10:14-15 What teaching underlies what Jesus says here.

The teaching underlying what Jesus says here is that just as there are degrees of rewards for believers in Heaven (cp 1Cor 3:12-15), so too there are degrees of punishment for unbelievers in Hell (cp Mt 11:20-24; Mk 6:13-15; Lk 10:10-15; 12:45-48; He 10:29-31; Jas 3:1).

The degrees of punishment in Hell are conditional on the privileges spurned and the sins indulged. Capernaum had become the centre of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and He had performed that many miracles there, its people should have acknowledged Him as Messiah and repented.

But they did not, so He condemned it to Hell in judgment, where its punishment will be even greater than that of Sodom in the Old testament, which had been completely obliterated from the face of the earth by God with fire and brimstone, for its homosexual sins and vices (cp Gen 19:24-25 with Lk 17:28-29). Sodom’s perversions were bad but not as bad as Capernaum’s rejection of Jesus despite the miracles He performed in the midst of its people (cp He 10:29-31).

Se also comments on Lk 12:45-48 and 1Cor 3:12-15.

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