Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Matthew 25:1-46
Matthew 25:1 The way by which a human soul born in sin becomes a kingdom of heaven, is the way of the New Birth, wherein God takes away our sin by the cleansing of the Precious Blood of Christ, and makes us by the power of His Holy Spirit partakers of the Divine nature. I. God being the germ of every true human character, if we want to know that true human nature is, we must know first what is the character of God, Who is its ideal, and the root out of which it grows. That character is summed... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Matthew 25:46
(46) Everlasting punishment . . . life eternal.—The two adjectives represent one and the same Greek word, αἰώνιος, 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 ætemus being derived from ætas, and that from ævum, which, in its turn, is but another form of the Greek ἀιὼν (æon). The bearing of the passage on the nature and duration of future punishment... read more