Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 16:22

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

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.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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 Gods dealings, not the desire of the apostle. No matter what any mans 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 apostles 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!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

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.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

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

2. Cherem 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 : 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.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

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.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

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

the Lordwho ought tobe “loved” above Paul, Apollos, and all other teachers.Love to one another is to be in connection with love to Him aboveall. IGNATIUS [Epistleto the Romans, 7] writes of Christ, “My love, has beencrucified” (compare So 2:7).

Jesus Christomitted inthe oldest manuscripts.

let him be Anathemaaccursedwith that curse which the Jews who call Jesus “accursed”(1Co 12:3) are bringingrighteously on their own heads [BENGEL].So far from “saluting” him, I bid him be accursed.

MaranathaSyriacfor, “the Lord cometh.” A motto or watchword to urge themto preparedness for the Lord’s coming; as in Php4:5, “The Lord is at hand.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,…. The Vulgate Latin, and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, read “our Lord”. The apostle here does not so much mean profane and unregenerate sinners, who are destitute of love to Christ, from ignorance of him; nor such who, from the same principle, might persecute him in his members, for such are to be even prayed for, and wished well unto; and oftentimes such are called by grace, and become true and sincere lovers of Christ; and the apostle himself was an instance of it: some think the Jews are intended, who were the mortal enemies of Christ; hated his name and person, his Gospel and interest, and maliciously persecuted the same; they called Jesus accursed, and therefore deserved an anathema to be pronounced on them; it was prophesied of them, that their name should be left for a curse; and it was threatened to them, in case of non-repentance, upon the coming of John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elijah, that the Lord would come and smite their land with a curse; which had its accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem; see Isa 65:15; others think the Gnostics are intended, one of whose tenets was, that it was lawful not to confess Christ in a time of persecution, in order to save themselves; and such might be truly said not to love our Lord Jesus, and on whom such an anathema as after mentioned might rightly be denounced: though it should seem rather, that some persons in this church, or that infested it, are referred to as the false teachers, and those who sided with them, who made factions and divisions in the church of Christ; allowed themselves in the commission of fornication and incest, and such like impurities; had no regard to the peace of the consciences of weak brethren, but laid stumblingblocks in their way; behaved in a very irreverent manner at the Lord’s table, and gave in to very pernicious errors and heresies, particularly denying the resurrection of the dead; and by their many bad principles and practices plainly showed that they did not in deed and in truth love our Lord Jesus: wherefore of every such an one the apostle says,

let him be anathema. The word anathema, answers to the Hebrew

, and is rendered by it here in the Syriac version; and signifies anything separated and devoted to holy uses; and so it is used by the Septuagint, in Le 27:28, and in the New Testament, Lu 21:5, and which, if alienated to any other purposes, entailed a curse on persons; hence it is often translated “accursed”, as Ro 9:3

1Co 12:3, and here it signifies, that such persons that love not the Lord Jesus, should be rejected by the saints, and separated from their communion; and so the Arabic version renders it, “let him be separated”; that is, from the church; let him be cast out of it, and cut off from it; as, so living and dying without love to Christ, he will be accursed by him at the last day, and will have that awful sentence denounced on him, “go ye cursed”. The apostle adds another word, about which there is some difficulty,

maranatha; some make this to be the same with “anathema”; the one being the Syriac, the other the Greek word, as “Abba, Father”; and think that “maranatha” is put for , “maharamatha”; others think that it is the same with , “maharonatha”, which signifies “from wrath to come”; and being joined with the other word, intends an anathematizing or devoting persons to wrath to come: others take it to be the last, and worse sort of excommunication among the Jews; and observe, that the first sort was called , “Niddui”, which was a separation from company and conversation, to which reference may be had in Lu 6:22; the second sort was called

Cherem, to which “anathema” answers, and was a separation, attended with curses and imprecations; and a third sort was called

, “Shammatha”, and is thought to answer to “maranatha”, giving the etymology of it, as if it was, , “the name”, i.e. “God cometh”, as “maranatha” read as two words, signify “our Lord cometh”: but this is not the etymology the Jews give of “Shammatha” g; they ask,

