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The following is a brief (and decently accurate) reconstruction of the conversation between my minister and my friend:

Minister: Don’t you want to go to heaven?
Friend: Not particularly.
Minister: How could you not want to go to heaven?
Friend: I could care less about heaven, so long as I love God.

This conversation could have gone another way; my minister could have asked, don’t you want to avoid hell? Some Christians honestly answer no, but many are motivated to follow God’s commandments simply out of a fear of hellfire. My friend’s point was that he shouldn’t care about the reward (or punishment) associated with following God, but rather that he should care about loving God above all else. The natural consequence of loving God (and obeying him, in the spirit of John 14:15) will be heaven, and in that sense, my minister was correct that we should want to be with God by going to heaven.

Hell: A Powerful, but Inadvisable Motivation

Yet their different positions indicate the different focus that each of them possessed, one focused on God and the other focused oneself. It is far too easy to become wrapped up in our own personal salvation, with whether we shall end up in heaven or hell. By doing so, we may end up following Christ’s teachings out of fear of punishment or selfish desire for reward instead of out of true love and virtue. Many atheists rightly complain about Christians who believe that good behavior will be rewarded even if it is motivated out of pure self-interest. This idea is one that most Christians will reject in principle but will accidentally perpetuate through the threats of judgment.

Yet the threats of judgment and the emphasis on avoiding hell can cause us to lose sight of earnestly striving to please God. After all, God won’t condemn you to hellfire for that one time you stole a street sign or that single time you slept with your girlfriend. God won’t abandon you because you decided to sleep in and skip church a couple of times. So we begin to take advantage of His mercy because we grasp how bountiful it is. We appreciate His grace, but we fail to think about the sort of service that such grace should demand. When we get so focused on our own punishment or reward, we quickly lose sight of the grander goal of loving and serving God.

N.T. Wright got it right (poor pun, my apologies) when he wrote the following in Justification:

“We are not the centre of the universe. God is not circling around us. We are circling around him. It may look, from our point of view, as though ‘me and my salvation’… are the be-all and end-all of Christianity. Sadly, many people – many devout Christians! – have preached that way and lived that way… God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but so that *through* them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world… God is rescuing us from the shipwreck of the world, not so that we can sit back and put our feet up in his company, but so that we can be part of his plan to remake the world. We are in orbit around God and his purposes, not the other way around.”

When we threaten hellfire instead of preaching repentance and service to God, we forget where the focus is truly supposed to be.

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14 Responses

  1. Nick

    Jordan, interesting, provocative thoughts! I find myself agreeing with what you affirm (that we should be motivated primarily by love for God, not use God as means to an end to avoid/gain something else we want/fear more than Him), but disagreeing with what you deny–namely, that threats and fear of punishment are somehow unworthy of legtimate Christian motivation, or that concern for one’s own well-being is somehow selfish. I think C. S. Lewis’ essay “The Weight of Glory” is so helpful here–he demonstrates that much overly idealistic ethicizing among modern Christians is far more influenced by Kant than it is by the actual logic of the biblical narrative.

    For instance, how to you explain the literally hundreds of threats and warnings of judgment and disaster and (yes) hell addressed to both believers and unbelievers throughout the Old and New Testaments, given what you argue here? Why does Jesus talk about hell all the time, if it isn’t one of the main things every human being should be concerned about? And it is not merely that these things are present in the redemptive storyline, but that they are so ubiquitously present which should give us pause at the suggestion that there is something base or vulgar about being motivated by the possibility of final loss away from our Creator.

    For the Christian, of course, this is primarily the fear of losing out on joy in God’s presence and being exiled from Him forever–but it is also, at the same time, the simple genuine desire to not experience deprivation and evil. Is it possible to be so dominated by the latter concern that a person is moved to turn to God simply as a means to an end? Absolutely. Is it necessarily so? Absolutely not.

    And while I find your plea for Christians to be focused primarily on God’s glory salutary and most needed in this fickle, selfish age, I would question whether we can “disconnect” this concern and passion for God so easily from our pursuit of our own happiness or (which is the same thing) our avoidance of our own misery–as perhaps you spur us on to. As if, for instance, we could rejoice in God while in hell or being rejected by Him. I think that’s a basic category mistake. Pascal put it this way:

    “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”

    This insight strikes me as universally self-confirming in human experience, and also makes great sense of why the biblical writers so frequently appeal to our self-interest in their various exhortations. The difference between the righteous and the wicked, I think, is constituted NOT by the former ceasing to care about their own well-being. Rather, it consists in their choosing to pursue joy and well-being chiefly in God, rather than in the created things He made but which we have all turned into sinful idols. But common to both is the desire for happiness and the dread of misery. That’s just part of what it means to be human. The difference lay elsewhere.

