1 Corinthians 16:22

1Co_16:22

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

Love to Christ

(Eph_6:24 and Text):--Though so dissimilar, both texts teach the same truth, viz., that love to Christ is the indispensable condition of salvation.

I. Why is love to Christ thus necessary? Because--

1. Christ is God--God in the clearest form of manifestation--the sum of the Divine perfections. All that there is in God to command the supreme duty of loving Him is in Christ, therefore it is impossible to love God without loving Christ, and not to love Christ is not to love God.

2. Christ is God in our nature, and is thus invested with special attractions, because--

(1)Possessed of another kind of excellence.

(2) Brought into a relation to us He sustains to no other order of beings.

3. Christ loved us and given Himself for us. To be insensible of this claim on our affection is indicative of the greatest moral depravity.

4. By His love and death Christ has opened a way to us from degradation and misery to eternal life and glory.

5. We are shut up to the necessity of loving Christ or Satan. There are but two sovereigns, and you must choose between them.

II. What is it to love Christ, and how can we tell whether we love Him or not? Where this love is there will be--

1. A feeling of reverence and complacency which prevents us from ever treating Him with neglect or indignity, and which makes His society delightful.

2. Zeal for His honour. Any disrespect shown Him is painful to us, and anything which promotes His glory is a source of delight to us.

3. A desire to please Him, to do His will. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

The importance of love to Christ

I. The Lord Jesus Christ is truly and eminently lovely, and is therefore to be loved. Consider the nature and actings of this grace.

1. If Christ be considered as able to do that for us, and communicate that to us, which we want, love is evinced by desire. The believer cannot be satisfied without Him.

2. If He be considered as having already manifested Himself to the soul, then love exerts itself in a way of delight. Whom having not seen, ye love, etc.

3. As Christ has an interest to be carried on in the world, love displays itself in zeal for His honour. If ye love Me, keep My commandments.

4. If we consider Christ as offended with our sins, and having suffered for them, love manifests itself in grief and sympathy. I am crucified with Christ, says the apostle, and I could not do less.

5. If we consider Christ as glorified in heaven, love expresses itself in joy and triumph.

II. Notwithstanding all this amiableness in Christ, there are some who no not love Him. Such persons have--

1. No real esteem for the Saviour. Unto you that believe, He is precious.

2. No true faith in Christ.

3. No obedience and subjection to Christ. If a man love Me, he wilt keep My words.

III. All who love not the Lord Jesus Christ, are chargeable with aggravated guilt, and expose themselves to the severest displeasure of God. Because--

1. He is so dearly beloved of God.

2. He is so lovely and desirable in Himself.

3. He has given the most astonishing proofs of His love to sinners.

Consequently the want of love to Christ will be destructive of religion here, and happiness hereafter. This one defect destroys the excellency and life of all religion. Without love, faith is dead, repentance legal, fear slavish; and all duties void of this principle are vain. As to future happiness, heaven is a place of love; and to entertain one person there who is not a lover of Christ, would disturb the order and break the harmony of that blessed society. Conclusion:--

1. Love to Christ may be easily discovered.

(1) By the current of your thoughts. What persons love, they think much upon; and the pleasant image is continually before them.

(2) By the care of your lives. Can you say that to you to live is Christ? Now, then, let conscience do its office, and it will easily tell you whether you love Christ or not.

2. Not to love Christ is a crime of tremendous guilt, which is attended with dreadful aggravations; for--

(1) It is a sin without cause. It admits of no reason or excuse.

(2) It is also a sin against many causes.

(3) It is the cause of many other sins. (S. Lavington.)

Loving Christ and the penalty of neglecting it

Note the position which this verse occupies.

1. This Epistle was dictated to an amanuensis, and now Paul adds The salutation of me Paul with my own hand: a form immediately followed, in most of his Epistles, by the apostolic benediction: but here he interposes the text. I think this shows us the state of his heart, which was full of Christ: he could not suppress the strong affection he entertained for the Saviour, and here he overflows.

2. Interposed as it is between the signature and the benediction, he intends it to have all the weight which apostolical authority can give it. Note--

I. The duty enjoined.

1. Its object.

(1) The old law was comprehended in two commandments, of which the first was greatest, Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God, etc. The New Testament puts forward a similar claim on behalf of Christ; and it were easy to argue from this, that Christ is the one Jehovah for whom the old law challenges our supreme and undivided love. Indeed, this very name is here applied to Him. He is set before us, while claiming our affections, as the Lord.

(2) He who claims our love bears not only the incommunicable name, but a name common to many of His fellow-men: Jesus.

(3) Bears another name, or rather title--Christ, or Anointed; because He sustains those offices into which men were commonly inducted by anointing, and which, as God-man, He sustains on behalf of mankind--Prophet, Priest, and King. God, Man, Mediator between God and men--whoever does not present Him in these three aspects robs Him of a part of that which essentially belongs to Him: whoever does not exhibit Him under this threefold character does not show you the Christ of the Scriptures, but some idol of his own invention.

2. The love which is claimed in His behalf must be--

(1) Sincere. You find a distinction made in the Scriptures between loving our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and pretending to love Him.

(2) Supreme. If any man will come after Me--if any man will be My disciple, he must be prepared to hate father, mother, etc. At the time when this was spoken, there went great multitudes after Him: but this was the doctrine by which He proved them. There are multitudes who will come after Him still, if He will be content to follow in the train of some beloved pursuit, or lust. Religion would be the most popular thing in the world, and would carry the whole world before it, if it were at liberty to waive this point. But Christ will have the first place in our affections: whatever stands opposed to Him we must hate; whatever is in harmony with Him, and dependent upon Him, must be loved in subordination to Him.

(3) Ardent. The Scriptures are wont to illustrate this subject by a comparison taken from fire. There may be a spark, and if that spark is blown, it may rise to a vehement flame which many waters cannot quench. You have only to neglect it, and it will expire. But you are told that you must stir up the gift of God.

(4) Constant; and that because He is always the same; that is due to Him at one time is due to Him at all times.

(5) Practical. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments.

3. The evidences of this love. I cannot help thinking, that in the case of every human object of affection, the love which there was need to try by many signs, would hardly be counted worth having; that where there is so much uncertainty whether we love Christ or no, one thing is certain--that we do not love Him very much: but still, for the sake of those who love, and who search after the signs and marks, let me give you one or two.

(1) The love of the brethren, i.e., the brethren of Christ, as well as ours: and it is in that light that they are principally to be regarded. If a man feels his heart expanded towards all Christians--if he is willing to bear with their weaknesses, and relieve their necessities, for Christs sake--he loves Christ. But on the other hand, if he will stand aloof from them, does he love Christ? If he says he does, Christ Himself says he is a liar. He tells you they are His representatives, and whoever does not to them as he would to Christ, if Christ stood in person before him, does not love Christ as he ought. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another.

(2) Whoever loves Christ, rejoices in the return of the Lords Day. You have days of meeting among friends; and the offering of every expression of joy is appropriate to such meetings. This is the day which Christ sets apart to meet His friends. Do you love His Sabbath, and do you rejoice in its return? Do you honour the Lord and keep His ordinances? If so, there is ground to hope you love Christ. But if the Sabbath is a weariness, your love to Christ is yet but a name--there is no substance in it.

(3) The Bible is Christs love-letter to His people. Who loves to read and honour it? Who comes to it with a relish, as a friend reads a letter from a loved friend? He loves Christ: this is a sign which cannot be mistaken.

II. The penalty denounced. Whoever will not stand this test, what is to become of him? Let him be accursed: our Lord is coming. This form of expression is said to be taken from the practice in the synagogues in excommunicating offenders. They had three forms of excommunication, in the last or highest of which they used this expression, and this was always understood to imply the sentence of final and irrevocable ruin. Now, says the apostle, this is the doom of all who do not love Christ.

2. The curse does not fall now: the lovers of Christ and those who do not love Him go on, perhaps, very much with equal steps through life. But the Lord is coming; and at His coming He is to separate between those who love Him and those who do not love Him. The tares and the wheat grow together till the harvest; we cannot separate the hypocrite from the sincere until some overt action incontestably proves that the profession is false. The day of separation is at the end of the world; and to this St. Paul alludes, The Lord is coming, to discern between the true professor and the false.

3. The Lord delayeth His coming: but why? Not out of weakness, not out of forgetfulness, but that in the interval the curse may be averted.

4. I know that you cannot command your affections, but I tell you what you can do--you can go to the throne of grace and pray that the Holy Ghost may shed it abroad in your hearts. (G. Osborn, D.D.)