“what is “Shammatha?” says Rab, , “there is death”; and Samuel says, , “desolations shall be”;”

but of the other etymology there is no mention made among them; nor is ever the word “maranatha” used by them for excommunication; the sense of which certainly is, “our Lord cometh”; and the Ethiopic version, joining it with the former word, renders the whole thus, “let him be anathema in the coming of our Lord”, which seems to be pretty much the sense of the apostle: it is best to consider this word, or rather these two words, “maran atha”, “our Lord cometh”, as added by the apostle, to put persons in mind of the coming of Christ; either at the destruction of Jerusalem, to take vengeance on the Jews, who did not love, but hated him, and maliciously persecuted him, and his; or of the second coming of Christ to judgment, when all the wicked of the earth shall be accursed by him, and all such that love him not will be bid to depart from him.

g T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 17. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

. The word seems a bit harsh to us, but the refusal to love Christ ( ) on the part of a nominal Christian deserves (see on 12:3 for this word). . This Aramaic phrase means “Our Lord () cometh ()” or, used as a proleptic perfect, “has come.” It seems to be a sort of watchword (cf. 1Thess 4:14; Jas 5:7; Phil 4:5; Rev 1:7; Rev 3:11; Rev 22:20), expressing the lively hope that the Lord will come. It was a curious blunder in the King James Version that connected with .

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

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.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,” (ei tis ou philei ton kurion) If anyone loves not the Lord,” or has not affection for the Lord.

2) “Let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (heto anathema marana tha) “Let him be a curse, the Lord cometh, or as a curse.” Be not identified with him in his way. This expresses Paul’s strong feelings against any friendly sanction toward those who showed no affection, friendship, toward the Lord and His work. Paul abhorred a cold, hypocritical, calculated claim of love for the Lord, without evidence of some fruit of service, Gal 6:12-17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus The close of the Epistle consists of three parts. He entreats the grace of Christ in behalf of the Corinthians: he makes a declaration of his love towards them, and, with the severest threatening, he inveighs against those that falsely took upon themselves the Lord’s name, while not loving him from the heart. For he is not speaking of strangers, who avowedly hated the Christian name, but of pretenders and hypocrites, who troubled the Churches for the sake of their own belly, or from empty boasting. (176) On such persons he denounces an anathema, and he also pronounces a curse upon them. It is not certain, however, whether he desires their destruction in the presence of God, or whether he wishes to render them odious — nay, even execrable, in the view of believers. Thus in Gal 1:8, when pronouncing one who corrupts the Gospel to be accursed, (177) he does not mean that he was rejected or condemned by God, but he declares that he is to be abhorred by us. I expound it in a simple way as follows: “Let them perish and be cut off, as being the pests of the Church.” And truly, there is nothing that is more pernicious, than that class of persons, who prostitute a profession of piety to their own depraved affections. Now he points out the origin of this evil, when he says, that they do not love Christ, for a sincere and earnest love to Christ will not suffer us to give occasion of offense to brethren. (178)

What he immediately adds — Maranatha, is somewhat more difficult. Almost all of the ancients are agreed, that they are Syriac terms. (179) Jerome, however, explains it: The Lord cometh; while others render it, At the coming of the Lord, or, Until the Lord comes. Every one, however, I think, must see how silly and puerile is the idea, that the Apostle spoke to Greeks in the Syriac tongue, when meaning to say — The Lord has come. Those who translate it, at the coming of the Lord, do so on mere conjecture; and besides, there is not much plausibility in that interpretation. How much more likely it is, that this was a customary form of expression among the Hebrews, when they wished to excommunicate any one. For the Apostles never speak in foreign tongues, except when they repeat anything in the person of another, as for example, Eli, Eli, lammah sabathani, (Mat 27:46,) Talitha cumi, (Mar 5:41,) and Ephphata, (Mar 7:34,) or when they make use of a word that has come into common use, as Amen — Hosanna. Let us see, then, whether Maranatha suits with excommunication. Now Bullinger, (180) on the authority of Theodore Bibliander, has affirmed, that, in the Chaldee dialect, Maharamata has the same meaning as the Hebrew term חרם, cherem, (accursed,) (181) and I was myself at one time assured of the same thing by Wolfgang Capito, (182) a man of blessed memory It is nothing unusual, however, for the Apostles to write such terms differently from the way in which they are pronounced in the language from which they are derived; as may be seen even from the instances brought forward above. Paul, then, after pronouncing an anathema on those who do not love Christ, (183) deeply affected with the seriousness of the matter, as if he reckoned that he had not said enough, added a term that was in common use among the Jews, and which they made use of in pronouncing a sentence of anathema — just as if, speaking in Latin, I should say, “I excommunicate thee,” but if I add — “and pronounce thee an anathema,” this would be an expression of more intense feeling. (184)

END OF THE COMMENTARIES ON THE FIRST EPISTLE.

