And they will go away into eternal punishmentThis phrase refers to the final judgment where individuals are separated based on their actions and faith. The concept of "eternal punishment" is consistent with other biblical teachings on hell, such as in
Revelation 20:15, where those not found in the Book of Life are cast into the lake of fire. The term "eternal" emphasizes the unending nature of this punishment, aligning with the Greek word "aionios," which denotes perpetuity. This reflects the seriousness of rejecting God's offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. The imagery of separation and punishment is also seen in the parable of the wheat and the tares (
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), where the tares are gathered and burned.
but the righteous into eternal life.
In contrast to eternal punishment, the "righteous" are those who have been justified by faith in Christ, as seen inRomans 5:1. This righteousness is not of their own doing but is imputed through faith, as explained inPhilippians 3:9. "Eternal life" is a central promise of the Gospel, highlighted inJohn 3:16, where belief in Jesus grants everlasting life. This life is not merely unending existence but a quality of life in communion with God, as described inJohn 17:3. The promise of eternal life fulfills Old Testament prophecies of a restored relationship with God, such as inIsaiah 25:8, where death is swallowed up forever. The dichotomy between eternal punishment and eternal life underscores the gravity of the choices made in this life and the eternal consequences that follow.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
Jesus ChristThe speaker of this verse, delivering a parable about the final judgment.
2.
The Sheep and the GoatsSymbolic representations of the righteous and the unrighteous, respectively, in the parable of the final judgment.
3.
Eternal PunishmentThe destiny of the unrighteous, indicating a state of perpetual separation from God.
4.
Eternal LifeThe reward for the righteous, signifying everlasting communion with God.
5.
The Final JudgmentThe event where Jesus separates the righteous from the unrighteous based on their actions and faith.
Teaching Points
The Reality of Eternal DestiniesThis verse underscores the biblical teaching that there are two eternal destinies: eternal punishment and eternal life. It challenges us to consider the seriousness of our choices and their eternal consequences.
The Importance of RighteousnessRighteousness is not merely a matter of belief but is demonstrated through actions. This passage calls us to live out our faith in tangible ways that reflect God's love and justice.
The Urgency of the GospelUnderstanding the reality of eternal punishment should motivate us to share the gospel with urgency, knowing that people's eternal destinies are at stake.
Self-ExaminationThis verse invites us to examine our own lives to ensure that our faith is genuine and that we are living in a way that aligns with God's will.
Hope in Eternal LifeFor believers, this verse offers the assurance of eternal life with God, encouraging us to persevere in faith and good works.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of Matthew 25:46?
2.How does Matthew 25:46 emphasize the reality of eternal punishment and life?
3.What actions distinguish the "righteous" from the "cursed" in Matthew 25?
4.How can we apply the call to serve others in Matthew 25:46?
5.Which other scriptures support the concept of eternal life and punishment?
6.How does Matthew 25:46 influence our daily choices and priorities?
7.What does Matthew 25:46 imply about the nature of eternal punishment and eternal life?
8.How does Matthew 25:46 align with the concept of a loving and just God?
9.What historical context influences the interpretation of Matthew 25:46?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Matthew 25?
11.Is eternal punishment justifiable?
12.Is there a hell?
13.Why should I believe in Heaven and Hell?
14.If Hell is eternal torment, how is that a just punishment for finite sins?What Does Matthew 25:46 Mean
And they will go awayJesus is finishing His parable of the sheep and the goats. The phrase marks an irreversible moment of separation after judgment.
•Matthew 7:23 echoes this final dismissal: “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”
•Hebrews 9:27 reminds us that “people are appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
The departure is not temporary or symbolic; it is the real, eternal consequence of an earthly life lived without saving faith in Christ.
into eternal punishment“Eternal” (aiōnios) is the same word used later for “eternal life,” underscoring equal duration. Punishment is conscious and unending, not annihilation.
•2 Thessalonians 1:9 warns of “the penalty of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord.”
•Revelation 14:11 says, “The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, and day and night there is no rest.”
•Daniel 12:2 foretells “shame and everlasting contempt” for the wicked.
Key points:
– God’s justice demands recompense for sin.
– Hell is not merely absence of good but active judgment.
– The reality of eternal punishment magnifies the urgency of the gospel.
but the righteousThe contrast pivots on the word “but.” Righteousness here is not earned; it is bestowed through faith, then evidenced by obedient living (as pictured in the parable’s acts of mercy).
•Romans 3:22: “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
•2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
•Ephesians 2:10 shows the fruit: “We are His workmanship…to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
True believers display compassionate deeds, not to earn salvation, but because they possess it.
into eternal lifeThis is life in its fullest sense—unending, abundant, face-to-face fellowship with God.
•John 3:16 promises that whoever believes in Jesus “shall not perish but have eternal life.”