Want of love to Christ is

I. Rebellion against the highest authority. This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him. Want of love is therefore transgression of the will of God and rebellion against Him.

II. Contempt of the highest excellence. Whether you consider the, Divine nature of our Lord, or His human nature, or His mediatorial character, there is in Him everything calculated to attract. He is altogether lovely; therefore not to love Him is to have a degraded mind, and to throw contempt on the highest manifestation of human excellence and Divine love.

III. Ingratitude to the highest benefactor. Consider what we owe Him in connection with His incarnation, death, intercession. Think of the sinfulness of rejecting Him in the light of the truth that those who despise Him live because of His intercession. Conclusion: Is there anything to be said in extenuation of this guilt? The greatest argument for love is love. We love Him because He first loved us. You cannot force the slave to love his master; but what do you think of the child that, after receiving increasing kindness, refuses to love a parent? One sees the guilt in such a case. God is not a hard Master; Christ does not treat us as slaves. Oh, if His love is not in our hearts we are indeed hard, unfeeling, thankless, justly under the anathema of God. (W. Cadman, M A.)

Not loving Christ and its consequences

I. What are the claims of Christ upon our love?

1. He is God. If this were the only ground, He would surely have every right to expect our love. He who is the Author of every mercy therefore demands our love.

2. And yet, having failed of obtaining it as Creator, having had His laws insulted and His majesty dishonoured, He hath sought to win our love by such an act of love as even exceeds the mercies of creation, viz., redemption. Whatever you require for your admission into heaven, His love hath done it all. And now He offers His salvation freely.

3. Now, is this Friend of our lost souls unreasonable when He asks our hearts of us? We give them to our friends on earth.

II. Who are the men that love not that Lover of their souls?

1. The world. Here are a great variety of characters, but all are alike in this, they love not the Lord Jesus Christ. They live without Him, neglect His Word, discountenance His cause, love and follow practices which are His abomination.

2. Hypocritical professors, Christs own definition of those who love Him not is He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings. True, they may say high things of Him, yet all this is like the kiss of Judas, whilst they are doing all things in their life and practice to dishonour and affront Him. They love sin.

III. The guilt these men incur. Who can fathom the depth of their ingratitude! To have forgotten the mercies of creation is an awful blot upon our nature; but when He dies for our iniquities, and calls us to His pardoning mercies, who shall estimate the blackness of his guilt who treats this Saviour lightly? If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin; all our other sins look nothing when compared to this.

IV. The awful doom of all those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ. Let them be accursed at the second coming of the Lord. There is a curse which rests upon the head of every man by nature as a breaker of the law of God (Deu_27:26); and to deliver our souls from this was the great end of our Redeemers death (Gal_3:13). To those therefore who receive Him and rely upon Him this curse is turned into a blessing (Rom_8:1). But they who love not the Lord Jesus Christ remain under that curse from which He died to set them free (Joh_3:36; 1Co_15:17). To reject a Saviour, as it is a more aggravated sin than to reject the law, so will it meet with a more aggravated condemnation (Heb_10:28-29). The curse of the law is terrible; but the wrath of the Lamb! what will that be? (A. Roberts, M.A.)

The sin and doom of the loveless

I. Why is the Lord Jesus Christ to be loved? This love was the pervading emotion of early times, and its fervour quailed not at martyrdom. The memory of the Cross was fresh, and faith wrought by love. That love was a distinct and personal attachment, and is so still. For this love is a rational affection. It is not an emotion which springs up, none can tell how or why. Nor is it any caprice or feverish excitement. It rests on a sure foundation--on a tried corner-stone, viz., the knowledge of Christs person and claims.

1. Is He not the chiefest among ten thousand as a man? and were He not more than man, you cannot but love Him. Thou art fairer than the sons of men. The sexes divide between them the elements of perfection, and a perfect man or woman might not be a perfect being. But all that is tender and graceful in woman, and all that is noble and robust in man, met together in Jesus. Nature is never prodigal of her gifts. Birds of gay plumage have no song; strength is denied to creatures endowed with swiftness. As one man is generally distinguished by the predominance of one class of virtues, and another man by another, so the union of both might realise perfection. Had the peculiar gifts of John and Paul been blended, the result might have been a perfect apostle. Were the intrepidity of Luther, the tenderness of Melancthon, and the calm intellect of Calvin combined in one person, you would have the model of a faultless reformer. But every grace that adorns humanity was in Jesus in fulness and symmetry. No virtue jostled another out of its place. None rose into extravagance--none pined in feeble restriction. Perfect in every relation of life, wise in speech, pure in conduct, large in compassion, intense in beneficence, replete with everything that charms into attachment and rapture, He was the incarnation of universal loveliness.

2. But Christs humanity was assumed into a personal union with a higher nature. To take a nature so low, to save a race so guilty, and by an agony so awful, was the effect of a love that could only dwell in the bosom of Jehovah. And oh what a labour He accomplished! He secured for us the best of boons, and delivered us from the worst of evils. And surely we must love Him, because He first loved us.

II. How Jesus is to be loved. If our creed be, there is none like Christ, then the language of our heart will be--None but Christ! His claims are paramount, and therefore love to Him must not only be ardent, but supreme. Now, it is not of the absence of love in the Church we complain so much as of its lukewarmness. In many love only warms towards Christ on the first day of the week, and falls into slumber on the other six days. The plant could not maintain its life by the enjoyment of air, soil, and water once a week, and the animal would drag out an enfeebled existence if it depended on a similar periodical nutrition. No; it is of the nature of love to give its object an immediate and permanent existence in the heart. If Christ were loved, His image would ever dwell within us; and were He loved supremely, that image would gather in upon itself our deepest attachment, and exercise an undivided sway over thought, purpose, speech, and action.

III. The sin and danger of not loving Christ. It implies--

1. Ignorance of His person, claims, and work. The more men know Him, the more does their heart burn with this gracious and absorbing affection. And surely ignorance of Him must bring a merited anathema. For such ignorance is wholly inexcusable, with the Bible before it and the Cross in its view.

2. Unbelief. Faith worketh by love. But if absence of love imply absence of faith, what a curse must follow He that believeth is saved, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Severed from Christ the soul is lost for ever.

3. Unlikeness to God. And if, on a point so tender, he is unlike God, will not God frown upon the sinner and punish him?

4. Unfitness for heaven. Heaven is a region where love to Jesus predominates--where it gladdens every bosom, and gives music to every anthem. But the unloving mind is not allowed to join in these warblings, for none but the new heart can sing the new song. Without love to Him, because unconscious of any salvation from Him, it would feel no reason to bless Him.

5. The certainty of the curse--Our Lord cometh. The Church rejoices in that motto, but it is the terror of the wicked. The cloud that guided Israel consumed and terrified the amazed Egyptian. And He comes for the very purpose of making inquisition--of ascertaining who have responded to His love, and confided in His atonement. Nor can He be deceived. His eye, as it looks upon the mass, scans every individual and looks down into his heart. Nay, the heart without love will at once discover itself by its tremor. Nor can it escape. Subterfuge and evasion are alike impossible. But not only does the awful formula certify the curse, it also embitters it--Our Lord cometh--He whom men are bound to love as Saviour pronounces the dead anathema. From other lips it would not be so awful; but surely such an anathema from the lips of Love must arm itself with a burning and unbearable terror. (J. Eadie, D.D.)

A negative crime and a positive punishment

This expression may be regarded--

1. As a grand characteristic of Biblical appeal. It appeals to the heart, and seeks the reformation of the world by the reformation of the individual, and the reformation of the individual by the reformation of the heart.

2. As an incidental argument of the Godhead of Christ. The Bible claims for Him supreme love, but supreme affection belongs to God. Paul makes our destiny depend upon love to Christ. Would he make our destiny depend upon mere love to man, to Abraham, David, Isaiah, or John?

3. As a solemn test of a true character. The essence of a true character consists not in ideas or mere actions, but in love, and in love for Christ. Lovest thou Me? said Christ to Peter. The text contains--

I. A negative crime. This state of mind in relation to Christ is--

1. Unreasonable. There is everything in Him to call out the highest love. There are three kinds of love of which we are susceptible--gratitude, esteem, and benevolence. The first requires manifestation of kindness; the second, of moral excellence; the third, a purpose for the common good. Christ manifests all these, and therefore deserves our highest love. There may be men who have power to excite in our natures, in some degree, love in some of these forms; but Christ alone has power to excite all in the highest degree.

