In the olden days, talk about reward and punishment had a powerful effect on people and caused them to mend their ways.
Today it is not so simple. Many people don't believe in reward and punishment. It is considered a relic of ancient history with no basis in reality. Science and technology have the answer to everything. [That being the case, it is interesting how many people die daily and how many sick, hungry and otherwise miserable people there are on earth - but that's besides the point. Never let the facts confuse your opinions].
Those who do claim to believe in this concept often have a very flimsy, weak belief. Tell them that every hour of Torah is worth more than 25 thousand dollars [IT IS!!] and see how many 25k packages they go for on a Sunday afternoon. People believe but then go watch the football game. Tell someone that saying a piece of lashon hara will bring a punishment MUCH WORSE that losing all of their money and possessions [IT WILL!!] and the person will say "yeah, yeah" and speak lashon hara 15 minutes later. אמונה חושית - concrete, palpable faith people used to have in reward and punishment is all but gone. We have some but very little.
What happened was [according to the Mekublim] that those who denied reward and punishment openly and entirely caused a רפיון - weakening, of this faith in the entire world so that it doesn't impact even those who do believe on some level.
So today, that can no longer be the emphasis. It doesn't mean that it isn't true. It is true and OHHHHHH how true it is. True, like Pete Rose is an oisvoirff. True, like Obama despises Trump. True, like [fill in with you own simile]. True as true can be. But it doesn't generally make people change their ways.
Today we have to inspire to people with elevated, lofty, sweet, inebriating Torah from a place where their sins haven't touched. Then they will come back.
