Why, their works. That sheep are not goats and that the difference is as stark as between two different species is true. But that difference is their works. How do we know that? Because Christ was anticipating that question and he answered:
Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. [35] For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. etc.
and conversely,
Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. [42] For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eatSo, the reason sheep are sheep is that they did the good work, exemplified by feeding the hungry, and the goats are goats because they did not. That reason is explicitly given: come, for you did X and depart, for you did not do X.
Similarly a tree is good when it bears good fruit, and it is bad when it is not. Fruit is, of course, the fruit of good works.
This is not much of a picture of works, unless you are going to say that sheep do only inherently good works and goats do only evil works
The passage does not say how Christ is going to judge the mixed cases: those who fed some hungry but not every time they could do so, etc. But it gives us the big picture: that we are judged according to our works. Note that it was not Christ's intention in that passage to give us a manual of how we could judge others, because, evidently the passage does not go into that critical detail and, as we recall, Christ advised against it anyway (Matthew 7:1).
I asked:
“What makes the good tree good? Or, to put it in the language of Matthew 25:31-46, what makes a sheep a sheep?”
You answered:
“Why, their works. That sheep are not goats and that the difference is as stark as between two different species is true. But that difference is their works. How do we know that? Because Christ was anticipating that question and he answered:”
So, if I lay an egg I’m a chicken? If I walk like a duck, quack like a duck, and swim like a duck, that makes me a duck? Don’t you hear how ridiculous your argument sounds here? And that is not the worst of it. You are making Christ say the precise opposite of what He is saying.
Then you say:
“The passage does not say how Christ is going to judge the mixed cases: those who fed some hungry but not every time they could do so, etc. But it gives us the big picture: that we are judged according to our works. Note that it was not Christ’s intention in that passage to give us a manual of how we could judge others, because, evidently the passage does not go into that critical detail and, as we recall, Christ advised against it anyway (Matthew 7:1).”
“Note that it was not Christ’s intention in that passage to give us a manual of how we could judge others ...” You’re kidding, right? Don’t you see that you are so intent on proving the doctrine you want to prove here that you aren’t even reading the text.
The passage, Matthew 25:31-46, is about judgment day. There will be no mixed cases. None. Zero. There are sheep and there are goats. There are those who belong to the Good Shepherd’s flock and those who don’t. That is the point. You don’t have to worry about “Jesus’ intent,” His words are as plain and clear as the sun in the sky above.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.