2. Ascertainable. We can soon ascertain whether we love Christ or not. The chief object of love will always be--

(1) The most engrossing subject of thought.

(2) The attractive theme of conversation.

(3) The source of the greatest delight in pleasing.

(4) The most transforming power of character.

(5) The most identified with our conscious life.

3. Deplorable. This love is the only true regulative power of the soul. Where this is not, or where it is misdirected, all the powers of our nature are misemployed, and all is confusion. Then, indeed, the life of the soul is dead to virtue and to happiness. Our happiness consists in supreme affection, and our supreme affection, to yield happiness, must be directed to an object absolutely perfect, reciprocative, and ever enduring. Such an object is Christ, and such only is He.

II. A positive punishment.

1. Its nature. Let him be Anathema. The word primarily means anything that is laid up, or set apart for some particular purpose. The secondary and general meaning is accursed, devoted to ruin (cf. Gal_1:7-8; Rom_9:3)

. It is one of Pauls strong words to express a terrible evil. Cut off the planet from the sun, and it rushes to ruin; the river from the fountain, and it is gone; the branch from the tree, and the limb from the body, and they die. The soul, cut off from Christ--its centre, fountain, root, life--is destroyed.

2. Its certainty. Maran-atha, the Lord will come. Christ will come to execute judgment upon those who love Him not. Paul had written the other part of his letter by an amanuensis, but to write these terrible words he takes up the pen himself. Men are accursed, not merely because they hate Christ, rebel against His authority, profane His ordinances, but because they do not love Him; whatever else they do in philanthropy, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Anathema

I. The crime supposed. Not to love Christ supremely is--

1. Unreasonable--He is supremely lovely.

2. Ungrateful--He has loved us.

3. Unjust--He has a right to our love.

II. The punishment threatened.

1. The punishment.

2. The time.

3. The certainty. Application--

(1) It is the duty of all men to love Christ.

(2) Christ knows those who love Him. (G. Whitefield.)

Anathema and grace

1. Terror and tenderness are strangely mingled in this parting salutation. Paul has been obliged, throughout the whole Epistle, to assume a tone of remonstrance, and here he traces all their vices to their fountain-head--the defect of love to Jesus Christ--and warns of their fatal issue.

2. But he will not leave these terrible words for his last. The thunder is followed by gentle rain, and the sun glistens on the dewdrops (verse 23). Nor for himself will he let the last impression he one of rebuke or even of warning (verse 24). Is not that beautiful? And does it not go deeper than the revelation of Pauls character? May we not see in these terrible and tender thoughts a revelation of the true nature both of the terror and the tenderness of the gospel which Paul preached? Note--

I. The terror of the fate of the unloving. Anathema means an offering, or a thing devoted. In the story of the conquest of Canaan, e.g., we read of places, persons, or things that were accursed, i.e., devoted or put under a ban. And this devotion was of such a sort as that the subjects were doomed to destruction. So Paul tells us that the unloving, like those cities full of uncleanness, when they are brought into contact with the infinite love of the coming Judge, shrivel up and are destroyed. Maran-atha is a separate sentence. It means our Lord comes, and was perhaps a kind of watchword. The use of it here is to confirm the warning of the previous clause, by pointing to the time at which that warning shall be fulfilled.

1. The Lord comes. Pauls Christianity gathered round two facts and moments--one in the past, Christ has come; one in the future, Christ will come. For memory, the coming by the cradle and the Cross; for hope, the coming on His throne in glory. And between these two moments, like the solid piers of a suspension bridge, the frail structure of the present hangs swinging. There have been many comings in the past, besides the coming in the flesh. One characteristic is stamped upon them all, and that is the swift annihilation of what is opposed to Him. The Bible has a set of standing metaphors by which to illustrate this thought--A flood, a harvest, the waking of God from slumber, etc. The second coming will include and surpass all the characteristics which these lesser and premonitory judgment days presented in miniature.

2. The coming of the Lord of love is the destruction of the unloving--not the cessation of their being, but a death worse than death, because a death in life. Suppose a man with all his past annihilated, with all its effort crushed, with all its possessions gone, and with his memory and his conscience stung into clear-sighted activity, so as that he looks back upon his former and into his present self, and feels that it is all chaos, would not that fulfil the word, Let him be Anathema? And suppose that such a man, in addition to these thoughts, and as the root and the source of them, had ever the quivering consciousness that he was in the presence of an unloved Judge! The unloving heart is always ill at ease in the presence of Him whom it does not love. The unloving heart does not love, because it does not trust nor see the love. Therefore, the unloving heart is a heart that is only capable of apprehending the wrathful side of Christs character. So there is no cruelty, no arbitrariness in the decree that the heart that loves not when brought into contact with the infinite Lord of love must find in the touch death and not life, darkness and not light, terror and not hope.

3. Paul does not say he that hateth, but he that does not love. The absence of love, which is the child of faith, the parent of righteousness, the condition of joy in His presence, is sufficient to ensure that this fate shall fall upon a man.

II. The present grace of the coming Lord. Our Lord cometh. The grace, etc. (verse 23).

1. These two things are not contradictory, but we often deal with them as if they were. But the real doctrine says there is no terror without tenderness, and there is no tenderness without terror. You cannot have love which is anything nobler than facile good nature and unrighteous indifference, unless you have along with it aspects of Gods character and government which ought to make some men afraid. And you cannot keep these latter aspects from being exaggerated and darkened into a Moloch of cruelty unless you remember that underlying them and determining them are aspects of the Divine nature, to which only child-like confidence and love rightly respond. The terror of the Lord is a garb which our sins forces upon the love of the Lord.

2. Note what the present grace is. A tenderness which gathers into its embrace all these imperfect, immoral, lax, heretical people in Corinth, as well as everywhere else--with you all. And surely the love which gathers in such people leaves none outside its sweep. Let nothing rob you of this assurance, that the coming Lord is present with us all, and all we need, in order to get its full sunshine into our hearts, is that we trust Him utterly, and, so trusting, love Him back again with that love which is the fulfilling of the law and the crown of the gospel.

III. The tenderness, caught from the Master Himself of the servant who rebukes (verse 24). There is no other instance where he introduces himself and his own love at the end, after he has pronounced the solemn benediction. But here, as if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself on their minds which corresponded to the impression of his Master that he desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makes his last word a personal word--My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Paul embraces all whom he has been rebuking in the warm embrace of his proffered love, which was the very cause of his rebuke. The healing balm of this closing message was to be applied to the wounds which his keen edged words had made, and to show that they were wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe. Because the gospel is a gospel, it must speak plainly about death and destruction to the unloving. The danger signal is not to be blamed for a collision. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

Loving Jesus Christ

First, love Christ so far as to lay down the pleasures of this life for Him, and so far as to lay down the life itself for Him.

2. Love Him, then, as He is presented to thee here: love the Lord, love Christ, love Jesus. As He is the Lord, thou wilt fear Him; but no man fears God truly, but that that fear ends in love. Love Him as He is the Lord, that would have nothing perish that He hath made. And love Him as He is Christ, that hath made Himself man too, that thou mightest not perish. Love Him as the Lord that could show mercy, and love Him as Christ who is that way of mercy which the Lord hath chosen. I have found Him, and found that He, who by His incarnation was made able to save me (so He was Christ), by His actual passion hath saved me, and so I love Him as Jesus. When I conceit, when I contemplate my Saviour thus, I love the Lord, and there is a reverent adoration in that love; I love Christ, and there is a mysterious admiration in that love; but I love Jesus, and there is a tender compassion in that love, and I am content to suffer with Him and to suffer for Him rather than see any diminution of His glory by my prevarication. And he that loves not thus, that loves not the Lord God, and God manifested in Christ, Anathema, Maranatha, which is our next and our last part. Whether this Anathema be denounced by the apostle by way of imprecation, that he wished it so, or pronounced by way of excomnmnication, that others should esteem them so and avoid them, as such persons, is sometimes debated amongst us in our books. But we rather take this in the text to be an excommunication denounced by the apostle, than an imprecation. Now the excommunication is in the Anathema, and the aggravating thereof in the other words, Maranatha. The word Anathema had two significations: that which for some excellency in it was separated from the use of man to the service of God, or that which for some great fault in it was separated from God and man too. From the first kind men abstained because they were consecrated to God, and from the other because they were aliened from God. By the light of nature, by the light of grace we should separate ourselves from irreligious and from idolatrous persons, and that with that earnestness which the apostle expresses in the last words, Maranatha. It is superabundant perverseness to resist Christ now, now that He hath appeared already and established to Himself a kingdom in the world. And so St. Chrysostom seems to take it too. Christ is come already, says he. If any excuse could he pretended before, yet since Christ is come, none can be, But that is not all that is intended by the apostle in this place. It is not only a censorious speech, it is a shame for them, and an inexcusable thing in them, if they do not love the Lord Jesus Christ; but it is a judiciary speech, thus much more, since they do not love the Lord. The Lord judge them when He comes. I, says the apostle, take away none of His mercy when He comes, but I will have nothing to do with them till He comes; to me He shall be Anathema, Maranatha, separated from me till then; then the Lord, who shows mercy in minutes, do His will upon him. To end all, if a man love not the Lord, if he love not God, which is, which was, and which is to come, what will please him, whom will he love? (J. Donne.)

