Paradise Is Not the Place

Imagine you’ve finally arrived at a five-star resort somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. You’re on a secluded island surrounded by turquoise-blue waters and soft white sand. The sun is warm, the food is endless, and you’re staying in one of those villas built over the water—the kind you’ve only ever seen on Instagram. But this is no longer Instagram wanderlust. You are actually here. You pinch yourself because, at last, you are living in paradise.

But abruptly a hotel staff member rushes in with alarming news: a ruthless convicted murderer has escaped the town jail and is somewhere on the island. Suddenly the paradise you worked so hard to reach feels unsafe. The scenery hasn’t changed, but something fundamental has.

You realize that paradise is not just about the place. It is about the people in the place.

Contemporary Christianity often emphasizes “going to heaven” as the ultimate goal—an escape from a broken earth to a future reward. But Jesus spoke about the kingdom of heaven differently. He said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). In other words, heaven does not begin when we leave this world. It begins when we start embodying its principles.

The promise of paradise depends not only on where we are but on who we are becoming.

Even heaven, according to Scripture, hasn’t always been peaceful. Revelation 12:7 describes a war that once broke out there. Michael and His angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. The dragon is Satan (Rev. 12:9), the one who wanted to take God’s place and draw others into rebellion. Pride, selfish ambition, and deception disrupted the peace of God’s kingdom of love. And the angels who chose to rebel brought that same unrest with them.

The location didn’t change—heaven was still heaven in appearance—but the atmosphere shifted. And that reveals something important. Heaven is not just a perfect place. Its beauty is preserved only when its inhabitants choose to live a certain way. Without virtues such as love, joy, peace, kindness, and humility, even the most stunning setting can become unbearable. For those who reject these values, heaven would feel more like hell. As C. S. Lewis wrote: “The doors of hell are locked on the inside.”[1] In other words, hell is not a place of forced confinement, but a state of self-chosen separation from God and His ways.

This same truth shows up in politics and history. In 1787, during the formation of the U.S. Constitution, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” Franklin wasn’t just defending morality. He was pointing out that without virtue, freedom cannot be sustained. Founding Father James Madison further clarified that virtue could not be legislated by government; it had to come from “within” the people themselves.[2]

Franklin’s insight is echoed in one of my favorite Jewish parables. In both heaven and hell people sit at a banquet with spoons too long to feed themselves. In hell everyone goes hungry because they are focused only on their own needs and unable to get the food to their mouths. In heaven, however, despite holding the same long spoons, everyone is fed because each person uses their spoon to feed the one across from them. The difference is not the setting. It is the people, and the virtues they choose to live by.

Let us remember that the promise of paradise depends not only on where we are but on who we are becoming. By God’s grace, may we grow in the kind of character that allows freedom to flourish in all the spheres that we occupy, now and in eternity.

[1] C. S. Lewis, “The Problem of Pain,” in The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2002), p. 416.

[2] J. Madison (May 10, 1790), To the President of the United States. Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-11-02-0101.