Maranatha! The Lord Cometh!

What boundless issues are implied in this inspired exclamation of Paul the Apostle!

What is the link with it in the previous declaration? If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be accursed! Here is a spirit-impelled dart which would go straight to the heart of every believer; or would it? And to them only? What about all believers? Is it possible that it would make no impression upon some?

The answer is YES!

Paul revealed that there were many, and would be many, who would depart from the Truth and leave their first love. The believers in Corinth were in a sorry condition. The pressures of a worldly environment were having a deadly effect.

Corinth was not alone; there were other ecclesias in a similar condition and Paul was “pressed beyond measure” in his fight against those who were living according to the flesh and resisting his spiritual teaching.

The more he proclaimed the Truth the more he became their enemy and in many directions they turned against him. A strange reaction? No! (He was but following in the steps of his beloved Lord and Master, who after a life of care and consideration for others was put to death, being hated without a cause. “We will not have this man to reign over us”.)

So Paul was being persecuted from city to city because of his fidelity to the Lord Jesus, the opposition coming from without and from within. 

After Paul had been put to death for his fidelity to Christ, it was Jesus himself who declared of some of the ecclesias at the end of the first century that they had lost their first love, they had succumbed to their worldly environment, tolerating the false teachers who were seducing His servants and thereby becoming extinguished lampstands, as He said “If any man love not the Lord Jesus”.

This is a question we must ask of our own selves. The enormity of such a position was ever present in the mind of Paul, and he was continually exhorting the believers of his day to follow him in his love for “the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me”.

And can we not say with him today, “the Son of God who loved ME, and gave himself for ME?” This abounding love of God in Christ, does it not seize hold of us as it did Paul and penetrate the hearts of each one of us, impelling us to respond in love for the favours bestowed upon us of us, impelling us to respond in love for the favours bestowed upon us in the gift of the Truth?

And shall we not help the brethren and sisters of Christ who are striving to overcome sin and who “love His appearing” as did Paul? And shall we not strive to be “pure in the doctrine, and strong in the Word”?

And with all our “aches and pains”, our impatience, our disappointments, our fears, our frustrations, our weaknesses and failings, our hurt feelings and many other frailties of the flesh, shall we not take comfort in the Truth revealed to us that all these things will pass away for ever, and the overpowering blessings of the Father and His Son will be bestowed upon us if we love the Lord Jesus and manifest it by our endeavour to keep his commands and help others in like manner? 

Let us rejoice: Maranatha!