01/24/19 QUESTION ABOUT 1 CORINTHIANS 16:22

01/24/19 QUESTION ABOUT 1 CORINTHIANS 16:22

Bro. David, when you have time, could you extend your knowledge and feelings on I Cor. 16:22 ??
 
EXPLANATION
I want to come back to this passage later, but let me say right up front that this passage does not close the door on present day sinners, it does not disqualify unbelievers from the call and salvation of God. On the other hand, it is a very sobering warning shot over the bow of enemy vessels and a clear indictment of those who refuse to have a living and loving relationship with Christ.

As I said, I am looking at this passage and hope to address it specifically. In the mean time, since this passage deals with love, I am going to mention some of my articles dealing with Biblical love. These articles, give the linguistic and Biblical background to the word LOVE. This is not only helpful for this question, but it might be helpful in other areas as well.

I will copy and paste two articles on love in this place. They will be the next two comments. Again, this is not my answer to the question, but it is part of what I would share in the answer. I hope to have either a written or a video response soon.

I have other articles that address this same subject, but I only used the following 2

FIRST DOCUMENT...
FOUR KINDS OF LOVE
"Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," or so sings Dean Martin. And it is probably true. However, the "loving" is not so much the question, but rather, "What kind of love do we have?" Consider these four kinds of love.

AGAPE (uh gah pay), a Biblical word.
It is true that Christians do not have a monopoly on love, but it takes a living and loving relationship with Christ in order to experience the deepest kind of love, which in New Testament Greek is called "agape." This is the self denying, self sacrificing, pure love that God had for sinners when Jesus died on the cross. This is also called perfect love and is the love that flows from God, through His children, when there hearts are pure and delivered from all sin through entire sanctification.

PHILEO (fil a oh), a Biblical word.
Another spiritual love, yet separate from "agape love" is, "phileo" or brotherly love. It is the love that exists between very good friends. It is the kind of love that is generally associated with Christians. Those who are justified by faith experience this love for other people.This love is not to be confused with mere emotional or sensual/physical love.

STORGE, a word associated with a Biblical word (Ro. 12:10), which is translated as "being kindly affectioned.".
The most common kind of love that people relate to is "storge" or family love, love of a parent for a child (or between lovers and friends). Though this love is a good thing and is the product of "common grace" (grace extended to non-believers) it is not exclusively Christian. This is why we can say, "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime." But there is another "love" that is common to all men.

EROS "Eros" love is a human love that may be described as "erotic" but it is also "erratic" in the sense that it is a love based on changing emotions, and may ignite into something that is not lovely. It is a love that rises from the natural man, rather than the spiritual man. Eros can be manifested through either intimacy or lust. It does not take a work of God's grace to experience "eros," but it does take a work of God's grace to bring the emotions, desires and drives under self control.

Everyone experiences love, but not everyone enters into the higher, deeper, more godly kinds of love. Trusting Christ, turning from sin and following Christ fully connects us to the Fountainhead of love Himself.

Search Me O God
Allow God to examine your heart, search your inner man. Take a look at your "love" life (love of others, love of God). Hopefully you have more than just an emotional love (eros) and more than just a family/friendship love (storge). Hopefully you have surrendered your life to Christ and have become a channel of (phileo), brotherly love. God wants us to love Him with our whole heart, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, which is (agape).

Loving in the way God wants us to love takes the miracle of God's presence and infilling.

Psalms 139:23-24
(23) Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
(24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

SECOND DOCUMENT...
BROTHERLY LOVE
I will give a quick overview of our worship service, concerning Brotherly Love, and then I will tell you some of the points I shared with the congregation. The service includes the children. You really should have been their, it was AWESOME.

THE MEETING
I shared the meaning of, and the need for BROTHERLY LOVE to the entire congregation, from the youngest (3 years) to the oldest (68 years).
I encourage questions, observations, comments, responses from anyone, including the little children.
They sat in preaching/teaching service for over an hour and a half, focused on and participating in the celebration of the word of God.
They think with their minds and listen with their hearts.
They search their souls and surrender their lives to Christ.
They sit together in heavenly places.
They are not forced, they are involved and responsive and receptive.

THE MESSAGE
BROTHERLY LOVE. I have watched through the years, as brothers and sisters and cousins and other family members grew less affectionate and more abusive and non-communicative with one another. These things ought not to be.

* Brotherly Love is love for family.
* Brotherly Love is more than just desire, and more than love of nature.
* Brotherly Love is an affection for that which is familial, extending to immediate family, racial, cultural and regional relationships and love for leadership (such as a king).

There are various kinds of love, as seen in the Greek language.
"Eros," having to do with natural, sensual love.
"Phileo," having to do with familial affection love, referred to as brotherly love.
"Agape'," having to do with Godlike, self sacrificing, pure love.

Love comes from God.
* God is love.
* For God so loved the world.
* By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, because you have love for one another.
* And the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Who is given to us.
* These three continue, faith, hope and love, but the greatest is love.

Though we usually focus on agape' love, brotherly love is the affection that exists in a family, and is basic to a Christian experience. Consider these passages that address the "brotherly love" subject.

PASSAGE…
Romans 12:10
(10) Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

DLG note…
* Brotherly love is the affectionate, feeling, emotional love that exists among "kin," or "kindred," thus it is kindly.
* Brotherly love puts other people's needs and desires ahead of one's self.
* Brotherly love is considerate of other people's feelings.
*Brotherly love seeks not to antagonize another person, but rather to bless them and lift them.

