The apostle closes his epistle,

I.With salutations to the church of Corinth, first from those of Asia, from Priscilla and Aquila (who seem to have been at this time inhabitants of Ephesus, vid. Act 18:26), with the church in their house (Co1 16:19), and from all the brethren (Co1 16:20) at Ephesus, where, it is highly probable at least, he then was. All these saluted the church at Corinth, by Paul. Note, Christianity does by no means destroy civility and good manners. Paul could find room in an epistle treating of very important matters to send the salutations of friends. Religion should promote a courteous and obliging temper towards all. Those misrepresent and reproach it who would take any encouragement from it to be sour and morose. Some of these salute them much in the Lord. Note, Christian salutations are not empty compliments; they carry in them real expressions of good-will, and are attended with hearty recommendations to the divine grace and blessing. Those who salute in the Lord wish their brethren all good from the Lord, and breathe out their good wishes in fervent prayers. We read also of a church in a private family, Co1 16:19. It is very probable that the family itself is called the church in their house. Note, Every Christian family should in some respects be a Christian church. In some cases (as, for instance, were they cast away on a foreign shore, where there are no other Christians), they should be a church themselves, if large enough, and live in the use of all ordinances; but in common cases they should live under the direction of Christian rules, and daily offer up Christian worship. Wherever two or three are gathered together, and Christ is among them, there is a church. To these salutations he subjoins, 1. An advice, that they should greet one another with a holy kiss (Co1 16:20), or with sincere good-will, a tacit reproof of their feuds and factions. When the churches of Asia, and the Christian brethren so remote, did so heartily salute them in the Lord, and own and love them as brethren, and expressed so much good-will to them, it would be a shame for them not to own and love one another as brethren. Note, The love of the brethren should be a powerful incentive to mutual love. When the other churches of Christ love us all, we are very culpable if we do not love one another. 2. He subjoins his own salutation: The salutation of me Paul with my own hand, Co1 16:21. His amanuensis, it is reasonable to think, wrote the rest of his epistle from his mouth, but at the close it was fit that himself should sign it, that they might know it to be genuine; and therefore it is added (Th2 3:17), Which is my token in every epistle, the mark of its being genuine; so he wrote in every epistle which he did not wholly pen, as he did that to the Galatians, Gal 6:11. Note, Those churches to whom apostolical letters were sent were duly certified of their being authentic and divine. Nor would Paul be behind the rest of the brethren in respect to the Corinthians; and therefore, after he has given their salutations, he adds his own.

II.With a very solemn warning to them: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maran-atha, Co1 16:22. We sometimes need words of threatening, that we may fear. Blessed is he, says the wise man, who feareth always. Holy fear is a very good friend both to holy faith and holy living. An how much reason have all Christians to fear falling under this doom! If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maran-atha. Here observe, 1. The person described, who is liable to this doom: He that loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ. A meiōsis, as some think; he who blasphemes Christ disowns his doctrine, slights and contemns his institutions, or, through pride of human knowledge and learning, despises his revelations. It stands here as a warning to the Corinthians and a rebuke of their criminal behaviour. It is an admonition to them not to be led away from the simplicity of the gospel, or those principles of it which were the great motives to purity of life, by pretenders to science, by the wisdom of the world, which would call their religion folly, and its most important doctrines absurd and ridiculous. Those men had a spite at Christ; and, if the Corinthians give ear to their seducing speeches, they were in danger of apostatizing from him. Against this he gives them here a very solemn caution. "Do not give into such conduct, if you would escape the severest vengeance." Note, Professed Christians will, by contempt of Christ, and revolt from him, bring upon themselves the most dreadful destruction. Some understand the words as they lie, in their plain and obvious meaning, for such as are without holy and sincere affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. Many who have his name much in their mouths have no true love to him in their hearts, will not have him to rule over them (Luk 19:27), no, not though they have very towering hopes of being saved by him. And none love him in truth who do not love his laws and keep his commandments. Note, There are many Christians in name who do not love Christ Jesus the Lord in sincerity. But can any thing be more criminal or provoking? What, not love the most glorious lover in the world! Him who loved us, and gave himself for us, who shed his blood for us, to testify his love to us, and that after heinous wrong and provocation! What had we a power of loving for, if we are unmoved with such love as this, and without affection to such a Saviour? But, 2. We have here the doom of the person described: "Let him be Anathema, Maran-atha, lie under the heaviest and most dreadful curse. Let him be separated from the people of God, from the favour of God, and delivered up to his final, irrevocable, and inexorable vengeance" Maran-atha is a Syriac phrase, and signifies The Lord cometh. That very Lord whom they do not love, to whom they are inwardly and really disaffected whatever outward profession they make, is coming to execute judgment. And to be exposed to his wrath, to be divided to his left hand, to be condemned by him, how dreadful! If he will destroy, who can save? Those who fall under his condemning sentence must perish, and that for ever. Note, Those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ must perish without remedy. The wrath of God abides on every one who believes not on the Son, Joh 3:36. And true faith in Christ will evermore be productive of sincere love to him. Those who love him not cannot be believers in him.