  2. J. Joseph Porter

    Jordan, with all due respect, I think you should carefully reconsider much of what you are saying.

    First of all, dozens of scriptures make it clear that the desires to be saved, go to Heaven, and avoid Hell are not at all “inadvisable.” How does Peter end his sermon on Pentecost? “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2.40)! Jesus himself instructs us to “fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell” (Matthew 10.28). His words could not be clearer – and I doubt that N.T. Wright would disagree. The emphasis of the excerpt from Justification is not our self-centered motivations, but rather our self-centered distortion of our mission to redeem the world.

    Ultimately, of course, our faith must spring from a genuine love for God; we are compelled, not by the threat of Hell, but by Christ’s love (2 Corinthians 5.14). That is a powerful truth, and I agree with you that it should not be forgotten. But the fact is that we must all begin somewhere, and Jesus appears to have had no qualms about someone’s seeking God out of a hunger for (the Kingdom of) Heaven or a fear of Hell.

    Indeed, if we are honest with ourselves, I doubt that we can seriously admit that we do “not particularly” care about Heaven and Hell. I know no one who is so selfless as to dismiss the promise of eternal life in Heaven or the danger of punishment in Hell, simply because I know no one who is so selfless as to dismiss earthly rewards and punishments. Your friend would probably be afraid of touching a hot stove; are we to believe that he is truly unafraid of Hell? Your friend has probably never gone without food or shelter; are we to believe that he cares not at all about the Great Banquet in our home in Heaven? I think not.

    (None of this even touches upon your worthwhile observation in “Refocusing on God: Heaven”: Heaven is best understood as eternal communion with God. In this light, Heaven and Hell are not just places of personal pleasure and plain but of union with God and separation from God. If that is the case, then we should be afraid of Hell even if we are acting “selflessly.”)

    I have had experience with only one person who claimed that he did not care about Heaven because his concerns lay with his love for God rather than his personal salvation. In that case, I found the claim to be extremely audacious, betraying a spiritual blindness and disdain for the Christians who were acting out of a “selfish” desire for Heaven – and doing far more to advance the Kingdom of God than my friend with the supposedly pure motives. (Even what you say about your minister – that he is focused on himself and not on God – is presumptuous at best and misguided at worst.)

    In the end, I cannot help but think of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The tax collector’s plea to God was entirely “selfish”: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18.13b) And yet he was the one who went home justified before God (v. 14), for he humbled himself before his Maker. The tax collector understood his sin and his place before God. His sin affected him psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually; he was cut to the heart, and could only plea to God for mercy. He had offended God, and was deserving of punishment. He could not withdraw to the comfort of his selfless love for God; he was too wise and too humble to give such a fairy tale a moment’s attention.

    If your friend considers himself above the threat of Hell and the gift of Heaven, it is probably because he has not truly understood that he deserves the former and not the latter. As for me, I will cast my lot with the tax collector.

  3. Judith Huang

    Great post. I think often the people who think that there is too much talk of heaven on earth need to hear more about hell, and those who talk about fire and brimstone (especially on other people) need to think more about how they can bring heaven about in their homes and families.

  4. Judith Huang

    Either way, I think it’s important to remember that the most important thing about heaven and hell is that Heaven is communion with God and Hell is Separation from God – eternally.

  5. Nick

    Jordan, just today I (very randomly) picked up C. S. Lewis’ “Reflections on the Psalms”, which I haven’t read for some time, and soon came upon this passage in his chapter on death in the Psalms. The larger context is Lewis giving his hypothesis on why in the Old Testament God’s revelation of Himself did not focus much on the afterlife, as the NT does and as subsequent Christians through the ages tend to mistakenly read into the Psalms/OT retrospectively, as if that were the chief matter they were concerned with. Anyway, once I hit this section, I thought it was eery how connected his thoughts were to your post!