(176) “ Ne cherehans que le proufit de lents ventres, et leur propre gloire;” “Seeking only the profit of their bellies, and their own glory.”

(177) Calvin, when commenting on Gal 1:8, remarks that the original term there employed, anathema, denotes cursing, and answers to the Hebrew word חרם; and he explains the expression — “let him be accursed,” as meaning, “Let him be held by you as accursed.”

(178) “ Car si nous aimons Christ purement, et a bon escient, ce nous sera vne bride qui nons retiendra de donner scandale a nos fieres; ” — “ For if we love Christ sincerely and in good earnest, this will be a bridle to restrain us from giving offense to our brethren.”

(179) “ Que ce sont mots empruntez de la langue Syrienne;” — “That they are words borrowed from the Syriac language.”

(180) Beza, in his poems, has recorded the following tribute to the memory of this distinguished man —

“

Henrici Bullingeri, Ecclesiastae Tigurini, spectatisa, doctrine, pictaris, et eximii candoris viri, memoriae;” — (To the memory of HENRY Bullinger, ecclesiastick of Tigurum, a man most distinguished for learning and piety, and extraordinary candour.)

“

Doctrina si interire, si Pietas mori, Occidere si Candor potest: Doctrina, Pietas, Candor, hoc tumulo iacent, Henrice, tecum condita. Mori sed absit ilia posse dixerim; Quae viuere jubent mortnos, Immo interire forsan ilia si queant Subireque tumuli specum, Tu tu, illa doctis, tu piis, tu candidis, Et non mori certissimis, Edaci ab ipsa morte chartis asseras, Ipso approbante Numine. Foedus beatum! mortuum ilia to excitant, Et tu mori ilia non sinis: At hunc, amici, cur fleamus mortuum, Qui viuat aliis et sibi ?”

“

If Learning could expire, if Piety could die, If Candour could sink down, Learning, Piety, Candour, are laid in this mound, O Henry, buried along with thee! But forbid that I should say that those things could die, Which command the dead to live. Nay, if they could possibly expire, And be entombed, Thou, by thy writings learned, pious, candid, And perfectly secured against death, Wouldst shield them from devouring death, The Deity himself approving. Blessed agreement! They raise thee up from death, And thou dost not suffer them to die! But, my friends, why should we weep for him, as dead, Who lives to others and himself?”

Beza’s “Poemata Varia,” — Ed.

(181) Thus in 1Kg 20:42, we have the expression, איש-חרמי, (ish cheremi,) the man of my curse, or the man whom I anathematize. See also Isa 34:5; Zec 14:11. — Ed.

(182) Calvin, when commenting on Phi 3:5, having occasion to speak of the etymology of the term Pharisees, says that he considered it to be derived — not as was commonly supposed, from a word signifying to separate — -but from a term denoting interpretation, this having been the view given of it by Capito — “ sanctae memoriae viro,” — “a man of sacred memory.” It is stated by Beza in his life of Calvin, that when at Basle, Calvin lived on intimate terms with those two distinguished men, Simon Grynaeus and Wolfgang Capito, and devoted himself to the study of Hebrew. — Calvin’s Tracts, volume 1. — Ed.

(183) “ Ayant excommunie, et declare execrables ceux-la qui n’aiment point Iesus Christ;” — “Having excommunicated, and pronounced execrable those who do not love Jesus Christ.”

(184) “ Μαρὰν ἀθὰ (Maran atha) is a Syro-Chaldee expression, signifying ‘the Lord is to come,’ i.e., will come, to take vengeance on the disobedient and vicious. Hence with the words Anathema Maranatha the Jews began their papers of excommunication.” — Bloomfield.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(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 expressionthe 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.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

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.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘If any man does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. Maranatha.’

But he is so moved by the situation in the Corinthian church that he adds as his own comment, ‘If any man does not love the Lord, let him be accursed, for behold the Lord is coming.’ In the end with all their spiritual manifestations the central test is whether they love the Lord. Is their trust in Him? Do they look to Him? Are they taken up with Him? Is it their concern to obey Him? If not they are still under the curse.

