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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Corinthians 16:19 - 16:24
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Final greetings:
v. 19. The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house.
v. 20. All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.
v. 21. The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand.
v. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
v. 23. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!
v. 24. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
In closing his letter, Paul sends greetings, first of all, from the congregations in Asia, the Roman province on the Aegean Sea. Although he had not personally visited all the congregations that had been founded in the province and in the district of which Ephesus was the distributing center, Rev_1:11, he was in touch with them all and knew their feeling toward the brethren in Greece. Aquila and Priscilla, who were at that time living in Ephesus, where they had labored very faithfully, were again, as in Corinth, acting as hosts to a house congregation. See Act_18:1-28; Rom_16:4. Many and hearty greetings this worthy pair sent to the congregation at Corinth through the apostle, not only on account of their personal friendship with many of the Corinthian Christians, but because of their eager interest for the welfare and growth of the Lord's work, as the addition "in the Lord" tends to show. In the third place, all the brethren of Ephesus sent greetings to Corinth in a body, not merely the small house congregation just mentioned. As a sign of the proper acceptance of these salutations, Paul urges the Corinthian Christians to greet one another with a sacred kiss, with the kiss that is holy, the men saluting the men and the women the women. This custom of the sacred kiss was retained, during the celebration of the Holy Communion, for a number of centuries.
Up to this point Paul has dictated the letter. But now he personally takes the pen and authenticates the letter with his autograph signature, 2Th_3:17. And he adds a double motto and his greeting proper: If any one does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Lord, come! or, The Lord is coming. Not only he that hates the Lord Jesus, but also he that has no real love for the Savior in his heart, but offers a pretense, a spurious love instead, is cursed and condemned. "Those who bow the knee to Him with a feigned heart are themselves anathema, " under the curse. On the other hand, the eager cry: Lord, come! or: The Lord cometh, was a favorite prayer, like a sigh for quick deliverance, in the early Church. See Php_4:5; Rev_1:7; Rev_3:11; Rev_22:20. It was both a watchword and a password among the early Christians, always ringing through their soul and expressed with ever-increasing fervor.
The personal wish of the apostle to the Corinthians is that the grace, the forgiveness of sins, the full divine favor of the Lord Jesus Christ, may be with them, and that his love, equal in intensity toward them all, may be with them. His was the love which he had praised in his holy psalm, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things, chap. 13:7. It was this love which caused Paul to desire that all divisions and schisms would be put aside and a perfect unity in Christ Jesus be secured.
Summary.The apostle recommends to the Corinthian congregation the plan of regular and systematic giving for the collection for the poor, discusses his plan of visiting them in the near future, includes all he has said in an admonition to watchfulness and love, and sends greetings and personal wishes.