2 Corinthians 13:11

Thus the apostle concludes this epistle with,

I. A valediction. He gives them a parting farewell, and takes his leave of them for the present, with hearty good wishes for their spiritual welfare. In order to this,

1. He gives them several good exhortations. (1.) To be perfect, or to be knit together in love, which would tend greatly to their advantage as a church, or Christian society. (2.) To be of good comfort under all the sufferings and persecutions they might endure for the cause of Christ or any calamities and disappointments they might meet with in the world. (3.) To be of one mind, which would greatly tend to their comfort; for the more easy we are with our brethren the more ease we shall have in our own souls. The apostle would have them, as far as was possible, to be of the same opinion and judgment; however, if this could not be attained, yet, (4.) He exhorts them to live in peace, that difference in opinion should not cause an alienation of affections - that they should be at peace among themselves. He would have all the schisms that were among them healed, that there should be no more contention and wrath found among them, to prevent which they should avoid debates, envyings, backbitings, whisperings, and such like enemies to peace.

2. He encourages them with the promise of God's presence among them: The God of love and peace shall be with you, Co2 13:11. Note, (1.) God is the God of love and peace. He is the author of peace, and lover of concord. He hath loved us, and is willing to be at peace with us; he commands us to love him, and to be reconciled to him, and also that we love one another, and be at peace among ourselves. (2.) God will be with those who live in love and peace. He will love those who love peace; he will dwell with them here, and they shall dwell with him for ever. Such shall have God's gracious presence here, and be admitted to his glorious presence hereafter.

3. He gives directions to them to salute each other, and sends kind salutations to them from those who were with him, Co2 13:12, Co2 13:13. He would have them testify their affection to one another by the sacred rite of a kiss of charity, which was then used, but has long been disused, to prevent all occasions of wantonness and impurity, in the more declining and degenerate state of the church.

II. The apostolical benediction (Co2 13:14): The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Thus the apostle concludes his epistle, and thus it is usual and proper to dismiss worshipping assemblies. This plainly proves the doctrine of the gospel, and is an acknowledgment that Father, Son, and Spirit, are three distinct persons, yet but one God; and herein the same, that they are the fountain of all blessings to men. It likewise intimates our duty, which is to have an eye by faith to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost - to live in a continual regard to the three persons in the Trinity, into whose name we were baptized, and in whose name we are blessed. This is a very solemn benediction, and we should give all diligence to inherit this blessing. The grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion (or communication) of the Holy Ghost: the grace of Christ as Redeemer, the love of God who sent the Redeemer, and all the communications of this grace and love, which come to us by the Holy Ghost; it is the communications of the Holy Ghost that qualify us for an interest in the grace of Christ, and the love of God: and we can desire no more to make us happy than the grace of Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co_13:11-14

Finally, brethren, farewell.

Farewell

Note--

I. The apostolic exhortation.

1. The state to be attained: Be perfect, which conveys the idea of repairing, or putting in order. It is used e.g., of the disciples mending their nets, and also in Gal_6:1, the idea there being that of a dislocated limb; and just as a surgeon will reduce that limb and restore it to its proper place in the body, so Christians were to restore a fallen brother to the position which he had lost. So it is for you to inquire whether there may have been in time past anything wrong. It was a complaint of Him who searches the heart, I have not found thy works perfect before God; remember, and repent. At the same time the exhortation is rather for our future guidance. Every believer has his proper place in the Church, and has his proper duties to perform, and it is for us to ask of God to teach us what it is, and then give us grace to do it.

2. The happiness to be enjoyed: Be of good comfort. Comfort is needed, for we are in a world of sorrow. Comfort is needed even by the believer, for he is called sometimes to suffer under the chastisement of a Fathers hand, and no chastisement is for the present joyous, but rather grievous. But amidst all the dispensations of providence with which God deals with him, he may still be of good comfort. For remember the foundation on which the gospel bases this comfort. Be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee. Comfort is supplied by--

(1) The assurances of the gospel: God is faithful who hath called you to the knowledge of His dear Son; The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal: the Lord knoweth them that are His; I know My sheep, and am known of Mine; I know their sorrows and will deliver them; I will never leave them nor forsake them.

(2) The promises of the gospel. Whatever there be that we want, there is some promise or other of which we may plead the fulfilment at the throne of grace; and our Lord has said, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, believing, ye shall receive.

(3) The hopes of the gospel.

(a) They extend to the very verge of life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

(b) They cast a light even upon the dark valley of the shadow of death.

(c) They give us the assurance of heaven.

3. The unity to be sought: Be of one mind. Now this has reference to the state in which the apostle found the Corinthian Church. They formed parties and factions. One of them liked one minister better than another. But the apostle asks, Who is Paul and who is Cephas, but ministers by whom ye believed? They are mere instruments after all. He teaches the Corinthians to honour Christ alone. Look, then, off from the preacher. Determine to honour Christ only, then there will be no fear, but you will be of one mind. And then, in order to do that, let His Word only be your authority. Then unite in His work.

4. The spirit to be manifested: Live in peace.

(1) With God.

(2) With one another. Seek to promote peace in your families, in the social circle, in the church.

II. The apostolic assurance. The God of love and peace shall be with you. Notice the ground on which this assurance is given. It is not as a condition, but rather as an encouragement. The God of love and peace shall be with you to encourage you in the discharge of duty.

1. We have to do with the God of love--

(1) In every comfort and blessing which His bounteous providence bestows upon us.

(2) In every trial which we are called to bear.

2. And He is also the God of peace. He devised peace, arranged the plan by which it might be restored; He proclaims peace in and through the gospel; He delights in peace; He will ever pour upon His people the blessing of peace.

3. Then notice the comprehensive blessing to be realised: The God of love and peace shall be with you; in duty to strengthen you, in difficulty to guide you, in trial to support you, in loneliness to befriend you and cheer you, in death to be the strength of your heart, in judgment to be your Father and Saviour. (W. Cadman, M. A.)

Be perfect: be of good comfort.

Perfection and comfort

1. Farewell means rejoice. Just as the parting wish with us is that friends may fare well, so it was with the Greeks.

2. Be of good comfort conveys the same idea, but with reference to difficulties to be overcome. The apostle returns in this expression to the keynote which he had struck in chap. 1. The epistle, indeed, is a ministering of comfort united with a call to perfection, and the gist of it is therefore given in this verse. 3. Effort after perfection, however, seems a very different thing from joy on the one side and comfort on the other. These two are smiling and bright, like fertile plains watered by placid silver streams, but the other is a steep rock with its summit lost in the clouds. And yet if we look close we shall find a meaning in the collocation beyond that of mere contrast: Consider--

I. The pursuit of perfection.

1. The injunction may seem a strange one in the light of mans condition and history. And yet he has been ever repeating it. In the Far East it is repeated by Confucius. The Brahmin and the Buddhist dream and speculate regarding it. The subtle Greek defined and analysed it. It seems as if man could nowhere escape from it. The very thought of a good suggests that of a better and a best. Every beautiful thing speaks of it. Even the desire to finish a piece of work thoroughly is a hint of it. It is because man has an ideal which rebukes him that he is smitten with penitence; because he has an ideal which gleams before him that he marches on with courage and enthusiasm. The child who tries to write, or draw, or learn a lesson perfectly, opens for himself a chink into the infinite. The idea of the perfect, the thirst after it, is thus one of the greatest powers in the common unideal everyday world. What benefactors the men have been who said, I cannot and will not rest till I know the principle that underlies these facts; I must give perfect expression to that idea at whatever cost of time and labour; or I must bring out all the power that lies in this material; I must utter the beauty I see in things. Those whose inspiration was the thought of perfection have been the most practical of men. There are many things that never would have been attempted or dreamt of but for this, and the whole fabric of work and thought is sustained and vivified by it.

2. And yet this perfection is everywhere unattainable. The horizon recedes before man to whichever side he turns. It is the same in the moral and spiritual world. Reason approves it, imagination dreams it, conscience demands it, love of God and man never cease to enforce it. The tender majestic glory of Jesus clothes it with unspeakable attraction. And yet ever far above the highest and best of men it towers--the unapproachable. But the pursuit of it is none the less imperative. We dare aim at nothing less.

3. Is this a contradiction? Is it unreasonable that the painter should seek a perfection which no earthly colours can supply, and no mortal hand can achieve? Would not his whole work descend to a poor daub without this ideal? And so without the thought of perfection the depth would depart from duty, effort would grow languid, and every walk of life would feel the blight. When we feel that we are sinking down from the conception we must chide and rebuke ourselves. If we keep the desire for perfection bright, the belief in eternal existence will be a necessity to us, and the entire spiritual realm and atmosphere will spread around us in living power.

II. The apparent incompatibility of the two injunctions.

1. The command to rejoice and be of good comfort is as truly a Divine command as the other. We conceive of joy as something which we may either take or not as we think fit. We forget that the joy inculcated in the Bible is no superficial thing, but a plant having its roots in great truths and blossoming into rich flower and fruit. In one sense joy is an easy thing, in another it is one of the most difficult achievements. We are to be glad in the Lord--how simple and direct this is--how different from the task of forcing joy on the soil of self; but, still, what a clear and steady vision it implies, and what a projection of our thoughts away beyond the sphere of self. To rejoice is natural and inevitable if one only keeps in the proper attitude and element--here lies both the easiness and the difficulty.

2. But the great difficulty to many minds is that of making both comfort and perfection objects of earnest pursuit. The idea is deeply rooted that one or other must be surrendered. And it cannot be doubted that the thirst for perfection often destroys comfort. The thirst for perfection in anything is apt to become absorbing, devouring, isolating. The current of life is drawn away in one direction, and the man becomes unsocial. He is lost in his aim. Religion has often taken this form. Men fascinated with the glory of perfection have often been deeply melancholy with only brief periods of heated joy. Many who are far enough from being thus engrossed in the pursuit, experience a measure of the like sorrow. They are so often disappointed.

3. How, then, can any man attend to both these injunctions?

(1) Emphasise the indispensableness of joy. Joy is a necessary and great part of perfection. As well speak of a perfect day without sunshine as a perfect man without joy.

(2) Never make perfection a solitary aim. The command to be perfect is only one of many commands. No doubt it includes all others; but it will never be so regarded, unless these also are made to stand out in distinctness and importance. Should not communion with God be placed even higher than our own perfection? And constant fellowship with God means rest and solace and joy. Should not looking to Jesus be the spirit of our life? and can we look to Jesus without getting peace and gladness? Should we not seek to live for others? and does not this self-forgetfulness bring strength and calm? Fellowship with God, faith in Jesus, and life for others, have rest and joy in them. And they are, at the same time, the things most indispensable to progress--they are the main elements in perfection. (R. H. Story, D. D.)

Perfection

To most persons this is discouraging language. But the idea is, not that we should grasp perfection as an immediate result, but make it our aim; and this, so far from discouraging, only inspires. How many are satisfied to be as good as others, to reach the current medium of reputable character! But what is this perfection? First, it includes all the virtues. It suffers us not to rely on some good qualities to the neglect of others, or to hope that we can, by a partial innocence, compound with God for the commission of any sin. In the scales of His justice generosity will not atone for intemperance, irritability, or dishonesty. Again, perfection requires that each quality should be free from taint, like the Jews unblemished offering, and without debasing alloy. Lastly, perfection requires that all the graces be expanded to an unlimited degree. But, immeasurable as perfection is, shall it not be our aim? See how every thing great and good on this earth has grown out of the aim at perfection. Its fruits, if not in religion, are everywhere else around us. Why do we live in such comfortable dwellings? Because men were not satisfied with a cave in the ground or a rude fabric above it; but aimed at perfection. Why that proudest monument of architectural skill careering swiftly between continents, through the waste of waters? Because men were not satisfied with the creaking raft. There, again, is a man who has toiled in loneliness and secrecy upon the strings of a musical instrument till he has concentrated all the sweet sounds of nature into that little space, and can draw forth liquid melodies and mingling harmonies, the voice of birds, and the flow of streams; now the sounds of laughter, and anon the sobs of prayer, to the astonishment of assembled thousands. And shall Christians debate whether it is a possible or reasonable thing to make a perfect piety to God and charity to man their standard? No: there is no other aim worthy of your immortal natures. There is no perfection so glorious as that of moral and religious goodness. Satisfy yourselves no longer with moderate attainments. (C. A. Bartol.)

Perfection

I. There is no absolute perfection in this life. By absolute perfection I mean a state without sin, and by this life I mean the present dispensation. I do not wholly deny that a creature may be without sin, yea, I must needs grant it, for God created our first parents without sin, and angels and men in heaven are freed from it. But I speak now of our present state and condition after the fall, when all mankind are corrupted. The testimonies which occur in Holy Scripture prove this sufficiently. Those infallible writings expressly deny a sinless perfection (1Ki_8:46; Pro_20:9; Ecc_7:20). Besides, Scripture attesteth this truth by the various instances and examples it presents us with. I might instance also in societies and communities of persons, for the Scripture testifieth the very same of these. The best Churches have sinned. In the next place I am to make this good by reason as well as Scripture and examples. First, if you consider the depraved nature of the best persons, you will conclude that it cannot be otherwise. Secondly, this might be made good from the consideration of the nature of the covenant of grace. A complete exact conformity to the law is not the condition of this gracious covenant made with mankind after the fall of Adam. Thirdly, this doctrine will appear most reasonable if you consider the end and design of Gods constituting repentance under the gospel. This great evangelical grace is useless, according to the notion of absolute perfection, for repentance supposeth guilt, but where there is absolute perfection there is no guilt.

