Are you going to hell?

This week I will be writing some thoughts on a few different verses from the New Testament that deal with hell. Hell is a topic that is talked about in extremes in Christianity. Some people are all fire and brimstone and stand on the street corner, crying out aloud to run from the wrath of God and the destiny of hell. Then others in response do not talk about hell and only talk about love, grace, and mercy. Jesus and His followers had a lot to say on hell but they also included mercy, grace, and love with it. Over this week we will explore what Jesus and His followers had to say.

Matthew 5:22
"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council: and whoever says 'you fool' will be liable to the hell of fire."

I find this sentence from Jesus about hell very interesting because He gives a small description of hell with fire but He gives us more importantly a fact of importance in order to stay out of hell. Loving Jesus is the first step and dedicating your life to Him and His service is the second step in escaping the fires of hell. But in this passage Jesus give us another step in escaping hell. Jesus is asking us, what is your relationship like with your brothers and sisters in Me? Simply put, our relationship with others inside the church is important for our spiritual state, and it is so important for our spiritual health that Jesus links it to escaping hell. I have always understood that being a faithful and unifying church member was important but I never realized how important it was for my eternal destiny. Our relationship or the unity we have in the church is that important. Let me say that again, getting along and not using our mouth to hurt others in the church is so important it effects our eternal destiny. What I think Jesus is saying, and this is the important thing to understand, if we truly love Jesus and can escape the fire of hell, we must love His church and love others in the church with the same kind of unity.

So the first question this week, are you going to hell? To answer that from this verse, we would need to check our love for others in the church.