Affection ungratefully withheld

After Joan of Arc had won the great victory at Orleans, and made clear the way for Charles the Seventh to be crowned king, she was taken prisoner, and subjected to the most brutal treatment at the hands of her enemies; still her ungrateful king refused to make a single move to liberate the one who had freed his subjects, and made him heir and king. My unsaved friend, you are doing the same thing. As you read the simple narrative, you doubtless will say, King Charles was ungrateful, and deserved punishment. Yet Jesus Christ left His heavenly home, came down to earth, suffered, and died that you might be crowned the child of a King, and you refuse to even acknowledge Him. Should the anger of God consume you, could you say aught in your defence? (Sharpened Arrows.)

The sin of not loving Christ

To refuse to love Jesus Christ, I affirm, is to do Him all the evil which an open enemy could, or at least would do. If Jesus Christ had come into the world, as a king into a revolted province, in order to extinguish rebellion, and cause the silence of terror to reign in it, He might be satisfied with a trembling submission, and care nothing for the evil we do Him. But such a submission He did not desire, nor can desire. That alone which He desired, that alone for which He descended to the earth, the end to which He directed all His toils, was the conquest of our heart. Separate from that triumph, every other is nothing to Him. (Dr. Vinet.)

Want of love to Christ a fatal sin

How great is the sin of not loving your Lord and your Saviour! Oh! but you see, sir, that is a mere negative thing. It is what we do that we are accountable for to God; it is our positive actions that we must render an account for at the last. Is that so? Is there no sin in not doing what you ought to do? If your neighbours house were in flames to-night, and you saw them belching out of the windows, would it be no sin for you to sit calmly in your own dwelling, and not go at midnight to raise the family from their fatal sleep? Would you think so if to-morrow morning you looked at their skeletons amid the charred and blackened ruins? Suppose there is some man in this chapel to-night, who lives in a comfortable and luxurious mansion, but his own mother is in an almshouse, I say to him, Where is your old mother? He says, In the poorhouse. Do you know, sir, that you are practising a diabolical cruelty? Oh! but I am doing nothing to my mother. It is your not doing; it is your living in luxury, and she lying there on that hard bed of poverty and neglect that stamps you, sir, with that most damnable sin of breaking Gods fifth commandment. It is what you do not do that stamps you as an ingrate to her that bore you. Oh! my friends, yet out of Christ, it is the sin of not loving Christ that makes you guilty before God. Not loving Him is pronounced in all cases a positive and fatal sin. (T. L. Cuyler.)

How he came to say it

How came the tender-hearted Paul to throw those red-hot words at the Corinthians? Not to love Christ is--

I. Unreasonable and unnatural. Tradition tells us that He was the most infinitely beautiful being that ever walked our small earth, and to a lovely exterior He joined all loveliness of disposition. The sunshine of His love mingling with the shadows of His sorrows, crossed by the crystalline stream of His tears and the crimson of His blood, make a picture worthy of being called the masterpiece of the eternities. He was altogether lovely--always lovely, and lovely in everything. Lovely in His sacrifice. Why, He gave up everything for us, and He took everybodys trouble. Now suppose that, notwithstanding all this, a man cannot have any affection for Him. Why After all this, if a man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.

II. Unjust. Just look at the injustice of not loving Him. There is nothing that excites a man like injustice. If there ever was a fair and square purchase of anything, then Christ purchased us. If anything is purchased and paid for, ought not the goods to be delivered? And you will go to law for it, and, if need be, hurl the defaulter into jail. Such injustice as between man and man is bad enough, but between man and God it is reprehensible and intolerable. After all thin purchase if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

III. Suicidal. If a man gets into trouble, and he cannot get out, we have only one feeling towards him, sympathy and a desire to help him. But suppose the day before he failed, W. E. Dodge had come into his store and said: My friend, I hear you are in trouble. I have come to help you, and suppose the man were to say, I dont want it; I would rather fail than take it; I dont even thank you for offering it. Your sympathy for that man would cease immediately. Now Christ hears of our spiritual embarrassments. He finds the law saying, Pay me what thou owest. Pay? We cannot pay a farthing of all the millions of obligation. Well, Christ comes in and says, You can use My name. Now suppose the soul says, O Christ, I want not Thy help. Go away from me. You would say, After all this ingratitude and rejection, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.

IV. Cruel. The meanest thing I could do for you would be needlessly to hurt your feelings. Now, Christ is a bundle of delicacy and sensitiveness. Oh, what rough treatment He has received sometimes from our hands! Every time you rejected the Lord you struck Him. How you have broken His heart! Do you know there is a crucifixion going on now? You say, Where? Here! When a man refuses to love Christ and rejects Him, the apostle intimates that. He crucifies the Lord afresh. By our sins we have done this. When I think of all this, my surprise at the apostle ceases. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co 16:22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus — In sincerity, but is secretly alienated from him in heart, while he calls himself his servant, preferring some secular interest of his own to that of his Divine Master; if any one be an enemy to Christ’s person, offices, doctrines, or commands; let him be Anathema Maranatha — Anathema signifies a thing devoted to destruction, and it seems to have been customary with the Jews of that age, when they had pronounced any man anathema, to add the Syriac expression, Maranatha, that is, the Lord cometh; namely, to execute vengeance upon him. See note on Rom 9:3. We may add further here, “Anathema Maranatha, were the words with which the Jews began their greatest excommunications, whereby they not only excluded sinners from their society, but delivered them to the divine Cherem, or Anathema; that is, to eternal perdition. This form they used, because Enoch’s prophecy concerning the coming of God to judge and punish the wicked, began with these words, as we learn from Jude, who quotes the first sentence of that prophecy, 1Co 16:14. Wherefore, since the apostle denounced this curse against the man, who, while he professed subjection to Christ, was secretly alienated from him in his heart, it is as if he had said, Though such a person’s wickedness cannot be discovered and punished by the church, yet the Lord, at his coming, will find it out, and punish him with eternal perdition. This terrible curse the apostle wrote in his epistle to the Corinthians, because many of the faction, but especially their leader, had shown great alienation of mind from Christ. And he wrote it with his own hand, to show how serious he was in the denunciation;” and he inserted it between his salutation and solemn benediction, that it might be the more attentively regarded. “Estius says, from his example, and from the anathemas pronounced Gal 1:8-9, arose the practice of the ancient general councils, of adding to their decisions, or definitions of doctrine, anathemas against them who denied these doctrines.” Be this as it may, let it ever be remembered that professing Christians, who do not sincerely love their Master, lie under the heaviest curse which an apostle could pronounce, or God inflict. Let the unhappy creatures take the alarm, and labour to obtain a more ingenuous temper, ere the Lord, whom they neglect, and against whom they entertain a secret enmity, descend from heaven with unsupportable terror, and pronounce the anathema with his own lips, in circumstances which shall for ever cut off all hope, and all possibility of its being reversed! See Macknight and Doddridge.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16:22 To be cursed is to be condemned by God (see also Rom 9:3; Gal 1:8-9). • Our Lord, come! This phrase was sometimes used in early Christian prayers (see also Rev 22:20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Co 16:22. Ἔι τις οὐ, if any man not) Paul loves Jesus, do ye also all love Him.—φιλεῖ) loves with the heart: kisses virtually by his conduct: the corresponding word to φιλεῖ is φιλήματι, with a kiss, 1Co 16:20; for φιλεῖν is used in the sense of kissing, Luk 22:47; and to kiss is used for to love, Psa 2:12.—τὸν Κυρίον, the Lord) He is to be preferred even before all the brethren, nay even before Paul and Apollos.—ἤτω ἀνάθεμα, μαρὰν ἀθά, let him be anathema Maranatha) So far from wishing him health [saluting him], I would rather bid him be accursed. The words Maranatha add weight to the anathema; and this phrase, expressed in an idiom familiar to the Jews indicates, that he who loves not Jesus will partake with the Jews, who call Jesus anathema with bitter hatred, 1Co 12:3, in that curse most righteously falling upon themselves, for he uses this language to soften the odiousness of the phrase [by Euphemism] instead of the expression, if any man hate Jesus. Μαρὰν ἀθὰ, i.e. the Lord cometh; μαρὰν in Syriac, our Lord, or simply the Lord. Hesychius says, μαραναθὰ, ὁ Κύριος ἦλθεν, κ.τ.λ. As in French monseigneur is the same as seigneur., Μαρὰν ἀθὰ seems to have been a frequent symbol [watchword] with Paul, the meaning of which the Corinthians had either already known, or now, when they were to be seriously affected by it, might learn from others.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Co_16:22

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maran atha.

