2 Thessalonians 3:16

Conclusion of the Letter. Ch. 2Th_3:16-18

16. Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means] Lit., But may the Lord, &c.; for there is a contrast between the directions just given and the peace for which the Apostle prays. Peace was disturbed by an irritating kind of disorder in the Church, by wild rumours and alarms respecting the Parousia (ch. 2Th_2:1-2), as well as by the unrelenting persecution from without. St Paul has done his best to tranquillize his readers’ minds, and bring them all to a sober and orderly condition. But he looks to “the Lord of peace Himself” to shed on them His all-controlling and all-reconciling influence. Christ is invoked as the Lord of peace (comp. 2Th_3:5), just as God was called “the God of peace” in 1Th_5:23 (see note; and on the import of “peace” in St Paul, note to 1Th_1:1). Christ is Lord and Disposer of the peace which the Gospel brings (comp. Col_3:15, R.V.). This St Paul asks, first (ch. 2Th_1:2) and last, for the troubled and harassed Thessalonians.

“Always” represents a different Greek adverb from that so often used in these letters (1Th_1:2, &c.); it denotes not on every occasion, but through all,—“continually,” as the same adverb is rendered in Luk_24:53, Heb_13:15 : the Lord … give you peace at all times in all ways (R.V.).

Nor is it the Lord’s sovereign peace alone, but the Lord Himself, in His personal presence and authority (comp. Mat_28:18; Mat_28:20), Whom the Apostle invokes. The Lord be with you all, as in 2Th_3:18,—not excluding the “brother walking disorderly,” who even more than others needs the presence of the Lord and the virtue of His peace. Comp. 1Co_16:24, 2Co_13:14, where the “all” of the Benediction has a like pointed significance; also note on 1Th_5:27.

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.

2Th_3:16

Now the Lord of Peace Himself give you peace always by all means

Peace from the Lord of peace

There is another reading of this passage, which modern editors have preferred, and I think with good reason; for πρόπῳ they substituted πότῳ--in every place for by all means.

The expression in our version may, no doubt, have a good and important sense; but it sounds like a tame addition to the words which have preceded. The other suggests a new thought, which enlarges and completes the prayer. May the Lord of Peace give you peace at all times and in all places. Such a petition must needs have a deep and solid ground to rest upon. The Lord of Peace, he says, give you peace. This he assumes as the very name of God. A god of war they had all heard of. He was said to have watched over the infancy of the greatest city in the world, to have been the father of its first king. Whithersoever the Roman Eagle had been borne, there were the tokens of his presence. The name Thessalonica testified that he had been on that soil. He knew that the heathens had never been satisfied with the idea of a god of war, however much it might have possessed them. They felt that the olive was a sacred emblem as well as the laurel. There must be some One from whom it came--of whom it testified. The quiet homestead, the growth of trees and flowers, the power and art of tillage, must have an origin, as well as the skill and feats of armies. Surely tempests did not witness of unseen power more than a still lake or an evening of clear starlight. All sweet notes and their intricate combinations told of some secret source of harmony. The heart which responded to these sights and sounds demanded a Lord of Peace nigh, and not afar off. Was He a different Being from the other? It was the misery of Polytheism to believe that He must be different. How could such opposite effects proceed from the Same Cause? It was the blessed privilege of the Jew to be taught in direct words, and by the whole course of his history, that the Lord his God was one Lord, that the God of armies was the same as the Lord of Peace. The acts of His power were the manifestations of His righteous will. He was the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; therefore would He not clear the guilty; therefore was all evil, everything unmerciful and oppressive, hateful in His eyes; therefore was He pledged to destroy it. There was no actual or implicit contradiction in His nature.

I. The words are very emphatic. May He himself give you peace. As if he had said, I know and am persuaded that no one else can give it you; not I, not all the preachers and doctors in the universe. Properly speaking, you do not even receive it at second hand through us. He gives you the thing itself; we present you with the seals and sacraments of it. He opens a direct communication with your hearts; he conveys into them that which we only stand offering to them from without. May He, says the apostle, Himself give it you! Be not content to take it from any other.

II. And be sure also that He gives it. You do not purchase it by prayers or faith or good deeds. He receives the gift of a higher life, or he sinks into death. In other words, God gives him peace, or he continues in a state of perpetual war.

III. This peace the apostle desires for the Thessalonians. Not some image or shadow of peace, but peace itself, in its full meaning. Not a peace which depends upon pacts and bargains among men, but which belongs to the very nature and character and being of God. Not a peace which is produced by the stifling and suppression of activities and energies, but the peace in which all activities and energies are perfected and harmonized. Not a peace which comes from the toleration of what is base or false, but which demands its destruction. Not a peace which begins from without, but a peace which is first wrought in the inner man, and thence comes forth to subdue the world. Not a peace which a man gets for himself by standing aloof from the sorrows and confusions of the world into which he is born, of the men whose nature he shares, choosing a calm retreat and quiet scenery and a regulated atmosphere; but a peace which has never thriven except in those who have suffered with their suffering kind, who have been ready to give up selfish enjoyments, sensual or spiritual, for their sakes, who have abjured all devices to escape from ordained toils and temptations; the peace which was His who bore the sorrows and infirmities and sins of man, who gave up Himself that He might become actually one with them, who thus won for them a participation in the Divine nature, an inheritance in that peace of God which passeth understanding.

IV. St. Paul could then say boldly, The Lord give you peace is all times. He was living in a time of exceeding restlessness. All about him were wars and rumours of wars. The Jewish commonwealth was breaking to pieces, from the hatreds of its sects, from its mad desire to measure its strength with its Roman masters. St. Paul was the object of the fiercest spite of those fighting sects. They did not abhor each other so much as they abhorred him. And he knew that the end was coming--that God Himself had pronounced the doom of the city of David; that if he did not witness the fall of that nation, to save which he was willing to be accursed, it would be only because some violent death would take him sooner than it out of the world. In this time, which affected all his disciples as well as himself, which had caused great sufferings to the Thessalonian Church, both from present Jewish persecutions and from the dim feverish apprehension of some day of the Lord which was near at hand; in this time, he could ask the Lord of Peace to give himself and them peace. He could ask it confidently, nothing doubting that the petition would be heard and answered, nay, that the very tumults in the world and in themselves were intended to awaken it and to accomplish it. He knew that easy and comfortable circumstances do not impart the peace which men want. He knew that the most disastrous may drive them to that centre where it dwells and Where they may possess it.

V. He prayed also, if the reading I have spoken of is the true one, that they might have peace in every place. He had some experience of different places, of Greek cities and Jewish, if he had not yet seen Rome, as he purposed to do; and all his experience hitherto had been of strifes, tumults, persecutions. He had come to Thessalonica because he had been thrown into prison at Philippi. He escaped from Thessalonica to Beraea, thence to Athens. In Corinth the continued Jewish opposition was trifling compared with the struggle in his own spirit, which made him despair even of life. At Ephesus he was destined to fight with men who assailed him as the beasts assailed those who were exposed in the Amphitheatre. At Jerusalem voices cried, Away with such a fellow from the earth! it is not fit that he should live. Bonds and imprisonments awaited him in the capital of the world. And yet he could say, The Lord of Peace give you peace in all places. In the prison he had found it; in that infinite tumult and despair of his own spirit he had found it. And this, he was certain, was not because he was an apostle--because he had Divine revelations--because he had singular gifts. It was because he was a man, sharing the temptations of men, experiencing in himself the redemption which had been wrought out for men.

VI. Do we not need to hear at this time, in this place, the same message?

VII. But is not the week that witnesses of the sacrifice of the Victim one that brings peace, if it finds but little? Is not the week that commemorates the completion of the sacrifice one that carries peace even into the midst of war? Yes! this, and nothing less, is what these days signify. The Lord of Peace Himself give you peace in all places. You want a Lord of Peace, One in whom Peace dwells always, under all conditions, amidst all turmoils. Here, in the agony of the garden, on the cross of Calvary, behold Him! (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Peace from the Lord of Peace

I. The lord of peace is Jesus. St. Paul habitually calls Him Lord, and brings His name into special relation with peace. This is an apt compendium of His other titles and gives in one perfect phrase the whole sum of His mediatorial work.

1. The appellation is only another form of the title by which His coming was fore-announced. It was declared that He should vanquish Satan, turn aside the Divine displeasure, and establish a government of peace. Isaiah makes all His glorious names merge into The Prince of Peace. His mediatorial obedience is bearing the chastisement of our peace. The increase of His kingdom would be the abundance of peace (Isa_9:6; Isa_53:5; Isa_9:7; Psa_72:7).

2. The manner of His coming was a token of peace. God with us. Peace on earth. These announcements declared that the worlds Peace was born, and that the alliance of God with our nature was the reconciliation which had been preached. This was the everlasting sign that should not be cut off (Isa_7:14; Isa_55:13).

3. But He who brought that sign was Himself cut off that it might be everlasting. Though the reconciliation was virtually effected from the beginning, for the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, yet it required the atonement of the blood of the Cross (Col_1:20-22).

4. The title, however, is a glorious one, and directs our thought to Christs exaltation. Our Melchizedek became King of Salem, i.e. peace, by virtue of the sacrifice which He first offered as Priest of the Most High God. But the Royal title tells us that He has achieved our peace with the power of an endless life. Yet, like His ancient type, He was never other than a King.

5. Whilst this is true, it must not be forgotten that the term Lord is for the most part applied to Christ in respect of the jurisdiction He obtained in death (Rom_14:9; Mat_28:18; Act_10:36). Everything became Dominical from that time: the Lords house, supper, day, and so peace.

6. Christ is Himself the Publisher of His own peace. The terms on which the sinner may make his peace with God are prescribed by the Lord Himself; nor does He permit any human authority to interfere with them.

(1) Repentance; no peace that was ever pronounced upon those who are careless of this condition was ever ratified by Him.

(2) But when this condition is complied with He demands only a supreme reliance upon Himself; and those who encumber the sinners approach by any human inventions have Do sanction from Him.

II. The bestowment of peace.

1. Our Saviour Himself administers His own government by His Spirit, and imparts with His own hands the blessings of His peace. As He presents His atonement in heaven He imparts it on earth (Rom_5:11). He dispenses the forgiveness of sins, permitting none to interpose between Himself and the penitent save as the simple ambassadors of His will. He commanded His apostles to preach and to utter the salutation of peace, but the assurance of remission He reserved for His own lips. But in proportion to the restraint upon them was the freedom with which He dispensed it to the penitent. And still the Lord of Peace speaks the word that tranquillizes the conscience and gives the heart rest.

2. Give you peace always. This means--

(1) At the Outset, that the humble petitioner may expect a permanent assurance of acceptance. The prayer for forgiveness which ascends without ceasing is heard and answered always.

(2) But the peace of Christ is larger and deeper than reconciliation; it includes all spiritual prosperity (Joh_14:27; Joh_15:11).

3. By all means. We must expect it to come through strange and seemingly discordant methods. He who is Lord of Peace shows His supremacy in this, that He can make all things contribute to His servants prosperity. We pray not merely that the Redeemer may shed peace through His Word and ordinances, but in tribulation, and make that minister to the profound communion of the soul with God; that He may preserve to the spirit interior peace, whilst the surface is harassed by temptation; that the very turbulence of the world may be made not only to heighten our peace by contrast, but to confirm it by driving us to more perfect fellowship with Him (Joh_16:33).

