2 Corinthians 13: 14
- Nathan Davies
- May 26, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 4, 2023
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
The first thing that leaps out at me from this short verse is grace, love, and fellowship. These three attributes are present in the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit. Paul is praying that his hearers, and now his readers, would know this too. That we would know grace, love and fellowship.
This is what the Christian experience should be, it should be a relationship with the Trinity. A relationship where we know grace, love and fellowship working together, and drawing us ever closer to God. As such this should be our prayer for ourselves and our fellow believers.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
While not using the word “Trinity”, I think this verse speaks clearly of what C.S. Lewis calls the dance of the Trinity, it points to the Triune Godhead in a way that shows their oneness and their distinct work. We must be careful in our language here, it is difficult to convey this idea when our words, and minds, don’t really allow for it.
In this dance we see grace, love, and belonging working together, connected, and operating in the life of every believer. There is real beauty in this, beauty in the mystery of how this can be. We can, when we consider the work of God in our own lives, over the course of our lives, see this mystery at work. It is possible to see times where through the fellowship of the Spirit we have known the tangible love of God as grace is ministered to us.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
Here we have a summary of what it means to be a Christian. It means accepting the grace of Jesus, a grace that cost the ultimate sacrifice, and provides a way for us to enter the love that the Father has always had for His creation. We do this, not alone, not in isolation, but in real fellowship with one another, a community of believers united by this grace and love and living with the power of the Holy spirit.
This sort of community is only possible when we each realise that we equally need, and have equally received this wonderful grace and love from God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
Fellowship speaks of a relationship. We are invited into a relationship with God, we are drawn into the fellowship of the Trinity. As we engage with this relationship we will more and more see how we are God’s image bearers.
As we read this verse we see the grace of Christ, by which we can receive the love of God. It was this love that poured out grace, and it is this love that draws us into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. This fellowship is something we all can enjoy, through the work of Christ, through His grace, we can all enter this place of fellowship.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
This is for all believers. Paul is closing out his letter to the church in Corinth with this wonderful reminder that grace has come to all who believe. That the love of the Father is there for all, and that the Holy Spirit is available for all. There is no complex list of qualifications here, no caveats, no limitations imposed. Paul’s prayer is that all would know this.
The truth of this still holds today. If we believe in Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, if we believe He is God then this grace, love, and fellowship can be ours too. This short sentence is an incredibly powerful summary of the gospel and what it means to follow Jesus.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
Grace, such a big topic. A topic Paul expands on in many of his letters. As we read these concluding remarks in this letter it is important to pause and reflect on this grace. What is grace, what does Paul mean here, and how does this come to us and impact our lives?
Grace is the very start of our Christian life, it is by grace we are saved, see Ephesians 2: 8. So grace is an act from God toward us that draws us into a relationship with Him. God, in His mercy reached down and lavished grace upon us that we may be saved, set free from sin and death and brought into new life in Him.
Yet, there is more. Paul, in chapter 8 of this letter talks about grace being at work. God can work in and through each of us. His grace to us is something we are to display to others. This is what Paul is commending the Macedonian church for in chapter 8, and what he is calling the Corinthian church too.
When we see the lavish nature of God’s grace that has saved us it is not surprising that we too should be a gracious people, giving freely, serving freely, and putting others first. This is the grace that works through us. This is the natural outworking of the grace of God in the life of a believer. This is what Paul is wanting for every believer, and he sees this as coming to us because of the active and involved love of God and the communion we have with the Holy Spirit.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
The word for love here is agapē, which is the word used most to describe the love between God the Father and Jesus the Son. It is an active love, a love that is involved. It speaks of a real relationship, a relationship of deep connection. This is the love of God that we can, as followers of Jesus, all know. Paul’s closing prayer is that we would all know this love.
As believers we have already experienced this love, it is this love that first drew us to God; 1 John 4: 19 - we love because he first loved us. We can see this love from the point of creation all the way through the Bible, and into our lives. God is fully self sufficient, He does not need us, He chose to create us, chose to love us, and chose to invite us into a relationship with Him. This is love at work from the very beginning.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13: 14
I’ve been reading this, and thinking about it each morning for the past few days. It strikes me that, while we often use this in parting as Paul has done here, it is a fantastic way to start the day. Reading this prayer from Paul, and praying it for my day has been a great way to start my day. It is also a great prayer to pray for others.
I think about my family and friends. I think about exams they are taking, suffering they are going through, joys they are experiencing, and triumphs they have had. In any and all circumstances this prayer fits. I pray for grace, love and fellowship with God. In each stage of life we need all three. In each stage of life we need God.
I encourage you to try praying this prayer at the start of your day, pray it for yourself, and pray it for others. That we would all know the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
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