“But as for the cowardly…”
Question: What does it mean when it says in Revelation 21:8 that the “cowardly” will be consigned to hell? (Could most of us, even as Christians, not be accused of this to some degree, and at certain times?)
Answer: Revelation 21:8, in the NKJV states, “The cowardly…shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” The word (in Greek deilos) is translated “fearful” in the KJV. It means timid, cowardly. It is never used in a good sense. (On the other hand, phobos, another Greek word for fear, sometimes is–e.g. to refer to the reverent fear of God).
As a number of commentators suggest, the word is used here in a certain restricted, moral sense. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary observes, “Not having steadfast endurance, they are devoid of faith….Thus they are linked by John to the ‘unbelieving’ and ‘vile’ [abominable].” The contrast between this kind of fear and faith is also sharply drawn by the Lord Jesus when He says, “Why are you so fearful [deilos]? How is it that you have no faith?” (Mk. 4:40). The fear of which John is speaking in Revelation is that which is found in the absence of faith.
The verse is not suggesting some kind of salvation by works. (I.e. “Don’t do this and you will be safe.”) Rather, it is describing things in evidence in the lives of unbelievers. Christians can certainly be fearful and cowardly at times. But that does not qualify them for the lake of fire. The text is describing behaviour that characterizes the unsaved because it flows from an unregenerate heart. Fear of losing their reputation, or fear for their personal safety, or dread of some other consequence has kept them from turning to Christ in the first place. Charles Ryrie states, (The Ryrie Study Bible): “Those whose lives can be characterized in these ways will be cast into the lake of fire, because they have shown themselves to be unbelievers.”
The unsaved may show a temporary and superficial enthusiasm for the things of God. But when testing times come, their apparent faith collapses–often through exactly the kind of fear spoken of in this text. On the other hand, the steadfastness of truly born again individuals is a byproduct of their relationship with God. In Hebrews the Lord says, “‘If anyone draws back [shrinks back fearfully], My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But [says the writer] we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:38-39). (Again notice how fear and faith are antithetical.)
The context of Revelation 21:8 makes a contrast between Christians and non-Christians. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall by My son. But the cowardly…shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire…” (Rev. 21:7-8). John characteristically calls born again believers “overcomers.” In his first epistle he says, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world….Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I Jn. 5:4-5). Paul uses the same Greek word when he says that absolutely nothing can separate the Christian from the love of Christ. “In all these things we are more than conquerors [abundant overcomers] through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). God is not consigning to eternal fire Christians who exhibit timidity in some circumstance. He is describing a prevailing condition of soul common in the unsaved, itself an evidence they are unregenerate.