III. The guarantee of this peace. The Lord be with you all. Where He dwells there must be peace, but this indwelling is only secured by prayer. He commanded His disciples to pronounce their peace in every house they entered. Much more does He observe His own law. Entering our hearts, He speaks His peace; abiding in us, He gives us peace always; and by the secret energy of His grace He turns all events to our good by all means. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Benediction and invocation

Before closing his letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul desires three Divine things for them.

I. That the Lord of Peace would give them peace. By peace some understand all manner of prosperity; but the apostle meant, in particular, peace with God--peace in their own conscience--peace among themselves--peace among others. And this peace he desired for them always, and in everything, and by all means. As they enjoyed the means of grace, he would have them successful in the use of all the means and methods of grace; for peace is often difficult, as it is always desirable. The gift of peace is Gods, who is the Author of peace and Lover of concord. And of this we may be firmly assured--that we shall neither have peaceable dispositions ourselves, nor find men disposed to be at peace with us, unless the Lord of Peace Himself give us both.

II. That the presence of the Lord might be with them. How intensely the great leader of Israel desired the Divine Presence to go with him and the people to the land of promise may be gathered from his own words to Jehovah Himself: If Thy Presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. He knew full well not only the absolute need of His presence to guide them, but also that His presence really included every other good. Paul felt as did Moses. He was sure that if the Lord was with the Thessalonians, all would be well with them. And we need nothing more to make us safe and happy, nor can we desire anything better for ourselves and our friends than to have the Lords gracious presence with us and them. This will be a guide and guard in every path we may go, and a real comfort in every condition in which we may be placed. It is the presence of God that maketh heaven to be heaven, and the presence of God will make this earth, albeit cursed with sin and sorrow, like unto heaven. No matter where we are if God be with us; no matter who is absent from us if God be present with us.

III. That the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ might also be with them. Whatever the eminence of the Thessalonians for their inherent virtues and gracious qualifications, yet the apostle knew that it was only Gods sovereign grace, and not their own merit, which must be relied upon for obtaining any temporal or spiritual mercy from the hands of God; for though he commended them for their faith, and love, and patience, and other excellences, yet he closeth and crowneth all by wishing Gods free grace and favour to them as the fountain-cause of all they stood in need of or could expect. This grace or favour flows to us through Jesus. And it is this that is all in all to make us pure and happy. The apostle admired and magnified this grace on all occasions: he delighted and trusted in it: it had made him the saint, and the preacher, and the hero that he was; and no marvel that, as he loved his Thessalonian converts with a deep and holy passion, he took his leave of them with words so meet arid precious. (D. Mayo.)

The jewel of peace

I. The many-sided blessing. The peace of the text is a gem with many facets, but--

1. Its main bearing is towards God.

(1) The Atonement has wrought perfect reconciliation and established everlasting peace. Into the enjoyment of this all believers enter.

(2) Our hearts should be at peace by being fully in accord with Gods will. Some of Gods children complain of His dealings with them and so have not perfect peace.

(3) There is also the peace of conscious complacency, the sense of Divine love which is lost when God hides His face through our sin. Peace because sin is forgiven is the fruit of justification (Rom_5:1). Peace because the heart is made to agree with the will of God is the result of sanctification. To be spiritually minded is … peace. Peace through consciousness of Divine love is attendant on the spirit of adoption.

2. This peace spreads itself abroad, and covers all things with its soft light. He who is at peace with God is at peace with all things that are Gods, and all things work together for his good.

3. This practically shows itself in the Christians inward peace with regard to his present circumstances. He sees Gods hand in everything, and is content. Is he poor? The Lord makes him rich in faith. Is he sick? The Lord endows him with patience.

4. This peace is mainly to be found in the soul itself as to its thoughts, believings, hopings, and desires: the good man is satisfied from himself. Some minds are strangers to peace.

(1) How can they have peace where they have no faith.

(2) When they are much afraid.

II. The special desirableness of this peace.

1. It is essential to the joy, comfort, and blessedness of the Christian life.

2. Without peace you cannot grow, A shepherd may find good pasture for his flock, but if they are hunted about by dogs they will soon become skin and bone.

3. Without peace you cannot bear much fruit. If a tree is frequently transplanted, you cannot reasonably look for many golden apples.

4. Stability is dependent on peace. The doctrine can soon be driven out of a mans head which affords no light and comfort to his heart.

5. You must have peace for your souls wealth. As war spends and peace gathers the riches of nations, so does inward strife devour us, while spiritual peace makes the soul fat.

III. The sole Person from whom this peace must come--the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Who else can it be but He whom the angels announced with Peace on earth; who made peace by the blood of His Cross; who is our Peace, having broken down the middle wall of partition; who said, My peace I leave with you, etc.?

1. The apostle does not say, May the Lord of Peace send His angel or His minister to give you peace, or May you have it at the communion table, or in reading the Word, or in prayer. In all these we might be refreshed--but Himself give you peace.

(1) We do not obtain peace except from the Lord Himself. His Person is a source of peace.

(2) He gives this peace; not merely offers it to you, or argues with you that you ought to have it, or shows you the grounds.

2. The Lord be with you all--as much as to say, That is what I mean; if He is present, you must enjoy peace. Let the sea rage, yet when Jesus arises there will be a great calm.

IV. The sweep of the prayer.

1. Always. On weekdays as well as Sundays; in the prayer meeting and in the workshop; with the Bible and with the ledger; at all times, under all circumstances, and everywhere. Why are we troubled, when we may have this peace always?

2. By all means. Some agencies evidently make for peace, but He can give us peace by opposing forces; by the bitter as well as the sweet; the storm as well as the peace; loss as well as gain; death as well as life. There are two grand ways of giving us peace.

(1) By taking away all that disquiets us. Here is one who frets because he does not make much money, or has lost some. Suppose the Lord takes away his covetousness; he is at peace, not because he has more money, but less of grasping desire. Another is ambitious. Suppose the grace of God humbles him so that be only wishes to be and to do what the Lord wills; how readily he rests. Another has an angry temper; the Lord does not alter the character of the people round about him, but makes him gentle. What peace he now feels!

(2) By discoveries of Himself and His grace. Conclusion: There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Peace of conscience and heart the element of holiness

1. Always--i.e., absolutely permanent. The same word is used of the angels, who always behold the face of God; and of Christ, who foresaw the Lord always before Him. The constancy of the Christians peace is to be the same as that wherewith angels wait on the behests of God and Jesus realizes Gods presence.

2. In every manner. There are different modes and circumstances of its manifestation, according as the heart is burdened with anxiety, or depressed with a sense of sin, or feverish with excitement, or distracted by business. We may taste it in every form, according to the special need of the moment.

3. The Lord of Peace, its Author and Source, is called upon to bestow it (Joh_14:27; Php_4:4-7).

4. This peace is a main essential to holiness; it is not only the root out of which it grows, but the strength in which alone it can be successfully pursued, and the element in which it moves. Its spheres are--

I. The conscience.

1. It must be admitted by faith in Christ--such an act as shall shed abroad in the heart a sense of Gods pardoning love. This act is simply a cordial acceptance of Gods gift of Christ. Having performed this, we place ourselves in the condition described in Rom_5:1.

2. But it must be detained. It is a sensitive guest, apt to take flight at the slightest affront, The conscience, once cleared by faith, must be kept clear by effort, the use of appropriate means, sad repeated acts of faith. Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence. But as faults will accrue, we need for the maintenance of peace periodical examinations of the conscience.

II. The heart. Peace under the vexations and frettings of life.

1. This fretting may arise from anxieties, the right method of dealing with which is in Php_4:4-7. Whatever may be your wishes on the subject which makes you anxious, refer them to God in prayer; and having done so, leave them with Him, assured that He will order the matter for the best. Drop them altogether. They are off your hands now, and are in better hands. They are no longer your business; they need not be your care. Thinking is utterly fruitless, and fruitless thinking is waste of the energy needed for progress, and is also a positive breach of Gods precept--Be careful for nothing. The spiritual life of the present moment is the one thing needful. As for future evil, it may never come; and if it does, it will prove less in reality than in anticipation. The women going to the sepulchre troubled themselves unnecessarily about the stone, for it was rolled away.

2. This discomposure may arise from things going cross in daily life, rubs of temper, annoyance, etc. The rule for the maintenance of peace is here the same. Never let your thoughts dwell on a matter in which another has made you sore. If you do, a hundred aggravations will spring up. With a brief prayer for him who has offended you, keep your thoughts away from what he has done. Try to realize Gods presence. My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. But the great point is to let the mind settle. Turbid liquids will clear themselves, and precipitate their sediment simply by standing. Be still, then. Conclusion:

1. Those who indulge fretful feelings, either of anxiety or irritation, give an opening to the devil in their hearts. Fret not thyself, else thou shalt be moved to do evil. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Peace is the sentinel of the soul; only so long as this sentinel is on guard the castle is kept secure.

2. Be careful to maintain peace, if thou wouldst not only resist the devil, but receive the guidance of Gods Spirit. That Spirit cannot make communications to a soul in a turbulent state. The Lord is not in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. Not until these have passed, can His still small voice be heard. (Dean Goulburn.)

Peace versus war

I. First, then, we have a peaceful designation.

1. He who is the eternal and omnipotent Jehovah--The man of war, The lion of the tribe of Judah, is here described as The Lord of Peace. He is so in His disposition. Peace, like silver sheen, is woven in His nature. His life manifested it, His words breathed it, His looks beamed with it, His prayers pleaded for it, His chastisement was to procure it, and His death was to seal it.

2. This fact may be yet more clearly seen if we remember how longsuffering He is with His enemies. What trifles prove sufficient to light the torch of war, if there be the desire first. Contrast with this what our Lord bears from His avowed foes, and His long suffering towards them, and you will then be enabled in some measure to grasp the peaceableness of His disposition. Oh, what affronts does He receive, and yet forbears to smite! What indignities are heaped upon Him! How is His name profaned, His Sabbath desecrated, His laws broken, His Book derided, His worship neglected! What monarch on earth has ever been so openly defied, and that by creatures who are at His mercy for their very breath and bread?

3. This peace loving disposition of our Lord can also be demonstrated by His forbearance with His friends. A slight from an open enemy is insignificant in its power to wound, compared with one that comes from a professed friend. What weakness, what base ingratitude, what falseness of affection are shown to Him, by the very ones whose names are engraven on His heart. And yet He bears with us and loves us still. Surely Gods grace is not more marvellous in its first love than in that loves continuation.

4. The Lord is also the Lord of Peace in His actions. This is seen in the fact that He purchased it at a tremendous cost. Peace could only be procured by His own humiliation, agony, and death. At His baptism the peaceful nature of His mission was again made known, by the descent of the Holy Spirit. In what form was it that the Spirit alighted upon Him? He is His peoples Ambassador above; and whilst He remains our representative there, our peace is secured, and glorious truth, He ever liveth to make intercession for us.

5. The peace that was purchased by His blood is now secured by His life, and He only waits to place the crown upon the whole by perfecting our peace. Peace without the alarm of battle; peace beyond the noise or even rumour of strife; peace, deep and calm as mountain lake unruffled by a breeze, yet glittering in the sunlight, is the sweet consummation of the dealings of the Lord of Peace with us.

II. We have, in the second place, a peaceful supplication. The Lord of Peace, give you peace.

1. A conscience peace. This is one of the greatest gifts the Lord can bestow. What is a man without it? He may be surrounded by every luxury; but if he lacks this, he lives in a perpetual hell. That this happy experience might be theirs was prayed for by the apostle.

