Matthew 13:41-42 “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The NIV tries to soften this by saying “everything that causes sin,” instead of “everyone who causes stumbling,” which is how the Japanese translates it. It is a simple fact that hell is a horrible place, and those who have failed to commit themselves to the only Savior will end up there as the natural consequence of their actions. We like to think of Jesus as all sweetness and light, but here He is saying that He Himself will send out the angels to do the “weeding” in the Kingdom. This passage should make us really examine ourselves. “Everyone who causes stumbling” would include those who deliberately dress to be sexually provocative, and there are indeed those who come to church that way. “Those who commit lawlessness,” which is how the Japanese translates the second category, would include all who ignore the Bible in order to hang onto their favorite sin. That covers a lot of people! I keep coming back to the fact that God is not mean and He desires that all come to repentance, but our actions and attitudes have consequences, and without repentance we will indeed reap what we sow. (Galatians 6:7) 1 Peter 4:17 comes to mind, where Peter says that it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household. When we take sin lightly we take grace lightly, and the loss from that is incalculable.

A few days ago I watched the video testimony of a woman who shot herself in the chest in a suicide attempt and went to hell, but God in His incredible mercy brought her back. It goes without saying that her life was totally changed after that! How she described hell really clicked for me, when she said that she became pain, she became despair. We have no real words to express the totality of hell, any more than we have words to express the totality of heaven. As a pastor in Japan, I am surrounded by people who have only the vaguest ideas of heaven and hell, but then, I don’t think the situation is so different in any other country. This is a real problem, because Japanese value loyalty above almost anything else, and we have people say to us that they can’t become Christians because then they would go to heaven, and they must be loyal to their relatives who have died and are not in heaven. Logic doesn’t begin to touch that way of thinking! I need the wisdom and anointing of the Holy Spirit in order to get through, because their eyes obviously need to be opened to the truth. I am never to give up, but I am also never to think I can get the job done on my own. Rather, I am to expect to rejoice when God does the job, even through me.

Father, thank You for Your faithfulness. It is all too easy to let myself be dragged down by people’s response, or rather lack of it. Help me be faithful to You as You have been to me, so that Your Word may flow unhindered through me to accomplish that for which You send it, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!