The use of the Aramaic ‘maranatha’ suggests that Paul is reminding them of a solemn early credal statement, which binds the Lord’s people to love Him, that would be recognised by all. It is thus not his personal curse, but one recognised by the whole church. He reminds them that on the one hand are those who are in Christ who love Him, on the other those who are anathema, devoted to destruction, when the Lord comes. Let them consider their ways.

‘Anathema.’ Compare Gal 1:8-9 where any, whether man or angel, who preach another Gospel than the one Paul has defined is anathema. In LXX it often translates cherem, devoted to God and therefore to be destroyed. (See also 1Co 12:3; Rom 9:3; and Act 23:14, where it is a votive offering under which the man calls for a destructive curse on himself if he fails to keep his vow; for the use of the term).

‘Maranatha.’ An Aramaic term. The words in ancient scripts ran together so we may read as marana tha (‘our Lord, come’) or as maran atha (‘our Lord has come’). It became, or had become, part of early church worship as witnessed in the Didache where it is used in connection with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. But Paul’s use of it here must surely point forward to the time of coming blessing and judgment at Christ’s coming when all comes to an end (1Co 15:24). Note how he too connects ‘until He come’ with the Lord’s Supper (1Co 11:26).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 16:22. Anathema, Maran-atha. When the Jews lost the power of life and death, they used, nevertheless, to pronounce an anathema on persons who should have been executed according to the Mosaic law; and such a person became an anathema, or cheren, or accursed,for the expressions are equivalent. They had a full persuasion that the curse would not be in vain; and, indeed, it appears they expected that some judgment, corresponding to that which the law pronounced, would befal the offender. Now, to express their faith that God would, one way or another, and probably in some remarkable way, interpose, to add that efficacy to their sentence which they could not give it, it is most likely they used the Syriac words Maran-atha; that is, “The Lord cometh;” or, “He will surely and quickly come, to put this sentence in execution, and to shew that the person on whom it falls is indeed anathema,accursed:” in allusion to this, when the Apostle was speaking of a secret alienation from Christ, maintained under the forms of Christianity, (which, perhaps, might be the case among many of the Corinthians, and much more probably may be so among us,) as this was not a crime capable of being convicted and censured in the Christian church, he reminds them that the Lord Jesus Christ will come at length, and find it out, and punish it in a proper manner. The Apostle chose to write with his own hand this weighty sentence, and insert it between his general salutation and benediction, that it might be the more attentively regarded. See Joh 9:22 and Bishop Patrick on Deu 27:15.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 1997
THE GUILT AND DANGER OF NOT LOVING CHRIST

1Co 16:22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha.

EVERY religion has some characteristic mark whereby it may be distinguished from all others. The leading feature of Christianity is, that it requires a resolute adherence, and an inviolable attachment to Jesus Christ. Though it includes both morality and a regard to God, it does not stop there; but leads us to Jesus Christ as the only mediator through whom divine blessings can flow down to us, or our services go up with acceptance before God. Whatever difference may exist between Christians with respect to other points, all are agreed in love to Christ. St. Paul did not hesitate to denounce the severest curse against all who should be wanting in this most essential point. He had finished this epistle by the hand of an amanuensis, and was going, as his manner was in every epistle, to write his benediction with his own hand; but deeply solicitous for the welfare of the Church, as well as for the glory of his Divine Master, he inserted between his salutation and his benediction these ever memorable words;If any man, &c. These are in the form of a judicial sentence, which we shall,

I.

Explain

The solemnity with which this sentence is delivered surely bespeaks our most candid attention: but how shall we, in drawing the line between nominal and real Christians, speak with such precision, as neither to discourage the weak, nor to confirm hypocrites or formalists in their delusions? Let us explain,

1.

What it is to love the Lord Jesus Christ

[Love, whatever be its object, implies such an esteem of that object, such a desire after it, and such a delight in it, as the object itself deserves. What would be an idolatrous fondness when placed on one object, would fall very far short of the affection that might be justly claimed by another. Now Christ being incomparably more worthy of our love than any created being, our love to him ought to be unrivalled and supreme. To compliment him with honourable titles, while we feel no real regard for him in our souls, is no better than an impious mockery. We must entertain high and exalted thoughts of him as the Saviour of the world; and have learned with Paul to count all things but dross and dung in comparison of him We must also feel such need of him in his mediatorial office and character, as to say with David, My soul longeth for thee even as the hart panteth for the water-brooks; Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Our fellowship with him, moreover, must be sweet: nor must we find less pleasure in doing his will than in enjoying his presence This is the criterion whereby he himself has taught us to judge of our love to him [Note: Joh 14:21; Joh 15:14.].]