2. But as these words were addressed unto the Church at Thessalonica, they may also be understood as praying for their Church peace. A Church without peace is in just as wretched a condition as a heart without it. No country has ever suffered half so much through the ravages of war as has Gods Church from its internal strifes. And, alas! as in other wars, what trifles kindle the flame. Some little grievance between two members, which a word of explanation on either side would heal at once, is allowed to grow and rankle, whilst partisans flock to the rival standards, and the few neutrals left find themselves powerless to avert the calamity.

3. Notice, further that the peace desired was a perpetual one. Peace always was the apostles prayer. Very different this to the peace which has been Europes of late. A peace so long, that war shall be forgotten; a peace so complete, that the probability of war shall cease.

4. It was also to be a peace that came by all means. May every privilege (Paul seems to say) which, as Christians, you possess, be so many golden pipes conveying to your hearts the oil of joy and peace 1 When you pray, may you lose your burdens and your cares, and find in it sweet peace. When you gather for the holy purposes of public worship, may a heavenly calm be yours, and may you find the sanctuary a means of peace. When alone, you meditate upon the promises, may they be to you as songs of consolation.

III. A peaceful benediction. The Lord be with you all.

1. His presence be with you to comfort. May you never miss His smile or mourn His absence.

2. His power be with you to keep. In the seasons of temptation, may He hold above thy head His shield.

3. His Spirit be with you to guide. In the daytime may a cloudy pillar go before thee, and in the night season may one of fire direct thee.

IV. An interrogation. Have you this peace? Is there within your breast a pacified conscience and a soul that has found its rest? (A. G. Brown.)

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

2Th 3:16-17. Now the Lord of peace himself — See on Rom 15:33; or Christ may be here intended, and called the Lord of peace, in allusion to Isa 9:6, where he is foretold under the character of the Prince of peace, because he was to reconcile Jews and Gentiles to God and to one another. Give you peace by all means — In every way and manner. This prayer the apostle subjoins to the foregoing command, to intimate that if the rulers of the church are faithful in their exhortations and admonitions, it is to be expected that the Lord will follow their labours with his blessing, and make them effectual for producing peace and righteousness among the members of his body. The Lord be with you all — A wish this founded on Christ’s promise, (Mat 28:20,) Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, with which promise it is probable Paul was made acquainted. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand — See on 1Co 16:21; Gal 6:11; which is the token in every epistle — The mark to know those that are true from such as are counterfeit. So I write — This is my custom in all my epistles.

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

7. Benedictory and salutatory conclusion, 2Th_3:16-18.

16. Lord of peace—Christ; as the Father, or rather, the Trinity, is the God of peace, 1Th_5:23.

Give you peace—See note, 1Th_5:23.

By all means—In every way; by the mutual performance of every duty.

All—Both the reproved and the approved.

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

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

2Th_3:16. Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always.—The Church at Thessalonica had been passing through stormy waters. The apostle prays that God may give them to

“Feel His halcyon rest within

Calming the storms of dread and sin.”

2Th_3:17. The salutation … the token.—As though he said, “This that I am about to write is my sign-manual.”

2Th_3:18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.—Whatever St. Paul’s handwriting may have been, it could not well be more characteristic than this word “grace,” as certainly he could not have chosen a more beautiful word to engrave on his seal.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Th_3:16-18

Apostolic Courtesy.

The epistle is coming to a close, and the Christian courtesy of the apostle comes out in the spirit in which he expresses his farewell. If he has spoken out plainly and even severely, it has not been in vindictiveness and anger. All that he has said and written is in the interests of peace. His sharpest reproofs and most faithful admonitions have been suffused with an undercurrent of loving-kindness; and his concluding words drop with the gentleness of refreshing dew.

I. Apostolic courtesy supplicates the blessing of the divine peace and presence.—“Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all” (2Th_3:16). Prayer was the life-breath of the apostle, as we have frequently pointed out in the study of these epistles. Considering the dissensions that disturbed the harmony of the Thessalonian Church, this epistle appropriately closes with a prayer for peace. First, and most important of all, peace with God and the individual conscience; then mutual peace and concord one with another—peace, such as keeps the mind in an even and heavenly frame, as a sentinel that guards a door, lest foes should get in and make havoc where God hath commanded peace. Where God’s presence is manifested, there is peace; hence the apostle adds, “The Lord be with you all.” Peace is a divine gift, and a divine experience in man; it is the peace of “the Lord of peace” that we share.

II. Apostolic courtesy is expressed in an emphatic Christian salutation.—“The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write” (2Th_3:17). This epistle was written by an amanuensis, probably Silas or Timothy, at the dictation of Paul; and the apostle wrote his own signature, adding the salutation and benediction. This act not only stamped the genuineness of the epistle, but indicated in a most unmistakable manner the anxiety of the apostle to thoroughly identify himself with all that was expressed in the epistle, and to assure the Thessalonians of his personal interest in and love towards them. Christianity is the soul of courtesy. Bolingbroke once said, “Supposing Christianity to be a mere human invention, it is the most amiable and successful invention that ever was imposed on mankind.” When the courtiers of Henry IV. of France expressed their surprise that he returned the salutation of a poor man, who bowed down before him at the entrance of a village, the king replied, “Would you have your king exceeded in politeness by one of the lowest of his subjects?” As he is the best Christian who is most humble, so is he the truest gentleman that is most courteous.

III. Apostolic courtesy is indicated in the solemn invocation of the abiding grace of God.—“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (2Th_3:18). A farewell full of pathos, full of solemnity, full of peace, full of admiration and love for the people—all good wishes condensed into a single phrase. Even an apostle can desire for the Church, or any of its members, no richer benediction than that comprehended in “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Lessons.—

1. Peace is a prime essential in Church prosperity.

2. The Christian spirit is the essence of true courtesy.

3. We can invoke no higher blessing on others than to be kept in the enjoyment of divine grace.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

2Th_3:16. The Omnipresent God—

I. In history.—Shaping the course and destiny of nations.

II. In providence.—

1. Guarding.

2. Guiding His people.

III. In grace.—

1. Manifesting His goodness in Christ.

2. Giving inclination and power to do His will.

3. Demanding and bestowing personal holiness.

4. Ensuring constant peace.

Peace in Danger.—During the great earthquake in London, when thousands were running about and crying in terror, when buildings were falling and the ground rocking like the ocean in a storm, Wesley gathered a few of his followers in one of their little chapels, and calmly read to them the forty-sixth psalm, “God is our refuge and strength.”

2Th_3:17-18. Christian Courtesy—

I. Takes pains to make itself evident.—“So I write.”

II. Is a hearty expression of personal regard.—“The salutation of Paul with mine own hand.”

III. Invokes the blessing of divine grace on all (2Th_3:18).

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.

2 Thessalonians

THE LORD OF PEACE AND THE PEACE OF THE LORD

2Th 3:16.

We have reached here the last of the brief outbursts of prayer which characterise this letter, and bear witness to the Apostle’s affection for his Thessalonian converts. It is the deepening of the ordinary Jewish formula of meeting and parting. We find that, in most of his letters, the Apostle begins with wishing ‘grace and peace,’ and closes with an echo of the wish. ‘Peace be unto you’ was often a form which meant nothing. But true religion turns conventional insincerities into real, heartfelt desires. It was often a wish destined to remain unfulfilled. But loving wishes are potent when they are changed into petitions.

The relation between the two clauses of my text seems to be that the second, ‘The Lord be with you all,’ is not so much a separate, additional supplication as rather the fuller statement, in the form of prayer, of the means by which the former supplication is to be accomplished. ‘The Lord of Peace’ gives peace by giving His own presence. This, then, is the supreme desire of the Apostle, that Christ may be with them all, and in His presence they may find the secret of tranquillity.

I. The deepest longing of every human soul is for peace.

There are many ways in which the supreme good may be represented, but perhaps none of them is so lovely, and exercises such universal fascination of attraction, as that which presents it in the form of rest. It is an eloquent testimony to the unrest which tortures every heart that the promise of peace should to all seem so fair. It may be presented and aimed at in very ignoble and selfish ways. It may be sought for in cowardly shirking of duty, in sluggish avoidance of effort, in selfish absorption, apart from all the miseries of mankind. It may be sought for in the ignoble paths of mere pleasure, amidst the sanctities of human love, amidst the nobilities of intellectual effort and pursuit. But all men in their workings are aiming at rest of spirit, and only in such rest does blessedness lie. ‘There is no joy but calm.’ It is better than all the excitements of conflict, and better than the flush of victory. Best which is not apathy, rest which is not indolence, rest which is contemporaneous with, and the consequence of, the full wholesome activity of the whole nature in its legitimate directions, that is the good that we are all longing for. The sea is not stagnant, though it be calm. There will be the slow heave of the calm billow, and the wavelets may sparkle in the sunlight, though they be still from all the winds that rave. Deep in every human heart, in yours and mine, brother, is this cry for rest and peace. Let us see to it that we do not mistranslate the meaning of the longing, or fancy that it can be found in the ignoble, the selfish, the worldly ways to which I have referred. We want, most of all, peace in our inmost hearts.

II. Then the second thing to be suggested here is that the Lord of Peace Himself is the only giver of peace.

I suppose I may take for granted, on the part at least of the members of my own congregation, some remembrance of a former discourse upon another of these petitions, in which I pointed out how, in phraseology analogous to that of my text, there were the distinct reference to the divinity of Jesus Christ, the distinct presentation of prayer to Him, the implication of His present activity upon Christian hearts.

And here again we have the august and majestic ‘Himself.’ Here again we have the distinct reference of the title ‘Lord’ to Jesus. And here again we have plainly prayer to Him.

But the title by which He is addressed is profoundly significant, ‘The Lord of Peace.’ Now we find, in another of Paul’s letters, in immediate conjunction with His teaching, that casting all our care upon God is the sure way to bring the peace of God into our hearts, the title ‘the God of Peace’; and he employs the same phraseology in another of his letters, when he prays that the ‘God of Peace’ would fill the Roman Christians ‘with all joy and peace in believing.’

So, then, here is a title which is all but distinctively divine. ‘The Lord of Peace’ is brought into parallelism and equality with ‘the God of Peace’; which were blasphemy unless the underlying implication was that Jesus Christ Himself was divine.

He is the ‘Lord of Peace’ because that tranquillity of heart and spirit, that unruffled calm which we all see from afar, and long to possess, was verily His, in His manhood, during all the calamities and changes and activities of His earthly life. I have said that ‘peace’ is not apathy, that it is not indifference, that it is not self-absorption. Look at the life of the ‘Lord of Peace.’ In Him there were wholesome human emotions. He sorrowed, He wept, He wondered, He was angry, He pitied, He loved. And yet all these were perfectly consistent with the unruffled calm which marked His whole career. So peace is not stolid indifference, nor is it to be found in the avoidance of difficult duties, or the cowardly shirking of sacrifices and pains and struggles; but rather it is ‘peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation,’ of which the great example stands in Him who was ‘the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief,’ and who yet, in it all, was ‘the Lord of Peace.’

Why was Christ’s manhood so perfectly tranquil? The secret lies here. It was a manhood in unbroken communion with the Father. And what was the secret of that unbroken communion with the Father? It lies here, in the perfect submission of His will. Resignation is peace. The surrender of self-will is peace. Obedience is peace. Trust is peace, and fellowship with the divine is peace. So Christ has taught us in His life--’The Father hath not left Me alone, because I do always the things that please Him.’ And therein He has marked out for us the path of righteousness and communion, which is ever the path of peace. ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.’ That is the secret of the tranquillity of the ever-calm Christ.

