Have you ever had one of those crushing migraines that just would not subside? The only thing you could do was lay down in a dark room and wait it out. What if you never had to suffer the pain of a migraine again?
Have you ever had one of those toothaches that felt like half of your face was going to fall off (or maybe you wished that would happen)? What if you never had to suffer the pain of another excruciating toothache again?
Have you ever had that endless, piercing back pain that you could not seem to relieve no matter what you did or what position you took? What if you never had to suffer a single back pain ever again?
You get the idea. Think of the worst pain that you have ever experienced (or are experiencing) in your life. This life is so full of pains that we have grown accustomed to wondering, “What’s going to hurt today?” What if you woke up one morning and you felt completely new and there was not the slightest pain or discomfort anywhere in your body? Oh, what a day that would be!
You know where this is going. When John was permitted to see a glimpse of heaven, one of the details he could not resist reporting was that in heaven, “There shall be no more pain” (Rev. 21:4). No more! We read that and long for such a day!
Pain is one of the greatest motivators that we know. Pain can stop us from doing our favorite activities. Pain can move a stubborn man who “never goes to the doctor” to go to the doctor. The reason that pain is such a great motivator is that we are searching for “the sweet spot” or “the medical answer” that will stop the pain.
Does that not make heaven the supreme, ultimate of all motivators? There are scores of reasons that we should strive for heaven, but one selfish one may be that we ache for a place where we will never ache again. And if that were not enough, look at the alternative.
Jesus uses the motivating power of pain to drive our ambitions away from hell. Hell is a place where there will be eternal “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50), because there is a “fire that shall never be quenched” and “their worm does not die” (Mark 9:43-48). The pain-filled “torment” of hell will be experienced “day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 14:11; 20:10).
Given the choice between the place of “no more pain” and the place of nothing but eternal pain, which shall you choose? Heaven shall have no pain, but all gain!