close to the other events, and He warns us to be ready, or judgment will come. It’s interesting that He specifically speaks of servants being in charge of the Master’s goods, to give them to other servants (verse 45). Then He follows up on His warnings with two parables which illustrate His warnings.

The first is the parable of the ten virgins. The main point of this parable seems to be that some of the virgins had enough supplies to last them however long the Bridegroom took to come, but the others did not, and when the Bridegroom came, it was too late to “go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.” (verse 9)

The second parable is the well-known story of the talents. The thrust of this parable is that the servants were given some of the Master’s money, in order to increase it. Some of the servants worked diligently, but one did not; he thought that he might lose the money, and so he would do best to hide it and thus preserve it for his Master. But when the Master came, the servant found out that he had not preserved the Master’s goods for Him, because the Master had given the money to him to increase—when the servant failed to increase the money, the Master was cheated out of His rightful dues, because He deserved the increase.

At the end of this parable, Christ leaves off the parable approach and suddenly becomes very clear and specific as He talks about the judgment. He tells how He will praise—or reprove—the two groups for the charity to His servants that they did or didn’t show, and while this certainly is not the only thing that we will be judged by (see, for example, Ecclesiastes 12:14), this parable certainly shows clearly the importance of brotherly love.

The point that seems to be central in this discourse is that we have been given various things, according to what we can handle, to use for the Master’s profit. One way that we use them for His profit is helping other Christians who do not have things that we have been given.

Recently I heard someone mention giving God a portion of our time and skills. This is not an accurate picture of true Christianity, because God has given us every good thing that we have so that we can serve Him. They are all His things, given to us for His profit, and we are His stewards to manage His property in His physical absence. We must be faithful.