Being thus the Lord of Peace, inasmuch as it was His own constant and unbroken possession, He is the sole giver of it to others.

Ah! brethren, our hearts want far more, for their stable restfulness, than we can find in any hand, or in any heart, except those of Jesus Christ Himself. For what do we need? We need, in order that we should know the sweetness of repose, an adequate object for every part of our nature. If we find something that is good and sweet and satisfying for some portion of this complex being of ours, all its other hungry desires are apt to be left unappeased. So we are shuttle-cocked from one wish to another, and bandied about from one partial satisfaction to another, and in them all it is but segments of our being that are satisfied, whilst all the rest of the circumference remains disquieted. We need that, in one attainable and single object, there shall be at once that which will subjugate the will, that which will illuminate and appease the conscience, that which will satisfy the seeking intellect, and hold forth the promise of endless progress in insight and knowledge, that which will meet all the desires of our ravenous clamant nature, and that which will fill every creek and cranny of our empty hearts as with the flashing brightness of an inflowing tide.

And where shall we find all these, but in one dear heart, and where shall we discern the one object, whom, possessing, we have enough; and without whom, possessing all beside, we are mendicants and starving? Where, but in that dear Lord, who Himself will supply all our needs, and will minister to us peace, because for will and conscience and intellect and affections and desires He supplies the pabulum that they require, and gives more than enough for their satisfaction?

We want, if we are to be at rest, that there shall be some absolute control over our passions, lusts, desires, which torture us for ever, as long as they are ungoverned. There is only one hand which will take the wild beasts of our nature, bind them in the silken leash of His love, and lead them along, tamed and obedient.

We want, for our peace, that all our relations with circumstances and men around us shall be rectified. And who is there that can bring about such harmony between us and our surroundings that calamities shall not press upon us with their heaviest weight, nor opposing circumstances kindle angry resistance, but only patient perseverance and thankful persistence in the path of duty? It is only Christ that can regulate our relations to the things and the men around us, and make all things work together to our consciousness for our good.

Further, if we are to be at rest, and possess any true, fundamental, and stable tranquillity, we want that our relations with God shall consciously be rectified and made blessed. And I, for my part, do not believe that any man comes into the full sweetness of an assured friendship with God, unless he comes to it by the road of faith in that Saviour in whom God draws near to us with tenderness in His heart, and blessings dropping from His open Hands. To be at peace with God is the beginning of all true tranquillity, and that can be secured only by faith in Jesus Christ.

So, because He brings the reconciliation between man and God, because He brings the rectification of our relation to circumstances and men, because He brings the control of desires and passions and inclinations, and because He satisfies all the capacities of our natures, in Him, and in Him only, is there peace for us.

III. So note, thirdly, that the peace of the Lord of Peace is perfect.

‘Give you peace always,’ that points to perpetual, unbroken duration in time, and through all changing circumstances which might threaten a less stable and deeply-rooted tranquillity. And then, ‘by all means,’ as our Authorised Version has it, or, better, ‘in all ways,’ as the Revised Version reads, the reference being, not so much to the various manners in which the divine peace is to be bestowed, as to the various aspects which that peace is capable of assuming. Christ’s peace, then, is perpetual and multiform, unbroken, and presenting itself in all the aspects in which tranquillity is possible for a human spirit.

It is possible, then, thinks Paul, that there shall be in our hearts a deep tranquillity, over which disasters, calamities, sorrows, losses, need have no power. There is no necessity why, when my outward life is troubled, my inward life should be perturbed. There may be light in the dwellings of Goshen, while darkness lies over all the land of Egypt. The peace which Christ gives is no exemption from warfare, but is realised in the midst of warfare. It is no immunity from sorrows, but is then most felt when the storm of sorrow beating upon us is patiently accepted. The rainbow steadfastly stands spanning the tortured waters of the cataract. The fire may burn, like that old Greek fire, beneath the water. The surface may be agitated, but the centre may be calm. It is not calamity that breaks our peace, but it is the resistance of our wills to calamity which troubles us. When we can bow and submit and say, ‘Thy will be done,’ ‘it seemeth good to Thee, do as Thou wilt,’ then nothing can break the peace of God in our hearts. We seek in the wrong quarter for peace when we seek it in the disposition of outward things according to our wills. We seek in the right way when we seek it in the disposition of our wills according to the will of the Father manifest in our circumstances. There may be peace always, even whilst the storms, efforts, and calamities of life are in full operation around us and on us. That peace may be uninterrupted and uniform, extended on one high level, as it were through all our lives. It is not so with us, dear brethren; there are ups and downs which are our own fault. The peace of God may be permanent, but, in order that it should be, there must be permanent communion and permanent obedience.

Further, says the Apostle, Christ’s peace will not manifest itself in one form only, but in all the shapes in which peace is possible. There are many enemies that beset this calmness of spirit; for them all there is the appropriate armour and defence in the peace of God, I have already enumerated in part some of the requirements for true and permanent tranquillity of soul. All these are met in the peace of Christ. Whatever it is that disturbs men, He has His anodyne that will soothe. If circumstances threaten, if men array themselves against us, if our own evil hearts rise up in rebellion, if our passions disturb us, if our consciences accuse: for all these Christ brings tranquillity and calm. In every way in which men can be disturbed, and in every way, therefore, in which peace can be manifest, Christ’s gift avails. ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’

IV. Lastly, ‘the Lord of Peace’ gives it by giving His own presence.

The Thessalonians, as they listened to Paul’s first prayer, might think to themselves, ‘Always, by all means.’ That is a large petition! Can it be fufilled? And so the Apostle adds, ‘The Lord be with you all.’ You cannot separate Christ’s gifts from Christ. The only way to get anything that He gives is to get Him. It is His presence that does everything. If He is with me, the world’s annoyances will seem very small. If I hold His hand I shall not be much troubled. If I can only nestle close to His side, and come under His cloak, He will shield me from the cold blast, from whatever side it blows. If my heart is twined around Him it will partake of the stability and calm of the great heart on which it rests.

The secret of tranquillity is the presence of Christ. When He is in the vessel the waves calm themselves. So, Christian men and women, if you and I are conscious of breaches of our restfulness, interruptions of our tranquillity by reason of surging, impatient passions, and hot desires within ourselves, or by reason of the pressure of outward circumstances, or by reason of our having fallen beneath our consciences, and done wrong things, let us understand that the breaches of our peace are not owing to Him, but only to our having let go His hand. It is our own faults if we are ever troubled; if we kept close to Him we should not be. It is our own faults if the world ever agitates us beyond the measure that is compatible with central calm. Sorrow should not have the power to touch the citadel of our lives. Effort should not have the power to withdraw us from our trustful repose in Him. And nothing here would have the power, if we did not let our hand slip out of His, and break our communion with Him.

So, dear brethren, ‘in the world ye shall have tribulation, in Me ye shall have peace.’ Keep inside the fortress and nothing will disturb. ‘He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.’ The only place where that hungry, passion-ridden heart of yours, conscious of alienation from God, can find rest, is close by Jesus Christ. ‘The Lord be with us all,’ and then the peace of that Lord shall clothe and fill our hearts in Christ Jesus.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 24

FAREWELL

2Th_3:16-18 (R.V.)

THE first verse of this short passage is taken by some as in close connection with what goes before. In the exercise of Christian discipline, such as it has been described by the Apostle, there may be occasions of friction or even of conflict in the Church; it is this which he would obviate by the prayer, "The Lord of peace Himself give you peace always." The contrast is somewhat forced and disproportioned: and it is certainly better to take this prayer, standing as it does at the close of the letter, in the very widest sense. Not merely freedom from strife, but peace in its largest Christian meaning, is the burden of his petition.

The Lord of peace Himself is Christ. He is the Author and Originator of all that goes by that name in the Christian communion. The word "peace" was not, indeed, a new one; but it had been baptised into Christ, like many another and become a new creation. Newman said that when he passed out of the Church of England into the Church of Rome, all the Christian ideas were, so to speak, magnified; everything appeared on a vaster scale. This is a very good description, at all events, of what one sees on passing from natural morality to the New Testament, from writers so great even as Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius to the Apostles. All the moral and spiritual ideas are magnified-sin, holiness, peace, repentance, love, hope, God, man, attain to new dimensions. Peace, in particular, was freighted to a Christian with a weight of meaning which no pagan could conceive. It brought to mind what Christ had done for man, He who had made peace by the blood of His Cross; it gave that assurance of Gods love, that consciousness of reconciliation, which alone goes to the bottom of the souls unrest. It brought to mind also what Christ had been. It recalled that life which had faced all mans experience, and had borne through all a heart untroubled by doubts of Gods goodness. It recalled that, solemn bequest: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you." In every sense and in every way it was connected with Christ; it could neither be conceived nor possessed apart from Him; He was Himself the Lord of the Christian peace.

The Apostle shows his sense of the comprehensiveness of this blessing by the adjuncts of his prayer. He asks the Lord to give it to the Thessalonians uninterruptedly, and in all the modes of its manifestation. Peace may be lost. There may be times at which the consciousness of reconciliation passes away, and the heart cannot assure itself before God; these are the times in which we have somehow lost Christ, and only through Him can we have our peace with God restored. "Uninterruptedly" we must count upon Him for this first and fundamental blessing; He is the Lord of Reconciling Love, whose blood cleanses from all sin, and makes peace between earth and Heaven forever. Or there may be times at which the troubles and vexations of life become too trying for us; and instead of peace within, we are full of care and fear. What resource have we then but in Christ, and in the love of God revealed to us in Him? His life is at once a pattern and an inspiration; His great sacrifice is the assurance that the love of God to man is immeasurable, and that all things work together for good to them that love Him. When the Apostle prayed this prayer, he no doubt thought of the life which lay before the Thessalonians. He remembered the persecutions they had already undergone at the hands of the Jews; the similar troubles that awaited them; the grief of those who were mourning for their dead; the deeper pain of those on whose hearts rushed suddenly, from time to time, the memory of days and years wasted in sin; the moral perplexities that were already rising among them, -he remembered all these things, and because of them he prayed, "The Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in every way." For there are many ways in which peace may be possessed; as many ways as there are disquieting situations in mans life. It may come as penitent trust in Gods mercy; it may come as composure in times of excitement and danger; as meekness and patience under suffering; as hope when the world would despair; it may come as unselfishness, and the power to think of others, because we know God is taking thought for us, -as "a heart at leisure from itself, to soothe and sympathise." All these are peace. Such peace as this-so deep and so comprehensive, so reassuring and so emancipating-is the gift of Christ alone. He can give it without interruption; He can give it with virtues as manifold as the trials of the life without or the life within.

Here, properly speaking, the letter ends. The Apostle has communicated his mind to the Thessalonians as fully as their situation required; and might end, as he did in the First Epistle, with his benediction. But he remembers the unpleasant incident, mentioned in the beginning of chap. 2, of a letter purporting to be from him, though not really his; and he takes care to prevent such a mistake for the future. This Epistle, like almost all the rest, had been written by some one to the Apostles dictation; but as a guarantee of genuineness, he closes it with a line or two in his own hand. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write." What does "so I write" mean? Apparently, "You see the character of my writing; it is a hand quite recognisable as mine; a few lines in this hand will authenticate every letter that comes from me."

Perhaps "every letter" only means everyone which he would afterwards write to Thessalonica; certainly attention is not called in all the Epistles to this autographic close. It is found in only two others-1st Corinthians {1Co_16:21} and Colossians {Col_4:18} -exactly as it stands here, "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand"; in others it may have been thought unnecessary, either because, like Galatians, they were written throughout in his own hand; or, like 2d Corinthians and Philemon, were conveyed by persons equally known and trusted by the Apostle and the recipients. The great Epistle to the Romans, to judge from. its various conclusions, seems to have been from the very beginning a sort of circular letter; and the personal character, made prominent by the autograph signature, was less in place then. The same remark applies to the Epistle to the Ephesians. As for the pastoral Epistles, to Timothy and Titus, they may have been autographic throughout; in any case, neither Timothy nor Titus was likely to be imposed upon by a letter falsely claiming to be Pauls. They knew their master too well.

If it was possible to make a mistake in the Apostles lifetime, and to take as his an Epistle which he never wrote, is it impossible to be similarly imposed upon now? Have we reasonable grounds for believing that the thirteen Epistles in the New Testament, which bear his name upon their front, really came from his hand? That is a question which in the last hundred years, and especially in the last fifty, has been examined with the amplest learning and the most minute and searching care. Nothing that could possibly be alleged against the authenticity of any of these Epistles, however destitute of plausibility, has been kept back. The references to them in early Christian writers, their reception in the early Church, the character of their contents, their style, their vocabulary, their temper, their mutual relations, have been the subject of the most thorough investigation. Nothing has ever been more carefully tested than the historical judgment of the Church in receiving them; and though it would be far from true to say that there were no difficulties, or no divergence of opinion, it is the simple truth that the consent of historical critics in the great ecclesiastical tradition becomes more simple and decided. The Church did not act at random in forming the apostolic canon. It exercised a sound mind in embodying in the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour the books which it did embody, and no other. Speaking of Paul in particular, one ought to say that the only writings ascribed to him, in regard to which there is any body of doubtful opinion, are the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. Many seem to feel, in regard to these, that they are on a lower key than the undoubtedly Pauline letters; there is less spirit in them, less of the native originality of the gospel, a nearer approach to moral commonplace; they are not unlike a half-way house between the apostolic and the post-apostolic age. These are very dubious grounds to go upon; they will impress different minds very differently; and when we come to look at the outward evidence for these letters, they are almost better attested, in early Christian writers, than anything else in the New Testament. Their semi-legal character, and the positive rules with which they abound, inferior as they make them in intellectual and spiritual interest to high works of inspiration like Romans and Colossians, seem to have enabled simple Christian people to get hold of them, and to work them out in their congregations and their homes. All that Paul wrote need not have been on one level; and it is almost impossible to understand the authority which these Epistles immediately and universally obtained, if they were not what they claimed to be. Only a very accomplished scholar could appreciate the historical arguments for and against them; yet I do not think it is unfair to say that even here the traditional opinion is in the way, not of being reversed, but of being confirmed.

The very existence of such questions, however, warns us against mistaken estimates of Scripture. People sometimes say, if there be one point uncertain, our Bible is gone. Well, there are points uncertain; there are points, too, in regard to which an ordinary Christian can only have a kind of second-hand assurance; and this of the genuineness of the pastoral Epistles is one. There is no doubt a very good case to be made out for them by a scholar; but not a case which makes doubt impossible. Yet our Bible is not taken away. The uncertainty touches, at most, the merest fringe of apostolic teaching; nothing that Paul thought of any consequence, or that is of any consequence to us, but is abundantly unfolded in documents which are beyond the reach of doubt. It is not the letter, even of the New Testament, which quickens, but the Spirit; and the Spirit exerts its power through these Christian documents as a whole, as it does through no other documents in the world. When we are perplexed as to whether an apostle wrote this or that, let us consider that the most important books in the Bible-the Gospels and the Psalms-do not name their authors at all. What in the Old Testament can compare with the Psalter? Yet these sweet songs are practically anonymous. What can be more certain than that the Gospels bring us into contact with a real character-the Son of Man, the Saviour of sinners? Yet we know their authors only through a tradition, a tradition indeed of weight and unanimity that can hardly be over-estimated; but simply a tradition, and not an inward mark such as Paul here sets on his letter for the Thessalonians. "The Churchs one Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord"; as long as we are actually brought into connection with Him through Scripture, we must be content to put up with the minor uncertainties which are inseparable from a religion which has had a birth and a history.

But to return to the text. The Epistle closes, as the Apostles custom is, with a benediction: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." Grace is pre-eminently a Pauline word; it is found alike in the salutations with which Paul addresses his churches, and in the benedictions with which he bids them farewell; it is the beginning and the end of his gospel; the element in which Christians live, and move, and have their being. He excludes no one from his blessing; not even those who had been walking disorderly, and setting at naught the tradition they had received from him; their need is the greatest of all. If we had imagination enough to bring vividly before us the condition of one of these early churches, we would see how much is involved in a blessing like this, and what sublime confidence it displays in the goodness and faithfulness of our Lord. The Thessalonians, a few months ago, had been heathens; they had known nothing of God and His Son; they were living still in the midst of a heathen population, under the pressure of heathen influences both on thought and conduct, beset by numberless temptations; and if they were mindful of the country from which they had come forth, not without opportunity to return. Paul would willingly have stayed with them to be their pastor and teacher, their guide and their defender, but his missionary calling made this impossible. After the merest introduction to the gospel, and to the new life to which it calls those who receive it, they had to be left to themselves. Who should keep them from falling? Who should open their eyes to understand the ideal which the Christian is summoned to work out in his life? Amid their many enemies, where could they look for a sufficient and ever-present ally? The Apostle answers these questions when he writes, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." Although he has left them, they are not really alone. The free love of God, which visited them at first uncalled, will be with them still, to perfect the work it has begun. It will beset them behind and before; it will be a sun and a shield to them, a light and a defence. In all their temptations, in all their sufferings, in all their moral perplexities, in all their despondencies, it will be sufficient for them.

There is not any kind of succour which a Christian needs which is not to be found in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here, then, we bring to a close our study of the two earliest Epistles of St. Paul. They have given us a picture of the primitive apostolic preaching, and of the primitive Christian Church. That preaching embodied revelations, and it was the acceptance of these revelations that created the new society. The Apostle and his fellow evangelists came to Thessalonica telling of Jesus, who had died and risen again, and who was about to return to judge the living and the dead. They told of the impending wrath of God, that wrath which was revealed already against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and was to he revealed in all its terrors when the Lord cam They preached Jesus as the Deliverer from the coming wrath, and gathered, through faith in Him, a Church living in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. To an uninterested spectator, the work of Paul and his companions would have seemed a very little thing; he would not have discovered its originality and promise; he would hardly have counted, upon its permanence. In reality, it was the greatest and most original thing ever seen in the world. That handful of men and women in Thessalonica was a new phenomenon in history; life had attained to new dimensions in them; it had heights and depths in it, a glory and a gloom, of which the world had never dreamed before; all moral ideas were magnified, as it were, a thousandfold; an intensity of moral life was called into being, an ardent passion for goodness, a spiritual fear and hope, which made them capable of all things. The immediate effects, indeed, were not unmixed; in some minds not only was the centre of gravity shifted, but the balance utterly upset; the future and unseen became so real to them, or were asserted to be so real, that the present and its duties were totally neglected. But with all misapprehensions and moral disorders, there was a new experience; a change so complete and profound that it can only be described as new creation. Possessed by Christian faith, the soul discovered new powers and capacities; it could combine "much affliction" with "joy of the Holy Ghost"; it could believe in inexorable judgment and in infinite mercy; it could see into the depths of death and life; it could endure suffering for Christs sake with brave patience; it had been lost, but had found itself again. The life that had once been low, dull, vile, hopeless, uninteresting, became lofty, vast, intense. Old things had passed away; behold, all things had become new.

The Church is much older now than when this Epistle was written; time has taught her many things; Christian men have learned to compose their minds and to curb their imaginations; we do not lose our heads nowadays, and neglect our common duties, in dreaming on the world to come. Let us say that this is gain; and can we say further that we have lost nothing which goes some way to counterbalance it? Are the new things of the gospel as real to us, and as commanding in their originality, as they were at the first? Do the revelations which are the sum and substance of the gospel message, the warp and woof of apostolic preaching, bulk in our minds as they bulk in this letter? Do they enlarge our thoughts, widen our spiritual horizon, lift to their own high level, and expand to their own scale, our ideas about God and man, life and death, sin and holiness, things visible and invisible? Are we deeply impressed by the coming wrath and by the glory of Christ? Have we entered into the liberty of those whom the revelation of the world to come enabled to emancipate themselves from this? These are the questions that rise in our minds as we try to reproduce the experience of an early Christian church. In those days, everything was of inspiration; now, so much is of routine. The words that thrilled the soul then have become trite and inexpressive; the ideas that gave near life to thought appear worn and commonplace. But that is only because we dwell on the surface of them, and keep their real import at a distance from the mind. Let us accept the apostolic message in all its simplicity and compass; let us believe, and not merely say or imagine we believe, that there is a life beyond death, revealed in the Resurrection, a judgment to come, a wrath of God, a heavenly glory; let us believe in the infinite significance, and in the infinite difference, of right and wrong, of holiness and sin; let us realise the love of Christ, who died for our sins, who calls us to fellowship with God, who is our Deliverer from the coming wrath; let these truths fill, inspire, and dominate our minds, and for us, too, faith in Christ will be a passing from death unto life.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:16 The final prayer echoes Jesus’ blessing in John 14:27 (cp. Num 6:26) and contrasts with the situation these believers faced in Thessalonica (2 Thes 1:4-10; 1 Thes 2:14). Paul was always conscious of the Lord Jesus’ presence with his people (Rom 15:33; Phil 4:9).

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

2Th 3:16. Ὁ Κύριος τῆς εἰρήνης, the Lord of peace) Christ.—τὴν εἰρήνην, peace) with the brethren.—ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ) [“by all means”] in every mode (way) of living, even as to what concerns the doing of work; comp. ch. 2Th 2:3, κατὰ μηδένα τσόπον, by no means. Paul uses παντὶ τρόπῳ without ἐν, Php 1:18.

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

2Th_3:16. The apostle, hastening to a conclusion, annexes a benediction to the exhortation. By ὁ κύριος τῆς εἰρήνης is meant not God, but Christ, and the genitive designates Him as the Creator and Producer of εἰρήνη.

τῆς εἰρήνης and τὴν εἰρήνην] are usually interpreted, either of mutual harmony or of peace of mind (or even, as e.g. by Schott, of both together, external and internal peace). The first-mentioned interpretation is untenable, because there is in the Epistle not the slightest trace of dissensions in the church; and the shift that the fanatical excitement in the church, and the idleness consequent upon it, might lead to external disquiet, and accordingly the wish of the apostle was occasioned with a view to the future, is far-fetched and arbitrary, because Paul prays for what was immediately to occur. There is nothing against the second interpretation, as calmness of mind or peace of soul is undoubtedly indicated by εἰρήνη (Php_4:7). See Meyer and Weiss in loco. Yet it is also admissible to understand εἰρήνη both times (corresponding to the Hebrew שָׁלוֹם; see Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 22 ff.) in the sense of salvation or blessing, and, indeed, on account of the article τῆς and τήν, of the definite,that is to say, the specifically Christian blessing or salvation. This interpretation is also supported by the fact, that as χάρις καὶ εἰρήνη at the commencement of the apostolic Epistles corresponds to the Salutem or εὖ πράττειν of profane writers, so the apostolic benediction at the conclusion of the Epistles is nothing else than the Christian transformation of the usual Valete or ἔῤῥωσθε.

