Focus: Just Love Him!

Text: 1Cor.16:22

"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha."

In Christ's post-resurrection encounter with Peter, He asked him three times, "Do you love me?" Just imagine Christ standing in front of you and asking you, 'Do you love me?' Do you have an atom of love in your heart for Christ? Solomon acknowledges that love is a fire, and so I ask, 'Is the fire of love burning in your heart for the Lord?'

It is wickedness of the highest order for a Christian not to love his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The love of Christ for those who believe in His name is indescribable and inexhaustible. His love is beyond logic. It is outside the bounds of reason. It is love so wide, so long, so deep, and so high, that no finite mind can fathom it. It is love so immense and so intense, so pure and so powerful, that our human love is only a caricature or a corruption of it. 

It is love so great and powerful that nothing can separate us from it.

The Scripture says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom.5:8). True love spills its own blood for the good of the other. Jesus Christ died to restore and repair us. We are informed by Paul that the Spirit pours into our hearts the love of God. Now is it not wickedness to carry the love of God in your bosom and not show it to Him through your obedience and commitment?

Christ's love for His people is absolute and perfect. It is sufficient, efficient, effective, and proficient. Since Christ loves His own like this, it is demonic for a Christian not to love Him right back. It is a sin to ignore or undermine such a lofty love. 

It is not normal to disregard or brush aside such a love or take it for granted.

Paul comes hard on whoever is hateful of Christ or unprepared to love Him. He says, "If any man LOVE NOT the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be ANATHEMA Maranatha." Why be a Christian or follower of Christ and not love Him? Paul is placing such a person under a curse, and because of the added word 'Maranatha,' which means, 'the Lord is coming,' it does appear that the curse will be effected by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He comes back again for His people. Anathema is that which is suspended or set aside for destruction. It is that which is accursed. 

Not loving Christ is dangerous. It has consequences. It is placing oneself under the curse of Christ. Not loving Christ is the worst choice for anyone to make in this life. It is a regrettable choice. The word for 'love' is 'phileo' in the Greek. It is reciprocal love. It is affectionate love. It is mutual love. It is a give-and-take or take-and-give love. It is love that functions within a relationship. John says, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1Jh.4:19). Jesus' love is a prototype of how we should love.

Moses tells us, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind, and with ALL thy strength: this is the first commandment" (Mk.12:30). In this Scripture, God commands us to love Him totally with our whole personality. And that means that God will not at any time tolerate a halfhearted love or a love that is split into bits and pieces. He neither approves not loving Him nor endorses loving Him less. He wants us to love Him with our whole being and our whole self - body, soul and spirit, or heart, soul, mind, and physical energy. No part of us should be left out in our love for the Lord.

Jesus Christ tells us how to identify love for Him. He says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (Jh.14:15). Again he says, "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" (Jh.14:21). 

Loving Christ means obeying His orders and doing His biddings. 

Christ keeps a report card on our obedience. Loving Christ is not done by a word of mouth alone; it is demonstrated by our total obedience. Our love for Christ is better described by John the beloved, who wrote, "They loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev.12:11). Our love is not something we divide between us and the Lord. We must go all out in loving Him, keeping nothing back from Him.

Don't waste time loving yourself because you are already and always loved by Him! You are in the grips of His love. You can't love yourself better than Christ loves you. You are not even anywhere close to loving yourself as Jesus loves you. So forget yourself and just love Him! It doesn't hurt loving Jesus Christ. You can't lose loving the Lord. Just love Him!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter