"You just wait until your daddy gets home!" I heard that ominous statement a few times in my younger days, and it always produced in me the intended effect: fear of punishment. Of course, this statement was also intended for my good so that I would repent of my foolishness. I did indeed repent. But what if the fear of punishment was taken away from everyone by a lax society? The second wisest man who ever lived wrote: Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11, NKJV).
From my sense of things, this fear has been diluted over the years. Has behavior in schools improved sense the banishment of corporal punishment? Have people become more responsible because their parents spared the rod when they were growing up? Have prisons become less crowded because the focus has been more on rehabilitation rather than on punishment? Have more people been driving under the speed limit because the authorities have shifted their focus to higher priorities? What do you think?
This brings us to the topic of eternal punishment - the sentence of hell. Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in Scripture. He is the authority on hell having created it for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). He was not reluctant about using the fear of hell to motivate people to repent. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). Since our Lord preached often on the fear of punishment in a devil's hell, it would not be wrong for us to do so in order to persuade men (2 Corinthians 5:11). It is only through the knowledge of the nature of hell, a strong belief in its reality, and continual reminders of it that a person would be inspired to do everything he could to avoid landing there in eternity.
Hell indeed is a place of punishment. To burn in a lake of fire forever and ever is the fate of everyone sentenced there (Revelation 20:15). Jesus tells of a certain man who landed in hell and begged to be relieved from the flames. His request was one drop of water to cool his tongue. How bad must things be to beg for just one drop of water! Jesus also said several times that those in hell will weep and gnash their teeth (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). Such an environment does not sound like a day at the beach!
These descriptions from our Lord have led many in the world to believe that God would not follow through on such warnings. But that is a failure to believe that God keeps his word. The apostle Peter described such faulty thinking in his day, saying, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation" (2 Peter 3:2-4). To think that God will not punish sinners in hell is to overlook all of his punitive acts in the Bible: the flood on the ungodly, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Babylonian captivity, famines, the destruction of Jerusalem, etc.
Therefore, in light of the punishment of eternal fire... what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness (2 Peter 3:11b). Let us fear lest any of us come short of heaven (Hebrews 4:1). Yes, fear of punishment is necessary, good, useful, and right. May we in the church never cease to teach, preach, write, speak, and think about the punishment of hell so as to save ourselves and those that hear us (1 Timothy 4:16). Brotherly, Jamie
