SIGNING OFF

The last chapters of many of Paul’s letters are interesting reading.

They often include lists of people and individual greetings for believers in various households and church groups. In this way, they give us insights into the personal relationships that Paul had with the leaders and members of these diverse church groups.

He would often set out his plans for further travel and give details of who was with him, as well as brief reports and reminiscences. But Paul’s closing remarks, blessings, and greetings also included some of his pithiest instructions, reflecting his desire for the believers he was addressing to live and love well. The combination of commands at the end of his first letter to the Corinthians is a good example of his seemingly hurried enthusiasm to get in just a few more words of encouragement as he prepared to sign off this letter.

It feels like Paul was trying to drive home a point, like the repeated blows of a hammer, saying almost the same thing in a variety of punchy statements.

He could have been reciting his own motto for life and mission: “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” In Paul’s experience, faith was a call to action, a blueprint for bold living and loud proclamation. This was what he wanted for those he had brought to faith, and it was what he knew they needed in order to be able to sustain their faith amid the culture and context in which they lived. But this bold and fearless faith was not to be cold or unfeeling. Their faithfulness was to be both motivated and transformed by love.

As Paul described it in chapter 13 of this letter, love has strength and endurance, but there is also a necessary tempering that comes with doing “everything in love.”