Hell is a subject men would rather avoid. Some deny it outright. Others joke about it. Many simply never think of it. But no one spoke of hell more than Jesus did, and He spoke of it not to frighten us for sport, but because He loved us and meant to warn us away from it. If we love people, we cannot stay silent where He was plain. Let us take the subject soberly, exactly as the Bible gives it.
Hell Is Real
Jesus treated hell as a real place, not a figure of speech for a hard life now. He warned, "fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). He told of a rich man who died and "in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments" (Luke 16:23). These are not the words of a man describing a myth. They are the words of the Son of God describing something He came to save us from.
What the Bible Calls It
The Scriptures reach for the heaviest words they have to describe it. It is a fire that is not quenched, where Jesus said "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:48). It is a furnace where there shall be "wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 13:42). John called it "the lake of fire" and "the second death" (Revelation 20:14). And worst of all, it is to be shut out from God, "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Whatever else it is, hell is the loss of God forever.
It Is Everlasting
Some hope that hell, if it exists, must at least come to an end. The Bible gives no such hope. Jesus set its length beside the length of heaven in one breath: "these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal" (Matthew 25:46). The same word measures both. If heaven is forever, so is this. John saw that "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever" (Revelation 14:11). This is the most sobering truth in all the Bible, and it should make us tremble for ourselves and for everyone we know.
Who Goes There, and Why
Hell is not handed out at random, and it is not for honest mistakes. It is the end of sin that was never repented of. Paul said the Lord will take vengeance "on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 1:8). John listed those shut out, "the fearful, and unbelieving... and all liars" and the rest (Revelation 21:8). The road to hell is the road of refusing God, and a man stays on it only by choosing to.
It Is Just
Some say that no loving God would send anyone to such a place. But the God of the Bible is not only loving. He is also holy and just, and a judge who let every evil go unpunished would not be good at all. Abraham asked it rightly, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). He will. Paul wrote that "it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you" (2 Thessalonians 1:6), and that the impenitent treasure up wrath against "the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans 2:5). Hell is not God losing His temper. It is God being just, giving sin at last exactly what it has always deserved.
God Does Not Want You There
Hell was never made for people. Jesus said it was prepared "for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). God takes no pleasure in sending anyone there. He pleaded through the prophet, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Ezekiel 33:11), and He is "not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). The cross is the measure of how far God went to keep us out of hell. No one will go there because God did not love him enough. Those who go will go past a Savior who died to save them.
So this is not a doctrine to argue about or to push from mind. It is real, it is forever, and it is avoidable. The same Lord who warned of hell opened the only way of escape, through faith in Him and obedience to His gospel. If hell is real, then nothing matters more than staying out of it, and helping others do the same. Do not gamble your soul on the hope that Jesus was wrong.