III.With his good wishes for them and expressions of good-will to them. 1. With his good wishes: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, Co1 16:23. As much as if he had said, "Though I warn you against falling under his displeasure, I heartily wish you an interest in his dearest love and his eternal favour." The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ comprehends in it all that is good, for time or eternity. To wish our friends may have this grace with them is wishing them the utmost good. And this we should wish all our friends and brethren in Christ. We can wish them nothing more, and we should wish them nothing less. We should heartily pray that they may value, and seek, and obtain, and secure, the grace and good-will of their Lord and Judge. Note, The most solemn warnings are the result of the tenderest affection and the greatest good-will. We may tell our brethren and friends with great plainness and pathos that, if they love not the Lord Jesus Christ, they must perish, while we heartily wish the grace of Christ may be with them. Nay, we may give them this warning that they may prize and lay hold of this grace. Note also, How much true Christianity enlarges our hearts; it makes us wish those whom we love the blessings of both worlds; for this is implied in wishing the grace of Christ to be with them. And therefore it is no wonder that the apostle should close all, 2. With the declaration of his love to them in Christ Jesus: My love be with you all, in Christ Jesus, Amen, Co1 16:24. He had dealt very plainly with them in this epistle, and told them of their faults with just severity; but, to show that he was not transported with passion, he parts with them in love, makes solemn profession of his love to them, nay, to them all in Christ Jesus, that is, for Christ's sake. He tells them that his heart was with them, that he truly loved them; but lest this, after all, should be deemed flattery and insinuation, he adds that his affection was the result of his religion, and would be guided by the rules of it. His heart would be with them, and he would bear them dear affection as long as their hearts were with Christ, and they bore true affection to his cause and interest. Note, We should be cordial lovers of all who are in Christ, and who love him in sincerity. Not but we should love all men, and wish them well, and do them what good is in our power; but those must have our dearest affection who are dear to Christ, and lovers of him. May our love be with all those who are in Christ Jesus! Amen.

If any man love not the Lord Jesus - This is directed immediately against the Jews. From Co1 12:3, we find that the Jews, who pretended to be under the Spirit and teaching of God, called Jesus αναθεμα, or accursed; i.e. a person who should be devoted to destruction: see the note on Co1 12:3. In this place the apostle retorts the whole upon themselves, and says: If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let Him be αναθεμα, accursed, and devoted to destruction. This is not said in the way of a wish or imprecation, but as a prediction of what would certainly come upon them if they did not repent, and of what did come on them because they did not repent; but continued to hate and execrate the Lord Jesus; and of what still lies upon them, because they continue to hate and execrate the Redeemer of the world.

It is generally allowed that the apostle refers here to some of the modes of excommunication among the Jews, of which there were three, viz.: -

1.Niddui נדוי, which signifies a simple separation or exclusion of a man from the synagogue, and from his wife and family, for Thirty days.

2.Cherem חרם which was inflicted on him who had borne the niddui, and who had not, in the thirty days, made proper compensation, in order to be reconciled to the synagogue. This was inflicted with dire execrations, which he was informed must all come upon him if he did not repent; but the cherem always supposed place for repentance.

3.Shammatha שמתא: this was the direst of all, and cut off all hope of reconciliation and repentance; after which the man was neither reconcilable to the synagogue, nor acknowledged as belonging even to the Jewish nation. See these different forms in Buxtorf's Rabbinical and Talmudical Lexicon, under their respective words.