    “Is is possible for men to be too much concerned with their eternal destiny? In one sense, paradoxical though it sounds, I should reply, Yes. For the truth seems to me to be that happiness or misery beyond death, simply in themselves, are not even religious subjects at all. A man who believes in them will of course be prudent to seek the one and avoid the other. But that seems to have no more to do with religion than looking after one’s health or saving money for one’s old age. The only difference here is that the stakes are so very much higher. And this means that, granted a real and steady conviction, the hopes and anxieties aroused are overwhelming. But they are not on that account the more religious. They are hopes for oneself, anxieties for oneself. God is not in the centre. He is still important only for the sake of something else…It is surely, therefore, very possible that when God began to reveal Himself to men, to show them that He and nothing else is their true goal and the satisfaction of their needs, and that He has a claim upon them simply by being what He is, quite apart from anything He can bestow or deny, it may have been absolutely necessary [in Old Testament times] that this revelation should not begin with any hint of future Beatitude or Perdition. These are not the right point to begin at. An effective belief in them, coming too soon, may even render almost impossible the development of (so to call it) the appetite for God; personal hopes and fears, too obviously exciting, have got in first. Later, when, after centuries of spiritual training, men have learned to desire and adore God, to pant after Him ‘as pants the hart’, it is another matter. For then those who love God will desire not only to enjoy Him but ‘to enjoy Him forever’, and will fear to lose Him. And it is by that door that a truly religious hope of Heaven and fear of Hell can enter; as corollaries to a faith already centred upon God, not as things of any independent or intrinsic weight. It is even arguable that the moment “Heaven” ceases to mean union with God and “Hell” to mean separation from Him, the belief in either is a mischievous superstition…Most of us find that our belief in the future life is strong only when God is in the centre of our thoughts; that if we try to use the hope of “Heaven” as a compensation (even for the most innocent and natural misery, that of bereavement) it crumbles away.” (C. S. Lewis, “Reflections on the Psalms”, pp. 39-41)

  6. Jordan Monge

    Upon reading your comments, I realize that I was perhaps too vehement in this post; in striving to avoid one extreme, I mistakenly swung too far to the other. I did not mean to imply that we should never preach on hell or judgment, just that our focus should not incline in that direction too heavily. Obviously, Christ preaches about hell and the rewards of heaven; but he reminds us that the greatest commandment *is* to love God, and that this love is demonstrated through obedience. Our obedience is not meant to be prompted primary by the fear of hellfire.

    Nick,

    I apologize for not sufficiently distinguishing between our notions of hell as separation from God and hell as painful punishment in this post. If the former is the primary motivation, then that is an expression of one’s love for God. If the latter is the motivation, then that does not strike me as particularly worthy of reward. If I believed that most people who vehemently proclaim the dangers of hellfire were genuinely concerned about “the final loss away from our Creator,” I would not have written this post. Instead, it strikes me that most people simply fear pain rather than separation from God.

    I do think that we should be wary of fearing punishment in and of itself; we are refined through pain and suffering, and the apostles clearly did not fear pain. I think I gave you the wrong impression, as though I thought we could rejoice or praise God in hell (despite the fact that it represents separation from God). I simply meant that we can rejoice in pain, and if we are thinking of hell as purely that, there would be no contradiction. (Given that hell represents both, you are correct that such an idea would be a category mistake).

    Also, I didn’t mean implies that this sort of thing is a salvation issue – I would not use this to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. It is not that I think anyone who is motivated (partially) out of fear of punishment would be cast into the depths of hellfire. This response gets at the very heart of what my point was: I don’t want to think about the minimum amount that can secure our salvation – I want to strive for the most glorious life God can offer, and I see that being found through a life devoted to loving, not fearful or selfish, service.

    Thank you for the quote from Lewis. He said exactly what I was trying to convey, but without giving people the wrong impression. That’s why he is C.S. Lewis and I am not. There is nothing new under the sun…

    Joseph,

    Although the apostles may have used the desire to avoid hell in sermons, you and I both agree that Christ’s love should compel us above all else. The reason that I wrote that hell is an inadvisable motivation is that I have seen it cause problems in my own life; it can lead us to abuse grace. Last semester, I made several unwise decisions because I became more concerned with my personal salvation than with serving God. I knew that none of the decisions would cause me to be cast into the abyss, so I didn’t fret about choosing them even though they definitely didn’t bring utmost glory to God. That’s what happens when we get focused on our personal salvation instead upon serving and loving God.

