Matthew 25:41-46 - I was hungry and you did not feed me

25:41-43

Those on the left are now given the opposite verdict, and for the opposite reasons. They are to depart from Christ. We should note that it is Christ, the Son of Man, who is sitting in judgement here. It is the Son of Man who condemns them to the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. Severe judgement comes from Jesus.  Why? For they did not not feed or help him.

2:44-46

Like the righteous, they ask when did we not feed you? Whenever they did not help “the least of these”. We were all created by God, we belong to Him. In Christ there is an amazing identification with humanity by God. So when either individually or as a society we do things that harm humanity, we harm God. 

So the goats will go to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. It is perhaps worth noting that there is a correspondence between eternal life and eternal punishment here which perhaps is relevant to the eternal punishment-conditional immortality debate. Now one does have to be careful with taking too much out of a parable. However, one thing that we can definitely say is that if a proponent of conditional immortality/annihilation seeks to lessen the prospect of “hell” then they are being unbiblical and are going against the clear teaching of Jesus.