Paul concluded this letter with an exhortation, a salutation, and a benediction. He intended each of these to draw the emphases of this epistle together to impress on his readers the basis and importance of their unity with one another and with himself.
13:11 Obedience to five commands would result in one condition that Paul wanted his readers to express in a particular practice.
1. They were to rejoice, probably because they had the opportunity to judge themselves before God would judge them (cf. 1 Cor. 11:31). What is more important they could and should rejoice in the Lord.
2. They were to mend their ways (RSV) and thus experience completion or restoration as God would bring them to maturity (cf. v. 9). They needed to break permanently with all idolatry (6:14-7:1), to complete their collection (chs. 8-9), and to change their attitude toward Paul (chs. 10-13).
3. They were to accept Paul's exhortation that would result in their comfort (cf. 1:3-10).
4. They were to foster a united outlook by putting first things first (cf. v. 8). Specifically they needed to unite in their attitude to Paul and his authority.
5. They were to live at peace with one another and with Paul.
These conditions being met the God who manifests love and peace as the fruit of His Spirit would remain in fellowship with them. They should emulate God and cultivate love and peace toward one another and toward the apostle.
"It is not by sitting with folded hands that we enter into the blessings of God, but by actively and purposefully promoting those dispositions which are in accordance with God's will for His people: rejoicing, harmony, unity in the truth, living together in peace. It is true that we look to God alone to supply the grace for their achievement; but it is the actual daily practice of love and peace that ensures, from the human side, the realization of the promise that the God of love and peace will be with us."294
13:12 They could then exchange the holy kiss sincerely. The believers practiced this custom commonly. It symbolized the forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, and fellowship that existed between the people who kissed each other. Until unity prevailed in the church this kiss was hypocritical.
The love of the body of Christ elsewhere reached out to enfold the Corinthians in unity. Perhaps Paul meant "all the saints"with him where he was in Macedonia when he wrote this epistle.
"Like the holy kiss,' this epistolary greeting was an expression of unity within the one body of Christ."295
This so-called "Trinitarian benediction"is one of the most widely quoted verses in the Pauline corpus. In each of the three phrases the genative is subjective (i.e., the grace that comes from Jesus Christ, etc.).
Paul wished that God's grace demonstrated in the work of Jesus Christ on Calvary might be the atmosphere in which all his readers lived their lives. Appreciation for that grace banishes self-assertiveness and self-seeking. He hoped that God's love demonstrated in the Father's work in sending Jesus Christ as our Savior might be the motivation for their lives. Thankfulness for His love subdues jealousy and strife. He longed that the fellowship that God's Spirit produces among all the saved might unite their lives in fellowship with one another and with all believers. Gratefulness for that fellowship minimizes quarreling and factions.
Note the centrality of Jesus Christ's cross work in Paul's arrangement of these prayerful wishes. Note, too, the clear testimony to the Trinity that this verse provides. It is in the grace of Jesus Christ displayed in His substitute sacrifice (8:9) that we see God's love (Rom. 5:8), which the Spirit uses to produce fellowship (Eph. 4:3).
"Although we can only speculate, it appears that this letter, like the Severe Letter,' brought a change of heart, for the following reasons: (1) Paul spent three months there soon afterward upon his arrival (Acts 20:2-3), (2) the Achaians participated in the collection (so Rom 15:26, despite the absence of named persons in Acts 20:4), and (3) the Letter to the Romans, which was probably written from Corinth soon after his arrival, has little of the anguish and heat evident in 2 Corinthians."296