This and what follows is what Paul himself wrote. They are words which need no explanation. They carry with them their awful import to every heart. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ. If our Lord be God over all and blessed for ever, want of love to him is the violation of our whole duty. If he be not only truly God, but God manifested in the flesh for our salvation; if he unites in himself all divine and all human excellence; if he has so loved us as to unite our nature to his own, and to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life; then our own hearts must assent to the justness of the malediction pronounced even against ourselves, if we do not love him. We must feel that in that case we deserve to be anathema. Nay, we thereby are a thing accursed; we are an object of execration and loathing to all holy beings by the same necessity that holiness is opposed to sin. Maran atha are two Aramaean words signifying The Lord, or our Lord comes. It is a solemn warning. The Lord, whom men refuse to recognize and love, is about to come in the glory of this Father and with all his holy angels, to take vengeance on those who know not God, and who obey not the gospel. So deeply were the apostles impressed with the divinity of Christ, so fully were they convinced that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, that the refusal or inability to recognize him as such, seemed to them a mark of reprobation. If this truth be hid, they say, it is hid to them that are lost, 2Co_4:3-6.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By these words, are betokened the [secret] kind of curse and excommunication that was amongst the Jews: and the words are as much as to say, as our Lord cometh: So that his meaning may be this, Let him be accursed even to the coming of the Lord, that is to say, to his death’s day, even for ever.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

A solemn closing warning added in his own hand as in Eph 6:24; Col 4:18.

the Lord--who ought to be "loved" above Paul, Apollos, and all other teachers. Love to one another is to be in connection with love to Him above all. IGNATIUS [Epistle to the Romans, 7] writes of Christ, "My love, has been crucified" (compare Sol 2:7).

Jesus Christ--omitted in the oldest manuscripts.

let him be Anathema--accursed with that curse which the Jews who call Jesus "accursed" (Co1 12:3) are bringing righteously on their own heads [BENGEL]. So far from "saluting" him, I bid him be accursed.

Maranatha--Syriac for, "the Lord cometh." A motto or watchword to urge them to preparedness for the Lord's coming; as in Phi 4:5, "The Lord is at hand."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus] This is directed immediately against the Jews. From 1Co 12:3, we find that the Jews, who pretended to be under the Spirit and teaching of God, called Jesus αναθεμα, or accursed; i.e. a person who should be devoted to destruction: see the note there. In this place the apostle retorts the whole upon themselves, and says: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let HIM be αναθεμα, accursed, and devoted to destruction. This is not said in the way of a wish or imprecation, but as a prediction of what would certainly come upon them if they did not repent, and of what did come on them because they did not repent; but continued to hate and execrate the Lord Jesus; and of what still lies upon them, because they continue to hate and execrate the Redeemer of the world.

It is generally allowed that the apostle refers here to some of the modes of excommunication among the Jews, of which there were three, viz.:-

1. Niddui נדוי, which signifies a simple separation or exclusion of a man from the synagogue, and from his wife and family, for THIRTY days.

2. Cherem חרם which was inflicted on him who had borne the niddui, and who had not, in the thirty days, made proper compensation, in order to be reconciled to the synagogue. This was inflicted with dire execrations, which he was informed must all come upon him if he did not repent; but the cherem always supposed place for repentance.

3. Shammatha שמתא: this was the direst of all, and cut off all hope of reconciliation and repentance; after which the man was neither reconcilable to the synagogue, nor acknowledged as belonging even to the Jewish nation. See these different forms in Buxtorf's Rabbinical and Talmudical Lexicon, under their respective words.

In the Lexicon just now quoted, Buxtorf gives a form of the cherem, which he says he copied from an ancient Hebrew MS. Of this awful piece I shall lay a translation before the reader.

"By the sentence of the Lord of lords, let P. the son of P. be anathematized in both houses of judgment; the superior and inferior. Let him be anathematized among the highest saints; let him be anathematized among the seraphim and ophanim; and finally, let him be anathematized by all the congregations of the great and the small! Let great and continued plagues rest upon him; with great and horrible diseases! Let his house be the habitation of dragons! and let his constellation be darkened in the clouds! Let him be for indignation, and wrath, and burning! Let his carcass be thrown to the wild beasts and serpents! Let his enemies and his adversaries triumph over him! Let his silver and gold be given to others! And let all his children be exposed at the doors of their enemies! And let posterity be astonished at his day! Let him be accursed by the mouth of Addiriron and Achtariel; by the mouth of Sandalphon and Hadraniel; by the mouth of Ansisiel and Patchiel; by the mouth of Seraphiel and Sagansael; by the mouth of Michael and Gabriel; by the mouth of Raphael and Mesharetiel! Let him be anathematized by the mouth of Zaafzavif, and by the mouth of Hafhavif, who is the great God; and by the mouth of the seventy names of the supreme King; and lastly, by the mouth of Tsortak the great chancellor.

"Let him he swallowed up like Korah and his companions! Let his soul depart with fear and terror! Let the chiding of the Lord slay him! Let him be confounded as Achitophel was in his counsel! Let the leprosy of Gehazi be his leprosy! and let there be no resurrection of his ruins! In the sepulchres of the children of Israel let him not be buried! Let his wife be given to another, and let others bow themselves upon her in his death! In this anathema, let P. the son of P. be; and let this be his inheritance! But upon me and upon all Israel may God extend his peace and blessing, Amen." To this is added the 18th, 19th, and 20th verses of Deuteronomy 29, De 29:18-20 which the reader may read at his leisure. There are many things in this cherem which require a comment, but this is not the place.

Anathema, maran-atha.] "Let him be accursed; our Lord cometh." I cannot see the reason why these words were left untranslated. The former is Greek, and has been already explained; the latter is Syriac [Syriac] maran-atha, our Lord is coming: i.e. to execute the judgment denounced. Does not the apostle refer to the last verse in the Bible? Lest I come and smite the land ( cherem) with a curse? And does he not intimate that the Lord was coming to smite the Jewish land with that curse? Which took place a very few years after, and continues on that gainsaying and rebellious people to the present day. What the apostle has said was prophetic, and indicative of what was about to happen to that people. God was then coming to inflict punishment upon them: he came, and they were broken and dispersed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(22) If any man love not the Lord Jesus.—From all the argument and controversy which form the main portion of the Epistle, the Apostle with his own hand brings back the thoughts of the Corinthians to the true test of their Christianity. Do they love the Lord Jesus? The word here used for love signifies not merely affectionate regard, but personal devotion.

Let him be Anathema Maran-atha.—Better Let him be Anathema. Maranatha. There is no connection between these two words. Anathema signifies “accursed.” The absence of love to Christ is condemnation. The word Maranatha is a Syriac expression—“the Lord is at hand,” or “the Lord is come;” probably the former. The uncertainty of the moment when the Lord may come is the most solemn thought with which to remind them of the importance of being one with Christ. Stanley gives the following interesting Note:—“The name Maronite is sometimes explained by a tradition that the Jews in their expectation of the Messiah were constantly saying, Maran (Lord). To which the Christians answered, Maranatha (The Lord is come), why do you expect Him? Hence the name, ‘Maronite’ is applied to the Jews, especially Spanish Jews and Moors who confessed Maran, but not Maranatha.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ] The word here translated love applies to the intimate and familiar personal affection subsisting between individuals, rather than the wider and more general feeling of love usually enjoined in the N. T. It is the word used when our Lord for the third time asks St Peter the question ‘Lovest thou me?’ (St Joh_21:17). Christians are to cultivate a feeling of personal loyalty and affection for Jesus Christ, such as a soldier feels for his general, or a disciple for his master. And this though they have never seen Him. As the natural precedes the spiritual (ch. 1Co_15:46), so the love for Christ as Man must precede, and lead up to, the love for Him as God. See notes on ch. 1Co_15:23; 1Co_15:28.

let him be anathema] The word is derived from two Greek words signifying to set apart, and is equivalent to the Hebrew cherem, which denotes something devoted to destruction for God’s honour’s sake, as the city and spoil at Jericho, Jos_6:17. See also Lev_27:28-29.