διὰ παντός] always, Rom_11:10; Mat_18:10; Act_2:25.

μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν] accordingly even with the ἀτάκτως περιπατοῦντες.

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.

2Th 3:16 . εἰρήνην , as opposed to these fears and troubles of the church. Κύριος is probably, in accordance with Paul’s usual practice, to be taken as = Jesus Christ, but the language of 2Th 3:5 and of I., 1Th 5:23 , makes the reference to God quite possible.

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

§ 6. 2Th 3:16-18. CONCLUSION OF THE LETTER

This brief but pregnant conclusion consists of prayer (2Th 3:16 a); benediction (2Th 3:16 b); and autograph salutation, with precaution against forgery (2Th 3:17), including a second benediction (2Th 3:18).

16. For τροπῳ A*D*G 17, latt vg, Chr Ambrst, read τοπῳ, after I.2Th 1:8: cf. 1Co 1:2; 2Co 2:14; 1Ti 2:8.

16. Αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ κύριος τῆς εἰρήνης δῴη ὑμῖν τὴν εἰρήνην διὰ παντὸς ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ. But may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace continually in every way. For Αὐτὸς δέ, cf. 2Th 2:16 above—the fourth recurrence of this phrase in the prayers of the two Epistles: from their own attempts to preserve the Church’s peace and to remedy disorder the Apostles turn to the Author and Disposer of peace, invoking this all-comprising blessing from His hand. For εἱρήνη, cf. 1Th 1:1; with ὁ κύριος τῆς εἰρήνης cf. ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρήνης, 1Th 5:23, and note: similarly in 2Th 2:13 the ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ θεοῦ of 1Th 1:4 become the ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ Κυρίου. “The Lord of peace” is surely Christ, as in the whole context (see note on κύριος, 2Th 3:1 above), and regularly with St Paul. The previous context—2Th 3:14 especially—suggests this prayer; the “peace” desired has reference to the Church troubles of the hour. But the supplication is broadened to its widest extent by διὰ παντός κ.τ.λ., including e.g. peace with heathen neighbours and relief from persecution (see 2Th 1:4, 1Th 2:14; 1Th 3:3 f., contrasting 1Th 5:3; Act 9:31); and it comprises beneath all this the “peace with God” which is the basis of Christian happiness (1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:2; Rom 5:1, &c.), whereof Christ is administrator and “Lord”: see Eph 2:13-18, where peace amongst brethren (between Jew and Gentile) centres in Christ and is grounded on the peace between God and man effected by the cross; also Joh 14:27; Joh 20:19; Joh 20:21; Joh 20:26; Rom 15:5 ff., Rom 15:13, illustrates the double reference of εἰρήνη. Cf. Num 6:26, Κύριος … δῴη σοι εἰρήνην,—the high-priest’s blessing upon Israel.

Διὰ παντός, “through all,” is better rendered (as in Luk 24:53, Heb 9:6; Heb 13:15) “continually”—lasting unbroken, despite trouble—than “at all times” (R.V.), which represents πάντοτε (2Th 1:3, &c.). For ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ, cf. 2Th 2:3; also Php 1:18, παντὶ τρόπῳ,—a form of phrase sufficient here but for the foregoing διὰ παντός, suggesting the corresponding ἐν: for such balanced prepositions, cf. 1Th 4:14; Eph 4:6, &c. This phrase impresses on τὴν εἰρήνην the manifold aspect above described.

Nor is it the Lord’s “peace” alone, but “the Lord” Himself, in His personal presence and authority (see Mat 28:18; Mat 28:20), and protection (see 2Th 3:3 above), whom the Apostles invoke: ὁ κύριος μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν, (May) the Lord (be) with you all (cf. Rom 15:33)—as in 2Th 3:18—not excluding the ἀδελφοὶ ἄτακτοι, who even more than others need the control of “the Lord” and the calming effect of His “peace.” In the Benedictions of 1Co 16:24, 2Co 13:13, πάντων has the like pointed significance. See also note on 1Th 5:27.

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.

Prayers are the seals of all exhortations.

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

In this conclusion of the epistle we have the apostle's benediction and prayers for these Thessalonians. Let us desire them for ourselves and our friend. There are three blessings pronounced upon them, or desired for them: -

I. That God would give them peace. Note, 1. Peace is the blessing pronounced or desired. By peace we may understand all manner of prosperity; here it may signify, in particular, peace with God, peace in their own minds and consciences, peace among themselves, and peace with all men. 2. This peace is desired for them always, or in every thing; and he desired they might have all good things at all times. 3. Peace by all means: that, as they enjoyed the means of grace, they might with success use all the means and methods of peace too; for peace is often difficult, as it is always desirable. 4. That God would give them peace, who is the Lord of peace. If we have any peace that is desirable, God must give it, who is the author of peace and lover of concord. We shall neither have peaceable dispositions ourselves nor find men disposed to be at peace with us, unless the God of peace give us both.

II. That the presence of God might be with them: The Lord be with you all. We need nothing more to make us safe and happy, nor can we desire any thing better for ourselves and our friends, than to have God's gracious presence with us and them. This will be a guide and guard in every way that we may go, and our comfort in every condition we may be in. It is the presence of God that makes heaven to be heaven, and this will make this earth to be like heaven. No matter where we are if God be with us, nor who is absent if God be with us, nor who is absent if God be present with us.

III. That the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ might be with them. So this apostle concluded his first epistle to these Thessalonians; and it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we may comfortably hope to have peace with God and enjoy the presence of God, for he has made those nigh that were afar off. It is this grace that is all in all to make us happy. This is what the apostle admired and magnified on all occasions, what he delighted and trusted in; and by this salutation or benediction, written with his own hand, as the token of every epistle (when the rest was written by an amanuensis), he took care lest the churches he wrote to should be imposed on by counterfeit epistles, which he knew would be of dangerous consequence.

Let us be thankful that we have the canon of scripture complete, and by the wonderful and special care of divine Providence preserved pure and uncorrupt through so many successive ages, and not dare to add to it, nor diminish from it. Let us believe the divine original of the sacred scriptures, and conform our faith and practice to this our sufficient and only rule, which is able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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

Lord of peace--Jesus Christ. The same title is given to Him as to the Father, "the GOD of peace" (Rom 15:33; Rom 16:20; Co2 13:11). An appropriate title in the prayer here, where the harmony of the Christian community was liable to interruption from the "disorderly." The Greek article requires the translation, "Give you the peace" which it is "His to give." "Peace" outward and inward, here and hereafter (Rom 14:17).

always--unbroken, not changing with outward circumstances.

by all means--Greek, "in every way." Most of the oldest manuscripts read, "in every place"; thus he prays for their peace in all times ("always") and places.

Lord be with you all--May He bless you not only with peace, but also with His presence (Mat 28:20). Even the disorderly brethren (compare Th2 3:15, "a brother") are included in this prayer.

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 16. The Lord of peace] Jesus Christ, who is called our peace, Eph 2:14; and The Prince of peace, Isa 9:6. May he give you peace, for he is the Fountain and Dispenser of it.

Always] Both in your own consciences, and among yourselves.

By all means.] παντι τροπω. By all means, methods, occasions, instruments, and occurrences; peace or prosperity in every form and shape.

Instead of εν παντι τροπω, in every way, c., εν παντι τοπω, in every place, is the reading of A*D*FG, some others with the Vulgate and Itala. Chrysostom, Ambrosiaster, Augustine, and others, have the same reading: May God grant you prosperity always, and everywhere.

The Lord be with you all.] This is agreeable to the promise of our Lord: Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world; Mt 28:20. May the Lord, who has promised to be always with his true disciples, be with you! Christians are the temple of God, and the temple of God has the Divine presence in it. May you ever continue to be his Church, that the Lord God may dwell among you!

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

16 Now the Lord of peace. This prayer seems to be connected with the preceding sentence, with the view of recommending endeavors after concord and mildness. He had forbidden them to treat even the contumacious as enemies, but rather with a view to their being brought back to a sound mind by brotherly admonitions. He could appropriately, after this, subjoin an injunction as to the cultivation of peace; but as this is a work that is truly Divine, he betakes himself to prayer, which, nevertheless, has also the force of a precept. At the same time, he may also have another thing in view — that God may restrain unruly persons, that they may not disturb the peace of the Church.

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.

(16) Now.—Rather, And, or But. The prayer is joined to the exhortations, as in 2Th_2:16 and elsewhere, and of course bears upon the subject of them.

The Lord of peace.—We had “the God of peace” at the close of the last Epistle (1Th_5:23, where see the Note). The “peace” prayed for here has perhaps a more immediate reference to external matters than in the parallel passage. St. Chrysostom suggests the danger of quarrels breaking out owing to the administration of the prescribed discipline. And the conduct of these restless busybodies was in itself destructive of peace, both for their own souls and for the community. But the words “by all means,” or, more literally, in every shape and form, show that the Apostle is extending his glance over all the subjects mentioned in the Epistle now finished: “Peace all throughout in every form,” through all persecutions and from all persecutions; through the terrors of the reign of Antichrist and through the Judgment Day; peace among themselves, in their own hearts, with God.

The Lord be with you all.—Another way of expressing the prayer for peace; for where He enters He says, “Peace be unto you.” The word “all” is strongly emphasised, catching up the “always” and “in all forms.” St. Paul has spoken with strong censure of some; but he wishes to show that he bears no ill-will to any; and to leave off by blessing all, as he began by giving thanks for all (2Th_1:3).

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

Now the Lord of peace himself,.... The Prince of peace, who is peaceable himself, and the author of peace in all his churches, and who requires peace, calls for it, and encourages it:

give you peace always by all means; both a conscience peace, through the blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, and faith in them, which passes all understanding, and which, when he gives, none can take away; and a church peace, being freed from all such disorderly persons and their abettors, the disturbers of it: and indeed, the way to have true peace and prosperity in churches is to keep up the discipline of God's house. The apostle prays for it in faith, upon an observance of the rules he had given; he prays for constant and perpetual peace, which is greatly to be desired; and that it might be had by all means, and in every way through praying, preaching, administering the ordinances, laying on censures, when necessary, and Christian conversation. Some copies, and the Vulgate Latin version, read "in every place"; as well as at Thessalonica.

The Lord be with you all; by his presence, to comfort and refresh; by his power, to keep and preserve; by his grace, to assist; and by his Spirit, to counsel, advise, and direct.

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

16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.

Ver. 16. Now the Lord, &c.] He begins, continues, and concludes with fervent prayer. All our sacrifices should be salted with salt, perfumed with this incense of prayer, Col 3:17.

The Lord be with you all] Thus he poureth out his affection, by prayer upon prayer for them. A sweet closing up!

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.

Now the Lord of peace - The Lord who alone can impart peace; see the Rom 15:33 note; 1Co 14:33 note; Heb 13:20 note; Joh 14:27 note.

