Ways to exercise our love toward our brethren are to feed them when they are hungry, give them drink when they are thirsty, give them shelter when they are without shelter, give them clothing when they are naked, visit them when they are sick or in prison. When we do these things out of love toward our brethren, we are considered righteous and it is the same as if we cared for Jesus. This story is in Matthew 25:31-46.
Jesus had given His first and second great commandments in Matthew 22: 37 and 39. The first commandment is that, "...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." The second commandment is "...Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." As the book of Matthew continues, we see that showing our love for our brethren is the same as showing our love for God. We are righteous when we sincerely show our love.
Without charity which is love, I am nothing. We can talk all we want, we can have great faith, we can feed the poor and so on, but it does not profit us without love. Paul explains all of this in I Corinthians 13:1-3. The ultimate profit is life everlasting in heaven. We can be counted as sheep on the right hand of Jesus (Matthew 25:33). "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" (Matthew 25:34).
It is amazing what love out of a pure heart can accomplish. As Paul closed in I Corinthians 13:13, I shall close today:
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
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