II. Is this: that there is a perfection to be attained in this life.

1. The perfection which holy men attain to in this life is comparative, i.e., though they cannot arrive to an absolute and sinless perfection, yet they may be said, and expressly are said in Scripture, to be perfect, as they are compared either with others or with themselves at different times. First, I say, if they be compared with others, viz.--

(1) Those that are no Christians.

(2) Those that are profane and wicked, of what religion soever they are.

(3) The holy, but weaker, Christians.

2. Believers and holy men have an imputative perfection. This is the true evangelical perfection, namely, the being perfect by another.

3. The perfection of believers in this life, as it is imputative, so it is likewise personal and inherent. As they are righteous by anothers righteousness, so it is as true that they are righteous by their own righteousness, and accordingly they have a perfection of their own.

(1) The evangelical and personal perfection of the saints is a perfection of sincerity.

(2) The personal perfection of Christians is a perfection of impartial obedience.

(3) This perfection consists in our acquiring a habit of virtue and godliness.

(4) To climb to the most heroic acts and achievements of Christianity is perfection. Consequently self-denial, taking up the Cross, profound humility, patience, heavenly-mindedness, great mercifulness, and extensive charity, denominate a person perfect (Jam_1:4). And there is also the perfection of love as it hath God for its object. And so for that eminent grace of faith, that likewise when it is complete is said to be perfect (Jam_2:22). Conjunction with it, it hath its utmost perfection. Lastly, to be very eminent and exact in any one duty of our religion, to excel in any one grace, especially if it be very difficult, is in Scripture language perfection.

(5) To acknowledge our failings and to be thoroughly sensible of our imperfections is the true gospel-perfection.

(6) To desire and endeavour after the absolute and consummate perfection, to strive to come as near to it as may be, and as this state is capable of, this is gospel-perfection. He that aims at a star shall shoot higher than he that takes a shrub for his mark. Covet earnestly the best things, aspire to the highest pitch of holiness.

III. Proposition, which is this: that every Christian ought to make it his business to attain this perfection. Be careful that this perfection be made up of all its dimensions. Thus labour to be complete and entire in your religion; do every thing without reserves, ingenuously, freely, nobly. In brief, follow that advice which Socrates used to commend exceedingly to his scholars, viz., to act to your utmost. To which I must add two rules more, the first of which is this, repent of what you leave undone or what you do amiss. The second is, after all your omissions and commissions rely on Christs merits, who hath performed perfect obedience for you. Thus you will be perfect, i.e., you will arrive to the perfectest state that this life is capable of. And if you would know by what methods you may most successfully pursue and at last obtain this gospel perfection, I can only tell you that the means and directions in order to it are the same with those that I commended to you for your growing in grace. Evangelical perfection is not to be sought by any enthusiastic flights, and by affecting extraordinary discoveries and helps, but you must tread in the usual and appointed path of Gods ordinances, you must take the way and course that is prescribed you by the Word of God, namely, self-examination, meditation, communion of saints, ardent prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures, hearing the Word. (J. Edwards, D. D.)

Perfection in Christ

I. The text seems a very contradictory one.

1. Be perfect. We do not like that. Somebody says, I do not believe in perfection. What you believe is very little matter. When God speaks it is of very little use to say, I do not believe in perfection. I want you to say, My God, what this perfection is Thou knowest, and I want Thee to give it to me. However, these words seem contradictory. Be perfect. That seems as if the text took me up some slippery height and said, That is where you have to get, and it is very few people who can get up there, only very clever mountaineers; and many who have got up have not been able to stay up there. They have come falling down again, and have talked about it all the days of their life. Be perfect. Ah! most of us look up and sigh: Yes, I very much wish I could be a better man than I am, but I cannot climb. When I went to see the Matterhorn, I said to the guide, I suppose there are some people who climb that? Yes, said he, a few. I looked at him and said, When do you think I shall climb it? and he looked at me and smiled. I said, Well, I will tell you. When I can fly. That is how most people think about being perfect; they look at the top of that slippery height and say, Yes, when I can fly. When we have done with earth, then there will be some hope for us.

2. Be of good comfort. That seems to say, Take it easy! If you are not as good as some people, never mind; you are not as bad as some are.

II. What we want is to put these two things together. Let your ideal in Christ be as lofty and sublime as Gods ideal is, and yet do not worry. The glory of Christs religion is that it joins these two. There is many a heathen religion that has its ideal Be perfect, but it is by torture. Here are the two hands of our God; the right hand of His righteousness that saith, Be perfect, the left hand of His love that saith, Be of good comfort.

III. Many people lose both because they put them in the wrong order. It is a very common and mischievous religion, in which the whole aim is first of all Be of good comfort--a religion in which, when a man is converted, he is accustomed to say he is made happy. This religion is true enough until you push it to an extreme. There are thousands of young people in our churches who come home on a Sunday night and say, Well, I think Im saved, I feel so happy to-night, and on a Monday morning they get up and say, I do not think I feel much happier than I did on Saturday, and they think they are lost again.

1. Now, is the idea of our religion, first of all, to make us feel happy? If so--

(1) I can find a loftier idea of life outside religion. Come with me into Westminster Abbey. Here are buried heroes, travellers, explorers who defied death in a thousand shapes, and went through all sorts of perils and agonies. What cared they for feeling? They flung feeling to the winds, and said, There, that is where I have got to get, and that is where I will go, and, nothing daunted, went and reached it. And here you get a very highly respectable tombstone, gilt, magnificent. Will you read the inscription? Here lies a man who felt happy. Think of that as an aim in life.

(2) It is a failure. Religion must, in order to make me perfectly happy, either change my nature, so that all circumstances shall minister to my happiness, or else so change my circumstances as that my nature shall find in them always that which makes me happy. Does it? I get the toothache; I find it pains me as much after conversion as before.

(3) You would not deal with your children after that fashion. I have got a boy at home. I do not think he ever told me a lie; but think if, one day, he came all red-eyed and sobbing, and confessed to me, Father, I have told a lie! Now, should I say, Well, my boy, I do not want you to feel like this. Run away; fetch out your marbles; I want you to feel happy? Not a bit of it. I should want that boy to feel very miserable indeed. If Christ has only come to say to me, Dont you trouble about sin, it is all right, I have settled that; now you go off. I want you to feel happy,--I say I should be a better man, if by all the anguish of the ages, there should be just wrought through and through me a great, deep abhorrence of the thing that is evil. You have not learned the first lesson of the Cross, if you have not seen brought right out and nailed up in the sight of heaven what God thinks about sin, how He hates it, and must sweep it right away.

2. What is the purpose of the true religion of Jesus Christ? It is to help us to think more of Jesus and to be more like Him. How do you pray? O Lord, clothe me, feed me, take care of me, prosper me in business, make me more happy, and bring me home to heaven when I die, for Jesus Christs sake. Amen. Well, your religion is simply a fattener of your selfishness. But, you say, does not it say, Give us this day our daily bread? Ay! but you have left something out. Our Father, who art in heaven, etc.--all that first. That is what you are here for, that is why God gives us the crust of bread. That His name may be hallowed, that His kingdom may come, that His will may be done, Give me this day my crust of bread. Thou must not ask for thy bread till thou hast put God in His right place. First, set Christ upon His throne; think now I have got to glorify Him. What would that not do for the world? How quickly should the Church overtake the world when every man made the end of his religion not his own little self, not his own escape to heaven; but when the whole purpose of himself in everything and everywhere should be to make the whole world think well of Christ.

IV. A great many lose both perfection and happiness because they leave out the Lords part altogether.

1. Some great impulse seizes you, and you say, Yes, that is what I have got to be, and that is what I will be. Take care. How long will it last? Ah, how soon we have said--for I have been one of them--Well, it is no good; I cannot. We could not keep up the strain. If we cannot find something better to begin with than I, let us give up. The moment I fetch in I, I fetch in failure. There are some who do succeed. I have met with people who have made themselves perfect--the most dreadful people I ever knew, for they have narrowed and concentrated their whole thought upon themselves. They have begun to chip themselves and cut off their corners, and have made a hundred corners in cutting off one. They have sandpapered themselves, and sulphuric-acided themselves, and at last, after two, three, four, five years of that concentrated agony, and effort, and self-consciousness, they have brought out, what? Why, what else could you expect? from five to six feet of polished I--it is all I, I, I. I cannot believe very much in perfection when I look at human nature; I believe in it less still when I look at myself; but when I look at Jesus I cannot help believing in perfection then.

2. Be of good comfort, because it is not my straining and sacrificing and putting myself in the fire and melting myself and running myself out into a mould in the image and likeness of Christ; it is the getting away from myself, forgetting myself, bringing in a new consciousness. It is not my climbing the slippery height; it is Christ coming right down from that height to me, and saying, Soul, this work is Mine, not thine; and I want thee to let Me come in and do it for you. Be perfect--yes, with such a Saviour. Be of good comfort--yes, because it is His work, not mine. It is saying, My Lord! Thou shalt do it all. Comfort--what does it mean? Co., that means company; fort, that means strength--strengthening by company. You can only spell holiness in five letters--J E S U S. Perfection is but letting Jesus have His own way with us in everything--Jesus, a perfect Saviour. My Master would not make an imperfect grass-blade, an imperfect daisy, an imperfect spider, and do you think He is going to let His perfect Son show all these things and that redemption shall show nothing of it? No. And now somebody will say to me, Must not I do anything? For instance, if I am tempted to sin, must not I resist? Well, I would advise thee not. Well, but does not it say, Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist? I thought it did once, but I looked again, and I found before Peter says a word about that, he says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Get right in under Gods mighty hand, then turn round and say, Now, devil, I am not afraid of thee a bit. The first thing you have to do before you resist is to run away to Jesus. (Mark Guy Pearse.)

Be of one mind, live in peace.--

Christian unity

its nature, here recommended, appears to be sufficiently expressed by the word concord, or unanimity.

1. So necessary is this agreement that bad men cannot execute their schemes without a temporary concord, founded, for want of better principles, either upon the mutual interest of all parties, or a fantastical kind of honour, which answers its purpose if it keep them together, till the deed of darkness be done and the prey divided. If Satans kingdom were divided against itself, it must presently fall.

2. If we take a view of discord at its introduction into the world, we shall find that it was threefold.

(1) Between God and man, occasioned by mans transgression, which estranged him from his Maker, whom from thenceforth he feared.

(2) Between man and himself, caused by the accusations of conscience thereupon.

(3) Between man and man, owing to unruly desires and passions, continually interfering, and never to be satisfied.

3. In opposition to this threefold discord, introduced into the world by the evil spirit, the concord effected in the Church by the good Spirit of God is likewise threefold. Man is reconciled to God by the righteousness of Christ, through faith; to himself by the answer of a conscience thus purged from sin; and to his brethren by Christian charity shed abroad in his heart.

4. All these operations worketh one and the same Spirit; whence the unity, of which we are now speaking, is styled the unity of the Spirit, which is represented as encircling all things in heaven and earth with a bond of peace. And is not the Spirit to the Church, or body of Christ, what the breath is to the body natural?

II. To induce brethren to dwell together in unity, God seemeth to have employed every kind of argument. He hath erected both worlds upon the basis of concord, and made harmony to be, as it were, the life and soul of the universe.

1. In contemplating the scenes of nature, where indeed there is neither voice nor language, yet it is impossible not to observe how the elements conspire to serve God, and to bless mankind.

2. From a survey of nature, proceed we to inspect the make and constitution of man himself, who subsisteth by a union of two very different parts, a soul and a body, between which there is a kind of marriage not to be dissolved till death them do part. Nor less observable is the union which obtains between the members of which the body is composed, and by whose mutual good offices it is supported and preserved.

3. It is not more necessary that the members should be joined together in the body, than that mankind should be united in civil society. Man comes into the world helpless. And therefore it is that an all-wise Providence has implanted in our nature that affection which is found to prevail between parents and children, brethren and sisters, those of the same family, kindred, house, city, nation, age, or vocation. Such are the means used to invite and almost force men to live in peace and concord.

4. Let us now see how the ease stands in that spiritual world.

(1) And here, if we look up and behold by faith the glory of the eternal Trinity, we must presently fall down, like the elders, before the throne, and in the power of the Divine majesty worship the unity. And as they are one, so all the angels and blessed spirits in the courts of heaven make their sound to be heard as one in blessing them for ever and ever. Not a discordant note is heard in all that celestial choir.

(2) From heaven we descend again to earth with Him who did so, for us men, and for our salvation, to the end that as body and soul are one man, so God and man might be one Christ who was to live and to die for us, to suffer and to save; as man to suffer and as God to save.

(3) By the union of God and man in the person of Christ, another union was effected between Christ and the Church. For is the vine united to the branches that spring from it?--I am the vine, ye are the branches. Is the head joined to the body?--God hath made Him head over all things, to the Church, which is His body. Is there a strict union between man and wife?--This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.

(4) One more consequence should follow from this, viz., a union among Christians. Joined to one common head, they should be joined likewise to each other. Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. By concord in the Church, the kingdom of Christ is established on earth, as it is in heaven, where there is no rebellion or opposition to the will of God, but all are unanimous in doing it. By the gospel, enmity was abolished, and never should have been heard of more.