PASSAGE…
1 Thessalonians 4:9
(9) But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.

DLG note…
* Brotherly love is so fundamental, so basic to the Christian experience that Paul did not feel it necessary to instruct believers in the practice of brotherly love.
* Though New Testament believers did not have the physical or spiritual presence of God in their midst, as did Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, they did have a personal and spiritual relationship with God that was intimate and dynamic. * God spoke to believers by way of His Holy Spirit, as He does today. But unlike most "church" people today, the early Church believers communed with God and He spoke to them in their hearts. He does the same today with anyone who will obediently listen. His REVELATION is given by the prophets and apostles in the writings of the Old and New Testament, and nothing can be added to them, but He communes with the trusting and loving heart of believers and ENLIGHTENS us to His will.
* God tells those who listen to Him, to love one another. This love is not in word only, but in deed.
* As a parent teaches the child the basics of life, God teaches His children to love one another.

PASSAGE…
Hebrews 13:1
(1) Let brotherly love continue.

DLG note…
* In every situation, LOVE.
* With every person, LOVE.
* At every cost, LOVE.

* Husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loves the Church.
* Parents are to love their children and children are to love their parents.
* Believers are to love one another.
* Believers are to love their neighbors (saved and unsaved) as we love ourselves.
* We are to love our enemies.

Remember,
This is love…
* God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and
* Likewise, we, as Christians, will lay down our lives for our brethren.

* Love is the motivation in our obedience and service to God, and also the motivation in our relationship with our family, our neighbor and our enemy.
* Love is the proof or our salvation.
* If we do not love our neighbor, whom we have seen, we are lying if we say that we love God, whom we have not seen.

PASSAGE…
2 Peter 1:4-7
(4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
(5) And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
(6) And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
(7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

DLG note…
* Those who are partakers of Divine nature, practice brotherly love.
* Brotherly kinship (love) maintains the unity of the family of God and enlightens the watching world.
* Brotherly love avoids barriers and divisions.
* Brotherly love does not allow personal preferences to interrupt oneness of mind.
* Brotherly love does not allow BALL GAMES or anything to offend another person.

LOVE IS THE MIRACULOUS LIFE OF GOD AT WORK IN US.

RESPONSE
Here is a response to your question. I realize I may have not understood what you were asking. If I fail to address your question, please let me know. I also realize that my response may not be helpful. If I can make it more helpful, please let me know.

1 Corinthians 16:22
22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.

I approached this passage in these steps.
1. I read the passage through, in context.
2. I considered the overall message of 1 Corinthians.
3. I focused on the word love.
4. I looked at various commentaries, word studies, translations.

This is a very sobering passage. It can easily be misunderstood to say that anyone who does not presently love Christ is now and eternally lost. That is not what it necessarily means in this passage (however, if the circumstances continue exist as they are at present, then it is an eternal judgment).

Paul cannot be saying that any person who has not loved Christ in the past or does not love Christ in the present is unredeemable because Paul himself had been one who did not love Christ. Paul preached to people who did not love Christ, in order for them to get saved, and therefore come to love Christ. Paul also talked about men who had turned from their love of Christ headed for the judgement of God.

Paul had written this letter addressing the ways in which men manifested their lack of love for Christ and each other, then he called them to faith and love. Here, at the end of this letter Paul makes it clear that those who continue to live their lives, aside from loving Christ, would face the judgment of God.

This passage is similar to an ancient Jewish curse on anyone who refused to live their lives in subjection to the God of Israel: AND MAY THE GOD OF ISRAEL JUDGE YOU (CURSE YOU). This same kind of curse is uttered in the Mideast by other religious people today. This curse indicates that the sin of the person is so great that judgment and punishment in this present, passing world would not be adequate for the unspeakable rebellion of the cursed one. This was Paul's point of view concerning those who will not repent.

Paul is closing his letter of correction and confrontation to the Corinthians by warning them that anyone who would continue to live in rejection of God's will and in opposition to God's people would be judged worthy of eternal, Divine judgment. This warning was not the shutting of the door of salvation. However, as long as anyone chose to remain in rebellion, then the sword of judgment already hung over the head of that person.

Jesus had made similar statements, without closing the door to repentance. It is only when people refuse to repent that they are shut out of salvation.

Jesus said,
Matthew 10:34-39
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3:36
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

John 14:15-24
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

John 15:9-17
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Paul said that love fulfills the law.
Romans 13:8-10
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Galatians 5:14-15
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

He also said that those who are under the cures of the law may be justified by faith,
Galatians 3:10-14
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

James also said the law is fulfilled by love.
James 2:5-13
5 Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

John says a similar thing.
1 John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Without going into the tenses, it is safe to say that our present condition indicates our future condition. It is better to be ready now, than to think we will get ready later.


Finally, notice that the word love, used in vs 22 is the Greek word, PHILEO, which means Brotherly Love. Though agape love is the deepest and strongest and most sacrificial love, PHILEO is the brotherly, kindred, family, relational love that draws close to another person because of great fondness. If a person does not have a fondness for the person of Jesus, if a person does not have a sense of kinship, brotherhood with Jesus, then that person is not in a right relationship with Jesus and they are cut off from His saving grace.

LOVING CHRIST IS THE PROOF OF OUR FAITH. OBEYING CHRIST IS THE PROOF OF OUR LOVE.