-Strenght for Today- "The Agony of Hell. - Luke 16:19-31.
One of that the reason we have so much, “so called hell in our world,” is because we have so little teaching about it in our pulpits. And for that cause, we’re “reaping the benefits” of its “intended reality.” throughout each day, including Sundays, people are quick to respond, “go to hell,” but what right does “mortal man” have to “invoke such a hideous invitation” toward their “fellow mankind, when our Sovereign God isn't “...willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” - 2 Peter 3:9c.
Jesus taught on hell, (Luke 16:19-31), which let us know that hell is a real place. In the various parables, He never called anyone by name, other than “Lazarus,” and “Abraham.” So, when Jesus said, “they died,” suddenly their situations are reversed. The idea here is the “encampment of our purpose” here on earth, as it relates to honoring God.
So, this let us know that hell is a real place, and “people we know” who spent their lives” saying, “no” to God, “will be there.” According to Jesus, hell is a “literal place,” a place of “torment,” (verses 23-25), but in verse 23, “torments take on a “plural, status” which means “misery,” and “pain,” while being “tormented,” and “plagued” without escape in “unquenchable fire.”
Hell is a place where there’ll be, an “intense, unsatisfied thirst,” (v. 24), “frustration and “anger,” (Luke. 13:28), and “eternal separation from God.” “And beside all this between us and you there’s a “great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; nether can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” -verse 26.
But hell can be avoided, and to this Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” - John 5:24.
So, Jesus’ point is driven home because He makes a “stunning charge,” toward the “hardness” and “unwillingness” of the “Pharisees,” which reflect a hardness to the “Word of God itself,” which these men “pretended to honor.”
This entire chapter calls us to realize that if we take this reality seriously, it will affect the way “we view” and “use money,” and the way we respond to “the poor and the oppressed.”" The Jewish nation was to share the “literal” and “spiritual blessings” God had given them “with the nations of the world” represented “by Lazarus.”
It is easy for us to look down upon the Jewish leaders “for not understanding the meaning of this parable.” It’s easy for us to think “why didn’t they help those less fortunate” and “share God’s blessing with the surrounding nations?”
However, take a minute to look at your own life. “Where are your priorities?” What blessings of God are you not sharing with those around you?” What messages from “Moses and the prophets” are you not listening to? Yes, hell is real, and there’s only one escape “from hell,” and that's through the blood of Jesus Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” - Romans 8:1.
Author. Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD