The following was written for the Hopewell @Home devotionals before I realized that the congregation probably didn't know the tune to TPH563. However, it dovetails nicely with what we've been learning about God the Holy Spirit, so I thought putting it here might be of some use.
Read 2Corinthians 13:11–14
Next week’s Call to Worship, Prayer for Help, and first song all come from 2Corinthians 13:11–14 so that we will see that we are singing God’s thoughts after Him with May the Grace of Christ My Savior.
Rather than jump immediately into the
benediction itself in v14, we start back in v11 where the apostle begins by firing
off five commands. Our English translation says “farewell” for the first one,
which is actually the command, “rejoice!” The closest we have in our (un)common
usage would be if someone said goodbye by saying, “cheers!”
The second command is to be complete. Be
perfect. Be mended/fixed. All those problems that the apostle has addressed in
the two canonical letters (and probably others)? Overcome them. It’s quite a
command. Sometimes, we deludedly think that there are commands of God that we
can more easily obey. The Spirit teaches us to know better: that no commands
can be kept in the flesh, and that all of them shall at last be kept by those
who are in Christ by Spirit-given faith. But here is a command that would be
right up there as the “hardest” if there was such a thing. Be perfect.
The third command, “be of good comfort,” is
that word by which the Lord calls His Spirit “another Helper.” The verb form
can be translated comfort, rebuke, exhort, help, etc. In this context, it means
something along the lines of, “receive everything that you need along the way.”
Another impossible command.
The final two commands are to think the same
and to peace (“live in peace” translates one word that more strongly emphasizes
the peace that he is commanding them to have). It doesn’t just mean peace with
one another but also with God. The two commands taken together mean that they
are to have right attitudes and emotions.
What a series of commands! How can they hope
to obey? The answer echoes 12:9. The God of peace and love will be with them
(v11)!
Therefore, the ultimate greeting of the letter
is the greeting of God Himself. He does command them to greet one another as
saints (v12). The holiness belongs not to a particular style of kissing, but to
the people who are giving one another the kiss of greeting. Their kiss is to
come out of genuine recognition of one another as saints, “holy ones,” who are
treasured for the sake of God having set them apart to Himself. And the other
saints greet them too (v13).
But our fellowship is not just with one
another but with God Himself. And that’s the great greeting with which the letter
concludes. The grace of God is His blessing in place of our curse, His strength
in place of our weakness (cf. 12:9), really it is all that God Himself is to
compensate for and overcome all that we would be in ourselves. It is the grace
of the Father and the grace of the Spirit too; these things cannot be separated
in God. But “all that God is for all that we need Him to be” is especially
associated with the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (v14a). What a benediction this would
be by itself, “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”!
The love of God is the love not only that is
from God, but the love that is in God Himself. As the Person Who eternally
begets the Son, and from Whom (with the Son) the Spirit eternally proceeds, we
might associate this love especially with the Father. And certainly, the naming
of the other two Persons implies this to some extent. But it is probably
significant that the apostle says “the love of God” not “the love of the
Father.” It is especially in the giving of the Son and of the Spirit that the Father
has made known His love to us. Each of the Persons loves us with the love that exists
among the triune Godhead! What a benediction this would be by itself, “the love
of God”!
Finally, and most rarely experienced and
perceived, the Lord commands here the blessing, “the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit.” The Lord Jesus has not left us like orphans (Jn 14:17–18). The Father
and the Son have come and made their home with us (Jn 14:23). And it is
especially in the companionship of the third Person of the Godhead that they
have done so. We have no life in ourselves. We have no love in ourselves. But our
receiving the life of Jesus Christ by grace has happened by the companionship
of the Holy Spirit. And our knowing God as our Abba and the giving of Himself
in His Son has happened by the companionship of the Holy Spirit. The more we
grow in this life of God and this knowledge of the love of God, the more we
realize and rejoice over the Spirit’s companionship with us. Oh how the Spirit
has loved us! And is always with us! And even in us (Jn 14:17)! And
communicates God Himself to us! We ought to love Him and rejoice over Him. What
a benediction this would be by itself, “the communion of the Holy Spirit”!
But we do not have merely one of these
benedictions by themselves, much in the same way that it is impossible to have
any one Person of the Trinity by Himself. We receive a Triune blessing, because
we live in a Triune blessedness from a Triune God!
How can you obey God’s “impossible” commands? How is this sweeter than if
He had just given you power? At the end of worship how does God prompt that
sweetness?
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