“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13.47-50
On Sunday we looked at the Parable of the Weeds, which ended with the phrase: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Parable of the Net (above) ends the same way. Both address the same concept: at the end of the age people will be sorted out by angels and either cleansed or burned. Those who belong to Jesus will be washed in His blood and cleansed of all unrighteousness; those who decide that they are better off without Jesus will be weighed by their own merit, and given the punishment that goes with it. As we covered Sunday, while this is a very uncomfortable doctrine, it is a necessary one if we desire to see a world remade in perfection.
While we can rectify the need for punishment of some kind to offset sin, the description of Hell seems to be cruel. It seems to us to be an overplay on God’s part. As we read about the fiery furnace (fierceness), the place of weeping (anguish) and the gnashing of teeth (despair), we are bothered by the image of people we know suffering through such a fate. We wonder, how could a loving God do this? I don’t think there is an easy answer to this, but when it comes to Hell, there are 3 things that we must keep in mind:
1 | Hell should make us uncomfortable
Hell was never meant to be something that we easily accepted. It is the complete opposite of what God designed the world to be. As humans, it is the opposite of everything we were created for. Hell is supposed to be horrible. We are supposed to be bothered by the reality of God’s wrath.
2 | Hell should remind us that God is more than just love
It is easy to define God’s love as little more than ‘being nice;’ doing what is best for people. When we think of God’s love this way we diminish many other parts of His character: holiness, worthiness, jealousy, and justice. God’s love is perfect, but it is not simplistic.
3 | Hell should open our eyes to how bad sin is
We often judge the extreme nature of Hell by the comparatively unextreme nature of our sin. If our sin isn’t that bad, then Hell is absolutely unfair. What if we used Hell to give us a picture of how God actually views the offensiveness of sin? If Hell is a fair punishment for sin, than we are much worse than we think. Grace is that much more powerful.
This still doesn’t help us with our friends and family who are headed toward an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth. I don’t think that there is any way to pacify this. If Jesus is the way, truth, and life, than alternative ways and truths are going to lead away from life. We must be thankful to God for our calling, diligent to proclaim Him, and steadfast in prayer for all who do not know.