If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire. Matthew 18:8-9
In these two verses, Jesus makes two options available to all: life or hell. Some have said that Jesus didn't talk as much about hell as He did about all other subjects. Assuming that this were true, the once mention of the subject of hell by Him is sufficient to warn us of the severity and reality of hell, which He calls everlasting fire and hell fire.
To ignore the warnings of Christ regarding sin, is to do so at one's peril. Sin, according to Jesus, is so destructive that it will be better for one to lose one of his eyes, feet, or hand, than to continue in sin, and end up in the place that He calls hell. Whatever supports a sinful lifestyle is an eternal enemy that must be vanquished, and rejected by all. Jesus leaves us with no other option. If this is how Jesus views the evilness of sin, then we must be wise to separate ourselves from it. Remember that Jesus is in the best position to know of the evilness of sin because it was for it that, He as God, came into the world, suffered on the cross and died.
In His death, Jesus offers all of humanity life, but the rejection of His great offer leaves man with the choice of hell fire as an eternal dwelling place. In the words of Jesus, it is a place that God prepared for the devil and his angels. In contrast, God has prepared heaven for those who love Him. The choice before us all is simple, to accept God's offer of life in Christ, or reject it, and embrace everlasting fire in a place called hell. There is consequence for rejecting Jesus.
Toni