Maran-atha] Two Syriac words Maran, atha, signifying either (1) our Lord is come, or (2) our Lord is coming. If the former, the meaning is ‘our Lord is come, beware how you treat Him.’ If the latter, it will be ‘our Lord is coming, and He will judge those who have set Him at nought.’ Cf. Php_4:5; Jas_5:8-9. Lightfoot cites Mal_4:6, the last words of the last prophet, ‘Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse’ (cherem). It is difficult to account for the Aramaic form of the word, unless we suppose with some that the utterance of the formula in the Apostle’s own language was likely to be more impressive. For this and the foregoing word consult Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

Ver. 22. If any man love not] That is, desperately hate. A sin so execrable, that the apostle would not once name it. So the Jews would not name leaven at the passover, nor a sow at any time, but called it dabar achar, another thing.

Anathema, Maranatha] Accursed upon accursed, put over to God to punish. This is a dreadful curse. (Elias Thisbit.) See a gracious promise, Eph 6:24. God may suffer such as love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, to be Anathema secundum dici (as Bucholcer said), but not secundum esse. See an instance, Isa 66:5, and say with David, "Let them curse, but do thou bless, Lord."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ - This is a most solemn and affecting close of the whole epistle. It was designed to direct them to the great and essential matter of religion, the love of the Lord Jesus; and was intended, doubtless, to turn away their minds from the subjects which had agitated them, the disputes and dissensions which had rent the church into factions, to the great inquiry whether they truly loved the Saviour. It is implied that there was danger, in their disputes and strifes about minor matters, of neglecting the love of the Lord Jesus, or of substituting attachment to a party in the place of that love to the Saviour which alone could be connected with eternal life.

Let him be anathema - On the meaning of the word anathema, see the note at 1Co 12:3. The word properly means accursed, or devoted to destruction; and the idea here is, that he who did not believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him, would be, and ought to be, devoted to destruction, or accursed of God. It expresses what ought to be done; it expresses a truth in regard to God’s dealings, not the desire of the apostle. No matter what any man’s endowments might be; no matter what might be his wealth, his standing, or his talent; no matter if he were regarded as a ruler in the church, or at the head of a party; yet if he had not true love to the Lord Jesus, he could not be saved. This sentiment is in accordance with the declaration of the Scripture everywhere. See particularly, Joh 3:31; Mic 6:16, and the note on the latter place.

Maran-atha - These are Syriac words, Moran Etho - “the Lord comes;” that is, will come. The reason why this expression is added may be:

(1) To give the greater solemnity to the declaration of the apostle; that is, to give it an emphatic form.

(2) To intimate that, though there were no earthly power to punish a lack of love to the Saviour; though the state could not, and ought not to punish it; and though the church could not exclude all who did not love the Lord Jesus from its bosom, yet they could not escape. For, the Lord would himself come to take vengeance on his enemies; and no one could escape. Though, therefore, those who did not love the Lord Jesus could not be punished by people, yet they could not escape divine condemnation. The Lord would come to execute vengeance himself, and they could not escape. It is probable (see Lightfoot in loco) that the Jews were accustomed to use such a form in their greater excommunication, and that they meant by it, that the person who was thus devoted to destruction, and excommunicated, must be destroyed; for the Lord would come to take vengeance on all his enemies. “It certainly was not now, for the first time, used as a new kind of cursing by the apostle; but was the application of a current mode of speech to the purpose he had in contemplation. Perhaps, therefore, by inspecting the manners of the East, we may illustrate the import of this singular passage. The nearest approach to it that I have been able to discover is in the following extract from Mr. Bruce; and though, perhaps, this does not come up to the full power of the apostle’s meaning, yet, probably, it gives the idea which was commonly attached to the phrase among the public. Mr. Bruce had been forced by a pretended saint, in Egypt, to take him on board his vessel, as if to carry him to a certain place - whereas, Mr. Bruce meant no such thing; but, having set him on shore at some little distance from whence he came, ‘we slacked our vessel down the stream a few yards, filling our sails, and stretching away.

On seeing this, our saint fell into a desperate passion, cursing, blaspheming, and stamping with his feet; at every word crying “Shar Ullah!” that is, “May God send and do justice!” This appears to be the strongest execration this passionate Arab could use, that is, To punish you adequately is out of my power: I remit you to the vengeance of God.’ Is not this the import of anathema maranatha?” - Taylor in Calmet. This solemn declaration, or denunciation, the apostle wrote with his own hand, as the summary of all that he had said, in order that it might be attentively regarded. There is not a more solemn declaration in the Bible; there is not a more fearful denunciation; there is no one that will be more certainly executed. No matter what we may have - be it wealth, or beauty, or vigor, or accomplishment, or adorning, or the praise and flattery of the world; no matter if we are elevated high in office and in rank; no matter if we are honored by the present age, or gain a reputation to be transmitted to future times; yet if we have not love to the Saviour, we cannot be saved.

We must be devoted to the curse; and the Lord Jesus will soon return to execute the tremendous sentence on a guilty world. How important then to ask whether we have that love? Whether we are attached to the Lord Jesus in such a manner as to secure his approbation? Whether we so love him as to be prepared to hail his coming with joy, and to be received into his everlasting kingdom - In the close of the notes on this Epistle, I may ask anyone who shall read these pages whether he has this love? And I may press it upon the attention of each one, though I may never see their faces in the flesh, as the great inquiry which is to determine their everlasting destiny. The solemn declaration stands here, that if they do not love the Lord Jesus, they will be, and they ought to be, devoted to destruction. The Lord Jesus will soon return to make investigation, and to judge the world. There will be no escape; and no tongue can express the awful horrors of an eternal curse pronounced by the lips of the Son of God!

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Let him be anathema, accursed. Maran Atha,[2] which, according to St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom, signify, the Lord is come already, and so is to be taken as an admonition to those who doubted of the resurrection, and is to put them in mind, that Christ, the Judge of the living and the dead, is come already. The Rabbinical writers tells us, there are three curses among the Jews called by different names: that the first was niddui, which implied an expulsion from the synagogue for a time; the second was greater, such being quite cut off from the common society, called Cherem; the third, Maran Atha, the Lord cometh, is coming, or is come, which was followed by exemplary judgments and punishments. Thus Mons. Hure, in his Bible Dictionary, Mr. Legh, in his Critica Sacra, and also Mr. Nary. But whether this is better grounded than many other Rabbinical stories, let others judge. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Maran Atha, Greek: maran atha. St. John Chrysostom, Greek: ti de esti maran atha; o kurios emon elthe, &c. St. Hierom [St. Jerome], Epist. ad Marcellam. tom. ii. p. 706, and de nominibus Hebraicis. tom. iv. p. 78.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ: love is an affection of the heart, but discernible by overt acts: the meaning is: If any man, by any notorious acts, declareth that he loveth not the Lord Jesus, whether he be a hypocrite, owning the name of Christ, but living in a contempt of and disobedience to his commandments; or an apostate, who showeth his want of love to Christ by denying him in an hour of danger and persecution, or an open enemy and persecutor of Christ and his gospel.

Let him be Anathema Maran-atha; let him be accursed, let him be looked upon as a detestable and abominable person. Some tell us, that the Jews having three excommunications, this word signifieth their highest degree, by which the person was given up to the judgment and vengeance of God; but others say, there is no such term to be found among them, and that the term Maran-atha signifies no more than: The Lord is come. Let the Jews and other vain persons say what they will, the Lord is come; and if any love him not, let him be looked on as a detestable person.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. If—This awful woe, given by Paul’s own hand, closing with the solemn Aramaic watchword, formed an impressive and memorable sentence for the Corinthian Church.

Anathema—Devoted to destruction; “sacred to perdition.” Note on Rom_9:3, and on Jos_6:17; Jos_6:21. This word describes the awful side of human guilt and destiny. It is the anticipation of, and solemn assent to, the dread “Depart, ye cursed,” of the final Judge, at which it becomes us to tremble rather than to cavil.

