1 Cor 16:22 “Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed ~~. Our Lord, come!”
Some find it hard to believe that there are serious consequences to not knowing and loving the Lord Jesus. Many parents cannot bring themselves to spank their children, so how could God condemn any of His children?
Many hold that no one is ultimately accursed from God forever but will be given a second chance, just as we give our children second chances for everything. This is a concept of a make–believe god, not the One who is there.
In 1 Corinthians 16:22, Paul gives a passionate warning of what happens when his readers follow false teachers. Later he writes: “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed” (2 Cor 11:3–-4NLT).
They were passive because they thought God was passive, but He is not.
On the other hand, those who love the Lord are promised God’s intervention in their lives: “We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Rom 8:28NLT).
The present imperative verb tense in 1 Corinthians 16:22 means this is a continual, unending action of being “accursed,” which indicates the condemnation of the unsaved. John declared, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn 3:18).
Paul is warning those in the church that are pretending to be followers, not for the love of the Lord Jesus, but for personal interests, that they are already cursed and condemned. This should warn us that pretenders are not saved even though they come to church. They are the tares among the wheat (Matt 13:38). What are we going to do about it?
The cry of the church is “Maranatha”—-that is, “Our Lord, come!”
“Dear Father, Your kind of love is so far from the human way of thinking that it takes us a lifetime to begin to understand it. Thank You for Your Spirit and Your word that work in me as I am open to Your teaching. I trust You, Lord, to help me love You more each day.”