In Matthew 5:25 Jesus warns that a person who owes another and does not settle the debt with them will be thrown into prison until all is paid. What is the prison Jesus warns about? Some have said this prison is purgatory.

According to those who believe in purgatory, if a Christian is not reconciled to his brother during this life, then after life ends the sinner will be held in a place of spiritual punishment until the entire debt is paid. When the sinner is purged of all their sin they will then be allowed to enter Heaven.

Interpreting the prison in Matthew 5 as a spiritual prison is defended on the grounds that the Sermon on the Mount is talking about spiritual things. Therefore, the prison must also be a spiritual prison. Jesus is teaching what is necessary to enter Heaven, but the Sermon on the Mount is not a list of instructions on how to get there. In Matthew 5:20-48 Jesus shows the impossibility of gaining Heaven by following the Mosaic law or a list of religious regulations. To enter Heaven a person has to be as perfectly righteous as God Himself. (Matthew 5:48)

Furthermore, the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5 involved real, physical things. He speaks of marriage, divorce and adultery. He speaks of giving away a cloak and a tunic, of responding to a slap on the cheek and of going the extra mile. Those were all physical realities that Jesus’ first century audience would have experienced first hand. The coerced mile of Matthew 5:41 was not an allegorical mile, but a genuine journey taken at the command of a Roman soldier.

In Matthew 5:29-30 Jesus does use figures of speech when He speaks of plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand. Those two statements are the only ones which need to be understood as figurative. All the surrounding verses make the most sense as literal descriptions of familiar things. Therefore, the prison Jesus referred to is best understood as a real debtors prison, not a spiritual one.

The great problem with applying Matthew 5:25 to purgatory is the assumption of purgatory itself. Those who teach the existence of purgatory teach that the mercy of Jesus enables the person to become righteous. Each person is responsible, by the grace of Jesus, to put away their sin and make themselves righteous. Sin not put away by the person is punished after this life. Because the person has received the grace of Jesus, Heaven is waiting for them. Because the person still has unresolved sin, he must be punished before he can enter Heaven. Purgatory exists as a theological concept because some sin is left unpunished. Those seeking Heaven must have a means of satisfying the demands of justice on their unpunished sin. The Bible clearly teaches otherwise.

In Hebrews 10:17 God says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Verse 18 adds this most important truth, “Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” God promises those who trust Jesus as their Savior that He will forgive all their sin: past, present or future. First John 1:7 says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Since God completely forgives all a person’s sins when that person receives Jesus for salvation, then no more offering, punishment, purging or purgatory is needed.