Final Greetings
11Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
12Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13All the saints send their greetings.
14May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Dig Deeper
Whenever I write a letter, I tend to use a pretty standard form for letters that is common to our culture. That actually makes a great deal of sense, seeing as how I was educated in this culture and if I did something significantly different, people might have a hard time understanding it or would be so distracted by my unique form that they didn’t pay attention to what I wrote. The same holds true for Paul. He was a well educated man of his day and when he wrote letters like this one he tended to use the form and styles common to the culture of his day. Even in his concluding remarks, Paul normally ended with something quite similar to most letters of this type.
In this letter, in particular, however, he uses a salutation that is expanded from a normal ending. What is important for us to understand is that Paul doesn’t just string a bunch of words together, ending the letter with some standard words without really thinking about them. We often tend to do that as we bring our letters to a close. We throw a standard ending like "sincerely" out and then sign off. This is not at all the case with the apostle. Although he does follow the standard form, every word he says in his closings are important. Paul’s closings are a summation of his letter, highlighting and emphasizing the most important themes from his letter.
Just as in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, Paul begins his closing with five commands. They are, however, difficult to translate. The meanings for several of his exhortations depend upon whether they are understood in the passive or the middle voice. Many leading commentators feel that the NIV incorrectly understands these verbs in the passive rather than the middle voice. If they are understood in the middle, they are much more consistent with the themes of the letter that Paul is summarizing. Thus, rather than saying "[G]ood-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace," we should likely understand Paul to be commanding them to: Rejoice; aim for restoration; to encourage one another; to be of one mind; and to live in peace.
First he tells them to rejoice. He has already made it clear that he wants the Corinthians to be a source of his rejoicing (2 Cor. 2:3; 7:9, 16; 13:9). He also desires for them to repent so that when he comes he will be a source of their rejoicing. They will have reason to rejoice in the Lord, with one another and with Paul. It is an expression of unity in the community. Second, he tells them to aim for restoration, which has been one of the major themes throughout the letter. Third, Paul exhorts them to encourage one anther. As they rejoice and seek restoration, they will and should continue to encourage one another. Fourth, he desires that they be of one mind (literally he says "think the same thing"). Just as they are being transformed into the image of the Messiah (2 Cor. 3:18), so they will reflect his image by thinking in the unity of Christ. This would have been particularly challenging and important for the Corinthians who had struggled with factious thinking from the onset. Finally, he directs them to live in peace. This makes sense as it flows from the previous command. Thinking the same thing will bring harmony and is the basis for peace. If they do all of this, the God of love and peace will be with them (cf. Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 3:16; Gal. 6:16). Once again, even in his closing, Paul stresses the importance of obedience, and the results that will come from that obedience. It is not that obedience earns God’s love and peace, but rather Paul is alluding to the reality that our obedience is the sign that we are willingly choosing to stay under the umbrella of His love and peace.
Paul, after completing his exhortations, encourages them to greet one another with a holy kiss (cf. 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Cor. 16:20; Rom. 16:16). This command is found nowhere else in the ancient world outside of the New Testament and the practice of the early church. The holy kiss was probably a reference to the kiss of greeting that holy ones would give one another when they met rather than referring to some special sort of kiss like a secret handshake.
Finally, Paul ends with one of the most beautiful benedictions in all of the Bible. Paul’s thinking here is incredibly Trinitarian, even though it comes a good century before that categorical word was invented. It makes clear that if the word "Trinity" had not been coined to capture the theology and thought of the early church, we would have to invent one. He first mentions the grace of Jesus Christ. Jesus embodied the grace of God as he became human, because that’s what graced had to do in order to be fully manifested. Behind that grace, though is the love of God. The love of God is not simply one aspect of His nature, it is the very essence of who He is. Flowing out of God’s grace, embodied by Christ, and His essence of love is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Spirit that keeps us in the grace of Christ and the love of God, which we fully experience in fellowship with God and with one another in Christ.
One of the questions that often arise from Paul’s benediction here is why he chose the precise attributes that he did. Why did he specifically assign grace to Christ, love to God, and fellowship to the Holy Spirit? I believe that the answer to that comes in Ephesians 1, where we see Paul’s thought process more fully. In that passage it is God who, "in love, he predestined" a group of people to be reconciled to Him in Christ (Eph. 1:3-5). As a result of God’s desire to manifest His love in the reality of human existence, He gave us redemption and His grace through the person of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:6-10). Thus, God chose the plan of redemption, born out of His love and embodied in the grace of Jesus Christ, but that is all brought together by the work and seal of the Holy Spirit, who brings God’s people together in the fellowship of Christ.
Based on the recent tumult in Corinth at the time Paul wrote this letter, Paul’s exhortations might be an extreme challenge, but he really leaves them with no choice. If they don’t move forward and embrace the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, then they simply did not know the love of God that entered the world through the grace of Jesus Christ. The love of God, embodied by Jesus and experienced in the fellowship of the Spirit came at great cost to God. For the Corinthians to move forward into the light of godly fellowship, it was going to be costly, but Paul has written this entire letter, encouraging them to do so. We must only assume that he would expect no less of us.
Devotional Thought
Take a look at Paul’s five exhortations to the Corinthians. Are those five elements apparent in your life? Have you embraced the love of God and the grace of Christ by embracing the fellowship made available by the Spirit?
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