The Road to Hell

I’ve often heard the expression, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Each time I hear it I wonder if the person saying it is aware of exactly what they are saying. Usually it’s in the context of a response to someone saying they will do something at some point in the future, or they intended to do something in the past. Usually the intended action was of a noble or virtuous nature. The fact the person failed to follow through provides the almost compelling need for someone to remind them of the path to ruin they are sure to follow.

The casual nature of the delivery with which this saying is delivered gives reason to assume the person saying it is merely attempting to remind someone to follow through. There is, however, much more to the story. Old sayings are old for a reason. They have stood the test of time and continue to be used long after their origin because they contain a kernal of truth. That this kernal is overlooked over time does not diminish the power of the words, only the understanding of the modern audience.

As old sayings go, this is not the oldest. Even so, it has been around since approximately 1150, when St. Bernard of Clairvaux first wrote, “L’enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs” (hell is full of good wishes and desires).¹ In writing that statement, St. Bernard was making two points. The first is that we all have good intentions. There are things we plan to do that is of benefit to either ourselves or someone else. Then life happens. We get distracted and the next thing you know we encounter another old saying, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, but that’s a topic for another article. The second is that good intentions are only good when followed by action. It is the follow through that dots the i’s and crosses the t’s.

It is not only our desire to do good, it is the act of doing good that elevates those desires to the nobility to which they were imagined. We can’t act our way into Heaven, but neither can we plan our way in. The two go hand in hand. God himself took action to save mankind. He sent His Son to die for us. He didn’t just intend for us to be saved. He took action and saved us. Are we to believe we can get into Heaven with a simpler formula than that used by God?

James 2:14,”What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?”

James 2:17-18, “So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without works: and I will show thee, by works, my faith.”

And lastly, James 2:24,26 “Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only?”

“For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead,”

St. Bernard had it right. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The road to Heaven is paved with those same intentions, brought to life by our actions. Telling others of our faith is not enough. We have to show them.