The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
Paul ends a long letter of correction, and his last warning is a curse on anyone who does not love the Lord. Then comes this line, and the question is why he leaves a troubled church with grace rather than one more rule.
Grace, Not Judgment, as the Last Word
Paul opens another letter with a curse just as sharp. One writer sets that beside the warning and the blessing here:
William KellyHere he burns with no less fire against anyone who does not love the Lord, and in the light of His coming too, which goes further than putting a person out of the church. But this in no way interferes with his prayer, that not His judgment but His grace might be with you. He also assures them all of his own love in Christ Jesus. So confidence and affection mark this handwritten close, as well as the gravest warning.
The blessing does not cover everyone. Another writer draws the line:
Leslie M. GrantVerse 23 gives them the usual lovely blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." But the verse before it is a solemn warning. That grace does not extend to anyone who "does not love our Lord Jesus Christ." Instead of blessing, he is sure of only one thing: being accursed (anathema) at the coming of the Lord (maran-atha).
The Ground They Stood On
Paul does not leave the Corinthians standing on their own love for Christ. One writer puts it the other way round:
A. PridhamTheir love to Him is only a witness and effect of His own true grace to them. In that grace they stand. Paul now hands them over for safe keeping to the one thing that can sustain them, with a parting word of brotherly affection from himself. His work as an inspired corrector of their ways had kept him at a distance from them until he had said all he had to say. But his heart is still with them as his beloved children in the faith.
What the Phrase Holds
The writers quote an older translation, which reads "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Either way, the grace belongs to a Person, and one writer draws out what that holds for us:
Alfred E. BouterThis is what we all need — the resources that are in the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace… So "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" means this: every kind of grace we need is available in Him.
Paul's Signature
Paul wrote the closing lines by hand. One writer explains what that closing sentence was for:
C. E. StuartThe apostle wanted to prove that his letters were his own, and to keep forged letters from fooling the saints, as people seem to have tried at Thessalonica. So early in his writing ministry he chose a token by which readers could know his true letters: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." He wrote it perhaps with his own hand… and we find this greeting, in its longest form or its shortest, added to all his letters.
So this closing line is more than a polite farewell. It is Paul's own mark on the letter.
Grace for the Road Ahead
This grace is for the whole journey, and it works on a person along the way:
F. B. HoleThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be with us all as we travel on to His coming, through the present scenes of toil and trouble, strife and desert life. It is to rest on our spirits, form our characters, shape our thoughts, enter our hearts, and come into expression in our lives. The whole church of God needs it. Every little gathering of the Lord's people needs it. The saints of God — you and I and all the rest of us — greatly need it. Blessed be God, it rests on us, and is available to us in every conceivable emergency.
Summary
- Warning, then grace. Verse 22 curses; verse 23 blesses. Both come from the same pen. The sternest warning "in no way interferes with his prayer, that not His judgment but His grace might be with you."
- Grace first. Love for Christ is "only a witness and effect of His own true grace" — not the cause of it.
- Grace stored in a Person. Because it is His grace, "every kind of grace we need is available in Him."
- Grace as signature. Paul chose this sentence as his token. In its longest form or its shortest, it closes all his letters.
- Grace for the road. It is to rest on us as we travel toward His coming, "available to us in every conceivable emergency."