Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides [his] sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Alternative: But when the Son of Man comes into his popular renown, and all his godly messengers with him, then he shall be placed on the seat of honor. And all types of people shall be drawn together before him, and he shall set the boundaries between them as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. And he shall put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.

These verses return us to the question of judgment. Christ describes this scene several times (so much so that it deserves its own article some day), first in Mat 16:27 (notes) and most recently in Mat 24:30 (notes)and Mat 24:31. In these descriptions, most of the same elements are repeated. Christ's reputation accepted in all corners of the globe. His being given a seat of honor based upon his reputation. The people of earth gathered and divided out. The only new element here is the idea of their being a right and left of sheeps and goats.

What is missing here is the specifics about the method by which people are divided. The scene is being set in a visual way to example this division in more detail. In his first reference of this scene in Mat 16:27, Christ gives away the ending, that we are judged solely by our works. This idea of the need for a productive life is the connective tissue between the previous analogy (about the useless servant) and the next section where Christ covers in detail what is useful and worthwhile in life.

Without understanding that this scene is connected to the previous story, the next view verses can be misunderstood as simply extolling the virtues of charity and helping those less fortunate. That limited reading misses most of what Christ is really saying about what separates the sheep from the goats, the beautiful from the worthless, the productive from the useless.

"Glory" is from doxa, which means "expectation," "notion," "opinion," "repute," and "popular repute." Translations as "glory" or "splendor" are found primarily in translating the Bible.

"Holy" is from hagios, which means "devoted to the gods." In a good sense, it means "holy" and "sacred." In a bad sense, "accursed," and "execrable." In humans, it means "holy" and "pure."

"Angels" is from aggelos, which means "messenger" and "envoy."

"Sit" is from kathizô (kathizo), which means "to make sit down," "to seat," "to place," "to sit," "to recline at meals," and "to settle."

"Throne" is from thronos, which means "seat," "chair," "seat of state," "chair of a teacher," and "judge's bench."

"Gathered" is from sunagô (sunago), which means "to bring together," "to gather together," "to unite," "to draw together," "to narrow," "to pinch," "to conclude," and "to prove."

"Nation" is from ethnos, which means "a number of people living together," "caste," "tribe" or "nation," and implies a foriegn group. It is almost always translated as "Gentiles" in the New Testament.

"Separated" is from aphorizo which means "to mark off boundaries," "to determine," and "to separate" in the sense of "distinguish" as well as "to banish."