Week after week many are drugged by the teachings of Christianity. These teachings neither warn the Christians nor tell them the truth. So many are not warned that they will be caused much trouble by being angry and contemning or condemning others or by giving in to their lusts. By showing even a little contempt for our brother we shall be liable to the judgment (5:22). This does not mean that we shall perish. No, a saved person will never perish, and no one who is lost will be qualified to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Only those who have been saved according to the principle of faith will be qualified to be there. But do not think that it is impossible for you to have a problem at the judgment seat of Christ. You may tell the Lord, “I never robbed a bank or murdered anyone. The only thing I did was to lose my temper.” But the mere act of losing your temper may bring you into judgment,
In 5:22 the judgment of the believers at the judgment seat of Christ is described by three kinds of judgment according to the background of the Jewish people: the judgment at the gate of the city, the judgment before the Sanhedrin, and the judgment of the Gehenna of fire. These three levels of judgment all refer to the one judgment at the judgment seat of Christ. We Christians, saved according to the principle of faith, will not be judged at the white throne spoken of in Revelation 20. Rather, we shall be judged at the judgment seat of Christ a thousand years before the judgment at the white throne. The judgment at the great white throne will be for unbelievers concerning their eternal perdition. But the judgment at the judgment seat of Christ will be for believers concerning whether they will be rewarded or punished.
Although many of you were in Christianity for years, you probably never heard such a sobering message. Did you ever hear a sermon telling you that, although you are saved by faith through grace, you must still live a life that is of a higher moral standard than that required by the old law? Were you ever told that you must live a life that never loses its temper or that does not look at a woman to lust? The higher law, the law of the kingdom of the heavens, not only touches the outward acts, but also the inward motives. How high is the standard of this law! The Lord’s warning concerning the standard of this law is serious. It even speaks of being put into the Gehenna of fire. I say again, this does not mean that the believers will perish. Pitiful Christianity merely tells people that they will go to either heaven or hell. But the Bible says clearly that after we have been saved according to the principle of faith, we must fulfill all the requirements of the new law. The law is no longer the principle according to which we are saved, but it is a standard of morality that we are required to keep. The principle of the law has been abolished, but the morality required by the commandments of the law remains and has been uplifted. Do not think that there is no need to take care of morality because we are not under the law for salvation. This is absolutely a wrong concept. The crucial point of the Lord’s decree concerning the law is that we do not need to keep the law in order to be saved, but that we must have a standard of morality much higher than the standard of the old law after we have been saved by faith.
After hearing this, you may say that you cannot fulfill it. It is good to say that we cannot make it, because then it is necessary for Christ to come into us. The very One who fully kept the law and who died in our stead has come into us in resurrection to be our life. The Lord’s warning in Matthew 5 must force us to stay with Christ. We must have a daily life full of fear and trembling. We need to say, “I must stay close to the resurrected Christ. I must be one with Him. I must trust Him and rely on Him. Because the standard of morality of the kingdom of the heavens is too high for me to fulfill, I must remain with the Lord. If I even lose my temper with my brother, I may be burned in the fire. How serious this is!”
When some Christian teachers hear this, they may say, “It is heresy to teach that saved ones will be burned in the fire.” Read Matthew 5 again. This chapter is not a word spoken to unbelievers; it is a word given to the disciples, the saved ones, the sons of God. If they do not bridle their anger, they will be cast into the Gehenna of fire. Some may say, “This is the Gehenna of fire, not the lake of fire.” Do not argue about what fire it is, for even a small fire can cause us much suffering. Sunday after Sunday, so many Christians are being filled with sugar-coated teachings. They have never heard a sobering word from Matthew 5. We thank the Lord for His mercy and grace and for the faith He has given us through which we have been saved. How wonderful it is to be saved by faith! But as those who are saved, we must listen to a serious word of warning! Even losing our temper with our brother may cause us to be burned in the Gehenna of fire.
This thought of being burned by fire is found in both 1 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 6. First Corinthians 3:15 says, “If anyone’s work shall be consumed, he shall suffer loss; but he shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” Although such a one will be saved, he will be saved through fire. Hebrews 6:7 and 8 say, “For the earth which drinks the rain which often comes upon it and brings forth vegetation suitable to those for whose sake also it is tilled, partakes of blessing from God; But bringing forth thorns and thistles, it is disapproved and near a curse, whose end is to be burned.” Here the believers are likened to earth which may grow vegetation approved by God or produce thorns and thistles that will be burned. How awful it would be to pass through such a burning! Moreover, in Revelation 2:11 the Lord said, “He who overcomes shall by no means be hurt of the second death.” This word implies that the defeated Christians will be hurt by the second death, the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). To be hurt by the second death is to be touched by the lake of fire. Certainly none of us wants to be touched by this fire.