2 Corinthians 13:14

13:11-14 Here are several good exhortations. God is the Author of peace and Lover of concord; he hath loved us, and is willing to be at peace with us. And let it be our constant aim so to walk, that separation from our friends may be only for a time, and that we may meet in that happy world where parting will be unknown. He wishes that they may partake all the benefits which Christ of his free grace and favour has purchased; the Father out of his free love has purposed; and the Holy Ghost applies and bestows.

The free love of our Lord Jesus Christ, shown in the application of his redemption; that grace which floweth from him as the Fountain of grace, or cometh by him as the Mediator between God and man; the actual love of God; that good-will by which God the Father embraceth creatures in Christ, and for his sake; and all the gracious communications of the Holy Spirit of God, (by which he strengtheneth, quickeneth, or comforteth the souls of God’s people), be with you all. Whether you value me or not, I heartily wish you well, and all the best things. In this text is an eminent proof of the Trinity, all the Persons being distinctly named in it (as in the commission about baptism). The apostle calleth the Father, God; the Son, Lord: he attributeth love to the Father; (moved by which he sent his only begotten Son into the world, John 3:16 ); grace to the Son, who loved us freely, and died for the fellowship or communion of the Holy Ghost, by whom the Father and Son communicate their love and grace to the saints. Amen is here used as a particle of wishing or desiring the thing before mentioned; it is the same with: Let it so be. Whether added by the apostle, or subjoined by the church of Corinth, upon the reading this Epistle among them, (as some think), is not material. The second (epistle) to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, ( a city) of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas.

If the subscriptions to the apostolical Epistles were parts of the text and holy writ, we have it here determined, who that other brother was, mentioned 2 Corinthians 8:22 , sent along with Titus to carry this letter, and the benevolence of the churches of Macedonia. But it is observed, that even in this subscription there is a certain evidence, that the subscriptions of the Epistles are no part of canonical writ; for in some Greek copies it is said to be sent by Paul and Timothy; whereas Paul was the writer of it, not the messenger, and in Macedonia when it was sent; and Timothy is joined with him in the writing, 2 Corinthians 1:1 .

Verse 14. - The grace of our Lord, etc. This is the only place where the full apostolic benediction occurs, and is alone sufficient to prove the doctrine of the Trinity. St. Paul seems to feel that the fullest benediction is needed at the close of the severest letter. With you all. The word "all" is here introduced with special tenderness and graciousness. Some have sinned before; some have not repented; yet he has for them all one prayer and one blessing and one "seal of holy apostolic love? The superscription, though of no authority, may here correctly state that the letter was written at Philippi, and conveyed thence to Corinth by Titus and (possibly) Luke (see 2 Corinthians 8:16-22 ). These are the last recorded words addressed by St. Paul to the Corinthian Church. The results produced by the letter and by his visit of three months ( Acts 20:2, 3 ) were probably satisfactory, for we hear no more of any troubles at Corinth during his lifetime, and the spirit in which he writes the letter to the Romans from Corinth seems to have been unwontedly calm. He had been kindly welcomed ( Romans 15:23 ), and the collection, about which he had been so anxious, seems to have fully equalled his expectations, for as we know ( Romans 16:18 ; Acts 20:4 ), he conveyed it to Jerusalem in person with the delegates of the Churches. We gain a subsequent glimpse of the Corinthian Church. Some thirty-five years later, when a letter, which is still extant, was addressed to them by St.