II. How shall we best perform this duty.

1. Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace; be at peace with Him and thine own conscience, and then thou shalt be at peace with all around thee.

2. Endeavour, by the grace of Christ, to moderate desires of earthly things. Whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts, which war in your members? (Bp. Horne.)

Unity, peace, and blessedness

I. Be of one mind. Let there be no division among us in regard to Bible doctrine, Christian experience, or religious duty.

1. Doctrines are the glory of revelation.

2. Again, unity in regard to views of Christian experience is of the utmost consequence to the Church.

3. Be ye of one mind in view of Christian duty; be unanimous in advancing the kingdom of our Lord Jesus.

II. Live in peace. This is the second injunction of the text. Living in peace is a true correlative of being of one mind. Spiritual congeniality of feeling sweetly accompanies agreement in sentiment, Religion is first pure, then peaceable.

1. The nature of the peace recommended includes love to our brethren in Christ, and good will toward all men.

2. The obligations to peace are manifest and manifold.

(1) Peace is the fruit of the Spirit. We have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.

(2) The good of the Church is another of the obligations to live in peace.

(3) The happiness of the individual is an obligation to live peaceably.

(4) A regard for the salvation of others is an obligation to live a life of peace.

(5) The heavenly state shows the obligations to a life of peace. No angel in glory disturbs the harmony of the heavenly abode.

3. The manifestations of peace in our lives may be briefly illustrated in reference to our own Church, and in its relation to other churches.

(1) In our own Church, the manifestations of peace consist, in part, in a kind and conciliatory treatment of all sectional questions.

(2) Another mode in which peace may be exhibited, consists in avoiding the dangers arising from parties formed in admiration of men.

(3) A life of peace may be further manifested in the Church in our personal intercourse with our brethren. Let us all pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

III. First unity; then peace; then blessedness. The God of love and peace shall be with you. What a hopeful indication of the blessings that follow unity and peace is found in the very names here claimed by God! And the God of love and peace shall be with you.

1. He will bless His Church with the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

2. Again, the God of love and peace will be with you, to enlarge the prosperity of the Church in His providence.

3. The God of love and peace will be with His loving disciples, to crown them with salvation in His glory. The meek will He beautify with salvation. (C. V. Rensselaer, D. D.)

The city of peace

I. Its walls--unity--concord.

II. The gates--

1. Innocence;

2. Patience;

3. Beneficence;

4. Recompense or satisfaction;

5. Humility--the little postern.

III. Its enemies--

1. Hostility without;

2. Mutiny within.

IV. The governor--God, who possesses supreme authority.

V. The law--the law of Christ.

VI. The palace--the temple where God is worshipped.

VII. The river--prosperity.

VII. The life of the citizens--love.

IX. The citys general state--universal felicity.

X. The inheritance--eternal glory. (T. Adams.)

And the God of love and peace shall be with you.--

The highest character and the highest companion

I. The highest character of God. Love and peace.

1. Love is the highest attribute of any character. Higher than--

(1) Power. Mere animals have power, but not love.

(2) Wisdom.

2. Peace. Wherever there is real love, there is peace. The stronger the love, the more essentially pacific the soul. Peace implies--

(1) Freedom from remorse. Wherever there is a sense of guilt, there can be no true peace.

(2) Freedom from fear. Fear causes the soul to quiver as an aspen-leaf in the wind.

(3) Freedom from selfishness. A selfish heart can never be at rest; it is as the tide in the ocean. Jealousy, anger, pride, revenge, all of which are the offspring of selfishness, are antagonistic to peace. He is absolutely free from all these: hence He is a God of peace.

II. The highest companion for man. The God of love and peace he with you. No companion--

1. So tender. In all our affliction He is afflicted.

2. So wise. He knows all about us: What we have been; what we shall be. He can solve our problems, clear all our perplexities, baffle the machinations of all our enemies.

3. So constant. Human companions are constantly leaving us, either by change or death. But He will never.

4. So enduring. The greatest sorrow of earth arises from the loss of endeared companions. But no bereavement can tear Him away from us. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 13:11-14. Finally, brethren, farewell — Χαιπετε, rejoice; be happy; be perfect — Aspire to the highest degrees of Christian wisdom and grace, of knowledge, holiness, and usefulness. Be of good comfort — Filled with joy and peace through believing, and abounding in hope of the glory of God, through the power of the Holy Ghost, Rom 15:13. Be of one mind — Desire, labour, pray for it, to the utmost degree that is possible. Or, as το αυτο φρονειτε may be rendered, mind, or pursue the same thing; or set your affections on the same great objects, namely, the glory of God, the success of his gospel, your own salvation, and the salvation of your fellow-creatures. Live in peace — One with another, and, as far as possible, with all men; and the God of love and peace shall be with you — Will graciously own you for his children, and fix his residence among you. And in token of this concord, harmony, and mutual affection, greet one another with a holy kiss — See on Rom 16:16. All the saints salute you — That is, the Christians in the place from whence I now write, or those who are now with me. The grace — Or favour; of the Lord Jesus Christ — By which alone we can come to the Father; and the love of God — Manifested to you, and abiding in you; and the communion — Or fellowship; of the Holy Ghost — In all his gifts and graces; be with you all — Continually, henceforth, and for ever. Amen — So may it be. It is with great reason that this comprehensive and instructive blessing is pronounced at the close of our solemn assemblies. And it is a very indecent thing to see so many quitting them, and getting into postures of remove, before this short sentence can be ended. How often have we heard this awful benediction pronounced! Let us study it more and more, that we may value it proportionably; that we may either deliver or receive it with becoming reverence, with eyes and hearts lifted up to God, who giveth the blessing out of Sion, and life for evermore.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Affectionate conclusion, 2Co_13:11-14.

The transition from severity to affection is made in language, because his severity truly arose from affection. This tender conclusion includes the whole Church, even those who were truly doubtful and even unsound, in order to win them to a faithful and united condition. So also his rebukes have been addressed to the whole Church, knowing that the faithful would approve their severity and the unfaithful recognise themselves in the picture.

11. Farewell—Literally, rejoice. The spirit of the gospel message is joy. Who has so true a reason for joy as the man who possesses its blessed hopes?

Be perfect—Let your Christian character be perfect and symmetrical. In doctrine, be evangelical; in spirit, consecrated; in practice, conscientious.

Good comfort—Literally, be consoled. There is trouble and sorrow enough in the world; but there is, too, a consolation from above the world.

Of one mind—Centred together in the one Christ.

God of… peace—If we drive him not away with our own contentious spirit.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

2Co_13:11.—Calm sunset after a stormy passage! Observe margin (better). Perfected.—As in 2Co_13:9. Comforted.—With the fuller meaning found, e.g., in “Paraclete.” Live in peace.—“Peacing it together,” like “truthing it” (Eph_4:15).

2Co_13:1-13.—[Good paraphrase, exhibiting connection of thought, from Stanley: “Once, twice, thrice, as in the Mosaic Law of the three witnesses; by my first visit—by this Epistle, as though I had accomplished my second visit—by the third visit, which I now hope to accomplish [this personifying the three (?) visits as three witnesses, somewhat forced and fantastic]—I warn you that I shall not spare my power when I come. You are always seeking for a proof of my Apostleship; you shall have it. For Christ who speaks in me, though in the weakness of humanity He died the shameful death of the cross, in the strength of God He lives and acts still; and in Him, weak and poor as I seem to be, I shall still live and act towards you. But why do I speak of myself? You yourselves, my converts, are the best witnesses of my Apostolical power; and long may you be so! If, indeed, you should have lost this best proof of my Apostleship in the reformation of your own lives, then indeed you shall have the proof of my severity. But my earnest prayer is that there may be no occasion for it. May my power and the proof of it perish if you prove that you do not need it. Against a true and blameless life the highest Apostolical power is powerless; and if you have this power of truth and goodness, I am well content to part with mine. It is to draw you to a sense of this that I write this whole Epistle, in the hopes that my Apostolical authority may be turned to its fitting purpose of building up, not of pulling down.”

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—2Co_13:11-14

I. “Brethren!”—After all he has had to rebuke, to threaten, to denounce. If we wait for ideal men, or Churches, shall never have any Christian fellowship. In even the most imperfect embodiment of the Church ideal, or the ideal of Christian manhood, Christ sees, and the Christlike heart and judgment do not undervalue or overlook, possibilities of better things. Only Death is hopeless; imperfect life may be healed, trained, perfected. Ourselves are not ideal; we need that other “brethren” should be patient with, helpful of us; let us say and feel, to even the most imperfect: “Brethren.” Christ knew, when He first accepted them (and us), and still knows, whilst He continues to accept them (and us), very much more that is evil, than they or we know of each other or of ourselves. How patient He is; remembering what (Corinthian) training has been, and (Corinthian) surroundings are. Not tolerating, or conniving at, sin; yet not disowning or casting off (until all help is refused, all remedial grace spent in vain) His “brethren!” It will do us good, and will often enable us to help others better, to overlook, or underlook, the Actual, and believe in, and see, and work with, the Ideal in them. [See how taking the best for granted is made to regenerate the Earl in Little Lord Fauntleroy.]

II. Yet this charity to persons will not be laxity in regard to principles.—The Ideal must be held up in all its beauty—imperiously, exactingly, demanding that we should “obey” its truth (Gal_3:1). Christian or Church well-being means nothing less than, nothing lower than, Peace.

1. A peace within, in the renewal of our own natures. No “peace” without “holiness” (cf. 1Th_5:23; He who “sanctifies” is “the God of peace,” as here). “Peace” is only absolute when reached through “perfection.” [An artist says that beauty in his work includes and rests upon a perfect balance and harmony between its parts, nothing jarring or discordant; corporate unity (so to speak) is secured in the picture.]

2. Peace with the fellow-members. “Be (imperative) of one mind” [men can choose to be of one mind, if they will, to a larger extent than they do and are]; “one hope,” the Same “Comforter” in them all; one aim; one heart.

3. Peace with the three-one God, through grace, by love, in fellowship. There must be Personal Experience, Unity with the Church, Fellowship with God through His grace. (See Separate Homilies on 2Co_13:14.)

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS

2Co_13:11. “The God of peace.”—The names of God in Paul’s prayers are never chosen at random—however true in themselves—but always with a close relation of appropriateness to the blessing asked or the work He does. So here. What a name! No heathen divinity ever wore, or at any rate deserved to wear, it. God of Truth, of Power, of Holiness, of Peace.

I. Characteristic of His very being.—“Internal,” absolute harmony and rest, because of absolute holiness. The “peaceful” God. [God could not give His peace to, or plant it within, an unholy nature. Circumstances are not the root-disquiet of our life; our own hearts and their pride, or selfishness, etc., give us all our real trouble.]

II. He loves peace.—[Profoundly significant that we “like” what is “like” us.] He is grieved at, and can hardly “be with,” a Church that is not “of one mind.”

III. He works for peace.—All the drift of His providential and redemptive government of the world tends to, aims at, this. The Gift of Christ is the supreme witness to His heart in this respect. [So the “peacemakers” are pre-eminently “the children of God,” the Great Peacemaker (Mat_5:9).]

IV. He gives peace: to our hearts by the Atonement of His Son, and by the Work of His Spirit. It is the “peace of God” which is to “guard heart and thoughts through Christ Jesus” (Php_4:7, R.V.).

2Co_13:11. “Be perfected.”—Prayer for restoration to corporate perfectness.

I. Negatively.—Perfect recovery which would result from “not doing evil,” “doing what is honest” (2Co_13:7). The vices which infected Corinthian Church exhibit in epitome those which have been the bane of the Church of Christ generally from the beginning.

(1) Fundamental disorder was rebellion against the supreme authority of the Divine Revealer and the Divine Inspirer and their Apostolic representative. Paul’s aim is “to bring … into captivity,” etc. (2Co_10:5). His final appeal, in the hearing not only of Corinthians, but of Christendom to the end of the world, is “we have the mind of Christ” (1Co_2:16). The Scriptures of revelation contain this. Rebellion against Paul—against these Scriptures—is a virtual rejection of Christianity. “As a principle in the individual, this is fatal to religious stability and growth. As a principle in the Church, it is the root of all disorganisation; and it must be put away, with all its forms of manifestation, before the community bearing the name of Christ can put on its ‘perfection.’ ”

(2) A direct result of

(1),—a lax maintenance of some of the vital doctrines of the Christian confession.” [E.g. in 1 Corinthians 15, with its bearing upon the Atonement, and the whole basis of Christian hope and salvation.] “It was not without reference to corruptions of doctrine that the dejected Apostle expressed his fear (2Co_12:20). His vehement desire to preserve them ‘a chaste virgin to Christ’ (2Co_11:2-4), undefiled by doctrinal error, as he himself explains its meaning, gives a peculiar tremulousness and tumult to his diction.… The integrity of their faith was in his thought when he ‘prayed that they might be perfect’ ” [Jas_1:4, a good equivalent of the word].

(3) “Neglect and irreverence in the Divine service invariably follow hard upon laxity of doctrine.” Disorganisation in worship … to an extreme almost inconceivable by us; the supper of the Lord so desecrated as to call down upon the Church such visitations as sickness and death. Second Epistle shows “the same leaven at work in other directions; and the final prayer included the removal of the spirit of disorder and the observance of all that was ‘honourable.’ ” Two kinds of dishonour are actualities, or perpetual liabilities, in Divine service: To take away its simplicity, and discern in the ordinances more than they have to show; to rob everything external and symbolical of its true value, and reduce religious ceremonial to the level of mere human arrangement. Both equally distant from Church “perfection.”

