68. 4. The failure of caring in the people described in Matthew shows that goats mean people who are devoted to a faith divorced from caring. We can see that the goats and sheep in Matthew 25:31-46 have the same meaning as the goat and the ram in Daniel because deeds of caring are listed for the sheep and it says that they did them, and the same deeds of caring are listed for the goats but it says that they did not do them, and that this is why these latter are condemned. A neglect of deeds is characteristic of people who are devoted to a faith divorced from caring because of their refusal to believe that deeds have anything to do with salvation or the church. When people so set aside caring—which consists of deeds—then faith fails as well, because faith comes out of caring; and when there is neither caring nor faith, there is damnation.

If the goats in this passage had meant all evil people it would have listed all the evil things they did rather than all the deeds of caring they did not do.

People like this are also meant by goats in Zechariah:

My wrath blazes against the shepherds, and I will execute judgment upon the goats. (Zechariah 10:3)

And in Ezekiel:

Behold, I am judging between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats. Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture? Will you also trample what remains of the food with your feet? You attack all the weak sheep with your horns until you have scattered them. Therefore I will save my flock, so that it will no longer be prey. (Ezekiel 34:17-18, 21-22, and following)

A Faith Divorced from Caring Destroys the Church and Everything It Stands For

2364. 'And you may do to them as is good in your eyes' means enjoyment insofar as [they perceived them to come] from good. This too becomes clear from the meaning of the words, and also from the train of thought, when they have reference to the affections meant by 'daughters'. The fact that he acted cautiously was meant by the statement 'Lot went out to them to the door', 2356. This caution is evident from these and the remaining words in this verse - they were to enjoy the blessedness belonging to the affections for good and for truth to the extent that this is derived from good, which is the meaning of the statement that they were to do to them as was good in their eyes. Enjoying to the extent it derived from good means in this instance, to the extent that they knew it was good, beyond which no one is compelled to go. For all are turned by the Lord to the good of life through the good of their faith. Gentiles are so directed in a different way from Christians; the simple in a different way from the learned; and young children in a different way from adults. People whose lives have been stained by evil are turned by means of their refraining from evil and intending good, which they carry out according to whatever understanding they possess. It is the intention or the end in view present with them that is observed, and even though their actions are not in themselves good, their end in view provides them with some measure of good and of the life flowing from it which constitutes their blessedness.