416 N 2nd St, Albemarle, NC, 28001 | (704) 982-2910
A Glimpse Beyond Death…
The Uncomfortable Truth About Heaven, Hell…and Neighbors – Feed Your Soul: Gospel Reflections
THIS WEEK’S GOSPEL IS LUKE 16:19-31
Today’s Gospel is meant to send a shiver down your spine. If it doesn’t, you’ve missed the point.
Watch Matthew’s reflection and discover how you can embrace one of Jesus’ most uncomfortable lessons and live a life of powerful goodness.
You will be pushed beyond your comfort zone, but you’ll never regret it.
//Contemplative Monk//
Recently, a reader told me that I should soften my teaching about Hell because no one would want to follow Jesus if they thought He’d send their unsaved loved ones to a place of eternal torment (Matthew 25:46).
It breaks my heart that people reject my Lord and go to Hell. But when I accepted the Lord, I knew about Hell, and it didn’t stop me from following Jesus. In fact, it was an important part of my decision.
It’s essential that we understand that we deserve Hell. Eternal life is an undeserved gift. I didn’t earn it and I wasn’t “good enough” to receive it. But I accepted that gift and turned my life over to the Lord.
Scripture explains that anyone who rejects Christ is “without excuse” (Romans 1:20) because everyone who genuinely seeks God will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).
Only once did God punish an innocent man: “[Jesus] was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” Isaiah 53:5a
Jesus willingly offered His life and His love to save us, and He warned us boldly and unashamedly about Hell.
We should never be ashamed to speak the same truths Jesus spoke.
“When there is no light by which to read the music, those who know their God by heart play on.” Joni Eareckson Tada
It’s good to study the lives of those who know their God “by heart,” and Joni is one of them.
She’s lived over fifty years in a wheelchair, had breast cancer and covid, and suffers from chronic pain.
“Knowing God by heart,” she gives these reasons we can handle suffering:
1. God walks with us in our pain. Joshua 1:9
2. God uses broken instruments to make wonderful music. 1 Corinthians 1:27
3. God is our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
4. God rewards our perseverance (i.e. what we learn on earth matters in eternity). Philippians 3:7-11; Revelation 2:10
Joni says, “Something immense and cosmic is at stake: a heaven to be reached, a hell to be avoided, and a life on earth to be lived seriously and circumspectly.”
Only as we learn our God “by heart” do we thrive in the midst of adversity.
What does Romans 8:1 mean when it says Christians are under “no condemnation”? Some people use this verse to claim that Christians need not be concerned about our sins because we’re forgiven.
Two things help us accurately understand this verse:
1. The meaning of condemnation.
The Greek word katakrima translated condemnation is only found three times in Scripture (Romans 5:16; Romans 5:18; Romans 8:1). It’s always used to describe final, permanent condemnation. Genuine Christians will not be condemned to hell.
2. The full teaching of Scripture.
However, multiple Bible passages explain how sin damages our lives. Christians are given many instructions in the New Testament for living lives worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1; Romans 12:1-2). We understand that we are in a process of renewal, “putting off” our old sin nature (Ephesians 4:22-24).
No matter what we’ve done, we will be in heaven with the Lord. But God’s Fatherly love compels Him to punish and discipline us here on earth (Hebrews 12).(1)
And our love for God compels us to deal deliberately with our sins (John 14:23-24).
If someone has no concern for their sins, it is an indication that they don’t know the Lord (1 John 3:1-10; Romans 6).
Footnote: (1) Reading about the forgiveness of David in 2 Samuel 12 will clarify this point. Note that God fully forgave David, but his sin brought him both punishment and consequences.
“Fools’ names and fools’ faces often appear in public places.”
I first learned this proverb as a little girl when I asked my mom why someone had scribbled their name on a bathroom stall in a department store.
But it makes me think of some of the foolishness scribbled on the “walls” of our modern culture.
Whether the well-known “names and faces” are politicians, celebrity entertainers, famous athletes, or popular ex-vangelicals, foolishness is still foolishness.
They can “scribble” that God approves sexual lifestyles that damage men’s souls. They can proclaim there’s no hell or that the Bible contains errors. They can announce there are more than two genders, claim drug use is good, or insist there is no God.
But those things are nothing more than Satan’s graffiti.
We Christians don’t depend on these empty scribbles because our Lord is the Author of all wisdom and truth.
And He warns us:
“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.” Colossians 2:8
In my devotion Do Circumstances Explain our Sins? I wrote about our need to sympathize with those who’ve been mistreated but never excuse sins based on circumstances because adults are never forced to sin. They choose to sin.(1)
A professing Christian wrote me saying I was wrong because we need to understand what “causes” sin. I responded with Bible passages that refuted her belief, but she held firm.
Why bring this up? Because I regularly encounter Christians who don’t let Scripture change their opinions. They claim to be Bible-believers but prove by their words and actions they aren’t.
If someone shows us James 1:14-15 and Genesis 4:7 and we continue saying that circumstances “cause” sin, we’re calling God a liar.
If someone shows us Colossians 2:16-17, Mark 7:18-19, 1 Corinthians 8:8and Acts 10:9-16 and we continue saying Christians must obey Old Testament dietary laws, we’re calling God a liar.
If someone shows us Matthew 5:29, Matthew 10:28, Matthew 13:36-43, Luke 16:19-31, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, Jude 1:7, 2 Peter 2:4-9, and Revelation 20:14-15, and we continue claiming that there’s no hell, we’re calling God a liar.
If someone shows us Genesis 1:27, Genesis 5:2, Mark 10:6, Psalm 139:13-16, Isaiah 45:9, and Romans 9:20, and we continue saying there are more than two genders, we’re calling God a liar.
So what changes your view, dear Christians? Your opinion, other people’s opinions, or God’s Word?
(1) If a child’s parents force him to do something sinful against his will, the child is not responsible. The adult is doubly responsible (Mark 9:42).
“See, my children, we must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an eternity that awaits us. The world, its riches, pleasures, and honors will pass away; heaven and hell will never pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all begin well; but they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us end well, and we shall go one day and meet them in heaven.”
— St. John Vianney
//The Catholic Company//