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Has
anyone ever told you you come across like a rigid fundamentalist hell fire
and brimstone preacher? Jesus shows compassion for human frailties even to
those who don’t deserve it.
 pparently, you have the idea that
someone who speaks about “fire and brimstone” doesn’t have any compassion
for the weaknesses of others. But do you know who was the first Christian
“fire and brimstone” preacher?
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. . . on the
day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy
them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. |
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—Luke 17:29–30 |
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That’s right. Jesus. He
who “shows compassion for human frailties even to those who don’t
deserve it” nevertheless warns us of the dire consequences of
sin.
The Dire Consequences
of Sin
To help you grasp this point,
read the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11). Jesus
did not condemn the woman. But He told her, “Go, and from now on do
not sin anymore.” In other words, He did not just pat her on the head
and say, “There, there. It’s all right to shack up with someone
as long as you believe you ‘love’ him.” No. He told her quite
plainly to change her ways. Why? Because if she didn’t, she was in grave
danger of the same fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom. “Go, and
from now on do not sin anymore,” He warned her.
Now that is
compassion, however
“rigid” it might sound to many persons in today’s world of
secular humanism.
Coming to Us in
Compassion
Christ came into this world because
of His compassion for our slavery to sin. Though He was in the form of
God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather,
He emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness
of men (Philippians 2:6-7). And though He was in the form of God, He
taught us gently and compassionately. He took all His enemies’ hatred
and insults patiently, without retaliating—and
without calling down “fire from heaven,” as James and John once
asked Him to do (Luke 9:54). He did this all to
redeem us from sin, to
show us that true love is
a matter of wanting to help even our enemies to be saved from their sins,
all because of our love for God.
But that’s not the end of
the story.
The Second
Coming
Jesus didn’t call down fire from
heaven when James and John asked. He refused because He wasn’t here to judge us;
He was here to warn us about sin and to show us the path to freedom from it. We
were (and still are) given a fair chance to renounce the ways of evil.
Nevertheless, Christ will come into
this world again, in judgment. In this second coming, though, Christ will come
in glory, not mercy, and He will be wearing a blood-stained cloak (Revelation
19:13) to remind us what our hatred and insults did to Him the first time.
And at that time those who have refused to acknowledge and
repent their sins—that is, those who
have rejected His gentle mercy—will find out
what fire and brimstone is all about.
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Tell sinners
that no one shall escape My hand; if they run away from My Merciful Heart,
they will fall into My Just Hands. |
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—told to Saint
Faustina by Jesus,
Diary (1728; see also 1146, 1588) |
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His winnowing
fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His
wheat into the granary, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable
fire. |
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—Matthew 3:12
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But I say to
you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment;
whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says,
“You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire. |
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—Matthew 5:22
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Every tree that
does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the
fire. |
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—Matthew 7:19
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The Son of Man
will send His angels, and they will collect out of His Kingdom all who cause
others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. |
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—Matthew 13:41–42
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Then He will
say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal
fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” |
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—Matthew 25:41
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If your hand
causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable
fire. |
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—Mark 9:43
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Even now the
axe lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce
good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. |
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—Luke 3:9
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. . . on the
day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy
them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. |
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—Luke 17:29–30 |
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