(4) Closely connected is the spirit of faction. He sets no limit to his righteous indignation against the disturbers of the unity of the Church. The first paragraphs of the First Epistle and the last in the Second Epistle unite in this. The strong references to his severity as the minister of the Saviour’s wrath … explained by his resentment at this deadly sin.

(5) Violation of Christian morality. In xii. there is obvious reference to those two classes of moral offence from which 2Co_7:1 exhorted them to cleanse themselves. Sins “of the spirit” are summed up here (2Co_12:20) more completely than anywhere else; and here only as marking the conduct of professing Christians. The true, only means of recovery were neutralised by infidelity and the haughty spirit of Rationalism.

II. Perfection positively considered.—His good wish is not to be limited to the removal of the “evil” marring “perfection”; he longed for their attainment of all the completeness that may belong to a Church. Note the wonderful fact that such a Church should be thought capable of perfect amendment, a restoration to soundness not at some distant time, but as it were immediately, and by an energetic co-operation with Divine grace.… Certain it is that for a season the Corinthian Church enjoyed great prosperity.

1. The bond of Church perfectness is … a compact organisation vivified and kept in living unity by the Holy Spirit. One regimen and discipline; factions suppressed, divisions abolished; all the Corinthian Christian sections one corporate body. To-day, whilst recognising the great divisions of Christendom, each section should cultivate this unity within itself. Perfection means that lawlessness within a Church, and bitterness toward other Churches, are gone.

2. A certain standard of perfection even in order of worship. This not unattainable, or of slight importance.

3. “Perfection” includes a noble theory of mutual help in the Christian fellowship. Corinthian Epistles a complete depository of the social principles of Christianity, and of the preceptive details of its system of mutual edification. This the purpose and beauty of chap. 13, “Charity.” “Every member of the body must in his vocation and stewardship render back to Christianity all that in Christianity he receives, and give to the community the fullest advantage of whatever talent he as an individual may possess.… A perfection not attainable by the community on earth, but the nearer the approach to this, the nearer the Church to the realisation of its calling.… No Apostolical test of ‘perfectness’ in the Church community more easily applied, or more generally forgotten.”

4. High standard of morality. “The Church that does not prosecute to [ecclesiastical] death every capital offence against its purity is very far from ‘perfection.’ But the more effectual discipline is a high standard in the common sentiment of the people through the sedulous instruction of the ministry.”

5. Strong spirit of charity in the community. Note the fulness of detail, and the great interest, Paul gives to the “collection.” The “corporate” is only worked out through the “personal.”—Condensed from Pope, “Prayers of St. Paul,” vii.

2Co_13:14. Final Benediction.—In homiletic use the stress may either be laid upon the threefold grace invoked, or upon the personal names and their theological suggestions. Accordingly two lines of treatment are suggested.

I.

1. Verse like a coin which often needs calling in and reminting, in our thought and heart. In constant, current use, much of the clearness and sharpness of the impression upon it, and something of the weight and value, are worn away and lost. We tend to use it also without much thought; as we pass a coin from hand to hand, without very distinctly adverting to its pattern or value.

2. An important text in point of doctrine (see next homily). This and the baptismal formula are the two most definitely orderly statements of what little we know [and perhaps could be told] about the doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in the Oneness of the Nature of God. [They are lamps in our hand flashing light backward upon, and downward into, obscurities in the Old Testament, which otherwise must have remained dark.] Many texts guard us from thinking of three or of many Gods; these two gather up into a focus rays of teaching found scattered and separate elsewhere, and give us three personal names; equal, or their co-ordination here would be blasphemous; Divine, for each is here prayed to to give His characteristic blessing; and yet, One standing mysteriously first amongst three equals, as if having Godhead so peculiarly His own, that He is specially called not “the Father,” but “God.”

II. Christ’s gift, grace.—

1. Bearing in mind the close connection always found between the doctrine of Trinity and the life of the soul, it is easy to see why “grace” specially associated with Christ. We might, we do, call the love of the Father grace, for it is free, unmerited favour to sinners who only deserved penalty and “wrath.” We do call the “communion of the Holy Ghost” grace. We might, with propriety, speak equally freely of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, of communion with, and in, the Son or the Father.

2. But Paul, like John (2Co_1:17), specially associates grace with Christ. A double antithesis in John (loc. cit.); not only between grace under Christ taking the place of law under Moses, but between “was given” and “came.” Moses only “gave,” he did not make, nor do more than hand on, as any other man appointed ad hoc might have done, what he had received from God. But grace, though originating in the Father’s “good will to man,” in as true a sense sprung from the Son’s tender compassion for our lost and unhappy case. He did not simply convey, He wrought grace, as only He could have wrought. Moses was not indispensable to the Law; Christ is indispensable to Grace.

3. Sin meant alienation, separation, antagonism. Christ reconciled, bridged the gulf, made peace. To appreciate His grace, suppose Him and His whole work eliminated from the conditions of man’s life as related to a holy God. There must have been despairing certainty of wrath, instead of hope; helplessness, instead of moral power, which is from its earliest beginnings, through all its growth and activities, to its perfection, a thing entirely a gift ab extra, grace. To Him we owe days of grace, in a kingdom of grace, a life in an atmosphere of grace. He is pre-eminently the Lord and Giver of Grace.

4. Peculiar emphasis of blessing in all this to the ex-Israelite, Paul, remembering, and sympathetically understanding, his Israelite brethren’s case under the yoke of the law. “Good news for you weary and heavy laden men of Israel. A yoke and a burden for you still, indeed, easy and light. Rest to your souls in Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus the Messiah, in His grace.” [This is the primary connection of thought between Mat_11:28, and the preceding part of chapter.]

5. For Gentiles, slaves of their sins, haunted by conscience, fearing the worst in regard to the unknown, dark future, morally impotent and condemning vainly their own impotence, he had no higher wish than: “I pray that Jesus Christ may show you, in all their fullest reach, all the possibilities of His Gospel of grace; that they may be the elements of your habitual life. Power, perfect and continuous; peace, perfect and undoubted; holiness, perfect and continuously growing, till grace merges in, broadens into, glory.”

III. The Father’s gift, love.—

1. Observe the significant, necessary order. The “grace of …, [then] the love of,” etc. Picture broad valley lying parched, scorched, beneath fierce sun-rays of weeks of unclouded, unbroken, midsummer weather. Picture high up in hills at head of valley huge reservoir, full of water, which would save and fertilise all below. But no outlet; dam is strong; doors are closed; waters cannot flow. “Thy love unknown has broken every barrier down, … O Lamb of God.” Illustration so far applicable as this, that though, naturally and unhindered, the “gravitation” of that love would have meant an eager outpouring of itself down to our level, the full heart of God could only (so the matter is revealed to us) empty its fulness upon a perishing, dying world through the work of Christ, which broke down the twofold “dam,” of God’s holiness and law, and of man’s sin. Now, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, in all its Divine fulness, may flow down in free unstinted abundance into our needy life.

2. Now: “May God give you the wealth, the honour, of His love in all its lavish fulness, according to your need, ‘according to His riches’; His love in every form that it can assume or that you may require that it shall,—comfort, or rebuke, or guidance, or relief in difficulty, or solution of perplexities. God puts Himself, in all that His love can be or do, at the call of your necessity, to bring all He has into operation for your welfare, if need be.” [Paul says, “My God” (Php_4:19).] The soul may say: “All He has, and is, is mine. Beyond the love I had from Him when I was forgetful and rebellious, I have the love of God.”

IV.

1. The “grace,” and the “love,” are personal blessings; a man may enjoy them alone. The Spirit’s gift, fellowship, reminds of a brotherhood in the love of God, a common sharing in the grace of Christ; no selfish isolation in the heritage of blessing.

2. This is more than a prayer that all fellow-Christians may share together in the gifts and graces of the Spirit. Not merely are they persons who have received the like gifts and blessings; not merely children sitting at same table, enjoying each a like portion; the bond is closer. All Paul’s and Christ’s teaching about the unity of the branches of a vine, the limbs and parts of a body, all is in concentrated implication in this: “The communion of the Holy Ghost.” “The selfsame Spirit who is in me is Himself also in you. You and I are members of the same ‘Christ,’ each of us alive, not with a similar life,—even exactly similar,—but with one and the same Life-giver, thrilling in you, stirring in me. [When your light shines, and mine, it is not as in old days of candles and lamps, each a co-ordinate, independent source of precisely similar light, but as now, when the basis of the light-giving is concurrently derived from one common reservoir and source, one common element distributing itself into each of us, without division of itself. (Illustration to be used with caution in presentation.)] If further, e.g., you love souls and I love them, it is the manifestation and working of the same Holy Ghost, and consequently the same ‘love in the Spirit’ (Col_1:8).”

3. Happy fellowship, closer, and binding closer, than common interests, temperaments, sympathies, tastes, affections, blood, so that they who have it are really nearer to strangers who have it, than to their very kin if these have it not. Wonderful the common understanding it sets up, and the oneness of instinct, love, purpose, He creates amongst these in each and all of whom He dwells.

4. What a remedy for Corinthian factions, jealousies; for all class or social divisions in any Church. Hand cannot hurt, and must help, hand in the same body. Foot and head must feel and work together for each other’s life and good.

5. In a family no unity like this; no such bond, no other absolutely secure bond between husband and wife, parents and children, employers and servants, but this common sharing in the indwelling of the same Holy Ghost.

6. Amidst all “conditions of membership,” whether proposed or actually employed, this is to be presupposed. It underlies all. It over-rides all other methods of Church discipline. He is admitted into the Church who has a part in the fellowship; he is automatically excluded who loses it; however the imperfectly accurate, imperfectly administered, arrangements of any particular Church may affect him.

Or thus: the occasion of a Homily upon The Trinity and Redemption.

I. Why do men hold the doctrine?—Because we believe it. We believe it because we find it in the Bible. It is, on our part, entirely a case of Faith in what, in the other, is a matter of pure Revelation. But for the Bible we should know nothing about the question. We know nothing of it except what we find in the Bible. No man can be expected to receive it to whom the Bible is no final authority. No man can be compelled to believe it to whom the Bible is not supreme. No argument can be held at all, unless on the common understanding that the disputants are not to go behind the Bible. The question is always, not “What thinkest thou?” but, “What readest thou? What does the Book—God, through the Book—say?” [And, Do read. Do not take beliefs on authority. And do not take doubts on authority, either! Be neither a believer nor a sceptic, merely as relying on some human teacher.]

II. What do we hold?—

1. First, we find the Bible very express in the sense: “One God, one only.” The Old Testament made “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deu_6:4), the creed of an Israelite. To this day it is nearly the first lesson in the instruction of a Jewish child. In the midst of a world given up to multiplying its gods—and degrading itself and them, as they were multiplied—very nobly, in its later history particularly, did Israel uphold that truth as its testimony. It is the emphasised part of the whole truth in the Old Testament. In this the Old Testament bore its witness against Israel itself. When the world’s danger was polytheism, and when Israel itself was always ready to descend to idolatry, this was the side of the truth which needed prominence and emphasis.

2. This Old Testament testimony has never been withdrawn or qualified. When we come to the New Testament we find just as clearly its doctrine, “To us … one God,” etc. (2Co_8:6). Yet in our text it is the same Paul who has given to the Church of Christ its benediction, beneath whose sweet spell the child is baptized, the Christian man and woman are wedded, the dead are buried, the assembly for Christian worship is dismissed. This verse, with Mat_28:19, gives the most complete and explicit summary form of the Bible doctrine.

3. In the clearer light of the New Testament we see that Old Testament believers mainly knew God in Him Whom we call “the Father,” now that we have seen and known “the Son.” And, in fact, three names have come into view, “Father, Son, Holy Spirit.” Three, not more, not fewer. Here they stand all, side by side. They were for the first time ranged thus in significant co-ordination when Jesus spoke the words above quoted (Mat_28:19). What are we to think of them? God; a man; an influence, which is not even a person? Is that likely? Or possible? Or are we to think of the third as “personal,” as really as the first and second? And the second and third, are they as truly Divine as the first? A believer in “the Trinity” thinks he finds this Book often speaking of each of the three as we speak of other personal names, and as we speak of the Divine Person Whom we call “the Father.” Not always: but a good reason can in every instance be found for that.

4. So, then, here is the fact: From end to end this Book says, “One God; one only”; whilst more and more clearly as the revelation draws near to its close, there emerge three Names, each a person, each God. Questions start up; speculations multiply; a child can see difficulties; every responsible teacher of the doctrine has had to see and discuss every one of them. His position is that he bows before this Book, with its two groups of statements. Without it he knows nothing; with it he does not know much, but he knows that much. 5. “Do not understand their relations to each other?” Nor does the believer in the doctrine. But he finds express statements, and teachings by the help of mutually supplementary, mutually complimentary analogies, which make it reasonable to say: “Begotten of the Father,” “Proceeding from the Father (and the Son).” Imperfect expressions, and needing guarding and qualifying exposition; all very obvious to criticism. But they have emerged from the controversies of the early centuries, surviving because found on the whole the fittest. “Person,” e.g., is confessedly a very imperfect summary expression of the facts it is connected with. But where we find a personal name, self-knowledge, and a will which can will and can do as it will,—the best word we have is “person,” though not in this particular case perfectly applicable all round.

