A COURSED, The Lord cometh," is the meaning of the two words which the translators of our New Testament saw fit to leave in the original.
I will quote the verse in which they occur: —" If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Cor. 16:2222If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. (1 Corinthians 16:22)).
The meaning is as solemn as it is clear. At the coming of the Lord in judgment, he who loves Him not is accursed. And so it is elsewhere written, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him "(Jude 14, 1514And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (Jude 14‑15).)
“Ungodly deeds "and" hard speeches " are the outcome of a heart that does not love. Woe to such Judgment, swift and unsparing, will fall upon him who thus acts and speaks against the Lord.
Now, notice that love to the Lord Jesus is the touchstone. It is a fact, that where there is true love to Christ, there is also a manner of life that is pleasing to God. Love for Christ is, at the same time, love for the truth; and this, I need hardly say, is productive of a life according to God.
Notice further, it is not mere belief about Christ. A person may have his mind stored with correct doctrine, and illumined by clear views, but that will not suffice. Many a one at heart hates the Lord Jesus, who in his head carries the most lucid apprehension of His history, His words, and His work. This may startle. Yet how frequently, alas, does one meet with those who are intimately acquainted with the scriptures, able to quote them to the letter; and yet, when the simple, but all-important question, "Do you love Jesus?" is put, they become uneasy, vexed, and angry. But this simple question is, nevertheless, the crucible. Hence we do not read, " if any man be ignorant of scriptures, fail in clear theological conceptions, or such like;” but, " if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed, the Lord cometh.”
Now, reader, you are either amongst the Christ-lovers, or the Christ-haters. There is no neutral ground. What an awful thing to hate the blessed Lord Jesus!
Ah when here, "they hated" Him, but it was "without a cause." No crime could they lay to His charge,—not one act of unkindness, not one untruthful word. He healed their sick, fed their hungry, gave sight to their blind, raised their dead, and—fearful moral contradiction—they hated Him. And why? Because the light He diffused discovered their sins. The silent witness of His pure and perfect life declared, only too forcibly, the guilt of a godless world. It left them “no cloak for their sins." And so they took Him, and with wicked hands they crucified and slew Him. This consummated their hatred. It could not have gone further. Well, wondrous to say, God found in this climax of human guilt the ground of pardon. Guilt and goodness meet at the cross. What guilt! what goodness t Ah! the love of Christ, how it answers to the hatred of man! "Christ died for us." “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Nothing makes me ashamed of myself like the cross. Hatred buries her head at the sight. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me." And what is the consequence?
“We love Him, because He first loved us"; or again,
“Whom, having not seen, ye love." How divinely intelligible! The believer loves Him; the unbeliever hates Him.
Reader, which are you?
Ah! remember that if you love not the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be accursed at His coming.
Do you love Jesus? J. W. S.