“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” II Cor. 13:14
Last week we looked at Aaron’s Benediction from Numbers 6 and then again, Paul’s “blessing” from I Corinthians 16:23…where God’s appointed leaders were bestowing God’s blessing on His people as God’s representatives. Having looked at these benedictions we now have a simple definition for a benediction: the giving of a blessing from God by His assigned representatives… (the God appointed Priest in the Old Testament…ordained pastor’s/ preachers in the New Testament). The word “benediction”, from its Latin origin, literally means “a good word”. It is God’s good word of grace to His church. One Puritan put it this way, “The movement of a benediction is from heaven to earth, whereas the movement of a doxology or a prayer is from earth to heaven.”
You may recognize this benediction as the one I use most every Sunday.
Paul has been dealing with a very unruly bunch of believers who have been renewed through the Work of the Holy Spirit so that now at the end of this letter he can send to them from God such a blessing as this…this benediction…which has historically been called the Apostolic Benediction. This has been seen as the New Testament equivalent of Aaron’s Priestly Benediction from Numbers 6- “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.”
First, as we look at the original language in the II Corinthian passage it is evident that the first word is in such a grammatical form in the Greek that this statement ought to begin with the word “May the grace…” for it is an expression of desire on Paul’s part, given from God, that all the grace referred to in his correspondence and all the grace of Jesus given to all His people would descend upon all of them to whom it was intended, that is, all the believers in that church and all believers throughout the generations in the hearing of this benediction.
The next phrase, “…and the love of God…” is something they and we need to be reminded of all the time. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Paul has this in mind as he has shown God’s love in so many ways toward His own, not the least of which in sending His Son to the Cross on behalf of His people. Throughout Scripture “the love of God” always points to an active love on God’s point toward His own…in the pardon freely given, in the salvation freely granted through Christ Jesus alone, to the on-going comfort through the Spirt, His Word and His people… and even the on-going sanctification which leads to peace and joy in this life and the next. So Paul is saying may all the blessings which are the fruit of this love be with them and be with us.
The last phrase says, “…and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit…” or maybe more accurately… “and the communion of the Holy Spirit.” This word “communion” speaks of our being united in Him and holding all things of God in common…which is what communion of the saints also communicates among believers. It is what our “fellowship” should display as well as what binds us together. So, Paul calls down this from God so that God’s people would be blessed by our relationship with the Spirit…which would enable them and us to carry out the will of God in our life and ministry.
Paul places this blessing upon them and us to remind us of the Godhead’s blessing that is upon us so that when we are in battle with Satan, with the world, or with ourselves that we can hear “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. The blessing,to all the saints throughout time, is that this Trinitarian blessing is IN FACT upon all His people to do the will of our Father so that we might bring Him glory and enjoy Him forever.
God Bless y’all today.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
