“Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13:47-50
What happens if you believe the most valuable thing in the world isn’t Jesus? Do you really want to “fool around and find out?”
I’ve said it many times: the more I learn about faith in Jesus, the more I think eternal damnation isn’t something God does to us. It’s something we do to ourselves. All our lives, He beckons to us to come to Him, to believe in Him, trust Him, follow Him, believe in and put our faith in Him. All our lives, we rebel against that. Here and then later, we incur the consequences of what happens when God removes His protection, Chaos, disorder, pain, grief: those aren’t the natural consequences of believing in God. Even so, through them, God still tries to reach out to us.
Yet so many still continue to reject Him. When time runs out, those who’ve spent their hearts rejecting Him are simply consigned to the choices they already made. Why would God punish people He loves so much? It’s not Him punishing us: it’s us spending life choosing the punishment that is eternity without Him.
Yet I have come to agree with my friend, Pastor Vern, who says that, though he believes in and preaches Christ crucified as the only way to salvation, he also hopes God has another way for people who don’t know Jesus to enter into heaven. That the God of miracles has a miracle up His sleeve that we don’t know about. I hope so because it’s better to not fool around and find out.
Today’s parable, a kind of a spinoff tale of how Jesus called Peter, James, and John: the fishermen who were blessed with the enormous catch of fish. It talks about what responsible fishermen do. They sort out the bad fish, the junk fish, and throw them away to rot. The good fish are sold for profit. At the end of the age, when all men are judged, Jesus will send his angels to sort out mankind. The good fish they will save for the Lord; the bad fish will be thrown out. The believers who put their faith in Christ will receive an eternal reward of loving adventure. The folks who proudly chose to reject Christ will find out what it really meant to fool around and find out.
For more read: Matthew 13:51
Lord, forgive me of my sins all my life!
Practical Proverbs 