2.

What is the judgment denounced against those who are destitute of this love?

[Anathema is a term often used to signify only an ecclesiastical censure, or an excommunication from the Church; but the addition of the word Maran-atha necessitates us to understand it in reference to the judgment at the last day. Under the Jewish law there were many crimes that were to be punished with death; and, when a person was convicted of one of these, he was executed according to the divine command: but when the Jews were brought into subjection to the Romans, they lost the power of life and death [Note: Joh 18:31.]: when therefore a person committed any crime, that would have been punished with death by the Jewish law, the Jews excommunicated the offender, and expected that God would visit him in some signal manner; or at least inflict an adequate punishment upon him at the last day. In reference to this, it should seem the Apostle used the word Maran-atha, which in the Syriac language means, The Lord cometh. The import therefore of the denunciation in the text is, That, as they, who did not love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, deserved to be blotted out of the list of true Christians, and to be punished with everlasting destruction, so there was no doubt but that, although man could not take cognizance of that offence, God would; and execute signal vengeance on all those who should live and die under the guilt of it.]

Severe as this sentence is, it is such as we may undertake to,

II.

Vindicate

It may not be improper first to vindicate the Apostle himself

[To consign to everlasting destruction those who are free from any gross sin, and who perhaps abound in the form of religion, while they are only destitute of its power, may seem harsh; but we shall in vain attempt to put any milder interpretation on the words of the text. Shall we then censure the Apostle as uncharitable and severe? If we do, we must involve all the other inspired writers and Christ himself in the same censure. Moses, by Gods command, denounced similar vengeance on persons of various descriptions, and required the people to confirm his word by an express declaration of their own consent and approbation [Note: Deu 27:15-26, twelve times.]. Jeremiah and Malachi repeatedly spake to the same effect [Note: Jer 11:3; Jer 17:5; Jer 48:10. Mal 1:14.]. Nor was this peculiar to those who lived under the legal dispensation: St. Paul repeatedly denounced a curse even against any angel from heaven that should presume to publish any other Gospel than that which he had preached [Note: Gal 1:8-9.]. Yea, the meek and compassionate Jesus declared, that God would be a father to none who did not love him [Note: Joh 8:42.]; and that he himself would in the last day summon before him all that had refused his yoke, and order them to be slain without mercy [Note: Luk 19:27.]. Such examples as these may well screen the Apostle from any imputation of needless severity.]

Next we will vindicate the sentence he denounced

Awful as it is, it will appear both just and reasonable, if we only consider the exceeding sinfulness of not loving the Lord Jesus. This sin implies,

1.

Rebellion against the highest authority

[God has by an audible voice from heaven commanded us to hear his Son, that is, to regard him with attention, love, and obedience. He has enjoined all the great and noble of the earth to kiss the Son in token of their affection and homage [Note: Psa 2:12.]. He has required all men to honour the Son even as they honour the Father [Note: Joh 5:23.]. And are we at liberty to set at naught this authority? Do we feel indignant, if our child or our servant refuse obedience to our just commands, and shall not the Most High God express his indignation against us for resisting and despising the most reasonable command that could possibly be given us? If man forbear to notice this iniquity, shall God also? shall he give us reason for that atheistical reflection, Thou God wilt not regard it?]

2.

A contempt of the highest excellency

[In the Lord Jesus Christ is every possible excellency combined. Whether we view him in his divine, his human, or his mediatorial character, he is altogether lovely. There is nothing wanting in him which can in any way conduce to the glory of God or the good of men. What shall we say then of those who love not such a glorious Being? Surely they pour contempt upon him. This is the construction which God himself puts upon their conduct; Him that honoureth me, I will honour; but he that despiseth me, shall be lightly esteemed [Note: 1Sa 2:30.]. And is not this a sin of the deepest die? to despise him who is the fountain of all excellency! to despise him whom all the angels adore! What must not such iniquity as this deserve? Surely to be despised and abhorred of him is the least that such offenders can expect.]

3.

