This was the conventional token of Christian affection. In the East the kiss was a sign either of friendship among equals, or of reverence and submission on the part of an inferior. The people kissed the images of their gods, and the hands of princes. In the early church, the custom was for Christians when they met to kiss ; and in their assemblies, especially after the Lord's supper, this token of Christian brotherhood was in- terchanged. Paul seems here to request, that when his letter was pubUcly read, the members of the church would give to each other this pledge of mutual forgiveness and love.
21. The salutation of (me) Paul with mine own hand.
As Paul commonly wrote by an amanuensis, he was accus- tomed to write with his own hand the concluding sentences of his epistle as an authentication of them, Col. 4, 18. 2 Thess. 3, 17. He remarks in Gal. 6, 11, on his having written that epistle with his own hand as something unusual, and as indi- cating a peculiar stress of feeling.
22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maran atha.
This and what follows is what Paul himself wrote. They are words which need no explanation. They carry with them their awful import to every heart. If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ. If our Lord be " God over all and blessed for ever," want of love to him is the violation of our whole duty. If he be not only truly God, but God manifested in the flesh for our salvation ; if he unites in himself all divine and all human excellence ; if he has so loved us as to unite our nature to his own, and to humble himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life ; then our own hearts must assent to the justness of the malediction pronounced even against our- selves, if we do not love him. We must feel that in that case we deserve to be anathema. Nay, we thereby are a thing accursed; we are an object of execration a'hd loathing to all holy beings by the same necessity that holiness is opposed to sin. Maran atha are two Aramaean words signifying " The Lord," or " pur Lord comes." It is a solemn warning. The Lord, whom men refuse to recognize and love, is about to