6. Very many of our creed statements are only negations of assertions which overstate one aspect of the whole Truth, or which omit to take into account some group of Scripture sayings or facts. “You make three Gods?” No; for Scripture which reveals the Three, insists also upon the One. “One person, and that one He Whom in the flesh we know as Jesus Christ,” says the Swedenborgian form of the old Sabellianism, varying from its ancient model in making the Second, and not the First of the Three, that of which the others are aspects or relational presentations. No; for He says, “The Comforter, Whom the Father will send in My name,” as one person may speak of two others, not himself. The heart of the matter is there.

III. Why do we care to hold the doctrine?—“What does it matter?”

1. Generally, it may be said that Scripture never tells us anything as matter of mere correct doctrine, and of right information; but always so much, and in such a manner, as may be of practical service to our spiritual life.

2. The doctrine under notice is bound up most closely with (a) our distinctively Christian Worship, and (b) our Christian Experience. (a) The Mahometan and the Jew come in worship to our one God. The latter will not have our Mediator; the former accepts one who is (he thinks) a prophet come from God to reveal His will, but who is no priest to go in for him to God to make atonement for sin. The Scheme of Christian Worship is: “Through the Son we have our access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Isaiah and John both heard the threefold note in the heavenly worship (Isaiah 6; Revelation 4); earthly and heavenly worship agree in this. The old congregations were dismissed with a threefold blessing (Num_6:24-26); as our text has for ages been the best formula whose lingering sound may die away last of all that has been said, into silence and peace, when a Christian congregation breaks up, and departs to suffering, service, life. (b)

1. The most nearly external and relative initiation into the Christian life is stamped with the Name—three, and one (Mat_28:19). And if the doctrine be not true, our Mediator is only a creature, perhaps only a man; our Sanctifier is only a figure of speech, the creation of our poetical faculty.

2. But, most of all, it is not upon a text here or there that the doctrine rests. The three names pervade, permeate, give form and colour to, whole passages of the Epistles. Look for them, and we find all the experimental work and language of the New Testament wrought with their golden thread running through all.

3. Nearly all the statements culled out, and urged against the doctrine, are explained by this fact: We are told next to nothing as to what, in the inner being of God and the manner of His existence, lies behind these three names, and the analogies which indicate or suggest the relations between them; everything is exhibited in connection with the working out of Redemption. With the slightest exceptions we only see the gracious work in process: “Let us make man anew in Our image.” “The Son says, ‘The Father is greater than I.’ ” So He is, in the same sense as a son, admitted by his father into a subsidiary partnership in his father’s work, must say it; because so far as he is acting under orders, to that extent he is only an employee of his father. As to manhood and manhood, father and son are equal. As between senior, managing partner, and junior, executant partner; the father is greater than the son. As to Godhead and Godhead, Father and Son are equals; as executant of “not His own will [independently, or possibly divergently] but the will of Him Who sent Him,” and as effectuating our Redemption, the Son yields precedence to the Father. And the Spirit reveals Himself more clearly in, and to, the soul He sanctifies, than He does in those Scriptures where His self-suppressing work is to exhibit and glorify Christ. We scarcely know anything of the Trinity except as active in the work of Human Redemption.

4. Our salvation, therefore, and our experimental life depend most intimately upon, and are most closely interwoven with, the specific offices of each “Person” of the Trinity. Our experimental life is full of the Trinity. Experiment shows that, as a rule, the doctrine has maintained, and been associated with, the fullest, freshest, most widely accepted hymnology, devotional literature, and religious life. For that reason, as well as for its truth, does the Church care to hold the doctrine.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:11-14 The letter’s conclusion includes Paul’s final appeal (13:11), greetings (13:12-13), and a blessing (13:14).

13:11 These last words are Paul’s final instructions. • Be joyful: See also Phil 3:1; 4:4. • Grow to maturity: See study note on 2 Cor 13:9—Paul’s encouragement might be that they aim for restoration. • Encourage each other: The need for encouragement has been very prominent in 2 Corinthians, beginning with 1:3-7. • Live in harmony: Literally Be of the same mind (as in Phil 2:1-4).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co 13:11. Λοιπὸν, finally) The conclusion. Paul had written somewhat severely in discussing this matter; now more gently, without however dismissing the subject itself; comp. ch. 2Co 13:11.—χαίρετε) rejoice. He returns to that with which he first set out, 2Co 1:24; but the word χαίρετε here is appropriately used, as by it men are accustomed to bid farewell.—παρακαλεῖσθε, be of good comfort, ch. 2Co 1:6.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_13:11 Closing exhortation. Bengel aptly observes: Severius scripserat Paulus in tractatione, nunc benignius, re tamen ipsa non dimissa.

λοιπόν] See on Eph_6:10. What I otherwise have still to impress on you is, etc.: Verbum est properantis sermonem absolvere, Grotiu.

χαίρετε] not: valete (for the apostolic valete follows only at 2Co_13:13), as Valla, Erasmus, and Beza have it, but gaudete (Vulgate). Encouragement to Christian joy of soul, Php_3:1; Php_4:4. And the salvation in Christ is great enough to call upon even a church so much injured and reproached to rejoice. Comp. 2Co_1:24.

καταρτίζεσθε] let yourselves be brought right, put into the right Christian frame; τέλειοι γίνεσθε, ἀναπληροῦτε τὰ λειπόμενα, Chrysostom. Comp. 1Co_1:10; and see Suicer, Thes. II. p. 60.

παρακαλεῖσθε] is by most, including Billroth, Schrader, Osiander, correctly understood of consolation; become comforted over everything that assails and makes you to need comfort, consolationem admittite! ἐπεὶ γὰρ πολλοὶ ἦσαν οἱ πειρασμοὶ καὶ μεγάλοι οἱ κίνδυνοι, Chrysostom. Rückert no doubt thinks that there was nothing to be comforted; but the summons has, just like what was said at 2Co_1:7, its good warrant, since at that time every church was placed in circumstances needing comfort. Rückerts own explanation: care for your spiritual elevation, is an arbitrary extension of the definite sense of the word to an indefinite domain. Others, following the Vulgate (exhortamini), such as Rosenmüller, Flatt, Ewald, Hofmann, render: accept exhortations to what is good, which, however, in the connection is too vague and insipid; while de Wette, following Pelagius, Cornelius a Lapide, and others (exhort ye one another), imports an essential element, which Paul would have expressed by παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους (1Th_4:18; 1Th_5:11) or ἑαυτούς (Heb_3:13).

τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε] demands the being harmonious as identity of sentiment. See on Php_2:2.

εἰρηνεύετε] have peace (one with another), Rom_12:18; 1Th_5:13; Mar_9:50; Plat. Theaet. p. 180 A; Polyb. v. 8. 7; Sir_28:9; Sir_28:13. It is the happy consequence of the τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν; with the δίχα φρονεῖν it could not take plac.

καὶ ὁ θεὸς κ.τ.λ.] This encouraging promise refers, as is clear from τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ εἰρήνης, merely to the two last points especially needful in Corinthto the harmony and the keeping of peace; hence a colon is to be put after παρακαλεῖσθε. And then, if ye do that (καί, with future after imperatives, see Winer, p. 293 [E. T. 392]), will God, who works the love and the peace (Rom_15:13; Rom_16:20; Php_4:9; 1Th_5:23; Heb_13:20), help you with His presence of grace. The characteristic genitival definition of God is argumentative, exhibiting the certainty of the promise as based on the moral nature of God.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 13:11-13 . FINAL EXHORTATIONS, SALUTATIONS AND BENEDICTION.

2Co 13:11 . λοιπὸν , ἀδελφοὶ κ . τ . λ .: finally, brethren ( λοιπόν strictly = “from henceforth,” but is used vaguely, as in reff. for “finally”. “Well, then,” is its nearest equivalent as used in Modern Greek) rejoice (as at Phi 3:1 ; Phi 4:4 , 1Th 5:16 and everywhere in the Pauline Epp. where the word occurs; the rendering of the A.V. “farewell” cannot be justified. “Farewell” would be ἔρρωσθε ), be perfected (see reff. and cf. Lightfoot on 1Th 3:10 ), be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and then the God of Love (this phrase is only found here in N.T., but cf. 1Jn 4:8 ) and Peace shall be with you . In these exhortations we have a summary of the whole letter: (1) Rejoice in the grace you have received (2Co 1:24 , 2Co 2:3 ) even as I do on your behalf (2Co 7:7 ; 2Co 7:9 ; 2Co 7:16 , 2Co 13:9 ). (2) Be perfected , go on to perfection (2Co 6:1 ; 2Co 6:13 , 2Co 7:1 ; 2Co 7:11 , 2Co 9:8 , 2Co 12:19 , 2Co 13:9 ), the word καταρτίζεσθαι being used as at Gal 6:1 of gradual amendment after a grave fault. (3) Be comforted , the keynote of the early part of the Epistle (see on 2Co 1:4 and cf. especially 2Co 1:4 ; 2Co 1:6 , 2Co 7:7 ). (4) Be of the same mind, live in peace (2Co 12:20 ). With the whole may be compared 1Co 1:10 , παρακαλῶ δὲ ὑμᾶς … ἵνα τὸ αὐτὸ λέγητε πάντες καὶ μὴ ᾖ ἐν ὑμῖν σχίσματα , ἦτε δὲ κατηρτισμένοι ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοῒ καὶ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11–14. CONCLUDING EXHORTATION, SALUTATION, AND BENEDICTION

Assuming that 10–13:10 is part of a letter written before 1–9, we may safely regard 2Co 13:11-14 as the conclusion of this earlier and severe letter, rather than of the later letter, of which 1–9 is the main part. (1) καταρτίζεσθε, the first exhortation in 2Co 13:11, is a strong link of connexion τὴν ὑμῶν κατάρτισιν. Perhaps παρακαλεῖσθε looks back to the opening words of the severe section Αὐτὸς δὲ ἐγὼ Παῦλος παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς (2Co 10:1). More certainly τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε, εἰρηνεύετε looks back to the fears of ἔρις, ζῆλος, θυμοί, ἐριθίαι, κ.τ.λ. (2Co 12:20). No such links can be found with the concluding portion of 1–9. (2) It is much more probable that the whole of the last part of the severe letter should have accidentally been combined with the whole of the first part of the letter which followed it, than that a section of the severe letter should have been inserted between the main portion of the subsequent letter and the concluding words of this subsequent letter. The change from a stern to a more affectionate tone is quite natural at the close of the Epistle, and is similar to that at the end of 2 Thessalonians, where contrast the severity of 2Co 13:10-14 with the gentleness and affection of 2Th 3:16-18. As Bengel remarks here, Severius scripserat Paulas in tractatione; nunc benignius, re tamen ipsa non dimissa.

11. τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ εἰρήνης (אABKP, f Syrr. Copt.) rather than τῆς εἰρ. κ. τῆς ἀγ. (DL, d m Vulg. Goth. Arm.).

11. Λοιπόν. Finally, ‘as to what remains’: not ‘henceforth, from this time forward,’ which would be τοῦ λοιποῦ (Gal 6:17; Eph 6:10). As compared with τὸ λοιπόν (1Co 7:29; Php 3:1; 2Th 3:1), λοιπόν (1Co 1:16; 1Co 4:2; 1Th 4:1; 2Ti 4:8) is rather less definite, and perhaps more colloquial. See Ellicott on 1Th 4:1 and 2Ti 4:8.

ἀδελφοί. This affectionate address (2Co 1:8, 2Co 8:1), so frequent in 1 Corinthians, occurs here only in 10–13: ἀγαπητοί occurs once in each division (2Co 7:1; 2Co 12:19). S. Paul more often says simply ἀδελφοί, S. James (2Co 2:1; 2Co 2:14, 2Co 3:1; 2Co 3:10; 2Co 3:12, 2Co 5:12; 2Co 5:19) more often ἀδελφοί μου.

χαίρετε. “This word combines a parting benediction with an exhortation to cheerfulness. It is neither ‘farewell’ alone, nor ‘rejoice’ alone” (Lightfoot on Php 4:4). Lightfoot compares the dying words of the messenger who brought the news of the victory at Marathon, who expired on the first threshold saying, χαίρετε καὶ χαίρομεν (Plut. Mor. p. 347 c). The present imperative points to a continual and progressive state. The Vulgate has gaudete in all places (Php 2:18; Php 3:1; 1Th 5:16). Beza has valete here, elsewhere gaudete; Calvin the same; and here the meaning of ‘farewell’ seems to prevail. Immediately after such stern words as φοβοῦμαι (2Co 12:20) and οὐ φείσομαι (2Co 13:2), he would hardly say ‘rejoice’: χαίρετε is not so much a part of the exhortation as a prelude to it. For the asyndeton comp. 2Co 11:13; 2Co 11:20, 2Co 12:10.

καταρτίζεσθε. Be perfected (Luk 6:40; 1Co 1:10); this seems to be placed first with special reference to 2Co 13:9. If χαίρετε is the first exhortation meaning ‘rejoice,’ there is a strange want of connexion between ‘rejoice’ and ‘be perfected.’ For καταρτίζειν, which is often a surgical word, of setting a joint or a bone, see the illustrations in Wetstein on Mat 4:21 and in Suidas s.v. Chrysostom paraphrases, τέλειοι γίνεσθε καὶ ἀναπληροῦτε τὰ λείποντα: Corn. a Lapide, integri estote, corrigite priora vitia, stringite vitae licentiam, resarcite discissam amicitiam, unionem, concordiam.

