Hell....

Jeremiah 4:22-31 "My people are fools;
they do not know me.
They are senseless children;
they have no understanding.
They are skilled in doing evil;
they know not how to do good."

[23] I looked at the earth,
and it was formless and empty;
and at the heavens,
and their light was gone.
[24] I looked at the mountains,
and they were quaking;
all the hills were swaying.
[25] I looked, and there were no people;
every bird in the sky had flown away.
[26] I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert;
all its towns lay in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.

[27] This is what the Lord says:

"The whole land will be ruined,
though I will not destroy it completely.
[28] Therefore the earth will mourn
and the heavens above grow dark,
because I have spoken and will not relent,
I have decided and will not turn back."

[29] At the sound of horsemen and archers
every town takes to flight.
Some go into the thickets;
some climb up among the rocks.
All the towns are deserted;
no-one lives in them.

[30] What are you doing, O devastated one?
Why dress yourself in scarlet
and put on jewels of gold?
Why shade your eyes with paint?
You adorn yourself in vain.
Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life.

[31] I hear a cry as of a woman in labour,
a groan as of one bearing her first child—
the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands and saying,
"Alas! I am fainting;
my life is given over to murderers."

A pastor once said you have to be friends with people who are going to hell. I don’t think he meant that you could then adopt an air of smug, self-satisfied complacency, secure in your salvation and in your eternal destiny of being with the Lord. Rather so you would grow to love them. Too many of us Christians face a problem – we do not know people who are going to hell. We study and work and play alongside them, but our closest friends are those in our churches who are saved as well. We don’t put enough emotional investment into people who aren’t saved – maybe because we think that we have to do all we can to remain pure and uncorrupted by the world.

But by doing this are we insulating ourselves from the pain of knowing that those near to us are doomed to spending an eternity without God? Maybe we shouldn’t. Jeremiah paints a horrible picture of what will happen to those who are under God’s judgement – something similar awaits all those who do not respond to the call of the Gospel. This means lost people. Unless the church reaches out to them and takes Jesus’ message to them, this is the fate of these people. You may be able to shrug your shoulders about the classmate in the far corner, though you would be wrong to do so, but can you about the close relative or family member who you love dearly?

And this is the point: these people are lost. Unless we draw close to them, we will never feel the pain of knowing that these people are doomed to an eternity far from God’s presence. But maybe we should feel that pain, because maybe it would add urgency to our witnessing and our prayers. Every lost soul matters to God.

You have to be friends with people who are going to hell.