1 Corinthians 16:22

Love. Gr. phileo, “to love with human affection.” For comparison with agapao see on Matt. 5:43, 44. The meaning here is, “If any one does not even have human love for the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Anathema. A transliteration of the Gr. anathema, meaning “accursed,” or “devoted to destruction.” Those who do not believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ cannot hope for salvation. By their own act of rejecting the only means of salvation, they choose eternal ruin (see Mark 16:16; John 12:48; Acts 16:30-32; 1 John 5:11-13; cf. Gal. 1:8, 9).

Maran-atha. A transliteration of the Gr. maran atha, which in turn is a transliteration of the Aramaic maran ’athah. The words should probably be separated as follows: marana tha, Aramaic marana’ tha’. This is the only place in Scripture where this word occurs. The Aramaic expression may be translated “our Lord comes,” or “our Lord, come.” The letter to the Corinthians was written in Greek, as were all the other epistles, but Paul was a bilinguist and familiar with Aramaic, the vernacular of the people in Palestine. As he reached the close of his powerful appeal to the Corinthians to abandon their factions, false doctrines and practices, and give themselves wholly to the Lord, he climaxed his arguments with this forceful pronouncement concerning the Lord’s coming. In the KJV this statement is attached to the preceding word “anathema,” but there is no necessary connection.

In the early days of the Christian church the expression “maran-atha” seems to have been used by the believers as a salutation (see Didache 10:6). The coming of Jesus should be the theme of every Christian’s life (see 6T 406; 7T 237; EW 58).