•John 10:28: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.”
•Revelation 21:3-4 paints the destination: “God Himself will be with them…there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.”
Highlights:
– Eternal life begins now but reaches perfection in the age to come.
– It is a gift (Romans 6:23) secured by Christ’s finished work.
– Its permanence mirrors the permanence of punishment, reinforcing the seriousness of present decisions.
summaryMatthew 25:46 draws a clear, sobering line: humanity divides into two eternal destinies. Those who reject Christ face everlasting punishment; those made righteous by faith enter everlasting life. The verse underscores God’s justice, the reality of hell, the certainty of heaven, and the necessity of a genuine, faith-filled response to Jesus that bears the fruit of love and obedience.
(46)
Everlasting punishment . . . life eternal.--The two adjectives represent one and the same Greek word,
???
?
????, and we ought therefore to have the same word in both clauses in the English. Of the two words, "eternal" is philologically preferable, as being traceably connected with the Greek, the Latin
aetemus being derived from
aetas, and that from
aevum, which, in its turn, is but another form of the Greek
???? (
aeon)
. The bearing of the passage on the nature and duration of future punishment is too important to be passed over; and though the question is too wide to be determined by a single text, all that the text contributes to its solution should be fully and fairly weighed. On the one hand, then, it is urged that as we hold the "eternal life" to have no end, so we must hold also the endlessness of the "eternal fire." On the other hand, it must be admitted (1) that the Greek word which is rendered "eternal," does not in itself involve endlessness, but rather duration, whether through an age or a succession of ages; and that it is therefore applied in the New Testament to periods of time that have had both beginning and ending (
Romans 16:25, where the Greek is "from
aeonian times," our version giving "since the world began"--comp.
2Timothy 1:9;
Titus 1:2), and in the Greek version of the Old Testament to institutions and ordinances that were confessedly to wax old and vanish away (
Genesis 17:8;
Leviticus 3:17); and (2) that in the language of a Greek Father (Gregory of Nyssa, who held the doctrine of the restitution of all things) it is even connected with the word "interval," as expressing the duration of the penal discipline which was, he believed, to come to an end after an
aeonian intervening period. Strictly speaking, therefore, the word, as such, and apart from its association with any qualifying substantive, implies a vast undefined duration, rather than one in the full sense of the word "infinite." The solemnity of the words at the close of the great prophecy of judgment tends obviously to the conclusion that our Lord meant His disciples, and through them His people in all ages, to dwell upon the division which was involved in the very idea of judgment, as one which was not to be changed. Men must reap as they have sown, and the consequences of evil deeds, or of failure to perform good deeds, must, in the nature of the case, work out their retribution, so far as we can see, with no assignable limit. On the other hand, once again, (1) the symbolism of Scriptural language suggests the thought that "fire" is not necessarily the material element that inflicts unutterable torture on the body, and that the penalty of sin may possibly be an intense and terrible consciousness of the presence of God, who is as a "consuming fire" (
Hebrews 12:29) in the infinite majesty of His holiness, united with the sense of being at variance with it, and therefore under condemnation. And (2), assuming the perpetuity of the "punishment," it does not involve necessarily an equality of suffering for the whole multitude of the condemned at any time, nor for any single soul throughout its whole duration. Without dwelling, as some have done, on the fact that the Greek word here used for "punishment" had acquired a definite significance as used by ethical writers for reformative rather than vindictive or purely retributive suffering (Aristot. Rhet
. i. 10), it is yet conceivable that the acceptance of suffering as deserved may mitigate its severity; and we cannot, consistently with any true thoughts of God, conceive of Him as fixing, by an irresistible decree, the will of any created being in the attitude of resistance to His will. That such resistance is fatally possible we see by a wide and painful experience, and as the "hardening" in such cases is the result of a divine law, it may, from one point of view, be described as the act of God (
Romans 9:18); but a like experience attests that, though suffering does not cease to be suffering, it may yet lose something of its bitterness by being accepted as deserved, and the law of continuity and analogy, which, to say the least, must be allowed some weight in our thoughts of the life to come, suggests that it may be so there also. (For other aspects of this momentous question, see Notes on
Matthew 5:26;
Matthew 18:34.) (3) As to the nature of the "eternal life" which is thus promised to those who follow the guidance of the Light that lighteth every man, we must remember, that within a few short hours of the utterance of these words, it was defined by our Lord in the hearing of those who listened to them: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (
John 17:3). That life in its very nature tends to perpetuity, and it is absolutely inconceivable that after having lasted through the ages which the word "eternal," on any etymological explanation, implies, it should then fail and cease. . . .
Verse 46. -
Shall go away. Bengel notes that the King will first address the righteous in the audience of the unrighteous, but these last will be dismissed to their place of punishment before the others actually receive their reward. Thus the evil will see nothing of the life eternal, while the good will be bold the vengeance inflicted on the others (
Matthew 13:49).
Into everlasting punishment (
εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον)...
life eternal (
everlasting,
ζωὴν αἰώνιον). The same term is used in both places, and ought to have been so translated. The word
κόλασις in strict classical usage denotes punishment inflicted for the correction and improvement of the offender,
τιμωρίΑ being employed to signify punishment in satisfaction of outraged justice, or to revenge an injury. But it is open to doubt whether the former term is to be taken in its strictest sense in the New Testament. A ceaseless controversy rests on the meaning of
αἰώνιος, some contending that it signifies "everlasting," and nothing else; others that its sense is modified by the idea to which it is attached; and others again that it ought to be rendered by "aeonian," to which is given an indeterminate signification governed by our conception of the duration expressed by men. This is not the place to discuss this perplexing question, nor shall I attempt to dogmatize upon the problem. Suffice it to make these few observations. On the one hand, taking the literal sense of our Lord's words, and the meaning which his hearers would attach to them, we must believe that the risen life and the second death are equally everlasting (see Judith 16:17; Ecclus. 7:17; 4 Macc. 12:12). And if it is thought that eternity of punishment is incompatible with love and benevolence, and inequitable as the penalty of offences committed in time, it must be remembered that eternity of reward is infinitely beyond all human claims, and bears no proportion to the merits of the recipient. Nor may we reason from our conception of the nature and attributes of God; how these attributes work harmoniously together, though seemingly opposed, we cannot presume to determine. The consequences of sin even in this world are often irretrievable, as are some human punishments. We have no reason to suppose that punishment is inflicted only for the correction of the criminal (see on ver. 41), nor is it possible to conceive how this result could be effected by condemning him to the society of devils. Further, we have to regard the heinousness of sin in God's sight, remembering the infinite price paid for its expiation. And lastly, the doctrine does not depend upon this passage only, but is supported by many other statements in both the Old and New Testaments:
e.g.Isaiah 66:24;
Daniel 12:2;
Mark 9:44, 46, 48;
Revelation 21:8. Such are some of the chief arguments in favour of the everlasting nature of future punishment. On the other hand, we have to remark that our Lord is here not concerned with teaching this doctrine of eternity; he assumes the authorized view of the matter, and draws his awful lesson from that view. It is certainly true that the meaning of
αἰώνιος is not fixed and uniform; it is conditioned by the term to which it appertains. No one would say that "everlasting" was applied to God and to a mountain in the same sense; and though it seems incongruous to find a difference of meaning in the same sentence, yet there may be reasons for distinguishing the signification of the qualifying adjective in the terms "eternal life" and "eternal punishment." God, indeed, cannot draw back from his promise, but he may be more merciful than the tenor of his threats seems to imply. It is possible that "aeonian" may denote merely indefinite duration without the connotation of never ending. Such like are the pleas brought forward to lessen the plain enunciation of the awful truth. For myself I do not see any escape from the import of the statement, nor any hope of amelioration in the case of the lest, when relegated to the scene of their penal existence (see on Matthew 18:8, 9). But I set no bounds to the Divine mercy and wisdom; and God may see a mode of reconciling his strict justice with his desire of man's salvation, which our finite understanding cannot grasp. All we can say here is that infinite misery and infinite happiness are set before us, and that God has thus shown the two ends without reserve or possible modification, in order that we may be aroused to shun the one and to win the other. "From thy wrath, and from ever lasting damnation, good Lord, deliver us."
Parallel Commentaries ...
Greek
AndΚαὶ(Kai)Conjunction
Strong's 2532:And, even, also, namely.theyοὗτοι(houtoi)Demonstrative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3778:This; he, she, it.will go awayἀπελεύσονται(apeleusontai)Verb - Future Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 565:From apo and erchomai; to go off, aside or behind, literally or figuratively.intoεἰς(eis)Preposition
Strong's 1519:A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.eternalαἰώνιον(aiōnion)Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 166:From aion; perpetual.punishment,κόλασιν(kolasin)Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2851:Chastisement, punishment, torment, perhaps with the idea of deprivation. From kolazo; penal infliction.butδὲ(de)Conjunction
Strong's 1161:A primary particle; but, and, etc.theοἱ(hoi)Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588:The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.righteousδίκαιοι(dikaioi)Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 1342:From dike; equitable; by implication, innocent, holy.intoεἰς(eis)Preposition
Strong's 1519:A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.eternalαἰώνιον(aiōnion)Adjective - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 166:From aion; perpetual.life.”ζωὴν(zōēn)Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2222:Life, both of physical (present) and of spiritual (particularly future) existence. From zao; life.
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NT Gospels: Matthew 25:46 These will go away into eternal punishment (Matt. Mat Mt) 
