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(Ephesians 6:24 and Text): — Though so dissimilar, both texts teach the same truth, viz., that love to Christ is the indispensable condition of salvation.

I. WHY IS LOVE TO CHRIST THUS NECESSARY? Because —

1. Christ is God — God in the clearest form of manifestation — the sum of the Divine perfections. All that there is in God to command the supreme duty of loving Him is in Christ, therefore it is impossible to love God without loving Christ, and not to love Christ is not to love God.

2. Christ is God in our nature, and is thus invested with special attractions, because —

(1)Possessed of another kind of excellence.

(2) Brought into a relation to us He sustains to no other order of beings.

3. Christ loved us and given Himself for us. To be insensible of this claim on our affection is indicative of the greatest moral depravity.

4. By His love and death Christ has opened a way to us from degradation and misery to eternal life and glory.

5. We are shut up to the necessity of loving Christ or Satan. There are but two sovereigns, and you must choose between them.

II. WHAT IS IT TO LOVE CHRIST, AND HOW CAN WE TELL WHETHER WE LOVE HIM OR NOT? Where this love is there will be —

1. A feeling of reverence and complacency which prevents us from ever treating Him with neglect or indignity, and which makes His society delightful.

2. Zeal for His honour. Any disrespect shown Him is painful to us, and anything which promotes His glory is a source of delight to us.

3. A desire to please Him, to do His will.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)

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

WEB: If any man doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Come, Lord!