Clement of Rome, they were still somewhat inclined to be turbulent, disunited, and sceptical (see 'Ep. ad Corinthians,' 3, 4, 13, 14, 37, etc.); but still there are some marked signs of improvement. About A.D. they were visited by Hegesippus (Eusebius, 'Hist. Eccl.,' 4:22), who spoke very favourably of them, especially of their obedience and liberality. Their bishop, Dionysius, was at that time exercising a widespread influence (Eusebius 'Hist. Eccl.,' 4:23). 2 Corinthians 13:14

14. The benediction which proves the doctrine of the Divine Trinity in unity. "The grace of Christ" comes first, for it is only by it we come to "the love of God" the Father (Joh 14:6). The variety in the order of Persons proves that "in this Trinity none is afore or after other" [Athanasian Creed]. communion—joint fellowship, or participation, in the same Holy Ghost, which joins in one catholic Church, His temple, both Jews and Gentiles. Whoever has "the fellowship of the Holy Ghost," has also "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," and "the love of God"; and vice versa. For the three are inseparable, as the three Persons of the Trinity itself [Chrysostom]. The doctrine of the Trinity was not revealed clearly and fully till Christ came, and the whole scheme of our redemption was manifested in Him, and we know the Holy Three in One more in their relations to us (as set forth summarily in this benediction), than in their mutual relations to one another (De 29:29). Amen—omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Probably added subsequently for the exigencies of public joint worship.

14. The grace of the Lord ] This is the fullest form of any of the benedictions given by St Paul, and it comes fitly at the end of the harshest of his Epistles. It must be regarded as the overflowing of a loving heart, conscious of the severity of the language the Apostle has been compelled to use, yet deeply penetrated with a sense of its necessity for the well-being of the flock. The benediction is invoked upon all, the slanderers and gainsayers, the seekers after worldly wisdom, the hearkeners to false doctrine, as well as the faithful and obedient disciples. In regard to its form. we may remark that it was the grace or favour of Jesus Christ in condescending to visit us, through which we received the revelation of the love of God, and that it was through that love that we received the gift of the Holy Spirit, to dwell in our hearts by faith, and thus to knit us into one body in Christ. For communion or fellowship (a rendering familiar to us through the Prayer Book, being that of Tyndale and Cranmer) see note on 1 Corinthians 1:9 . The form of this benediction has always been regarded as a proof of the essential unity and equality of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

(14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . —It is not without a special significance that the Epistle which has been, almost to the very close, the most agitated and stormy of all that came from St. Paul’s pen, should end with a benediction which, as being fuller than any other found in the New Testament, was adopted from a very early period in the liturgies of many Eastern churches, such as Antioch, Cæsarea, and Jerusalem (Palmer, Origines. Liturg. i. 251). It may be noted that it did not gain its present position in the Prayer Book of the Church of England till the version of A.D. 1662, not having appeared at all till A.D. 1559, and then only at the close of the Litany. The order of the names of the three Divine Persons is itself significant. Commonly, the name of the Father precedes that of the Son, as, e.g., in 2Corinthians 1:2; Romans 1:7; 1Corinthians 1:3. Here the order is inverted, as though in the Apostle’s thoughts there was no “difference or inequality” between them, the question of priority being determined by the sequence of thought, and not by any essential distinction. To those who trace that sequence here there will seem sufficient reason for the order which we actually find. St. Paul had spoken of the comfort brought to his own soul by the words which he heard in vision from the lips of the Lord Jesus, “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2Corinthians 12:9).

He had spoken of that grace as showing itself in self-abnegation for the sake of man (2Corinthians 8:9). What more natural than that the first wish of his heart for those who were dear to him should be that that grace might be with them, working on them and assimilating them to itself? But the “favour,” or “grace,” which thus flowed through Christ was derived from a yet higher source. It was the love of God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2Corinthians 5:18-20), the love of the Eternal Father that was thus manifested in the “grace” of the Son. Could he separate those divine acts from that of Him whom he knew at once as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ? (Romans 8:9-14; 1Corinthians 2:11; 1Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 4:6.) Was it not through their participation, their fellowship in that Spirit (the phrase meets us again in Philippians 2:1) shedding down the love of God in their hearts (Romans 5:5) that the grace of Christ and the love of the Father were translated from the region of abstract thoughts or mere empty words into the realities of a living experience?[60] [60] The note, added by some unknown transcriber, though having no shadow of authority, is, probably, in this instance, as has been shown in the Notes on 2Corinthians 8:16-22, a legitimate inference from the data furnished by the Epistle.