It seems to me when the church linked heaven with a reward and hell with a punishment it set itself up to be filled with hypocrites. After all, who would not at least PRETEND to love goodness if that were the ticket to an eternal reward? And, who would not at least PRETEND to abhor evil if doing so prevented eternal torture?
A religion based on being saved from hell can’t help but be animated by fear. Such religion is less likely to lead to a life of compassion and much more likely to lead to a calculating selfishness.
Those who truly love would pay any cost for it. True lovers are those who would be willing to go even to hell if they knew that’s where love would be. I don’t actually believe in hell, but, if there were such a place, I would be obligated to try to rescue the members of my human family being tortured there.
I do not pretend to know about the afterlife, but in THIS life, serving evil is much more likely to result a golden mansion and serving the exploited and oppressed is much more likely to put us through hell.
The true friends of humanity choose the punishments for loving over the rewards for cruelty and exploitation. In a sense, love calls us to be one trick ponies. If someone loves us, we love them back. If someone hates us, we love them back. Thus and only thus is the world filled with love.