Week 4: The Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur

DEVOTIONAL:

Verse 8 is one we might be tempted to gloss over: “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all the liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.” When it comes to faith in Christ, the stakes are eternal. As C.S. Lewis puts it in The Great Divorce: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”1 Even in Christian circles the idea of hell is an unpopular one, yet perhaps this is for the wrong reasons. Jesus doesn’t use hell as a scare tactic to frighten people into heaven. Fear is never of the Lord (2 Tim 1:7). Yet the reality of hell can awaken compassion, even grief, within us for those who have yet to experience the Source of all love and goodness and salvation.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. Contrast John’s descriptions of heaven and hell in this passage.

2. Read Matthew 25:31-46. What do you notice about the final judgment? What distinguishes the sheep from the goats?

3. How would you respond if a skeptic asked you, “How can a loving God send people to hell?”