DEVOTION
1
CORINTHIANS
DO YOU ENJOY
BEING CURSED?
1 Cor 16:22
- 24
22 If anyone
does not love the Lord — a curse be on him. Come, O Lord! 23 The grace of the
Lord Jesus be with you. 24 My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
NIV
Who would
dare to want a curse on them? But it surely seems as if God is telling everyone
that if they do not love them, they are cursed. That appears to be a strange
attitude for a loving caring God who sent his Son Jesus to die for them so they
could have eternal life, along with, of course, all of us who do love him and
who do not have this curse on us. It does not appear that it is God who is the
one giving out or applying the curse to their lives, but rather it is the person
who does not live God who is bringing the curse upon themselves. The opposite
of a curse would be a blessing and thus if one is not receiving a blessing from
God, then that person is living under a curse. It must be the curse of death,
for the blessing of God is life. It does seem harsh for us to just leave those,
who are living under the curse, to go their not so merry way to the grave. Shouldn’t
we be doing whatever we can to relieve them from this curse? Shouldn’t we
desire that they receive the divine influence upon their hearts as we have, and
be able to live that grace out in their lives like we do? Are we being selfish
if we do not share the Gospel message with them? Do we have that “its’ us four
and no more” attitude, without realizing it? If we are supposed to love others
as God does then shouldn’t we be trying our very best to show them a way out of
that curse? Maybe they don’t know they are cursed. Maybe they want to live a
cursed life. Maybe they want to perish when they die. Maybe they think they are
enjoying the freedom to do whatever their heart desires so much they do not
care about eternal life, or they think they will get to go to heaven anyway because
of the lie Satan has cast upon them. It seems pretty obvious that we should not
simply go our merry way into eternal life and leave them to their own chances
without giving it our best shot. Maybe we should just ask them, “Do you enjoy
being cursed”?
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