Imagine waking in the middle of the night hearing someone shouting, “The house is on fire!” There are few things more frightening and gut-wrenching than that. Fire is ravenous and unflinching. It destroys everything in its path without care or prejudice. In a flash, a lifetime of work and savings is gone, and in the most tragic cases, people lose their lives.
I’ve never lived through a house fire and can only imagine the devastation one must feel the next morning. It’s one of those events, like tornadoes and hurricanes, that bring neighbors together regardless of how well they knew each other before. No one wishes such horror upon someone else.
I say this to lead up to a question. If you woke up one night to find smoke pouring out of your neighbor’s house, would you rush out and tell them that their house is on fire? Or would you stay at a safe distance, lamenting how tragic it was as you watched it burn down around them?
It’s not a rhetorical question, and the answer is obvious for any sane human being. Of course, we would warn them. We’d call the fire department and rush over, banging on the doors and windows to wake and alert them to the danger. We’d put our safety at risk to rescue them from the fire.
Or so we think. If it’s true, then why are we so passive about watching family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers walk into an eternity of consuming flames and say nothing to stop them? Why do we care so much about the safety of their physical bodies and so little for their eternal souls?
There’s something wrong with reacting with urgency to a temporary situation while being indifferent to that which has eternal consequences. It proves our focus is more on the things of this world than on the Kingdom of God. (Colossians 3:2; Matthew 6:33) Our priorities are upside down and backward. (Romans 12:2)
Of course, we should be concerned with the physical needs of those around us. (Galatians 6:10; James 2:15-16) But those needs are secondary to what is most important. (Matthew 16:26; Luke 10:41-42) Pain, suffering, and discomfort in this life will end, but where and how we spend eternity goes on forever. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18; Matthew 25:46)
I’ll trade comfort and safety in this life for an eternity with Christ any day of the week. (Philippians 3:8-9; Romans 8:18) What good will it be to have the best of everything this world offers but lose our soul and spend eternity in Hell? (Mark 8:36-37) No rational person would discard eternal peace for temporal pleasure, and yet we do it every day.
If we are more worried about the fact that the house is on fire than we are about a soul going to Hell, we’ve got our priorities all mixed up. We feel noble and proud about lending a hand when someone is in need, but we shirk back from explaining what it is they need most. There’s no love in being silent because we fear how that person will react.
If we love them as Jesus commands us to, then we cannot be silent. (John 13:34-35; Romans 1:16) We must tell them about the bad news of sin and the good news of the gospel that saves. (Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4) The house is on fire, and it’s burning down around every person who doesn’t bow to Jesus as Lord. (John 3:36; 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10) Are we going to take the risk to warn them or watch them burn in Hell?