Luke 12:57-59

Jesus urged His hearers to come to a decision before it was too late (cf. Matthew 5:25-26). They needed to judge what was right and to believe on Jesus before God judged them and condemned them for their unbelief. Jesus reminded them of the wisdom of settling their disputes with one another before they went to court and a judge made the decision for them (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:1-11). The result of not settling out of court might be condemnation and confinement in a Roman debtors prison from which they could not escape easily. Jesus’ point was that the unbelievers in the crowd needed to get things right with their adversary (Jesus) before the judge (God) sent them to prison (hell).

The fact that Jesus presented the person in the illustration as escaping from prison by paying his debt does not mean people can escape from hell by paying their way out. This false interpretation might lead one to pay money to the church to get his or her friends and or relatives out of hell. Elsewhere Jesus taught that hell is a place of eternal torment from which no one can escape (Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:46; John 5:29; Acts 24:15). Jesus probably did not say the person in prison in His illustration had to stay there forever because in the prison in His illustration one could get out if he paid his debt. The parallels between divine judgment and the human judgment that Jesus described in His illustration are not exact.