1 Corinthians 16:22

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. 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. curse, and that they are deservedly cursed among all nations.

The Greek word, Anathema, signifies execrable; the Syriac word, Maran-atha, is. 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. final malediction, an irreversible execration, which shall be immediatedly succeeded with the anguish and torments of eternity.