Ingratitude towards the greatest Benefactor

[Can we reflect a moment on what Christ has done and suffered for us, and not stand amazed that there should be a creature upon earth that does not love him? Can we contemplate his mysterious incarnation, his laborious life, his painful death, his continual intercession, and all the other wonders of his love, and feel no emotions of gratitude towards him? Or shall ingratitude to earthly benefactors be deemed the greatest possible aggravation of a fault, and shall such horrid ingratitude of ours be thought light and venial? No; it stamps an inexpressible baseness on our character; nor can any punishment short of that denounced in the text, be adequate to such impiety.]

Application

[Let us seriously examine into the evidences of our love to Christ; that if he should ask us, as he did Peter, Lovest thou me? we may be able to reply with him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. Let us tremble at the thought of subjecting ourselves to the judgments here denounced, and instead of presuming to speak against them as too severe, let us make it our constant endeavour to escape them. So shall death and judgment be divested of all their terrors; and Christ, whom we love, be the eternal portion of our souls.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

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.”

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

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 and 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.

.] On , see note, Rom 9:3 : let him be accursed.

] An Aramaic expression, or the (or our ) Lord cometh (or, is come , as Chrys., al., . . : in 1Jn 4:2 the same Syriac form is used to express ): probably unconnected with : 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 Rckert, 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.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

If. App-118.

any man = any one. Greek. tis. App-123.

love. App-135.

Jesus Christ. All the texts omit.

Anathemas = accursed. Full stop after this word. See Act 23:14.

Maran-atha. Aramaic. App-94.:33.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

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 and 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.

.] On , see note, Rom 9:3 :-let him be accursed.

] An Aramaic expression, or the (or our) Lord cometh (or, is come, as Chrys., al., . . : in 1Jn 4:2 the same Syriac form is used to express ): probably unconnected with : 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 Rckert, 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 Stanleys note.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 16:22. , if any man not) Paul loves Jesus, do ye also all love Him.-) loves with the heart: kisses virtually by his conduct: the corresponding word to is , with a kiss, 1Co 16:20; for is used in the sense of kissing, Luk 22:47; and to kiss is used for to love, Psa 2:12.- , the Lord) He is to be preferred even before all the brethren, nay even before Paul and Apollos.- , , 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. , i.e. the Lord cometh; in Syriac, our Lord, or simply the Lord. Hesychius says, , , … As in French monseigneur is the same as seigneur., 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.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 16:22

1Co 16:22

If any man loveth not the Lord, let him be anathema.- The refusal to love Christ on the part of a professed Christian deserves anathema, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. (1Jn 5:3). [The word anathema solemnly pronounces that which the Lord at his coming will confirm and ratify. This sentence is a stern epitome of the whole epistle: If any one by profligacy, by contentiousness, by covetousness, by idolatry, by arrogance, by heresy, evinces an utter lack of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, he must abide the consequences of his moral status-there is no outlook in the future for such a man, he shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2Th 1:9), hence the words that follow.]

Maranatha.-[This is an Aramaic expression on which scholars are not agreed as to whether it means the Lord has come, or our Lord has come, or our Lord cometh, or our Lord, come. With our Lord cometh compare Jas 5:8; Rev 1:7; Rev 3:11; and this agrees with the context and the substance of the epistle. If this be right, the saying is admonitory. It warns them that at any moment they may have to answer for their shortcomings. Why this warning is given in Aramaic rather than in Greek is unknown.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Anathema Maranatha

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

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

love: Son 1:3, Son 1:4, Son 1:7, Son 3:1-3, Son 5:16, Isa 5:1, Mat 10:37, Mat 25:40, Mat 25:45, Joh 8:42, Joh 14:15, Joh 14:21, Joh 14:23, Joh 15:24, Joh 16:14, Joh 21:15-17, 2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15, 2Co 8:8, 2Co 8:9, Gal 5:6, Eph 6:24, Heb 6:10, 1Pe 1:8, 1Pe 2:7, 1Jo 4:19, 1Jo 5:1

Anathema: That is, “Let him be accursed; our Lord cometh,” i.e., to execute the judgment denounced. Mat 25:41, Mat 25:46, Act 23:14, Rom 9:3, Gal 1:8, Gal 1:9,*Gr: 1Co 12:3, 2Th 1:8, 2Th 1:9, Jud 1:14, Jud 1:15

