Let Him Be Accursed

Every person will always do what they are bound to do according to their own nature. The Bible tells us that, by nature, we are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) who do not seek God on our own accord (Rom. 3:11) and attempt to live out our lives independent of an all-powerful and all-knowing God in the comfort of our own material pleasures (Is. 47:8).

Towards the end of his first letter to the Corinthian church,  the apostle Paul writes,  "If anyone has no love for the Lord,  let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!" Many of us, particularly of the religious variety, would like to think that such a statement from Scripture gives the green light to treat those who have no love for God in a way that is less than loving. Some might think, "If the Bible calls them accursed then why treat them any different than that?"

While it is true that those who are destined to damnation through their own rejection of Christ will receive their due punishment,  Christians ought to remember a few things:

1. You too, were an individual who rejected God due to your own fallen nature and spiritual depravity. It is by God's grace alone that you are saved and that He chose to have mercy on you (Eph. 2:8-9). In essence, you were at one time like those who still presently reject Christ.

2. Although God has decreed that only some will be saved, He desires that all would be saved (Rom. 9; Matt. 23:37; 1 Tim. 2:4). Many often find this aspect of God to be seemingly inconsistent and illogical, but we must remember that God's ways are not our ways and if we could understand everything about Him, then He wouldn't be as majestic and powerful as the Bible describes Him to be. In essence, we do not know who God will save and bless with the Spirit; we are called to love our neighbors and enemies (Matt. 5:43-44) and be at peace with all if possible (Rom. 12:18).

3. God blesses even those who will never love Him. Some refer to this as "common grace." Although such people will never experience "special grace," that is,  becoming born-again by the direct intervention of God through the Spirit, God still chooses to bless them in this life with family, material blessings, and everything else that pertains to being made in His image. In Matthew 5:45, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples that God makes the sun shine on the evil and on the good,  and brings rain upon the just and the unjust. If God still chooses to bless those who will never love Him, has not our heavenly Father been an example to us in how we ought to relate to others who do not love Him?

Although God is justified in His wrath and divine judgement because His own holiness and perfection demands it, we are not likewise justified to condemn others (Please don't take Matt. 7:1 out of context to mean what you want it to mean). Nonetheless, those who remain accursed gives Christians no right to develop a "Pharisee complex."