¹⁸ “Then he will say, in turn, to those on his left, ‘Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I became hungry, but you gave me nothing to eat, and I got thirsty, but you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not receive me hospitably; naked, but you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, but you did not look after me.’ Then they also will answer with the words, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them with the words, ‘Truly I say to you, To the extent that you did not do it to one of these least ones, you did not do it to me.’”​—Matthew 25:41-45.

19. Does the King consider their conduct as ignorant neglect?

¹⁹ Here we might well ask, Does the King consider the matter as a mere unintentional oversight on the part of the “goat” class? Does he account their conduct as expressing merely ignorant neglect on their part? Certainly not, when we see that he calls these neglectful ones “cursed” and orders them to go off into the “everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” The King must rate or judge them as being wicked, according to the Scriptural rule: “The curse of Jehovah is on the house of the wicked one, but the abiding place of the righteous ones he blesses.” (Proverbs 3:33) But why should the “goat” class be cursed for mere failure to come to the aid and relief of Christ’s “brothers”?

20, 21. If not knowing any rule, what did the “sheep” and “goats” know?

²⁰ If we say that the symbolic “goats” were “cursed” and condemned to destruction with the Devil and his angels merely for ignorantly neglecting Christ’s “brothers,” then, logically, we must argue that the symbolic “sheep” were blessed and rewarded with a place in the Kingdom realm merely for ignorantly doing good to Christ’s “brothers.” What real merit would there be, then, in the good that the “sheep” did to Christ’s “brothers”? Or what demerit in the neglect that the “goats” did not realize that they were committing? Where, then, is the justice in rewarding the one ignorant class and punishing the other ignorant class? Justice is apparently nowhere in such treatment.

24. When does neglect of Christ’s “brothers” become inexcusable?

²⁴ This general refusal of people to recognize Christ’s spiritual “brothers” as being such, and this international hatred of them because of what they are preaching about the Kingdom have influenced people in their treatment of these. Where a nation has a Bill of Rights defending freedom of worship, individuals may not join in violently persecuting Christ’s “brothers.” But out of fear of public opinion or because of agreeing with it, such abstainers from persecution refuse willfully to aid, relieve or support Christ’s “brothers.” So their negative attitude, their neglect, is not excusable.​—Proverbs 29:18.