Reciprocal: Lev 27:28 – no devoted Num 5:23 – write these Num 21:2 – I will Deu 13:17 – cursed Deu 21:23 – he that is hanged is accursed of God Deu 27:26 – Cursed Jos 6:17 – accursed Jos 23:11 – love Jdg 5:23 – Curse ye Jdg 17:2 – cursedst 1Sa 14:24 – Cursed Psa 37:22 – cursed Psa 129:5 – be confounded Pro 8:36 – all Isa 34:5 – the people Isa 56:6 – to love Jer 29:22 – shall be Lam 3:65 – thy Mat 25:42 – General Mat 26:74 – began Mar 11:21 – General Joh 5:23 – all men Joh 16:27 – because Act 23:12 – under a curse 1Co 13:2 – and have 2Co 10:1 – I Paul 2Th 2:10 – they received Phm 1:19 – I Paul Jam 2:14 – though 2Jo 1:10 – come Rev 3:15 – thou

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHRISTIAN UNITY

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

1Co 16:22

It is not against men who labour under a theological mistake that St. Paul launched his threat, but If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha. That is the one unpardonable heresyto know what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and is, and not to love Him. With that man no communion may be held, however exact his creed may be.

I. It is not that the English Church thinks little of orthodoxy; nothing can be more alien to her temper than laxity concerning the truth; she considers accurate doctrine as important as a holy life and dogmatic study to be the strong meat of living souls. And yet the acceptance of orthodoxy is not the main teaching of the Church. After telling us that none can be saved without keeping undefined the Catholic faith, she goes on to tell us what the Christian faith consists ofthat we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. The most faultless set of propositions on the relations of the Divine Persons do not constitute a Catholic creed; but dogma must hush us into worship. And so the English Church writes out a summum Theologi, and throws out all who do not accept it; she teaches all to love and rejoice in Christ.

II. We begin then at the right end when we persuade men first and foremost to love God, and to bear patiently with them until they come, under the power of this love, to the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which the Church sees in Him. Men have tried too long to unite men on the basis of the identity of thought first and foremost. The time is surely come to unite them on the ground of a common worship. Who is there who with all his heart and unfeignedly worships the Lord Jesus Christ, bursting out with that cry, Master, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel? Who is there who, when he feels Christ near, falls prostrate in body and spirit, because he knows himself unworthy of the presence, and is yet rooted to the spot, because his love is the master of his fear, though his satisfaction and desire and love is mingled with alarm and fear and sense of unworthiness? Who is there feels his heart swell within him with joy and hope at the name of Jesus? Who is there that looks for the least motion of the finger of Christ to guide him, and who, when he sees the way whence his beloved Lord has pointed him, would pass all obstacles rather than disobey Christ by turning back? That is the man to whom every Churchmans heart will go out as St. Pauls did when he said, Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Oh, why should there be a barricade to sunder such a man from us because he believes a few things more or a few things less than we do, or uses practices which we should not feel at liberty to use, or fears to use some which we think it right and necessary for us to use? Is not our Christian love, our love to Jesus Christ Himself, and therefore to each other, strong enough yet to bear down all these barriers and sweep them away? Dogmas we must have; but Christ died for unity, and that unity can never be promoted except through recognising one anothers devotion, and bearing with one anothers opinions, and best of all by kneeling together, living memorials of His death and passion, knowing that He is alive and among us, and that we are fed on earth with the healthy robustness of the Spirit, eating side by side, and without defilement.

III. Oh, for more love of Christhow soon would our sins disappear! Oh, to love Him, as Kempis says, as well as any creature can love Him. To be without Him is punishment enough. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha, St. Paul says. Blessed Apostle, I cannot imagine that Gospel spirit could prompt him to deliver these words as a wish or prayer, or as a curse even, on any enemy of Christ. May not this form of curse be an Apostolic rhetoric? asks another saint. Is not the truest interpretation of this: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he is Anathema Maran-athacursed creature? The chilling of that blessed passion within his breast is the saddest curse, the death of deaths. And saintly Herbert, casting about for some terrible imprecation upon himself if he ceased to love Christ, bursts out: Oh, my dear God, let me not love Thee if I love Thee not.

Rev. Professor A. J. Mason.