Maran-atha—That is, the Lord is come. It is the Christian’s reminder as he waits the advent of the judge to execute that anathema. It is a brief motto, in the language spoken by the Incarnate when on earth, (like Abba, in Rom_8:15), a watchword by which Christians could avow themselves and recognise each other.

Stanley says: “The word Maran is the longer form of Mar, the Chaldee (or later Hebrew) word for Lord, and used as such in Dan_2:47; Dan_4:19; Dan_4:24; Dan_5:23; familiar also as the title of ecclesiastical dignitaries in the Syrian Church. Atha is frequently used in the poetical books of the Old Testament for comes, and so also in the Chaldee.” He adds that the Maronite Jews of Spain were so called because, in expectation of a future Messiah, they were ever uttering the word Maran, Lord, to which the Christians retorted Maran-atha, The Lord is come. This, Paul’s anathema, has a dread sound: not much unlike a discord, in the flowing music of salutations and benedictions. Alas! it is a true representation of the tragic and mournful semi-tone that runs through the anthem of human history and human destiny, commenced by sin and closing in woe.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any man love not, etc. This sentence (as in Colossians (Eph_6:24) is part of the autograph salutation. The verb here used for "love" (philo) was perhaps suggested by the word for "kiss" ( philema). The word generally used for "love of God" is agapae, (Eph_6:24) which implies less warmth, but deeper reverence. But this passage is full of emotion. Let him be Anathema. The word only occurs elsewhere in Act_12:3 Act_23:14; Rom_9:3; Gal_1:8, 9 (comp. Mat_26:74, "to curse It is the equivalent of the Hebrew cherem, a ban (Lev_27:29; Jos_6:17, etc.) I cannot pretend to understand what St. Paul means by it, unless it be "Let personal love to Christ be the essential of Christian fellowship, and let him who has it not be regarded as apart from the Church. Commentators call it "an imprecation," or "malediction," and say that it means "Let him be devoted to God"s wrath and judgment." That language is, indeed, very like the language of religious hatred and religious usurpation in all ages, but it is the very antithesis to the general tone of the apostle. If this were the meaning, it would seem to resemble the very spirit which Christ himself severely rebuked as the Elijah spirit, not the Christ spirit. But I do not believe that, even in a passing outburst of strong emotion, St. Paul had any such meaning. For

(1) the Jews used cherem, not only of the severer form of excommunication (shem atha), but even of the milder and by no means severe temporary form (nidui); and

(2) it cannot be more severe than "handing over to Satan" (1Co_5:5; 1Ti_1:20) which was merciful in its purpose. Maran-atha; two words, the Lord cometh; like the Jewish shem atha, "the Name cometh," or, "the Lord comes." It seems to be an appeal to the judgment of Christ, and may possibly have been an allusion to Mal_4:6, the words with which the Old Testament ends. (see Jud_1:14, 15)

The absence of love to Christ.

There are those who, not having known Christ, have had no opportunity of loving him. But of all who have heard and read of Christ, we may say that the one test of their character and their position lies in their feeling with regard to him, with all which that feeling involves. The apostle"s warm heart could tolerate no indifference, no neutrality, here. The Lord Jesus must be not only respected, but loved. And not to love him proves that the nature is insensible to all that is good and Divine involves its own condemnation and curse and misery.

I THE ABSENCE OF LOVE TO CHRIST. Where there is no love to the Lord Jesus there appears to be:

1. A want of appreciation of his perfect moral character. If Jesus be known by a holy and sympathetic nature, he will appear to such a nature "the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely." Who can gaze upon the sinless and pure, the just and kind, the meek and patient Jesus, and be unaffected

2. by the spectacle? Only those for whom moral excellence and beauty have no charms.

3. A deep sensibility to his infinite compassion. For it must be borne in mind that the Saviour"s disposition and ministry, and especially his sacrifice, have a personal relation to ourselves. It was for us men and our salvation that he lived a life of poverty and contempt, that he deigned to die a death of agony and shame. To withhold the heart"s best love from One who endured the cross for us argues a callousness of nature beneath the level of common humanity.

1. A base ingratitude for all he has done and is doing on our behalf. Even those who are indifferent to the Lord Jesus owe him a vast debt for the benefits which, by his mediation, he has conferred upon the human race, and for the forbearance with which they have individually been treated. If ingratitude to earthly friends and benefactors be base, how shall the heinousness be described of ingratitude to the Son of man?

II THE CURSE AND CONDEMNATION INVOLVED IN INDIFFERENCE TOWARDS CHRIST.

1. We can trace this in the moral degradation which such insensibility occasions. Not to love the worthiest and the best is to debase our nature. Character is largely moulded by love; and they who turn away from the love of Immanuel choose death.

2. The condemnation of conscience is inevitable. Its voice may be stifled for a season, but it will be heard, and that voice must needs utter a censure of no feeble or ambiguous kind. The judge is within, and cannot be escaped; that judge will charge the sinner with hating him who was and is supremely worthy to be loved, and the accusation is self evidencing and brings its curse.

3. The judgment of the Lord may tarry, but it will surely come. The Lord himself is at hand, to deliver those who love him, but to execute a righteous sentence upon the unbelieving, the unloving, the unspiritual. T.

Those who do not love Christ.

I THERE ARE SUCH, Alas! how many! Not those who have never heard of him, but those who have heard much of him those before whom the great revelation of Christ has been spread out. Not those who have been brought up under sceptical influences, but those who have been trained in Christian homes. How many of those to whom Christ has been made known as fully as he can be to any who have not received him, yet do not love him! This is

(1) strange,

(2) saddening,

(3) explicable only upon belief in the extreme virulence of sin.

II THE HEINOUSNESS OF THEIR SIN. Consider:

1. Christ is altogether lovely and lovable. There is nothing in him to check love, but everything to encourage it.

2. He has never done the slightest evil to any man.

3. He has relinquished heaven for men.

4. He has humbled himself to assume human nature for men.

5. He has lived for men.

6. He has died for men.

7. He is willing to redeem men from all things evil, and to ensure to them all things good.

Not to love such a Being as this is the chief of crimes. No tale of guilt could be sterner. It is a fearful revelation of the "carnal heart," which is enmity against God and Christ, instead of love.

III THEIR DOOM. They are "anathema accursed. Their crime merits completest condemnation. If they can be guilty of this, they can be guilty of anything. Their sentence is "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord;" their home, with "the devil and his angels." Their choice is to be accursed. They choose the curse rather than the blessing which Christ waits to bestow. They choose the curse rather than the One who alone can deliver them from it. They are now accursed; their present condition is this condition, and their future condition will be this unless they "turn to the Lord.

IV A SOLEMN QUESTION DO WE LOVE CHRIST?

1. Not Do we admire him? He is admired even by atheists.

2. Not Do we abstain from hostility towards him?

3. Not Do we take his name upon our lips, observe his day, meet with his people?

4. Not even Do we work for him?

5. But Has he touched our heart? Do we love him?

Christ is the great test applied to human hearts. The issue reveals condition, character, prospect. H.

The Christian anathema.

"Let him be Anathema Maran-atha." These words have no very evident connection. Anathema means "accursed." Maran-atha appears to mean, "The Lord is at hand." It can only be regarded as an exclamation. On it see the Expository portion of the Commentary. "Anathema is the Greek term representing the Hebrew cherem, or devoted to destruction, and indicates the excommunication practised in the Christian Church. The early Christians exercised discipline on offending members in lesser or greater forms. The greater is called Anathema. They regarded themselves as distinctly warranted in cutting off members from their body by our Lord"s; (Mat_18:17) and in using for such excision the term "Anathema," they appealed to Paul"s employment of the word in Gal_1:8. They regarded the anathema as cutting off a man from the way of salvation; so that unless he received the grace of repentance he would certainly perish. The word is uniformly used in the Septuagint Version as the equivalent of cherem; and it seems reasonable to suppose that where it occurs in the New Testament Scriptures it is to be understood in the deeper sense as relating to the spiritual condition, and not merely to exclusion from Church privileges." Modern anathematizing is chiefly illustrated by the acts of the Roman Catholic Church; the sentiment of modern life is unfavourable to the exercise of Church discipline in any of the Protestant communities.