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

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace: the apostle is now taking his leave, and closing up his Epistle; and this he doth with prayer; and what he prays for is peace: and though the word peace hath various acceptations, and is of comprehensive signification, yet here it is to understood of brotherly peace and unity. Whether it was occasioned by any dissensions that were actually among them, or his fears of such to arise upon the practice of their duties to the disorderly among them, that he thus prays, is uncertain. And it is that which he much presseth and prays for in his several Epistles to the churches, as being that wherein the honour of the gospel, and their own comfort and edification, were so much concerned. And the person he prays to he styles the Lord of peace, whereby I suppose he means Jesus Christ, who is sometimes called the Prince of Peace, Isa 9:6; as God is called the God of peace, 1Th 5:23. It is he that hath made peace between God and us, between the Jew and Gentile, and it is one of the fruits of his Spirit in the hearts of Christians, Gal 5:22. True Christian peace is the gift of Christ, and therefore the apostle prays the Lord to give it, and saith, the Lord himself, as intimating none but he can give it, and that it is a singular blessing to enjoy it, as we must so interpret the phrase when at any other time we find it, as 1Th 5:23.

Always by all means: he shows both the desirableness and difficulty of peace. It is worth the using all endeavours for it, and without such we shall hardly attain it, as Rom 12:18; If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men; quite contrary to the temper and practice of some men, who will live peaceably with no man: and elsewhere we read of following peace; Heb 12:14, and seeking peace and pursuing it, 1Pe 3:11, and endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, Eph 4:3. And the apostle prays for it in the text with much earnestness, and that they might enjoy it without interruption, always; that there might be no schism rise up among them at any time. And if we read the next words, in every thing, he prays that their peace might be universal with respect to opinions, words, and actions. And as a final farewell he addeth:

The Lord be with you all; which shows his affection to them all, though he had reproved sharply the disorders that some were guilty of. And a greater thing he could not desire for them, it comprehends all blessings in it, and the very blessedness of heaven itself; as a usual farewell word, Adieu, is a recommending a person to God.

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

Now the Lord of peace himself. In 1Th_5:23 it is "the God of peace" who is invoked: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly." Here it is Christ who is named as "the Lord of peace." He is the Lord of peace, as the Author, the Procurer, the Mediator of peace. Pease is here to be taken in its widest sense peace with God, complete salvation. Give you peace always by all means. Some manuscripts read "in every place," but the reading in our version is best attested by all means;" "at all times and in every way;" whether it be outward or inward, for time or for eternity. The apostle could desire no higher blessing for his converts. The Lord be with you all.

A prayer for peace.

the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way.

I THE AUTHOR OF THIS BLESSING. "The Lord of peace himself Jesus Christ.

1. He is our abiding Peace. (Eph_2:14)

2. He gives it as his legacy to the Church. (Joh_14:27)

3. He guides into the way of peace. (Luk_1:79)

4. He is the Prince of peace. (Isa_9:6)

5. Peace is preached by him. (Eph_2:17; Act_10:36)

II THE PEACE IN QUESTION INCLUDES:

1. Reconciliation, with God.

2. Peace with one another.

3. Peace in all the relations of life.

4. Peace in the midst of speculative disturbances.

5. Peace in the midst of persecutions.

6. Peace in the prospect of death.

III IT WAS A PRAYER FOR A CONTINUOUS PEACE. "Always." It was to be as uninterrupted as a river, (Isa_48:18) with no breaks made in it by the world, the flesh, or the devil. None but the Lord of peace could sustain such a peace in power.

IV IT IS PEACE TO BE ACQUIRED IN EVERY WAY BY PRAYING, BY PREACHING, BY CONVERSATION.

V THE PENDANT TO THIS HAPPY PRAYER. "The Lord be with you all." A comprehensive benediction upon the disorderly as well as the orderly brethren of Thessalonica. "Be with you all his presence to comfort and refresh; by his power to keep and preserve; by his grace to assist; and by his Spirit to counsel, advise, and direct. T.C.

Vers. 16-18.

Conclusion.

I THE CLOSING PRAYER FOR PEACE.

1. Only the Lord can give it. Again we have the solemn aujtov, himself. He is the Lord of peace; it is his: "My peace I give unto you." He only can grant that chiefest blessing. The Thessalonians might have their difficulties, their dangers; they might be weary. But it is the weary and the heavy laden whom the Lord calls to himself. "Come unto me," he says, "and I will give you rest." Only we must take up his yoke, the yoke of obedience; only we must bear his burden, the burden of the cross; and we shall find peace, rest

2. for our souls. For his yoke is easy. It seems not so at first; we are tempted often to be disorderly, to forsake the quiet path of duty; it is hard to resist temptation. But if we come to Christ and learn of him, the blessed Master, he will teach us the grace ant blessedness of obedience, and we shall gradually learn something of his own lesson to do our Father"s will as it is done in heaven, gladly and with cheerful submission. His burden is light. It seems not so at first; the cross is sharp. But he bore the cross once for us; he bears it with us now. When he strengthens us we can do all things; the heavy burden becomes light when we rest on his strength. He is the Lord of peace. Peace is his to give; he will give it to the chosen.

3. He can give it always. At all times and in all ways we need the peace of God. We want it in the Church, in the commonwealth, in the family; we want it all the day and every day. We shall have it if he is with us, for with his presence comes the gift of peace. "The Lord be with you." It is a precious benediction. We listen, we accept it in humble thankfulness. We must strive ourselves to keep ourselves in the love of God, to realize the deep truth of his presence, to draw daily nearer and nearer to him.

II ST. PAUL"S OWN SALUTATION.

1. His autograph. He writes the concluding words with his own hand. His Epistles were sacred writings; they were the work of an inspired apostle; they had the stamp of Divine authority. St. Paul marks their importance by his closing words. He did not, perhaps he could not, write the whole; he writes his signature at the last. In his own handwriting, perhaps, as some have thought, large and clumsy (comp., Gal_6:11 in the Greek) but known and loved by his converts, he sends his last word of love; he salutes, he greets them with the embrace of Christian charity.

2. His fast benediction. As always, he ends with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He had prayed in his first Epistle that it might rest upon them. Now he adds the significant word "all." He had been obliged to blame some of them, to blame them severely; but he will not end his Epistle with words of censure. He prays that grace may be with them all. He loves them all; he longs for the restoration of those who were living disorderly, for the continual progress and sanctification of the whole Church. And so he prays for grace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ can convert the erring; that same grace can comfort and confirm the faithful. St. Paul closes all his Epistles with a prayer for grace. The grace of God should be always in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our prayers for ourselves and others.

LESSONS.

1. Only God can give true and lasting peace; seek it of him; he giveth to allmen liberally.

2. We need it always, everywhere; then pray always, everywhere.

3. By grace ye are saved; refer everything to the grace of God; trust only inthat grace, not in works of righteousness which we have done. B.C.C.

Vers. 16-18.

Concluding words.

I SALUTATION.

1. Invocation of peace.

(1) From whom peace is invoked. "Now the Lord of peace himself." We are to rise above what we can do for others to the Lord of peace himself. He has purchased peace for us by his death. "He is our Peace;" "The chastisement of our peace was upon him." He is, therefore, the sovereign Dispenser of the blessing of peace in the Churches. Peace was the legacy he left to his believing people in the world. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." When, after his resurrection, he appeared to his disciples, he hailed them with the salutation of peace. "As they thus spake," we are told, "Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you;" and yet again, on the same occasion, he said, "Peace be unto you." We wish, then, for all in whom we are interested, that our ascended Lord would bestow peace upon them, even as he bestowed peace upon the disciples before he ascended.

(2) The peace invoked. "Give you peace." "Peace be with you," is a sentiment which we should have in our hearts, and often on our lips, especially in parting with our friends, as Paul here in his letter parts with the Thessalonians. They leave us for a time, but not without our sincere wishes for their peace. Now, what is the peace that we wish especially for those that we are interested in? To be clear with God. There is no greater evil than to be in a state of unreconciledness to God. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." They have sometimes a peace, a want of such dispeace as might be expected, but only by blinking the facts of their case. They do not thus get quit of their sins, any more than men can get out of debt by pertinaciously refusing to look into their accounts. Their state remains unaltered. Their sins will find them out, it may be in this life. Certainly, when earthly things cannot longer preoccupy them, and in the presence of eternal realities they are thrown back upon themselves, then will conscience fill them with dispeace. For persons who are insensible to their actual condition as sinners we can only wish dispeace. "Let sinners in Zion be afraid, let fearfulness surprise the hypocrites." What we wish for our friends is a peace that corresponds to facts. We wish them to be in a state of reconciliation, and to be conscious of that. We wish them to be so that they can inquire most narrowly into their state, and honestly come to the conclusion that they have an interest in Christ, while repeated self-examination can only result in the discovery of something more in their character that needs to be removed. To have a feeling of repose in God. We are such beings that our peace is only to be found in dependence, in leaning. We are apt to seek a resting place in the creature; but, alas, all that is beneath the highest fails us, and we are driven from one resting place to another, like the dove that could find no rest on the unstable waters. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." True peace is only to be found in him from whom our being has come and to whom it tends, in leaning our weakness on his strength, our ignorance on his wisdom, our sinfulness on his grace. This is a rest out of which we cannot be driven, which makes us independent of the creature, which cures our restlessness of spirit. And as this is what we so much wish for ourselves, so we wish it for our friends.

To have a feeling of satisfaction in being employed as God wants them to be employed. It is essential to our peace that our faculties should be truly and healthily employed. "Great peace have they who love thy Law." And what we wish for our friends is that, in some worthy way, they should work out the plan of their life given them by God. To have peace from without. It is said that, when a man"s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. And that is often strikingly fulfilled. But it is not what every one can enjoy. Even Christ had his enemies, who gave no cause of offence to any. And we cannot calculate on escaping, who fail so much in our social duties. But still we wish this outward peace for our friends so far as it may please God. Let them be delivered from unreasonable and evil men. "Let no root of bitterness springing up trouble them." May causes of annoyance, elements of discord, be removed from families and from Churches!

(3) Time for which peace is invoked. "At all times." That would not be a good wish which was limited to a certain time, and was not made to extend over a longer period. If we wish peace at all, we will not wish it merely for a day, or for a month, or for a year, but for all time. Let them not by carelessness lose their evidences. Let not the coming years bring discord into their hearts or into their circle. The Lord give them peace in the season of affliction. The Lord especially give them peace in their dying hour. The Lord give them peace when they enter upon a new and solemn scene. May peace abide with them forever.

(4) Ways in which peace is invoked. "In all ways." The Lord of peace knows best how to see to the peace of our friends; with him, therefore, the ways may be left. The Lord use us, if we are his way of promoting their peace. The Lord work even against them in his providence, if that is necessary to their being ejected from their false confidences. The Lord especially, increase their faith, that their peace may flow as a river, broadening and deepening, until it loses itself in the ocean of eternity.

2. Invocation of the Lords presence. "The Lord be with you all." This is a brief but comprehensive form of salutation. The Lord be with our friends, wherever their lot is cast. The Lord go with them where they go, and dwell with them where they dwell. The Lord be with them in their going out and in their coming in. The Lord be with them in their basket and in their store. The Lord especially be with them in the great work of their life.

