Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 Corinthians 13:11 - 13:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The conclusion:
v. 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
v. 12. Greet one another with an holy kiss.
v. 13. All the saints salute you.
v. 14, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all! Amen.
Paul cannot refrain from closing without some cheering remarks, altogether in his customary mild tone. He bears them no personal grudge, and all vindictiveness is foreign to his nature. He bids them rejoice, Php_3:1; Php_4:1; 1Th_5:16; to be perfected, to grow in the knowledge of the will of their Lord: to be comforted and to comfort one another with regard to all the things that have grieved them; to be of one mind, to have such an affectionate regard for one another, such a tender interest in one another's welfare, as to put aside all factions and all party spirit; and to live in peace, to preserve such outward harmony as to offer an unbroken front to any enemies from without. See 1Co_1:10. If this were the situation, then the God of love and peace would delight to be with them, to live in their midst. As brothers together and as children of the same heavenly Father they should be united to experience the richness of His grace and the abundance of His blessings.
With this hope of a faithful pastor Paul admonishes them to salute one another with a holy kiss, with the common form of Oriental salutation which became a part of Christian ritual at a very early date and indicated the brotherhood of the faithful in God's family. To shorn them that they were thought of in brotherly love. Paul sends them greetings from the believers in Macedonia, where he was writing this letter. His concluding apostolic greeting is filled out to include the three persons of the Trinity: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This blessing ascribes to each person of the Godhead a special, though not an exclusive, part in the work of redemption. The grace of Jesus Christ became evident in His incarnation, in His whole life, in His vicarious suffering and death, in His work as our Advocate before the Father. The love of God the Father was proved in his counsel for the salvation of mankind, in his sacrifice of His only-begotten Son, in His being in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, in His accepting us as His dear children in Christ. The communion, or fellowship, of the Holy Spirit, the extending of His gracious influence through the means of grace, enables us to appreciate the wonders of God's mercy and to follow His sanctifying direction. Note: "We have in this passage the practical doctrine of the Trinity, the Father revealing His love in Christ: Christ, in and through whom He reveals Himself, and by whom the work of redemption is accomplished: and the fellowship of divine life fin the Holy Ghost), which proceeds from Christ."
Summary
Paul announces his determination to use all severity in Corinth, if necessary; lie appeals to his readers to stand approved of Christ and to make such a course unnecessary; he closes with salutations and a very complete apostolic greeting.