Illustration

If these persons be Christians in their lives, and Christians in their practices, cries holy Jeremy Taylor in his greatest work; if they acknowledge the Eternal Son of God for their Master and their Lord, and live in all relations as becomes persons making such professionswhy should we slight these persons who love God, whom God loves, who are partakers of Christ, who dwell in Christ and Christ in them, because their understandings have not been brought up like ours? They have not met the same books or the same company, or are not so wise, or are wiserthat is, for some reason or other for which I do not understand or blame, they do not believe as I do.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 16:22. Anathema means a curse, and it is pronounced upon a man who does not love Jesus. Maranatha is transferred into the King James Version without being translated. Thayer defines it, “our Lord cometh or will come.” It denotes, therefore, that such a person will be accursed when the Lord comes. (See 2Th 1:7-9).

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 16:22. If any man loveth not the Lord[1]that is, the Lord Jesus,let him be Anathemasee on 1Co 12:3; also Gal 1:8-9.

[1] There can be no question that the words Jesus Christ here were not in the original text.

Maran atha. This is the Aramaean or Syriac expression for Our Lord cometh; a solemn warning that the approaching Advent of the Lord would see that dreadful curse visited upon such. See Mat 25:41, where this awful curse is first connected with the Son of man coming in His glory (Mat 13:41-43). Why this was expressed in the form of a Syriac exclamation, it is impossible to tell; but since it must have been intelligible to the readers of this Epistle, it would seem to have sprung up first among the early converts of Palestine,who used the vernacular tongue; from them to have become a household word of warm-hearted love to the Lord Jesus, one with another; and thence to have passed to the Gentile churches. It may be added, however, that the word here used for love is not that which expresses personal affection,[1] which we should naturally have expected, but that expressing distinctively the love of characterwhat is called the love of complacency;[2] as if he had said, What I mean is, if any man hath not such love of Him who laid down His life for us that he would lay down his own life for Him, rejoicing to be counted worthy to suffer for His name,And who says this? It is the man who once thought it his special mission to stamp out that execrated Name from the earth. Has he, then, merely transferred his fanatical rage from one direction into its opposite? The most prejudiced critic, as he observes the serenity with which this Epistle closes, can hardly see in this one verse an interjected burst of fanaticism. As a matter of psychology, burning love to any one deemed supremely worthy of it is apt to beget a feeling of wonder, of grief, and in some very supposable cases, even of indignation at the want of it in others. Certainly a feeling of hatred towards even his bitterest enemies will not be ascribed to him who penned the words of Rom 9:1-5 and Rom 10:1

[1]

[2]

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

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.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

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 Christs 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 Enochs 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 persons 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.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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]

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

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.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 22

Anathema, Maran-atha. The former is a word of Greek, and the latter one of Hebrew origin. The literal meaning is, Let him be accursed, The Lord is coming.

The first epistle, &c. This statement, like the others similar to it, appended to some of the other Epistles, is universally admitted to have been added without authority, in later times. In this instance, it is obviously incorrect, being inconsistent with allusions contained in the Epistle itself.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

16:22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema {m} Maranatha.

(m) By these words are meant the severest type of curse and excommunication that was among the Jews: and the words are as much as to say, “As our Lord comes”. So that his meaning may be this, “Let him be accursed even to the coming of the Lord”, that is to say, to the day of his death, even for ever.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Normally Paul used the Greek word agape for love (except in Tit 3:15). Here he used phileo. Consequently this may have been a saying believers used in the congregational worship of the churches. "Maranatha" (NASB) is an Aramaic expression meaning "Our Lord, come." Probably Paul did not translate it into Greek because believers commonly spoke it in Aramaic in the services of the early church (cf. Rev 22:20). Since it was Aramaic it probably originated in Palestine where people spoke that language. They exported it to the Greek-speaking congregations that retained its form.

"It is strange to meet with an Aramaic phrase in a Greek letter to a Greek Church. The explanation is that that phrase had become a watchword and a password. It summed up the vital hope of the early Church, and Christians whispered it to each other, identified each other by it, in a language which the heathen could not understand." [Note: Barclay, The Letter . . ., p. 188.]

"It would appear, then, that the fixed usage of the term ’Maranatha’ by the early Christians was a witness to their strong belief in the imminent return of Christ. If they knew that Christ could not return at any moment because of other events or a time period that had to transpire first [i.e., the Tribulation], why did they petition Him in a way that implied that He could come at any moment?" [Note: Showers, p. 131. Cf. Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, 17, 20.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)