In the Lexicon just now quoted, Buxtorf gives a form of the cherem, which he says he copied from an ancient Hebrew MS. Of this awful piece I shall lay a translation before the reader.

"By the sentence of the Lord of lords, let P. the son of P. be anathematized in both houses of judgment; the superior and inferior. Let him be anathematized among the highest saints; let him be anathematized among the seraphim and ophanim; and finally, let him be anathematized by all the congregations of the great and the small! Let great and continued plagues rest upon him; with great and horrible diseases! Let his house be the habitation of dragons! and let his constellation be darkened in the clouds! Let him be for indignation, and wrath, and burning! Let his carcass be thrown to the wild beasts and serpents! Let his enemies and his adversaries triumph over him! Let his silver and gold be given to others! And let all his children be exposed at the doors of their enemies! And let posterity be astonished at his day! Let him be accursed by the mouth of Addiriron and Achtariel; by the mouth of Sandalphon and Hadraniel; by the mouth of Ansisiel and Patchiel; by the mouth of Seraphiel and Sagansael; by the mouth of Michael and Gabriel; by the mouth of Raphael and Mesharetiel! Let him be anathematized by the mouth of Zaafzavif, and by the mouth of Hafhavif, who is the great God; and by the mouth of the seventy names of the supreme King; and lastly, by the mouth of Tsortak the great chancellor.

"Let him he swallowed up like Korah and his companions! Let his soul depart with fear and terror! Let the chiding of the Lord slay him! Let him be confounded as Achitophel was in his counsel! Let the leprosy of Gehazi be his leprosy! and let there be no resurrection of his ruins! In the sepulchres of the children of Israel let him not be buried! Let his wife be given to another, and let others bow themselves upon her in his death! In this anathema, let P. the son of P. be; and let this be his inheritance! But upon me and upon all Israel may God extend his peace and blessing, Amen." To this is added the 18th, 19th, and 20th verses of Deuteronomy 29, (Deu 29:18-20) which the reader may read at his leisure. There are many things in this cherem which require a comment, but this is not the place.

Anathema, maran-atha - "Let him be accursed; our Lord cometh." I cannot see the reason why these words were left untranslated. The former is Greek, and has been already explained; the latter is Syriac maran-atha, our Lord is coming: i.e. to execute the judgment denounced. Does not the apostle refer to the last verse in the Bible? Lest I come and smite the land (חרם cherem) with a curse? And does he not intimate that the Lord was coming to smite the Jewish land with that curse? Which took place a very few years after, and continues on that gainsaying and rebellious people to the present day. What the apostle has said was prophetic, and indicative of what was about to happen to that people. God was then coming to inflict punishment upon them: he came, and they were broken and dispersed.

Yea, and winter with you - He purposed to stay till pentecost at Ephesus; after that to go to Macedonia, and probably to spend the summer there; and come in the autumn to Corinth, and there spend the winter.

That ye may bring me on my journey - That ye may furnish me with the means of travelling. It appears that, in most cases, the different Churches paid his expenses to other Churches; where this was not done, then he labored at his business to acquire the means of travelling.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. This is the apostle's salutation in all his epistles, and is a token of the truth and genuineness of them; See Gill on Rom 16:20; and is a wish for a supply of all grace from Christ, and an increase of it in the saints; that they may have the communications of it to them, to quicken, invigorate, and draw forth into exercise the grace they have received, and to enable and assist them in the discharge of every duty.

1 Corinthians 16:24

A solemn closing warning added in his own hand as in Eph 6:24; Col 4:18.

the Lord--who ought to be "loved" above Paul, Apollos, and all other teachers. Love to one another is to be in connection with love to Him above all. IGNATIUS [Epistle to the Romans, 7] writes of Christ, "My love, has been crucified" (compare Sol 2:7).

Jesus Christ--omitted in the oldest manuscripts.

let him be Anathema--accursed with that curse which the Jews who call Jesus "accursed" (Co1 12:3) are bringing righteously on their own heads [BENGEL]. So far from "saluting" him, I bid him be accursed.

Maranatha--Syriac for, "the Lord cometh." A motto or watchword to urge them to preparedness for the Lord's coming; as in Phi 4:5, "The Lord is at hand."