You Don’t Have to Be a Villian To Wind Up in Hell

30 July 2025  Matthew 13:44-46

“When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”Matthew 13:46

You don’t have to be a villain to wind up in hell. You just have to be lazy, or inattentive, or just a little bit stupid.

“The gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many,” Jesus said. “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).The difference between the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) is not the sheep were virtuous, and the goats were villains, but that the sheep paid attention to where Jesus was, and the goats didn’t. The difference between the wise and foolish maidens was not that the foolish maidens didn’t know about the bridegroom, but that they came prepared only for the short game, not the long game (Matthew 25:1-13). The servant who buried his talent in the ground was not condemned for being a serial killer, or a genocidal maniac, but for being “slothful” (Matthew 25:26).

You don’t have to be a villain to wind up in hell. You can go to hell for not paying attention to what the story of your life is really about.

The story of your life is about the Kingdom of God, and with a story like that you have to be “all in.” Close doesn’t count: “When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” Red hot is the only commitment level that matters. Lukewarm is like vomit (see Revelation 3:16, “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth”).

Some may conclude, then, that the only people who go to heaven are monks, nuns and hermits, but that would be a crude overstatement. People are still called to marriage and parenthood. There is still a need for Christian teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers and politicians. Having the Kingdom of God as the story of your life may mean for some the consecrated life, but for all of us it means taking a regular inventory of our lives, and casting out everything that is not directed somehow toward the Kingdom. As C.S. Lewis has put it, “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest, most intimate souvenirs of hell” (The Great Divorce, p. viii-ix). The stock-taking this requires is what Catholics have called the “examination of conscience,” and the great spiritual writers have consistently advised that this be done daily, with regular access to the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Faithful examination of conscience requires familiarity with what the Bible says about virtue, sin, and the purpose of life. It requires, as well, familiarity with the teaching of the Church on these matters. Repentance does not require all of us to give away all we have as testimony to our desire for righteousness, but it does require that we keep in our lives only those things, aims, behaviors and people that are directing us to heaven, and nothing that distracts us from it.

Some may wonder what is left of Earth after we have done all that. C.S. Lewis said, “Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of heaven itself” (The Great Divorce, p. ix).

You don’t have to be a villain to wind up in hell. Heaven starts by paying attention to the condition of your life right now.