In all honesty I try not to think about hell too much. It’s a terrible, horrible, miserable place full of sorrow, anguish, torment, and pain. It’s not the kind of place that a normal person should want to think about too much, but it’s a place that we need to give some thought to. If we never think about hell it becomes less and less of a reality in our minds. But hell is a very real place and from what I read in scripture, every time I do think of hell there are four words in particular that come to mind.
Hell is a place of sin. The very purpose behind hell’s origin was to be a place for those originators of sin, the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). But since its creation humanity has also decided to follow their example; and so even though hell was prepared for the devil and his angels it’s also now reserved for the departed wicked among us. John spoke of it being a place where the “fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars” will be (Revelation 21:8). Jesus spoke of sentencing the cursed into that everlasting fire (Matthew 25:41). Paul spoke of the judgment of God on the wicked coming in the form of indignation, wrath, tribulation, and anguish (Romans 2:8-9). All of these things tell us exactly what God thinks of hell. He created the most horrible place that the human mind could comprehend to be the place where sin will be resigned forever. If we are a people who hate sin we are likewise going to hate hell because hell is a place of sin.
Hell is a place of separation. Much of the purpose behind Jesus’ portrayal of the judgment in Matthew 25 was to help us envision the separation that those who go there will have to experience. But what’s worse is that that separation is going to be two-fold. First, those who are lost will be separated from their loved ones who are saved. The husband in hell will never again get to be with his wife in heaven. The parents in hell will never again get to be with their children in heaven. The grandchildren in hell will never again get to be with their grandparents in heaven. We cherish the associations and relationships we have in this life, but hell is a place where those relationships will be severed forever. The second type of separation those in hell will experience is separation from God. Lives of sin separate us from God now (Isaiah 59:1-2) but as long as we have time on our side and breath in our bodies we have the opportunity to reconcile ourselves to God through faith and obedience. But when we enter into eternity that fate is sealed and if we’ve lived our lives separated from God then we will spend our eternity separated from God. God will not be in hell and so if we cherish a relationship with God we will hate hell because hell is a place of separation.
Hell is a place of suffering. Everything we read about hell in the Bible portrays it as a place of real pain and real anguish and real torment. Pop culture has romanticized hell to such an extent that many people don’t even think that hell could possibly even be that bad of a place. Sure, it may not be heaven, but surely it won’t be as bad as it sounds. We step onto very dangerous ground, though, when we choose to blatantly ignore or minimize what God has clearly revealed. So if we’re going to take God at His word, what has He told us about hell? He’s told us that hell is going to be a place where there will be a lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15), outer darkness (Matthew 25:30), eternal destruction (Matthew 10:28), weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12), punishment (Matthew 25:46), unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43-48), fire and brimstone (Revelation 19:20), and where there will be no hope (Luke 16:26). In other words hell will be the epitome of pretty much the worst things imaginable, things that we hate; and if we hate them we will hate hell because hell is a place of suffering.
Hell is a place of second-guessing. There’s little worse in life than having to suffer consequences and second-guessing ourselves indefinitely because we know we could have done better. In Luke 16 we read the unique experience of a man who went to hell and everything we read about him leads us to believe that from the moment he opened his eyes in torment he second guessed every decision that he had ever made that had lead him there. He no doubt second-guessed his treatment of Lazarus, his priorities, his commitment to spirituality, and his influence on his brothers. But the thing about second-guessing is that typically over time the consequences subside and the second-guessing can go away. However, in hell the consequences will never go away and those lost will have to stew in the pain of having to second-guess their every decision forever. At the judgment every reason why a person will be lost will be revealed to them and they will have to think about their actions forever. If we hate the feeling of guilt we will hate hell because hell is a place of second-guessing.
There’s a lot more that thoughts of hell bring to mind, but these four things are enough to make me want to avoid that terrible place more than anything else. But I want to go to heaven not only because I fear hell, but because I love God. Thanks be to Him for the glorious gift of redemption.
-Andy
Photo by Ybrayym Esenov on Unsplash
Andy, thanks so much for the post.Really thank you! Great.