παρακαλεῖσθε. Be exhorted: exhortamini (Vulgate); ‘attend to my exhortations and intreaties.’ This fits the context much better than ‘be comforted’ or ‘comfort one another.’ Had S. Paul meant the latter, he would probably have written παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους (1Th 4:18; 1Th 5:11). In Heb 3:13 we have παρακαλεῖτε ἑαυτούς: comp. Eph 4:32; Col 3:13. In 1Co 1:10 we have the same three ideas combined, exhortation, being perfected, and being united: παρακαλῶ δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, … ἵνα … μὴ ᾖ ἐν ὑμῖν σχίσματα, ἦτε δὲ κατηρτισμένοι ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ νοΐ. This exhortation to peace and unity is, therefore, the first in the First Epistle, as it is the last in the Second. In that Church of factions and divisions no change was more needed.

τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε. The same phrase is found Rom 12:16; Rom 15:6; Php 4:2. In Php 2:2 the Apostle expands the meaning of the expression, as including harmony of the affections as well as agreement in thought. The renderings, Farewell. Go on to perfection; follow my exhortations; be of the same mind, make a better connected series than, Rejoice, be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind.

εἰρηνεύετε. Excepting Mar 9:50, this verb in the N.T. is confined to S. Paul; Rom 12:18; 1Th 5:13. In the LXX. it is common, especially in Job and Ecclus. In 1Ma 6:60 it means ‘to make peace.’ The middle is sometimes used as the active is here; ὄπως πρὸς τοὺς κρείττους εἰρηνεύηται (Arist. Rhet. I. iv. 9).

καὶ ὁ θεὸς τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ εἰρήνης. The promise is closely connected with the two preceding exhortations: ‘Be one in heart and soul, and the God of love will be with you; be at peace, and the God of peace will be with you.’ Comp. ‘If a son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him’ (Luk 10:6). The expression ὁ θεὸς τῆς ἀγάπης occurs nowhere else: comp. θεὸς πάσης παρακλήσεως (2Co 1:3). Here only in this Epistle does the Vulgate render ἀγάπη dilectio; elsewhere caritas. ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης occurs Rom 15:33; Rom 16:20; Php 4:9; Heb 13:20; comp. 2Th 3:16. Hence the inversion in the δ-text: see critical note.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A brief exhortation, but yet such an one as comprehendeth all the parts of a Christian man’s life.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

farewell--meaning in Greek also "rejoice"; thus in bidding farewell he returns to the point with which he set out, "we are helpers of your joy" (Co2 1:24; Phi 4:4).

Be perfect--Become perfect by filling up what is lacking in your Christian character (Eph 4:13).

be of good comfort-- (Co2 1:6; Co2 7:8-13; Th1 4:18).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. Finally] δοιπον. All that remains for me now to write is, to wish you all manner of happiness, and so to take my leave.

Farewell.] A good wish, from our old mother tongue, compounded of [Anglo-Saxon], to go, and [Anglo-Saxon], fairly, properly, or [Anglo-Saxon], with felicity; go on prosperously! This is the spirit of this good wish.

The Greek χαιρετε signifies nearly the same thing. χαιρω means to be very joyous; χαιρετε, be joyous and happy, be ever prosperous; this was among the last words which Cyrus, when dying, spoke to his friends.

Be perfect] καταρτιζεσθε. Be compact; get into joint again; let unity and harmony be restored. See the note on 2Co 13:9.

Be of good comfort] παρακαλεισθε. Receive admonition; for παρακαλεω signifies to admonish, beg, entreat, and also to comfort. Receive admonition, that ye may receive comfort. If ye take my advice, ye shall have consolation; if ye do not, ye will have nothing but misery and wo.

Be of one mind] το αυτο φρονειτε. Think the same; let there be no dissensions among you. Be of the same creed, and let disputes about that religion which should be the bond of peace for ever subside.

Live in peace] ειρηνευετε. Cultivate peace; or, as he says elsewhere, Follow peace, and pursue it, Heb 12:14. Cultivate a peaceable disposition, and neither say nor do any thing which has a tendency to irritate each other.

And the God of love and peace shall be with you.] While ye are full of contentions, dissensions, and discord, peace can have no place among you; and as to love, the fulfilling of the law, that worketh no ill to its neighbour, it has necessarily taken its flight. Love cannot live, neither exist, where there are brawls, contentions, and divisions. And where neither peace nor love is to be found, there God cannot be. And if HE be not there, yourselves and the devil make the whole assembly.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Finally, brethren He qualifies whatever there has been of sharpness throughout the whole of the epistle, as he did not wish to leave their minds in an exasperated state, but rather to soothe them. For then only are reproofs beneficial, when they are in a manner seasoned with honey, that the hearer may, if possible, receive them in an agreeable spirit. At the same time, he appears to turn from a few diseased persons to the entire Church. Hence he declares, that he aims at promoting its perfection, and desires its consolation.

To be of one mind, and to live in peace, are expressions which mean two different things; for the one takes its rise from the other. The former relates to agreement of sentiment; the latter denotes benevolence, and union of hearts.

And the God of peace This he adds, that his exhortation may have more weight with them, but, at the same time, he intimates that God will be with us, if we cultivate peace among ourselves; but that those that are at variance with each other are at a distance from him. For where there are strifes and contentions, there, it is certain, the devil reigns.

Now what agreement is there between light and darkness? (2 Corinthians 6.14.)

He calls him the God of peace and love, because he has recommended to us peace and love, because he loves them, and is the author of them. Of the kiss here mentioned we have spoken in the two preceding Epistles.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) Finally, brethren, farewell.—The word (literally, rejoice) was the natural close of a Greek letter, and is therefore adequately represented by the English “farewell,” if only we remember that it was used in all the fulness of its meaning. “Rejoice—let that be our last word to you.”

Be perfect.—Better, as before, restore yourselves to completeness; amend yourselves. In the words “be of good comfort” (better, perhaps, be comforted, with the implied thought that the comfort comes through accepting his word of counsel—see Note on Act_4:36) we trace an echo of what he had said in the opening of the Epistle, as to the “comfort” which had been given to him (2Co_1:4; 2Co_1:7). Paraclesis in its two-fold aspect is, in fact, the key-note of the whole Epistle. Taking the verb and the noun together, the word occurs twenty-eight times in it.

Be of one mind.—The phrase was one specially characteristic of St. Paul’s teaching (Rom_15:6; Php_2:2; Php_3:16; Php_4:2). His thoughts are apparently travelling back to the schisms over which he had grieved in 1 Corinthians 1-3, and to which he had referred in 2Co_12:20. What he seeks is the restoration of unity of purpose, and with that of inward and outward peace. If these conditions were fulfilled, the “God of love and peace would assuredly be with them,” for peace rests ever upon the son of peace (Luk_10:6).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11–14. Conclusion

11. farewell] Or perhaps rejoice (ioie ye, Wiclif; gaudete, Vulgate). Cf. Php_4:4; 1Th_5:16. Joy (Gal_5:22) was one of the foremost fruits of the Spirit, and ought to be the natural result of the sense of our favour with God through Christ See Joh_15:11; Act_13:52; Rom_14:17; Heb_13:17; Jas_1:2; 1Pe_1:8; 1Pe_4:13; 1Jn_1:4, &c. Our translation follows Tyndale here.

Be perfect] See note on perfection in 2Co_13:9, where the Greek word is a derivative of the word used here.

be of good comfort] The word is the same as in ch. 2Co_1:4. Our translation here follows Tyndale. Wiclif, following the Vulgate, renders excite ye.

be of one mind] Cf. 1Co_1:10, and observe the close connection of ideas there between unity of spirit and the word translated be perfect above. The literal rendering is think the same thing. See also Rom_12:16.

the God of love] It would have been impossible even in the 16th century to render here ‘the God of charity.’ The Vulgate here has dilectionis, not caritatis. Caritas and charity seem to have been used for the human reflection of God’s love, to the grievous obscuration of the great Christian fact that all love is His love, whether manifested by Him or in man. It may be asked whether in order to think the same thing and be at peace, we do not first need the God of love and peace to be with us. Undoubtedly, but if we do not follow His promptings while with us, we drive Him away. Therefore if we wish Him to abide continually with us, we must walk according to the Spirit which He hath given us.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally, brethren, farewell,.... Or "rejoice", with spiritual joy in Christ, their Saviour and Redeemer; in his person, in whom they were accepted; in his righteousness, by which they were justified; in his blood, by which they were washed and cleansed; and in his fulness, from which they were supplied; and particularly, that they had such a faithful monitor, such an hearty well wisher of their souls' welfare, and who was so naturally and affectionately concerned for their good:

be perfect; seek after perfection in knowledge, grace, and holiness, and in the performance of good works: or "be restored"; or jointed and knit together, as before; see Co2 13:9 let every difference subside, all breaches be made up, every member take and fill up his place, and all things be done decently and in order:

be of good comfort; or "exhort" one another to the diligent discharge of duty, to love and good works; or comfort one another in all distresses, inward and outward, both by words and deeds, according to the ability God has given; or take comfort, be of good heart, do not refuse to be comforted either by God or men.

Be of one mind; in religious sentiments, in the doctrines and principles of grace, and ordinances of the Gospel; for as there is but "one Lord" to be believed in, so there is, and ought to be, but "one" system of "faith" to be received, and "one baptism" to be administered in one and the same way, to one and the same sort of persons; which sameness of judgment, in faith and worship, is very necessary to church communion, and the comfort of it; for how can two, and much less more, walk comfortably together, unless they are agreed in these things?

Live in peace both with them that are without, and them that are within, with all men, and with the members of the church; which to do, is to the credit of religion, the comfort of church members, and the joy of Christ's ministers:

and the God of love and peace shall be with you; he who is love itself, and has loved his people with an everlasting love, and who is the author and donor of spiritual and eternal peace, and who has called his people to peace, and expects and requires it among themselves, and all men, will grant to such his gracious presence; than which nothing can be more grateful and desirable.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Ver. 11. Finally] Gr. λοιπον, that which yet remains to say more, and then an end.

Be perfect] Or, piece again.

Be of one mind] For matter of opinion.

Live in peace] For matter of affection.

The God of love] The author and fautor.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally, brethren - (λοιπὸν loipon). The remainder; all that remains is for me to bid you an affectionate farewell. The word here rendered “farewell” (χαίρετε chairete), means usually to joy and rejoice, or to be glad; Luk 1:14; Joh 16:20, Joh 16:22; and it is often used in the sense of “joy to you,” “hail!” as a salutation; Mat 26:49; Mat 27:29. It is also used as a salutation at the beginning of an epistle, in the sense of greeting; Act 15:23; Act 23:26; Jam 1:1. It is generally agreed, however, that it is here to be understood in the sense of farewell, as a parting salutation, though it may be admitted that there is included in the word an expression of a wish for their happiness. This was among the last words which Cyrus, when dying, addressed to his friends.

Be perfect - See this word explained in the notes on 2Co 13:9, and Rom 9:22. It was a wish that every disorder might be removed; that all that was out of joint might be restored; that everything might be in its proper place; and that they might be just what they ought to be: A command to be perfect, however, does not prove that it has ever in fact been obeyed: and an earnest wish on the part of an apostle that others might be perfect, does not demonstrate that they were; and this passage should not be adduced to prove that any have been free from sin. It may be adduced, however, to prove that an obligation rests on Christians to be perfect, and that there is no natural obstacle to their becoming such, since God never can command us to do an impossibility. Whether anyone, but the Lord Jesus, has been perfect, however, is a question on which different denominations of Christians have been greatly divided. It is incumbent on the advocates of the doctrine of sinless perfection to produce some one instance of a perfectly sinless character. This has not yet been done.

Be of good comfort - Be consoled by the promises and supports of the gospel. Take comfort from the hopes which the gospel imparts. Or the word may possibly have a reciprocal sense, and mean, comfort one another; see Schleusner. Rosenmuller renders it, “receive admonition from all with a grateful mind, that you may come to greater perfection.” It is, at any rate, the expression of an earnest wish on the part of the apostle, that they might be happy.

Be of one mind - They had been greatly distracted, and divided into different parties and factions. At the close of the Epistle he exhorts them as he had repeatedly done before, to lay aside these strifes, and to be united, and manifest the same spirit; see the notes on Rom 12:16; Rom 15:5, note; see the note also on 1Co 1:10, note. The sense is, that Paul desired that dissensions should cease, and that they should be united in opinion and feeling as Christian brethren.

Live in peace - With each other. Let contentions and strifes cease. To promote the restoration of peace had been the main design of these epistles.

And the God of love and peace - The God who is all love, and who is the Author of all peace. What a glorious appellation is this! There can be no more beautiful expression, and it is as true as it is beautiful, that God is a God of love and of peace. He is infinitely benevolent; He delights in exhibiting His love; and He delights in the love which His people evince for each other. At the same time, He is the Author of peace, and He delights in peace among people. When Christians love each other they have reason to expect that the God of love will be with them; when they live in peace, they may expect the God of peace will take up His abode with them. In contention and strife we have no reason to expect His presence; and it is only when we are willing to lay aside all animosity that we may expect the God of peace will fix his abode with us.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Rejoice. Greek: Chairete, bene valete. In this sense the Greeks used this term at the conclusion of their writings; and Greek: Loipon, to denote that the writer of speaker was hastening to a conclusion. (Pastorini) --- Be perfect.[3] Literally, in the Latin be exhorted. (Witham)

===============================

[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Exhortamini, Greek: parakaleisthe, consolemini, consolationem capite.

