We who are believers seem to forget this concept, that not everyone can understand the beauty and power of the Cross.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that people can’t comprehend the truth of God and the goodness of the Gospel. Those require spiritual discernment, which means a person must be open to hearing and understanding so they can hear and see what the Spirit of God is saying to them.
And so, to those who deny God, who refuse to accept Him as real, as personal, as loving, as truth, will hear the messages of hope and faith that we share and find them ludicrous. They will shake their heads in derision. They will laugh and mock and pity us.
May we NEVER do the same toward them!
Those who are spiritually dead are bound for a punishment we can’t begin to comprehend. Scripture tells of a place of fire, the overwhelming odor of sulfur (brimstone), groans, moans, worms that munch but never die. It also tells of torment that is unending.
Personally, I think a large part of that torment has nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the absence of God. Nothing of God will exist there outside of the humans who chose that path – they are created in His image.
There will be no kindness, no joy, no peace, no life at all. There will be no happiness, no hope, no goodness. No prosperity, no grand or fun lifestyle. Nothing of God. The presence of God those people have experienced on earth through the believers they have met and the fact of God’s presence in His creation will be the totality of their knowing of Him and by the time they realize that, it will be too late to do anything about it.
We should mourn for them, never mock nor condemn.
We who call ourselves His should always live in such a way that those without hope will see hope. We should always have an answer when asked about that crazy hope they see in us.
We must also live (not just talk) in such a way that, for some, the message of the Cross might become a little less illogical and absurd. By allowing the manifestation of the power of God to rule in us, we open the door for others to see God in His glory and power – possibly to their salvation.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