I THE PARTIES ST. PAUL ADDRESSED. The Church at Corinth; regarded as a company who made profession of love to Christ, and pledged themselves to live in accordance with Christ"s will and example. Those who did not love Christ, or failed to realize the Christly spirit and purity, were not merely inconsistent they were unfaithful and unworthy; they were even exerting a mischievous influence, as do dead flies in pots of ointment.

II THE CONDITION IN WHICH SOME PROFESSED MEMBERS MIGHT BE POUND. A condition involving hypocrisy, the sin against which our Lord spoke most severely. So impossible of rectifying and correcting, because so often connected with self deception. Show how such a condition can be tested and discovered. The great test is the life, the practical conduct. The man who has lost the ruling motive of the "constraining love of Christ," will soon tone his conduct and relations with mere self pleasing, and there will be first the pleasurable, then the questionable, and only too possibly these will lead on to the immoral, as in the case referred to at Corinth.

III THE TREATMENT WHICH UNWORTHY MEMBERS SHOULD RECEIVE. Not excision, as a mere act of judgment; this man can have no right to do to his fellows. But excision as a matter of tender regard for the soul of the sinner; and as a discipline designed to effect his restoration. Final removal from Christian fellowship no Christian Church has power to arrange. Temporary removal may be the best and most hopeful means of arousing conscience and securing penitence. St. Paul gives minute directions in 2Th_3:14, 2Th_3:15, "Note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother". (see also 2Co_2:5-7)

R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ - If any be an enemy to his person, offices, doctrines, or commands. Let him be Anathema. Maran-atha-Anathema signifies a thing devoted to destruction. It seems to have been customary with the Jews of that age, when they had pronounced any man an Anathema, to add the Syriac expression, Maran-atha, that is, "The Lord cometh;" namely, to execute vengeance upon him. This weighty sentence the apostle chose to write with his own hand; and to insert it between his salutation and solemn benediction, that it might be the more attentively regarded.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Anathema Maranatha

Accursed; our Lord cometh. Christ is God’s final test.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is, if any man do either oppose Christ and his gospel, or apostatize and backslide from his holy profession, and thereby discover he had no sincere love for Christ, let him be accursed till the Lord comes to judgment; and when he comes to judgment, let him without repentance lie under a dreadful, yea, an eternal curse.

Observe here, How that those who do not sincerely love our Lord Jesus Christ, are under the heaviest and bitterest of divine curses.

Note, 1. The ground or cause of this curse, the not loving of Jesus Christ; he doth not say, If any man hate Christ, or reproach and blaspheme him, or persecute and injure him; but, if he doth not love him. The bare want of this affection to Christ, is enough eternally to separate us from Christ.

Note, 2. The nature of this curse: Let him be Anathema Maran-atha. The apostle pronounces the curse in two languages, Greek and Syriac, to denote both the vehemency of his own spirit in speaking, and the certainty of the thing spoken: or perhaps to show that men of all nations and languages who love not Christ, are under a curse, and that they are deservedly cursed among all nations.

The Greek word, Anathema, signifies execrable; the Syriac word, Maran-atha, is a compound of Maran, Lord, and atha, he cometh. These words were used anciently in the most dreadful sentence of excommunication; as if they had cited the person to the tribunal of Christ, at his coming to judge the world, or left him bound under the curse of that sentence until the coming of Christ.

Note, 3. The extent of this curse, If any man; as if he had said, Let him be who he will that loves not Christ, Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, rich or poor, young or old, prince or peasant, king or beggar, who have oportunities to know Christ and yet do not love him, let him be accursed by him to eternal ages; let him be fully separated from the society of Christians here in this world, and from all fellowship and communion with Christ finally in the world to come.

The sum is, That those who love not our Lord Jesus Christ, much more those who wilfully hate and oppose him and his holy laws, are accursed persons in this life, and devoted to destruction here: but when they shall stand before that impartial judge of the world, they shall receive from his mouth a final malediction, an irreversible execration, which shall be immediatedly succeeded with the anguish and torments of eternity.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22. “If any one does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. The Lord cometh.” The word “love” here is phileo, and means “human love.” This mitigates the imprecation, as no one can exercise Divine love till it is poured out into the heart by the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:5). Not so with human love, as we are all born with it in us. While it has no salvation like Divine love, it is a universal demarcation of human beings from demons. Hence a person destitute of human love is already dehumanized and demonized, and as Paul here says deservedly anathematized. In view of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world and bled and died for every human being, the person destitute of every emotion of gratitude as reciprocation for this stupendous philanthropy has just about passed the bourne of humanity and become demonized. Maranatha, in E.V. left untranslated, is Aramaic for “the Lord cometh” — a fact which Paul constantly holds up in all of his epistles as an inspiration, both to the righteous and the wicked. And it is certainly a most potent incentive, moving the righteous with thrilling anticipations of translation and glory, and the wicked with awful forebodings of doom, judgment and eternity.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha . [Literally, "Let him be devoted to destruction. O Lord, come!" They were the words with which the Jews began their greatest excommunication. Here Paul pronounces a curse against the man who, professing to be a Christian, had really no love for Christ. Though the church can not always detect and punish such, yet the Lord at his coming will find them out. This, therefore, is Paul's appeal to the Lord to do this thing, and he writes the words with his own hand to show how seriously he meant them. For use of the word "anathema," see 1Co_12:3 ; Act_23:14 ; Rom_9:3 ; Gal_1:8-9 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. That is, accursed. Maranatha. This means, “Our Lord cometh.” It is likely that he means, “If any church member love not, etc.” He is not speaking of the outside world.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

22. [Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν] after κύριον, rec. with DEFG Vetus Lat. Vulg. Peshito. Text אABC.

22. εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν κύριον. φιλέω signifies the intimate and familiar personal affection subsisting between individuals, rather than the wider and more general feeling of love usually enjoined in the N.T. It is the word used when our Lord for the third time asks St Peter the question ‘Lovest thou me?’ (Joh 21:17). Christians are to cultivate a feeling of personal loyalty and affection for Jesus Christ, such as a soldier feels for his general, or a disciple for his master. And this though they have never seen Him. As the natural precedes the spiritual (ch. 1Co 15:46), so the love for Christ as Man must precede, and lead up to, the love for Him as God. See notes on ch. 1Co 15:23; 1Co 15:28.

ἀνάθεμα. The word is derived from two Greek words signifying to set apart, and is equivalent to the Hebrew cherem, which denotes something devoted to destruction for God’s honour’s sake, as the city and spoil at Jericho, Jos 6:17. See also Lev 27:28-29.

μαρὰν ἀθά. Two Syriac words, signifying ‘our Lord is come.’ The meaning is ‘our Lord is come, beware how you treat Him.’ Cf. Php 4:5; Jas 5:8-9. Lightfoot cites Mal 4:6, the last words of the last prophet, ‘Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse’ (cherem). It is difficult to account for the Aramaic form of the word, unless we suppose with some that the utterance of the formula in the Apostle’s own language was likely to be more impressive. For the foregoing word as well as these consult Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. These words must not be regarded as a part of the anathema. The meaning is Let him be anathema. The Lord is come. It is possible, though less agreeable to the context, that they signify ‘Come Thou, O Lord.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

22.] He adds, as in Col 4:18; Eph 6:24, some exhortation, or solemn sentence, in his own hand, as having especial weight.

On the distinction between φιλεῖν and ἀγαπᾷν see notes on Joh 21:15. The negation here of the feeling of personal affection, “has no love in his heart for,” is worthy of note, as connected with the curse which follows.

ἤτω ἀνάθ.] On ἀνάθεμα, see note, Rom 9:3:—let him be accursed.

μαραναθά] An Aramaic expression, מָרַן אֲתָא or מָרָנָא אֲתָא the (or our) Lord cometh (or, is come, as Chrys., al., ὁ κυρ. ἡμ. ἦλθε: in 1Jn 4:2 the same Syriac form is used to express ἐληλυθότα): probably unconnected with ἀνάθεμα: and added perhaps (Mey.) as recalling some remembrance of the time when Paul was among them: at all events, as a weighty watchword tending to recall to them the nearness of His coming, and the duty of being found ready for it:—not added, as Rückert, to stamp genuineness on the letter,—for why here rather than in other Epistles, especially as those who were to bear it were so well known? See Stanley’s note.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Maran - atha. Not to be joined with anathema as one phrase. Rev., properly, a period after anathema. Maranatha means the Lord cometh. 138 It was a reminder of the second coming. The reason for the use of the Aramaic phrase is unknown. It is found in "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," ch. 10, at the conclusion of the post - communion prayer. Compare Rev 22:20.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.