====================

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Finally, brethren, farewell: the apostle shutteth up his Epistle according to the ordinary form of conclusions of letters, wishing all happiness to them: but he addeth something as a Christian, and a minister of the gospel.

Be perfect: the word καταρτιζεσθε signifies to be compact, or united, as members of the same body, or parts of the same house; the perfection of a society lying much in the union of it. The perfection the apostle presseth here, seemeth to be the perfection of the body of the church, by the restoring of such as were separated from its communion, or had, through a spirit of contention, withdrawn themselves, rather than the perfection of the particular members of it, in the habits and exercises of grace. The Greek word seemeth that way to carry the sense; it properly signifies, the putting of members loosed from their joints into their proper place again, and such a perfection as followeth upon such an action, or any action proportionable to it.

Be of good comfort; the word imports exhorted, comforted, confirmed: be exhorted to yield obedience to my precepts, or counsels; be comforted in all the trials or afflictions you do meet with, or may further meet with, for your profession of the gospel; be confirmed in the truths and holy ways of God.

Be of one mind; if possible, of one and the same judgment in the truths of God; however, as pursuing the same scope and end; be one in affection.

Live in peace, free from those contentions and divisions, those debates, and strifes, and wraths, and envyings, which I have before told you of as faults among you. This is the way for to have the presence of God with you, for he is not the God of hatred and strife, but

the God of love and peace; who hath commanded love and peace amongst those that are brethren, and will be present among them only who live in obedience to his royal law of love.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Finally, brethren, farewell. His concluding words are marked by great gentleness, as though to heal the effects of the sharp rebuke and irony to which he has been compelled to have recourse. The word may also moan "rejoice". (Php_3:1 4:4) Be perfect (see note on "perfection" in ver. 9). Be of one mind; literally, think the same thing (Php_2:2; 1Pe_3:8; 1Co_1:10; Rom_12:16, Rom_12:18) Be at peace . (Eph_4:3)

Vers. 11-14.

Parting tenderness.

If ever great principles of government were subjected to the severest of ordeals, it was in the instance which has been under review. It ever personal qualities and official prerogatives were inextricably mixed in pending issues, and those issues diffused over a vast surface, it was in this affair at Corinth. If ever the chief actor in the interest of tranquillity and social purity had to fight a battle absolutely single handed and alone, it was St. Paul"s fortune in this struggle to save a community from degradation and destruction. We have seen what he endured when endurance was probably harder than at any period of his life. What aids he summoned in these critical hours, what recourse he had to the past, what account he gave of the "thorn in the flesh" and its uses in his work, we have seen in the progress of this interesting section of his career. Most of all, we have seen how the man and the apostle, the tentmaker and the preacher, the liberal Jew and the sagacious Christian, were most happily interblended in the rarest harmony and unity while doing the work of pacification and reformation. And now that he comes before us. in the last expression of himself as to this weighty controversy, it is ennobling to see how finely poised he is, and what anxiety he has "lest, being present," he should be compelled against all his prayers and hopes "to use sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given him." That miraculous gift was his as the apostle of Christ, but it was for "edification, and not to destruction." At the cost of personal humiliation, he would be "glad" if the Corinthians were "strong," and he "weak." How like his Master he was! "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" Had he waved his hand, Jerusalem would have been darkened by the wings of gathering angels for his rescue; but he was to be crucified in "weakness" that the "power of God" might be the more gloriously manifested in his resurrection. Power denied in one of its uses, to be more signally displayed in another and higher use, was the lesson St. Paul had learned of his dying Lord. "I am crucified with Christ," said he on a subsequent occasion; but he shares that crucifixion word in one of its most painful forms by withholding the exertion of authority to punish his enemies till all other means had been exhausted. He preached Christ "the Wisdom of God," no less than Christ "the Power of God." Under circumstances of extreme hazard, reputation and influence and future success trembling in the balance, flesh and blood supplying clamorous reasons for a self-asserting course and the swift riddance of a most vexatious trouble, he abides with heroic fortitude by Christian principle in its demands for self-crucifixion, and makes everything yield to magnanimity in his ardent desire for the "perfection" of the Church at Corinth. All this is admirable as a mere matter of congruity in respect to the laws of art. But it leaves the domain of art and rises to a realm infinitely more exalted when he comes before us "apparelled in celestial light," and completes the impression of one

Whose high endeavours are an inward light, That makes the path before him always bright.

Nothing in the apostle"s life more became him than the tenderness in the parting words of this Epistle. "Finally, brethren, farewell." There have been throes of spirit during the birth of this Epistle, moments of vehemence, outbursts of indignation and menace; but they are over now. The sun sets in a sky that the storm has purified, and the last beams glide through an atmosphere of holy stillness. "Be perfect," or, be perfected, making up what ye lack; "be of good comfort," taking encouragement and hope from your trials that God would overrule them for your happiness; "be of one mind," by suppressing all selfishness and partisanship and cultivating unity of interest; "live in peace," so that your outward life bears witness to the fact that ye have "one mind." So shall the "God of love and peace be with you." Let not the sign of your union in Christ as members of his Church be forgotten, and, accordingly, "greet one another with a holy kiss." Macedonian brethren salute you. And now, acknowledging with profoundest reverence the Holy Trinity, "in place of his own salutation, he gives us finally that precious benediction which has acquired such a liturgical use in every age and in every part of the Christian world" (Lunge). Grace, love, communion, these three, and each blessing and all the blessedness forevery one, friends and enemies, since they are, in this touching moment, "brethren" to his heart. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" in the fulness of his mediatorial office, "the love of God" the Father revealed through that grace, and the "communion of the Holy Ghost" as the effect of the "grace" and the "love" in their fellowship with God and one another, "be with you all. Amen.

It pleased God to make St. Paul his own historian during the memorable period to which this Epistle belongs. No one was competent to this task, not even St. Luke, with all his skill and insight as a writer, and his close relations to the apostle The inner life of the author was to be set forth with a force and vividness never equalled in sacred literature; and we were to have a section, and a most important section, of the New Testament as a Scripture of a private soul. For, indeed, the Holy Spirit would not limit the wonders of inspiration to the narration of outward events. Great as those events were in the midst of changes going on in the Roman empire, "the mingling and confusion of races, languages, and conditions," of which Dean Milman gives so eloquent a description ("Latin Christianity"), and vast as was the influence of the gospel in slowly transforming that "heterogeneous mass of a corrupted social system" by "instilling feelings of humanity," and giving "dignity to minds prostrated by years, almost centuries, of degrading despotism," it yet was vital to the purpose of the written Word that we should have the record of a human soul in the most typical period of its perplexity and conflict, and under just such circumstances as identified it most nearly with the sharpest trials of manly intelligence and courage. It is St. Luke who describes the one class of occurrences. Only a St. Paul was qualified for the other; and in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians he does this most interesting work. At no point are we left in dimness or obscurity as to what he felt and purposed. Every moment, as the eye follows his path, we see the end to which his steps are tending. "Faint, yet pursuing," often thwarted, often thrown back, often sorely embarrassed, without the lights of past experience, without the helps of brother apostles, alone and unbefriended, he had to solve those problems of Church order and discipline which involved all the future administrative policy of Christian communities. Throughout the struggle we accompany him. We know what he thought, and why. We mark his wisdom, earnestness, and fidelity. In the variety of his moods, in exaltation and depression, in the alternate predominance of very unlike states of consciousness, we find him the same man as to his ruling principle and aim, the same when he threatens and beseeches, the same when he unmasks "false apostles," that he is in prayers for peace and brotherhood. It was a most energetic and exciting portion of his career. But the man"s heart is the chief interest as illustrative of the cardinal doctrines of grace. True, we have invaluable contributions to theological truth, expositions of rare profundity and insight, contrasts between the Law and the gospel never surpassed in this favourite department of his intellectual work, references to the body that throw a new light on its relations to mind, and directions as to practical benevolence which cover the whole range, in this particular, of Christian obligation. Yet these are enhanced in value by the fact that the spirit of an intense living personality is ever present. We lose nothing of the logic and philosophy, nothing of the force in the historical allusions, nothing of the charm of metaphor and similitude. At the same time there runs through everything the subtle influence of an individual soul, so that the strength which throbs in doctrinal arguments is from a heart all alive with sensibility. "Men," says Foster ("First Essay on a Man"s writing Memoirs of Himself"), "carry their minds as for the most part they carry their watches, content to be ignorant of the constitution and action within, and attentive only to the little exterior circle of things to which the passions, like indexes, are pointing." Not so St. Paul. Temperament, disease, special circumstances in his position, made him in an unusual degree a self-observing man. In this Epistle we have the richest fruits of his self-knowledge. Most of all, we see the meaning of that discipline of affliction by means of which the life of Christ in the soul is perfected. And we see, too, how our private history is far more than a personal concern, and widens out in connections no one could have foreseen. "A thorn in the flesh" becomes a part of St. Paul"s public character; incidents that historians and philosophers and poets would have passed by as of little meaning, take on a most impressive significance, and endear an Epistle, great on other grounds and great as a work of art, to the struggling and sorrowing heart of every Christian. L.

Live in peace.

The Christian religion ever represents all true peace among men as taking its beginning in peace with God. This first creates peace of conscience, and then issues in harmony and concord in civil and ecclesiastical society. There can be no doubt that the apostle is here enjoining mutual good will, kindness, and amity.

I CHRISTIAN PEACE IS IN CONTRAST TO THE ENMITY WHICH IS NATURAL TO SINFUL MEN. "Whence come," asks the inspired writer come wars and fightings among you?" And the answer is that they may be traced to the lusts which are inherent in depraved human nature. In a more primitive state of society, mankind are actually and almost normally at war. In more civilized society, hatred, malice, envy, etc., prevail, and produce disastrous results, although the worst outward manifestations may be restrained.

II CHRISTIAN PEACE IS OFTEN VIOLATED IN THE SOCIETIES WHICH ARE NAMED AFTER THE PRINCE OF PEACE. How signally this was the case with the Church at Corinth these Epistles make abundantly manifest. It was distracted by party spirit, by schism, by factions. Christ was "divided" in his body and members. And in this respect the example set at Corinth has, alas! too often been followed. The abode intended for peace has too often been converted into a scene of strife.

III FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST IS THE ONLY MEANS FOR RESTORING OR PRESERVING CHRISTIAN PEACE. Interest is not sufficient; external authority and advice continually fail. But if Christ be enthroned in each heart and in the society at large, then conflicts will be hushed and the peace of God prevail. Hence the need for all those exercises of prayer and meditation by which this truly Christian grace may be promoted.

IV CHRISTIAN PEACE IS A CONDITION OF CHURCH PROSPERITY. Work and warfare are inimical. If there be strife, the vitality must needs be low, the witness must needs be marred, the work must needs suffer in all finer quality. On the other hand, harmony conduces to cooperation as well as to devotion. The world cannot fail to feel the effects of the presence and the testimony of a united and harmonious Church. T.

Vers. 11, 12.

A beautiful farewell.

I RECOGNITION OF BROTHERHOOD. In his letter the writer had been compelled to insist much upon his apostleship, but he now wisely and graciously stands upon common ground. He was compelled to magnify his office, but he was too good and too great to magnify himself. Amongst men there is a natural craving for equality; we resent a fellow creature attempting to lord it over us. And in the realm of religion we have ever need to remember "all ye are brethren." What a poor fool a great man seems when he swells and struts in his miserable is pomposity and conceit! he is not great no one can persuade us that he is great be extremely little. How much greater our great men would be if they would not be so great! One might imagine, sometimes, that our Lord had commanded those who would be chief to imitate turkey cocks; but he said they must become as little children.

II GOOD WISHES. "Farewell," or "Rejoice." All joy to you, all prosperity, all happy and profitable experience. Not a few of them had ill wishes for him; he had nothing but good wishes for friends and foes. This was a very real farewell. Upon our lips it often means too little in fact, it has become but the barest signal for separation; but coming from Paul"s heart it was full of earnest meaning. Possibly in his thought it took the form of "Rejoice in the Lord," as in Php_3:1. Everything of value in the eyes of Paul was "in the Lord." And there is no real faring well unless we are in Christ.

III LOFTY AND GRACIOUS DESIRES.

1. For spiritual growth. "Be perfected." Correct the evils which I have painted out. Reform yourselves. Seek to become more like your Lord. Strive to get rid of the "old things," and to become new in Christ. Rest not as long as any sin abides within you. This was desiring for them the very highest good. This was a practical suggestion of the way in which they might "fare well.

2. For comfort. "Be comforted." Paul"s heart was tender towards them. They had caused him great, discomfort; he desires their consolation. He had, indeed, wounded them himself in administering stern but necessary rebuke but faithful were the wounds of such a friend; and now he desires that these wounds may be healed, trusting that the lancet has done its work. Note: he does not say, "Be comforted, be perfected," but "Be perfected, be comforted;" true comfort comes only as we strive for true holiness. The quickest way to bring comfort to men is to seek to make them better. To comfort men in sin is devil like; to comfort men by bringing them out of sin is God-like.

