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The Council: but
Whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of
Hell Fire'.
The Council here is the Sanhedrin.
Raca is a word like 'empty head',
'Hell fire' here is Gehenna:
'But what was there more grievous in the word "fool" than in the word
"Raca"? Let King Solomon be interpreter, who, everywhere, by a "fool"
understands a wicked and reprobate person; foolishness being opposed to
spiritual wisdom. "Raca" denotes indeed, "morosity" and lightness of
manners and life; but "fool" judgeth bitterly of the spiritual and
eternal state' (Lightfoot).
While we can recognize a series of degrees in these actions, and that
they are accompanied by corresponding degrees of punishment, it still seems
to be inexplicable, that for saying raca, a believer was amenable to the
Sanhedrin, but for saying fool, the offender was in danger of hell fire. Put
into modern times, we could read:
The first offence would be liable to a fine, imposed by a magistrate.
The second offence might lead to the assizes, and a term of
imprisonment.
The third offence, to a punishment of inconceivable horror, far worse
than that of being beheaded or hanged.
If we turn to Matthew 25 we shall be met with a similar problem.
There, at the Second Coming, the Lord gathers the nations of the earth before
Him and they are judged on one issue only, namely, the way in which they have
treated His 'brethren'. To one section the King says:
'Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world' (Matt. 25:34).
To the other, the King says:
'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels' (Matt. 25:41).
The kindness shown to the Lord's brethren was not intentionally
rendered to the Lord as the astonished inquiry of verses 37 -40 will show,
and the lack of kindness was not intentionally withheld from the Lord, yet
one group go 'into everlasting life' which is equated with the kingdom
prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and the other group go
'into everlasting punishment' which is equated with 'everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels'.
Let us observe, the inheritance was actually prepared for the one
group, but the other enter a punishment, not originally 'prepared' for them,
but for the devil and his angels. If from these verses we are to gather that
failure to visit the brethren of the Lord in prison, merits everlasting
punishment, and everlasting fire in the sense of a traditional 'Hell', then
all argument is at an end. We stand appalled, but helpless before a power
beyond our own, but whether we stand assured of its utter and unquestioned
righteousness, each one of us alone can answer. Before we leave these