    I deeply believe that we will stumble often as Christians if we keep our focus on our personal salvation, and that’s why I wanted to write this post. Because I saw myself stumble in my own life when I had this sort of attitude. I saw something much more promising and sustainable when I came across NT Wright’s quote. What NT Wright writes (more poor puns, sorry!) is something which truly calls us higher, instead of leading us simply try to slip by into heaven.

    Paul says, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:3, ESV) That is how deep Paul’s love was for his people. He would be accursed if it could save others. That is the sort of selflessness for which I want to strive, and I cannot do that if my primary goal is avoiding hellfire instead of serving God.

  7. Judith

    I think it also helps our thinking to remember that Time is just one more dimension – so what you live in “after” you die is actually as meaningful as what you live in “while” you live. So, if you’re separate from God now, while you are alive on earth, it’s as bad as being “in hell” after you die. Of course, there are also degrees of separation, but in a way all states of mind in which God is not directly involved in one’s continual prayer is a form of hell. (This is my own opinion and I’m still working on it!)

  8. George

    I think Jordan’s point is that Christians should consider their salvation to be far more than “fire insurance,” and that we can’t focus on anything we have done to earn/deserve it, because that would be effectively impossible for us. This doesn’t really seem all that controversial to me.

    Joseph, I would caution you to be more careful about that parable; throwing it around seems like waving a loaded gun: “No really guys, I know what I’m doing here.” Sure, looking just at the literal meaning of the words in Scripture, it seems like the publican is praying “selfishly.” But he does not look at anything he has done, he prostrates himself before God because he begs for grace and forgiveness he knows he does not deserve.

    Indeed, I hope that we all would side with him; but to imply that any of our number would not really doesn’t seem like something the publican himself would ever say (leading to a strange lexical situation – but I will leave that for more able minds than mine to sort out).

  9. Jordan Monge

    I came across 1 Corinthians 4:3-6 yesterday and thought it somewhat applicable. “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.” I realize that I shouldn’t add to the Scriptures to say or suggest that one must stop caring about hell, or take pride in the fact that I am motivated by more than hell. I apologize for coming off that way. Rather, I feel like I saw myself be hurt by this bad emphasis and wanted to provide apt warning.

    That said, I am very very grateful for the community that we have at the Ichthus, that we can refine one another not only spiritually but also in our writing. So thank you for commenting and contributing!

    Richard Beck wrote something about this subject on his blog Experimental Theology, and he put it much better than I did: “If there is a hell, as traditionally understood, then there is a thin red line running through life, separating the Saved from the Damned. And how could this line not be the preeminent preoccupation of the spiritual journey? Ministers are unwittingly causing their faith communities to fetishize this line, to watch it, obsess over it, clarify it, monitor it, protect it, and defend it.

    The only clear way to treat this fetishization is to decisively dismantle the thanatocentric system. Death must be displaced from the center of the believer’s concerns and investments. Because if death is at the center of my life concerns, then I am at the center of my life concerns. Thanatocentrism makes us ego-centric and focused on self-perservation (as ultimately understood). Only when death is displaced will I allow the Other to be my focus of ministry.”

  10. Judith Huang

    What does amaze and frustrate me is that, seven decades after the Theory of Relativity, we still effectively have a medieval understanding of hell and heaven as hell being something under the ground, and heaven being something above the earth’s atmosphere. These were and are useful metaphors, for who who has been in an aeroplane can deny that there is something heavenly in the clouds, and who who has seen the damage wrecked by the lava from a volcano can help but think of the fire and brimstone of the Bible? But haven’t we at least learned the lesson of Galileo – that we live in a heliocentric universe, that there is vacuum beyond the atmosphere, that God is several dimensions “above” us, not literally peering at us through the clouds like a satellite, but as our view:GoogleEarth:: GoogleEarth: God’s View?

    We need some new metaphors.

  11. Judith Huang

    Also, we do need to consider the parable of the Indian Elephant that gets bandied around whenever worldviews are discussed – it is all well and fine to say that someone else has only gotten a hold of the tail, if you admit that you probably only feel the ear yourself. No one, not even someone who can understand six dimensions or invented String theory, can see the whole elephant, except God.

  12. Nick Nowalk

    The elephant in that parable is Indian? Huh, I had always thought he was Scandinavian.

  13. Judith

    If a Scandinavian Elephant falls in the forest, does it make a sound?