3. For unity. "Be of the same mind." Disunited, they would be miserable and weak; united, they would be happy and strong. When we are drawn nearer to Christ we shall be drawn nearer to the brethren; if we quarrel with the members we shall soon quarrel with the Head. The Church has to fight united foes; union should not be the monopoly of the servants of the devil.

4. For peace. "Live in peace." Let peace be continuous, uninterrupted. Disunion will lead to civil war, and how can Christians fight the devil if they are fighting one another? If we have peace with God we should live in peace with his children, and be at war only with Satan and sin.

5. For love. Conveyed by the exhortation to "salute one another with a holy kiss." Union is not enough; peace is not enough; there must be heartfelt affection between the people of God. This is the only true basis of union and peace. An armed truce is sometimes worse than open battle. We must not "tolerate" the brethren we must love them. A "Toleration Act" is a blasphemy against Christ.

IV A STRENGTHENING PROMISE. "The God of love and peace shall be with you." What Wesley said in death is true for all life, "The best of all is God is with us." "If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence". (Exo_33:15) If we have God with us, what can we lack? Perhaps we may regard this promise as conditional. If you sincerely strive to be holy, united, loving, God will abide with you; otherwise, he will depart. Like Israel of old, you may become desolate through carnality and hardness of heart. But if you desire to live in love and peace, the God of love and peace will presence himself with you. You must be workers together with him; from him you get desires for love and peace; but you must cultivate these, and be true and earnest in your religious life. It has been well said, "God"s presence produces love and peace, and we must have love and peace in order to have his presence; God gives what he commands; God gives, but we must cherish his gifts. H.

The God of love and peace.

Love is the nature, and peace the very element, of God. Whatever the detached indications of severity under his sway, whatever the calamities permitted or the penalties inflicted by God, there is love in, over, and under all. Whatever the trouble or turmoil in parts of creation, at the centre of the universe there is a perfect peace. It is the conviction of this which makes our Christian faith so powerful both to calm and to satisfy the soul. We can endure much if we have for our Friend and our eternal Portion the God of love and peace.

I THE INITIAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. You become in your heart acquainted with God through the faith of the gospel. You hear and believe that he loves, and is so far from desirous that any should perish, that he has made provision in Jesus Christ for eternal life to all who confide in his Name. So you repent of your enmity to him and turn to the God of love. Not only so. The gospel, while a revelation of love, is also a message of peace. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." Hearing this, you perceive that God is not pursuing you with an angry countenance and a terrible dart, but regards you with a face of sublime compassion and good will, and bids you fight against him no more, but become his friend. So you repent of your alienation and turn to the God of peace. And all is changed in you. You also love. You also are in peace.

II PROGRESSIVE FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD. In order to abide with God, you must grow in those moral qualities which in their perfection make up his character. Thus you are to dwell in love, and to make peace.

1. Dwell in love. What notion can a hard-hearted, uncharitable man form of God? Faith needs love in order to the higher attainments of holy knowledge and holy fellowship. Only be who dwells in love dwells in God. The Divine Word is sweet to him. The Divine purposes are all good in his eyes; for love enters into the secret of love, and by a touch of sympathy recognizes its presence and strength.

2. Cherish and make peace. A quarrelsome Christian, a former of party, a fomenter of strife, how can he know the God of peace? St. Paul by no means shrank from controversy, and made no truce with error or evil; but what a peacemaker he was in the Church! How impressive his appeals to the Corinthians to be of the same mind and at peace among themselves! It brings God into the heart to arrange disputes, to forgive offences, to bury prejudices, and to exhibit and foster brotherly kindness in the Church. It is the dove that was made a symbol of the Spirit of God; and that is a bird which flees away from noise and tempest. So it is in the quiet heart, and in those Churches where the brethren are at peace with one another, that the Spirit of the God of peace, the Comforter, will dwell.

III DEFEAT OF THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL.

1. Hatred is a work of the flesh. Love is part of the fruit of the Spirit; and he who is born of the Spirit ought to smile at provocation and forgive injury and even love his enemies, because the God whom he serves is love, the Father of whom he is begotten is merciful.

2. Discord is a work of the devil. And in breathing a spirit of mutual consideration and concord over his people, the God of peace bruises Satan under their feet. (Rom_16:20) He brings order out of confusion, and crushes the hissing serpents of dissension and malignity under the feet of his saints. F.

Final counsels.

What should the godly minister most desire for his people? All his best wishes for them can be gathered up in the word "unity." And the terms here used embody the idea of unity. And this was the supreme want of the Corinthian Church, which had been so broken up by

(1) party feeling,

(2) false teachings,

(3) immoral members.

As this subject has been so often taken as a theme for sermons preached at the close of ministries in particular places, we only give an outline from the point of view which regards unity as the central idea of the passage.

I PERFECT. That is, exactly fitted together; a whole.

II OF GOOD COMFORT. This would only come by the removal of the jealousies and envyings, which spoiled the unity and the brotherhood.

III OF ONE MIND. Giving up individual preferences and peculiarities, so that they might agree together, think and plan the same things.

IV LIVE IN PEACE. Or show that thoughtfulness for others which is the great secret of the peaceful life.

Upon such unity as the apostle thus commends the Divine benediction is sure to rest. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Be perfect - Aspire to the highest degree of holiness. Be of good comfort - Filled with divine consolation. Be of one mind - Desire, labour, pray for it, to the utmost degree that is possible.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

perfect

Perfected. Cf. (See Scofield "Mat 5:48") .

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here our apostle shuts up his epistle with a pathetical option and affectionate wish of all perfection, consolation, concord and communion, to his beloved Corinthians.-

Where note, 1. What a fervent and unfeigned love there is in all the faithful ministers of Christ to the people committed to their charge, and how desirous they are, when they are taking their leave of them, to leave God with them; The God of love and peace be with you. Now God’s being with a people, implies and imports these things; namely, the heart of God with them, the help of God with them, and the presence of God with them, and that they shall shortly be with God.

Note, 2. What are the particular graces and blessings which the apostle wishes his beloved Corinthians: he doth not wish them earthly honours, worldly riches, sensual pleasures; but perfection of grace, spiritual consolation, mutual love, sweet communion with God, unanimity and concord amongst themselves: Sanctifying gifts and saving graces are the best legacies that can be left by the ministers of God unto their people.

Be perfect, be knit together: let the schisms and breaches which have been amongst you, be healed: Be of good comfort, rejoice in and under all your sufferings for Christ, and the profession of his holy religion.

Be of one mind, of the same judgment, if possible, in all things; or if otherwise, let no difference in judgment cause disunion in affection; if in some lesser things your heads be different, yet let your hearts be one.

Live in peace; for the Lord’s sake, live no longer in division and strife, in contention and wrath; let me hear no more of those debates, envyings, backbitings, whisperings and swellings, which I have reproved you for; but especially, live in peace with your teachers and spiritual guides; cause not them to complain to God of you, nor to groan to God against you, for your factious prefering one minister before another; one crying, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos.

Thus doing, The God of peace and love shall be with you: That is, he who is the author and enjoiner of love and peace will be with you, and dwell among you with his gracious and favourable presence.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally, brethren, farewell . [Literally, rejoice; a reverting to the purpose declared in 2Co_1:24 . Compare Phi_4:4 ] Be perfected [ Eph_4:13 ; Mat_5:48 ]; be comforted [ 2Co_1:6 ; 2Co_7:8-13 ; 1Th_4:18 ]; be of the same mind [ 1Co_1:10 ; Phi_2:2 ; 1Pe_3:8 ; Rom_12:16 ; Rom_12:18 ]; live in peace [ Eph_4:3 ]: and the God of love and peace shall be with you .

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11–14. Finally, brethren, farewell. This verse contains a parting admonition.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul closes his letter to the Corinthian believers.

Work for restoration

"Work toward maturity"

agree with one another

"live in harmony with one another"

with a holy kiss

"with Christian love"

translationWords

joy

works

restore

courage

life

peace

God

love

holy

kiss

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11-13.] Conclusion.

11.] General exhortations. “Severius scripserat Paulus in tractatione; nunc benignius, re tamen ipsa non dimissa.” Bengel.

χαίρ., rejoice, scil. in the Lord, as Php 3:1; Php 4:4. So also 1Th 5:16.

καταρτ., τέλειοι γίνεσθε καὶ ἀναπληροῦτε τὰ λείποντα, Chrys., ib.: amend “yourselves,” Stanley.

παρακαλ., take comfort; a recurrence in the end of the Epistle to the spirit with which it began; see ch. 1:6, 7, and, for the need they had of comfort, ch. 7:8-13. This is better than ‘comfort (or ‘exhort’) one another,’ which would more naturally be expressed by παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους, or ἑαυτούς, see 1Th 4:18; 1Th 5:11; Heb 3:13; also Heb 10:25 and note.

τὸ αὐτὸ φρ. belongs to ἀγάπη, εἰρηνεύετε to εἰρήνη.

καί, ‘and then.’

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. Λοιπόν. ‘Finally’; lit. ‘as to what remains’ (1Co 1:16, 1Co 1:4:2; 1Th 4:1; 2Ti 4:8). Perhaps more colloquial than τὸ λοιπόν (2Th 3:1). See Lightfoot on Php 3:1, and on 1Th 4:1.

ἀδελφοί. Freq. in 1 Cor., rare in 2 Cor. 1—9., and here only in 2 Cor. 10-13. They are still his brothers.

χαίρετε. “Neither ‘farewell’ alone, nor ‘rejoice’ alone” (Lightfoot on Php 4:4); but here the meaning ‘farewell’ certainly prevails. ‘Rejoice’ would be rather incongruous after οὐ φείσομαι. Note the pres. imperat. in all the verbs; the good points indicated are to be lasting. ‘Continue to do all these things.’ There must be a considerable process day by day to bring about complete spiritual restoration.

καταρτίζεσθε. This seems clearly to refer to τὴν ὑμῶν κατάρτισιν (v. 9). ‘Work your way onwards to perfection.’ See on κατηρτισμένοι, 1Co 1:10, which is similar in meaning, and see the illustrations in Wetstein on Mat 4:21. There is much that requires to be amended; many deficiencies remain to be made good, even if those who have been in sin are now penitent.

παρακαλεῖσθε. This might mean ‘be of good comfort’ (AV) or ‘be comforted’ (RV), but more probably it means ‘be exhorted,’ exhortamini (Vulg.), i.e. ‘listen to my exhortations and entreaties.’ For ‘comfort one another’ we should probably have παρακαλεῖτε ἀλλήλους, as in 1Th 4:18, 1Th 5:11, or ἑαυτούς (cf. v. 5).

τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε. ‘Be of the same mind,’ ‘Be harmonious in thought and aim.’ All Churches needed this exhortation (Rom 12:16, Rom 12:15:5; Php 2:2, Php 4:2), but no Church more than that of Corinth. This fits on well to the renderings given above; ‘Farewell. Go on to perfection; follow my exhortations; be of the same mind.’ But such a sequence as ‘Rejoice; be perfected; be comforted; be of the same mind,’ is rather disjointed.

εἰρηνεύετε. ‘Live in peace’ (1Th 5:13; Rom 12:18; Mar 9:50). In LXX the verb is specially freq. in Job and Ecclus., but nowhere is there the exhortation εἰρηνεύετε. It is the natural result of τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν. But there is a more momentous result, which is the crown of all.

καὶ ὁ Θεὸς τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ εἰρήνης ἔσται μεθʼ ὑμῶν. This corresponds to the two preceding exhortations, τῆς ἀγάπης to τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε, and εἰρήνης to εἰρηνεύετε. Cf. Luk 10:6. Vulg. usually has caritas for ἀγάπη, but here, although there is no diligo to influence the rendering, it has dilectio. ‘The God of Peace’ is an expression which St Paul has elsewhere; Rom 15:33, Rom 15:16:20; Php 4:9; cf. 1Co 14:33; 2Th 3:16; Heb 13:20. ‘The God of love’ is used nowhere else. Even if the two preceding exhortations had not suggested the order, St Paul would probably have put ἀγάπη before εἰρήνη (Gal 5:22). Some texts here change the order (D E L, d e Goth. Arm.), probably influenced by the passages in which ὁ Θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης occurs.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally [λοιπον] . Lit., as for the rest. Sometimes rendered now, as Mt 26:45. "Sleep on now," for the time that remains. Besides, as 1Co 1:16. It remaineth, 1Co 7:29. Henceforth, 2Ti 4:8; Heb 10:13. Often as here, finally. In every case the idea of something left over is at the bottom of the translation.

Farewell [χαιρετε] . In the classics used both at meeting and at parting. Lit., hail! See on Jas 1:1. Rev., in margin, has rejoice. It is somewhat doubtful whether it ever has the meaning farewell in the New Testament.

Edersheim says that, on Sabbaths, when the outgoing course of priests left the temple, they parted from each other with a farewell, reminding us of this to the Corinthians : "He that has caused His name to dwell in this house cause love, brotherhood, peace, and friendship to dwell among you" (" The Temple, " p. 117).

Be perfect [καταρτιζεσθε] . Rev., be perfected. See on Luk 6:40; 1Pe 5:10. Paul speaks both of individual perfection and of the perfection of the Church through the right adjustment of all its members in Christ. Compare 1Co 1:10. The verb is kindred with perfecting, ver. 9.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.