II REMARK REGARDING THE HANDWRITING OF THE SALUTATION. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hard, which is the token in every Epistle: so I write." Paul, here dissociating himself from Silas and Timothy as joint writers, singles out himself by name. It is he who has given turn and form to the thought throughout. It is he who preeminently had the care of the Gentile Churches. At the close of 1 Corinthians, and also at the close of Colossians, there is the same language as here. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand." In those places there is no salutation preceding; we require, therefore, mentally to supply a salutation. Here, where there is a salutation preceding, we are supplied with what the salutation is. We are to think of the weak-eyed Paul as seated in his room in the city of Corinth, and dictating the letter to the amanuensis beside him. While he had anything on his mind to say to these Thessalonians in the way of commendation, or direction, or advice, the amanuensis continued to write. But, having fully unburdened his mind, he took the roll of parchment into his own hand, and, in his own handwriting, put down these words: "Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways. The Lord be with you all." Still continuing to write, he adds the explanatory note: "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand." In his explanation he includes his reason for giving his own handwriting: "Which is the token in every Epistle: so I write" (i.e. in these characters). A forged epistle in his name had been circulated in Thessalonica; to prevent such imposition in future, he gives them, in the few words in his own handwriting, a token or seal by which to assure themselves of the genuineness of his letters. Let them accept of no letter which did not carry with it the evidence of its genuineness.

III BENEDICTION. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." This is the short form which is found in the First Epistle, with the thoughtful addition of "all." There were some persons in the Thessalonian Church who had come under his censure. As in the sixteenth verse he has included them in his salutation ("with you all"), so now he includes them in his benediction. He leaves the Thessalonians for the time, with no grudge in his heart against any, but with the catholic desire that they should all be dealt with, not according to their own demerit, but according to the merit of their Saviour, of which he is sovereign Imputer. R.F.

Peace from the God of peace.

After giving directions about the small trouble that disturbed the Thessalonian Christians small indeed when compared with the bitter factiousness and the graver sin that subsequently disturbed the Church at Corinth St. Paul prays that peace may reign among them and that the Lord may be with all of them, with the erring in their restoration as well as with the faithful brethren. The peace which he desiderates so earnestly is clearly more than mutual concord; it is that deep peace of God in the heart which is at the root of peace among men, and is itself the greatest of blessings.

I PERFECT CHRISTIAN PEACE IS UNIVERSAL. What most strikes us in regard to the peace here referred to is the universality of its scope and area.

1. Perfect Christian peace is continuous and unbroken. It is to be enjoyed "at all times." In closing the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, St. Paul wished his readers to "rejoice alway". (1Th_5:17) Now he

2. prays that they may have continuous peace. If we cannot have the joy of the angels we may have the peace of God, which is better. As there are some who have happiness without peace, so there are others who have peace without happiness. There is a transient superficial calm which the world calls peace; but volcanoes slumber beneath, and in a moment it may be shattered as with an earthquake. There is no peace in the wicked. There is an eternal peace for the people of God.

3. Perfect Christian peace comes through various means. St. Paul adds the curious phrase, "in all ways." It is not only that peace may be enjoyed continuously in spite of changing and adverse circumstances, but those very circumstances, even the most unfriendly of them, are to minister to the peace. This may appear paradoxical, but in experience we find that the troubles and distractions which would upset all peace if we only had the surface peace of earth drive us nearer to God, and so help us to realize more perfectly the eternal peace of heaven.

II PERFECT CHRISTIAN PEACE FLOWS FROM CHRIST. It is not to be got by any efforts of our own wills. We cannot pacify ourselves any more than the sea can calm the raging of its own wild waves. He who said, "Peace, be still!" to the storm on the lake is the only One who can quell the tempests that surge in human hearts. Christ infuses his own peace because he is the Lord of peace.

1. He is at peace in his own soul. Peace is contagious. The peaceful gives peace. We may often see how much one quiet, self-possessed man can do to allay the panic of a whole crowd. My peace I give unto you," said Jesus. (Joh_14:27)

1. He reigns in peace. Christ does not provoke enmity and warfare except against evil. Among his own people he reigns pacifically.

2. He directly bestows peace. St. Paul"s wish is a prayer. We pray that Christ may breathe his peace into us by a direct inspiration. This richest, deepest, purest blessing is for those who dwell near to their Lord and drink of his Spirit. W.F.A.

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

The Lord of peace - Christ. Give you peace by all means - In every way and manner.

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

Concluding benediction and salutation:

v. 16. Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all me an s. The Lord be with you all.

v. 17. The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle; so I write.

v. 18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

This closing prayer is the fourth solemn wish of the apostle in this letter. He desires that the Lord of peace, Jesus Christ, the Prince and Dispenser of peace, Isa 9:5-6; Joh 14:27; Joh 20:19, may grant to all his readers the true peace always, no matter what may happen, no matter in what circumstance they may find themselves. The believer, being assured of perfect reconciliation through the blood of Jesus, knows that he is the possessor of the peace with God, that he has perfect life and salvation. The enmity between God and man having been removed through the redemption of Christ, the believer no longer fears God with the constant dread of a sinner under sentence of everlasting punishment: he knows, rather, that God is with him, as the benediction of Paul here states, with the fullness of His mercy and goodness.

The close of the letter is very brief. Paul affixes his salutation with his own hand, the rest of the letter having been written at his dictation. This signature by the hand of Paul was added to authenticate the letter, and he indicates that he wanted to make this a rule for the future. His readers could therefore readily distinguish between true and spurious letters. His final salutation is: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all! He expressly mentions all his readers; he wants none excluded from this glorious blessing of the full and free grace of the Savior. It was earned and prepared for all men; would that they all accepted the gracious offering and be blessed throughout eternity!

Summary

The apostle commends himself to the intercession of his readers, addressed to the faithful Lord; he warns them against disorderly conduct, reminding them of his own good example; he urges church discipline in the right spirit; he closes with the apostolic salutation.

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

Our apostle being now to take his leave of the Thessalonians, closes his epistle with prayer.

Where note, 1. The mercy prayed for, peace; peace with God, peace with conscience, peace and unity among themselves as Christians, peace with the men of the world, strangers, yea, enemies to Christianity.

Note, 2. The person prayed to, The Lord of peace; understand Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, the purchaser of peace, the procurer of peace, the preserver of peace.

Note, 3. The perpetuity of the mercy prayed for, The Lord give you peace, not for a short time, but for continuance, always, that is, at all times, and in all places, and with all persons.

Note, 4. The way and manner of obtaining this and all other blessings, it must be in the use of means: The Lord give you peace by all means, that is, in the use of all lawful and laudable means.

Learn hence, 1. That the Lord himself is the author, procurer, and preserver of all that peace which his people enjoy; and therefore his people may boldly trust him for peace and safety, who is, and will be styled, The Lord of peace.

Learn, 2. That such as will obtain this blessing of peace, must pray for it, and endeavour after it in a diligent use of all lawful means, which is the usual way and method in which God dispenses it.

Learn, 3. That it is a lasting peace. a peace always, amongst all persons, and at all times, that a Christian should pray for and endeavour after, that it may be enjoyed without cessation, and without interruption; The Lord of peace himself give you peace always, by all means.

Observe here, 1. That in the former part of the verse he had prayed for peace on behalf of these Thessalonians, and this prayer was put up to Jesus Christ: the Lord of peace, give you peace; which, by the way, is a strong argument for the divinity of Christ, for none but God is to be prayed to, none but God can give peace, I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace. Isa 57:19

Our apostle now having prayed for peace, next prays for the presence of God: The Lord give you peace, the Lord be with you all.

Learn hence, That God’s gracious presence with his people in any plentiful measure, is annexed to their peacable frame of spirit, and to their serious endeavours after peace and love, after unity and concord, among themselves: and the contrary spirit and temper grieves the good spirit of God, and provokes him to withdraw his quickening and comforting presence from his people; for these two petitions seem to have mutual dependency upon each other. The Lord give you peace, and the Lord be with you all.

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

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in all ways . [Peace outward and inward, for time and for eternity.] The Lord be with you all .

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.

16. The Lord of peace. Christ, who bestows peace upon all who walk in him.

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.

General Information:

Paul makes closing remarks to the believers at Thessalonica.

May the Lord of peace himself give you

You can make explicit that this is Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians. AT: "I pray that the Lord of peace himself gives you" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the Lord of peace himself

Here "himself" emphasizes that the Lord will personally give peace to believers. (See: Reflexive Pronouns)

This is my greeting, Paul, with my own hand, which is the sign in every letter

"I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, which I do in every letter, as a sign that this letter is truly from me"

This is how I write

Paul makes it clear that this letter is from him and is not a forgery.

translationWords

lord

peace

Paul

sign

grace

Jesus

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

16.] Concluding wish. On αὐτὸς δέ, see on ch. 2:16.

ὁ κύριος τῆς εἰρήνης] As the Apostle constantly uses ὁ θεὸς τῆς εἰρ. for the God of Peace (see Rom 15:33; Rom 16:20:2Co 13:11, al.), we here must understand our Lord Jesus Christ.

ἡ εἰρήνη must not be understood only of peace with one another: for there has been no special mention of mutual disagreement in this Epistle: but of peace in general, outward and inward, here and hereafter, as in Rom 14:17. See Fritz, on Romans, vol. i, p. 22.

The stress is on ὑμῖν—May the Lord of Peace give you (that) Peace always in every way (whether it be outward or inward, for time or for eternity).

μετὰ πάντων ὑ.] therefore with the ἀτάκτως περιπατοῦντες also (Lün.): not as Jowett, pleonastic. The man who was to be admonished as an ἀδελφός, would hardly be excluded from the Apostle’s parting blessing.

17,

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

16. αὐτὸς δέ κτλ The prayer for peace addressed to Christ, the Lord of peace, is prompted by the situation which the command (vv. 6-15) is designed to meet. The command alone, however, without the assistance of the indwelling Christ, will not suffice to restore harmony within the brotherhood; hence, to insure this concord, the Lord of peace himself must give them a sense of inward religious peace, and that too continually, in every circumstance of life. In the added prayer: “May the Lord ( = Christ) be (sc. ἔστ or εἴ) with you all,” the πάντω may be intentional (cf. I 5:26, II 1:3, 10, 3:18; but note also Rom 15:33); both the majority and the idlers need the personal presence as well as the peace of Christ as a surety for harmony and concord within the brotherhood.

A similar situation evokes a similar prayer to the God of peace in I 5:23-24, following the exhortations of 4:1-5:22. On εἰρήν, see I 1:1 and 5:23; on κύριο = Christ, see 2:13. GFL, et al., read θεό conforming to Paul’s regular usage (see on I 5:23). On δώῃ, cf. Rom 15:5 and the note of SH; on διδόναι εἰήνη, cf. Num 6:26, Isa 26:12.—διὰ παντό occurs elsewhere in Paul only Rom 11:10 = Psa 68:24; it is equivalent to άδιαλείπτως, ἀεί,πάντοτε, ἐν παντἰ καιρῷ (cf. the parallelism in Psa 33:2); see on I 5:16 ff.—ἐν παντὶ τρόπῳ (אBEKLP, et al.) is used elsewhere in Gk. Bib. only 3 Mac. 7:8 (A); cf. παντὶ πρόπῳ (Php 1:18, Php 1:1 Mac. 14:35) and κατὰ πἀντα τρόπο (Rom 3:2, Num 18:7). As Ven. in 3 Mac. 7:8, so ADGF, the Latins, Chrys. and Ambst, here have the more common expression ἐν παντὶτόπῳ (I 1:8).

VIII. SALUTATION (3:17)

The greeting by the hand of me Paul; this fact is a taken of genuineness in every letter; this is the way I write.

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

The Lord of peace [ο κυριος της ειρηνης] . The only instance of the formula.

By all means [εν παντι τροπω] , or in every way. The alternative reading topw place is rejected by the principal texts.

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