Commentary on 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

The greetings at the very end of Paul’s letters are not usually where our attention focuses, but the seemingly miscellaneous collection of sentiments expressed at the conclusion of 2 Corinthians has powerfully shaped Christian worship down through the centuries. Yet what appears miscellaneous turns out to be much less so.

The blessing of 13:13, now habitually used as a fitting way to send congregations out at the completion of worship to be God’s people in the world, speaks powerfully of how believers experience God and salvation. And in various, admittedly unsystematic ways, the preceding instructions for how Paul’s readers are to live together in community (13:11–12) reflect this experience of who God is and what God has done to save them.

In 13:13 itself, as Paul deftly sketches different aspects of the experience of God and salvation that he and the Corinthians share, he includes the actions and gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ, of God, and of the Holy Spirit. Even if a fully developed doctrine of the Trinity, and a fully developed trinitarian formula (Father, Son, Spirit), still lies in the future, Paul here unself-consciously speaks of experiencing God in a threefold way. The three are differentiated but in a manner that emphasizes the unity of their saving actions:

• The grace of Christ could be a shorthand way of referring to salvation in general, since grace is characteristic of every part of it. However, that it is followed here by the love of God, which is what Paul says propelled Jesus to die for us “while we were yet still sinners” (Romans 5:8), makes it also possible that it refers more specifically to the underserved favor received by human beings through Christ’s saving death (Romans 5:15).
• This grace is incongruous; in other words, the human beings who receive it do not do so because of any form of worthiness that they possess but only because of divine mercy. It expresses in action the truth that God “loved us from before the foundation of the world and redeemed us solely because He loved us.”¹
• The third phrase, “the communion of the Holy Spirit,” has prompted much discussion as to whether Paul means the communion created by the Holy Spirit and enjoyed among believers or communion with the Holy Spirit. The former seems more likely on grammatical grounds (and keeps the three phrases parallel to each other).
• Yet the debate is in danger of missing a more fundamental point. The communion created by the Spirit—in other words, the life of the church—is the body of Christ. As such, this communion with fellow believers can also never be other than our communion with God (see Romans 8:9–11). The Spirit is the bond that unites those who believe not only with each other but also with God.

That this union exists is key to what comes next, for Paul asks that all three (grace, love, and communion) be present with all the Corinthians. If it is correct that the grace of Christ and the love of God refer especially to their expression in Christ’s saving death, then Paul is speaking of that past event as present now with the Corinthians. Because they are united with their resurrected Lord through the bond of the Spirit, the same grace and love expressed in Christ’s self-giving at the cross are at work now in the life of the church.

The work of the cross is over in the sense that it has been perfectly accomplished, but far from confining it to the past, that completion makes its power an ongoing presence. This presence communicates the forgiveness of sins. It also calls the church to live a common life centered on the subversive phenomenon of a crucified Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection embody that incongruous divine grace that disregards all merely human notions of worth and status (see 1 Corinthians 1:18–31).

The contents of 13:11–12 have preemptively illustrated different aspects of what the life of the church will look like if the grace, love, and communion spoken of in 13:13 are present. In 13:11 Paul offers five imperatives:

• The first literally means “rejoice,” but this became a standard salutation in ancient letters equivalent simply to the English “farewell.” It is translated as such in the main text of New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, but comparison with a similar construction in Philippians 3:1 suggests that Paul is in fact telling the Corinthians to rejoice in what God has done for them in Christ.
• The second instruction literally means “be restored,” or, as the NRSVue has it, “put things in order,” presumably urging the Corinthians to heed Paul’s advice concerning difficulties in the church.
• In the process, they are also to “be encouraged” or “encourage one another.” The NRSVue translation “listen to my appeal” is interpretative, presumably discerning encouragement to be what will result for the Corinthians if they engage in such careful listening to the apostle’s advice.
• As these contrasting translation options suggest, Paul’s second instruction (“put things in order”) and third instruction (“listen to my appeal”) could be mandating something active, or they could be mandating the Corinthians to allow something to happen to them (as in the alternative translations “be restored” or “be encouraged”). It is a mistake to become too focused on the distinction since whatever the Corinthians do will be empowered by the Triune God, and whatever they do when so empowered will further deepen their communion with God. The overcoming of sin means that the old zero-sum game where more of God is less of them and vice versa has been abolished.
• Without any tension, Paul can allow his fourth and fifth instructions to express what are necessary qualities in the life of the community if God is to be present among them. If the Corinthians “agree with one another” (literally, “think the same thing”) and “live in peace,” then the God of love and peace will be with them. The love of God expressed in Christ’s death results in peace with God for those who believe in him (Romans 5:1), and this peace with God structures the life of the community so that peace reigns there also.

Finally, at 13:12, Paul tells the Corinthians to “greet one another with a holy kiss.” They also are here sent greetings through Paul from all the saints. By the mid-second century, a holy kiss like this one became part of the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. It was a kiss of peace, signifying that those sharing it regarded each other as part of the same family. The holiness of the kiss should not be understood merely in a negative sense (in other words, not a lustful kiss) but also as a recognition of what God has done in binding together those who share it as a family set apart by God to embody the good news of Jesus in its common life.

A similar significance lies in the greeting Paul announces from “all the saints” (literally, “all the holy ones”). The Corinthians are not set apart by God by themselves but are also united as a single family with believers in every place. The church is both local and universal.

Notes

1. John Calvin, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians and the Epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, trans. T. A. Smail, ed. D. W. and T. F. Torrance (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 177.