Addendum—The Widow's Mite and the Commandments of the Gospel

In the last post we discussed how what we do to the least of Jesus' brethren is reckoned by Jesus as being done to Jesus himself. But how does Jesus reckon what we have done? When Jesus was in the Treasury of the Temple, he observed a widow putting two small coins into the Treasury. He remarked that she had put in more than the others, who had put in many more coins out of their abundance, because she had put in her whole living. It is the disposition of the person that counts. God doesn't count the coins that you have given to the poor man; he looks at your heart, at what it cost you to give those coins. A small offering from the heart weighs more with God than a big gift with arrogance or pride.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that many will come to him in the Day of the Last Judgement and say, 'Did we not do many great works in your name?' And he will reply, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, workers of iniquity.'

Jesus continues in that place that he who does the will of his Father will enter the Kingdom of the Heavens, and that to do the will of his Father we must keep the commandments of the Gospel. It is he who keeps the commandments of the Gospel and teaches them to others who will be called great in the Kingdom of the Heavens. Here we see that it is not only our disposition but also our keeping of the commandments of the Gospel that enters into how Jesus reckons what we have done to him in doing what we do to the least of his brethren.