III.  And now, lastly, note the tenderness, caught from the Master Himself, of the servant who rebukes.

This last message of love from the Apostle himself, in verse 24, is quite anomalous.  There is no other instance in his letters where he introduces himself and his own love at the end, after he has pronounced solemn benediction commending to Christ’s grace.  But here, as if he had felt that he must leave an impression of himself on their minds, which corresponded to the impression of his Master that he desired to leave, he deviates from his ordinary habit, and makes his last word a personal word—­’My love be with you all in Christ Jesus.’  Rebuke is the sign of love.  Sharp condemnation may be the language of love.  Plain warning of possible evils is the simple duty of love.  So Paul folds all whom he has been rebuking in the warm embrace of his proffered love, which was the very cause of his rebuke.  The healing balm of this closing message was to be applied to the wounds which his keen edged words had made, and to show that they were wounds by a surgeon, not by a foe.  In effect, this parting smile of love says, ’I am not become your enemy because I tell you the truth; I show my love to you by the plainness and roughness of my words.’  Generalise that, free it from its personal reference, and it just comes to this:  There never was a shallower sneer than the sneer which is cast at Christianity, as if it were harsh, ‘ferocious,’ or unloving, when it preaches the terror of the Lord.  No! rather, because the Gospel is a Gospel, it must speak plainly about death and destruction to the unloving.  The danger signal is not to be blamed for a collision, which it is hoisted to avert; and it is a strange sign of an unfeeling and unsympathetic, or of a harsh and gloomy system, that it should tell men where they are driving, in order that they may never reach the miserable goal.  ’Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.’  And when people say to us preachers, ’Is that your Gospel, a Gospel that talks about everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord at the glory of His coming—­is that your Gospel?’ We can only answer, ’Yes, it is!  Because, so to talk, may by God’s mercy, secure that some who hear shall never know anything of the wrath, save the hearing of it with the ear, and may, by the warning of it, be drawn to the Rock of Ages for safety and shelter from the storm.’

Therefore, dear friends, the upshot of all that I have been feebly trying to say is just this; let us lay hold with all our hearts, and by simple faith, of the present grace of the coming, loving Lord and Judge.  You can do it.  It is your only hope to do it. Have you done it?  If so, then you may lift up your heads to the throne, and be glad, as those who know that their Friend and Deliverer will come at last, to help, to bless, to save.  If not, dear friend, take the warning, that not to love is to be shrivelled like a leaf in the flame, at that coming which is life to them that love, and destruction to all besides.  ’Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness before Him in the day of judgment.’