Matthew 13
Can you think of anything that does not come with any kind of failure, breakage, misuse, abuse, or danger? It’s a waste of time to list examples to show everything comes with certain dangers. The more valuable and sophisticated, the more possibility of abuse and the bigger danger. I will just give one example of nuclear energy. Many countries depend on nuclear power plants for electricity. But when nuclear energy is on the wrong hand, it threatens the whole world. Although we live with dangers around us, we still use all kinds of things. We don’t tremble all the time. As longs as we are conscious of the dangers, we are safe to use them. Most tragedies occur when we ignore the dangers. A bottle of wine can make people relaxed. An evening drive on a hot summer day may cool you down. But if you ignore the dangers of alcohol and driving, your life and others’ are threatened. We don’t have to think of a terrible vehicle accident when we sip a tasty red wine. And we don’t have to visualize cars are crashing when we are behind the steering wheels. But, almost unconsciously, we keep in mind the real dangers of irresponsible drinking driving.
Likewise, the danger of hell is as real. It is not a remote and distant possibility. All human actions come with it. If a Christian only thinks about heaven but ignores hell, he is likely to face the danger sooner or later. I agree that we don’t have to put a huge painting of hell in our living room or bedroom to keep our household always in fear. But at the same time, hell cannot be ignored. Unless I am free of sins, especially any grave and mortal ones, I carry the real danger now. If I am living a sinful lifestyle, I am at the mouth of hell.
Let us be realistic. We use things properly when we know their accompanying dangers. Any responsible person does not ignore the consequences of human actions. Then, any good Christian cannot ignore the danger of hell as much as he looks forward to heaven.
