Catch my quick word every Tuesday morning on New Zealand's Rhema.
When I was around eight or nine a friend and I used to write letters back and forth. It didn’t matter that we saw each other every week – after all it wasn’t really the content that thrilled us but the medium – we created elaborate code for the alphabet and were in love with the ‘p.s.’ section. We’d save most of the letter for that section really, extending out to ‘p.p.p.p.p.s’ with tiny titbits of wisdom we wanted to share.
The end of 2 Corinthians reads like a series of Paul’s p.s’s to the church. Interesting, years after my childhood letter writing I was to learn that in corporate communication the ‘p.s’ is the second most read part of a letter and that’s why companies almost always include it. Perhaps Paul was ahead of his time!
Verses 11 to 13 are a great summary of how to live with one another. We read:
“Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet each other with Christian love. 13 All of God’s people here send you their greetings.”
Live with joy. Harmony. Peace. Greeting each other with real love and intimacy. Encourage one another says Paul. And then comes perhaps the most quoted words in the Bible – “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
I love the nod to the trinity given here, centuries before the theological concept. And theologicians have pointed out to the importance of the order of this blessing – it is through grace we come to God, to experience his awesome love and then to live as Christian brothers and sisters, united by the Spirit. I raise this blessing for you today.
