2nd Corinthians chapter 13. And I just want to read the last
few verses of this chapter. So actually what we'll do is
we'll read from verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace
shall be with you. Greet one another with an holy
kiss. All the saints salute you. The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. and we can say Amen
to the reading of the Word of God. When I began thinking about
this little passage for today, when I began my preparation on
it, I fully intended to let this be our last sermon or sermonette
in this set of studies in 2nd Corinthians. However, I didn't
get to the final verse. I didn't get to the benediction.
So I'm going to leave that until next time and we will come back
one more time and just touch upon the final remarks of the
apostle in this delightful book. But I was impressed with the
opening verse of our study at this time. This verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort,
be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace
shall be with you. And I felt that there was almost
a sermon in every single phrase of this verse. Not that I planned
to preach a sermon on each one, but just to touch lightly upon
some of these phrases as we go through this verse. This is Paul's
conclusion to his letter, some of which has been really very
sharp in the way in which he has had to deal with some of
the problems in the church at Corinth. Some of his language
has been very uplifting and encouraging and full of blessing for these
people. Some has been quite practical.
Some has been clearly doctrinal. Some has been deeply personal.
and we have seen much of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Apostle Paul's saviour and the saviour of the elect here
amongst the Corinthians shining through in the Apostle's language
and in his correspondence here with this church that was very
close to his heart and yet which had, because of intrusion by
false teachers, somewhat dealt rudely and coldly with the apostle. But as he writes to them, he
bids them farewell. Farewell is what he says, and
I don't know how often we use that word today. I guess most
of us will know what it means. We tend not to say farewell. It's an old English word, and
what it means is, I suppose, what it looks like. May it go
well with you. And it was perhaps used a bit
more often in times past when people were parting. May it go
well with you, or may it be well with you. But coming from the
apostle, this has spiritual as well as providential and practical
implications and meanings. And I don't want to just over-spiritualise
this. We are physical people. We are time-bound people. And it is good for us to wish
well to one another for physical and temporal needs, the temporal
needs of one another, whether that be to do with our jobs,
our finances, our health, our relationships, whatever they
may be. And to have an interest in these
things, in the lives of our brothers and sisters in the Lord, is to
be desired and is to be appreciated. We ought to be sensitive to such
needs in the lives of one another, knowing that we have or will
have or have had such challenges in our own lives. But equally,
we will be wise to remember that what is ultimately for our good
is what is good for our souls. And often people will ask for
prayer when they encounter a hard experience or a difficult event
in their life. And I'm very happy to accept
the validity and the usefulness of that. Again, because we are
physical and we are time-bound and we are earth-bound. That's
the very nature of our makeup. And the Apostle Paul often asked
that the believers would remember him and his ministry for practical
as well as for spiritual needs. And I'm not endeavouring at all
to diminish the importance or demean those practical aspects. But equally, we ought to remember
that we often don't know what really is for our good. And very
often the Lord will bring us through difficult experiences
in order to do more good for us spiritually through that difficult
time. And I would say that when people
apply to us that we might pray for them. It's a good thing for
us to do that and just remember them at their request. Let me
just give you an example. I have had some correspondence
over the last few days with someone who has told me pretty much nothing
about themselves. And yet, for some reason, I don't
know who this person is, they've reached out with a rather anonymous
email address and said, will you pray for me and my family?
and I'm going to take that just as it comes to me and do that,
pray for this person and their family because it may well be
that in some way the Lord is at work in that person's life,
even through the hardships that they are at this moment encountering. And as I say, I don't know who
that is, so there it is. We just have to let that be.
But the prayer has gone forth anyway. Our eternal good Our
spiritual good transcends all our temporal good. And that's
what is worth remembering. And I'm going to just pick out
a few things with regard to that in the way that the Apostle Paul
has written his little note here. I often think about the Apostle
James. James is a character who is I was going to say a puzzle to
me. That's the wrong word. I'm not sure what the right word
is. But I think of him often and how that he was slain, how
that he was taken to glory by Herod's sword so quickly after
the Lord's return to heaven. So that almost it would appear
within a few weeks of the Lord going back to glory, James was
called to enter glory with him. And this is one, it was Peter,
James and John who were the closest disciples to the Lord throughout
his three years ministry. And one would imagine that he
was one of those who was being especially prepared for a lifetime's
work of ministering. the gospel and that apostolic
authority in the church. Peter was and John was, but James
was taken to glory almost immediately. Now, no doubt, many prayed for
James just as they prayed for Peter. And Peter was miraculously
released from prison. Remember, the prison doors opened
and he walked out free and he was led through the streets of
Jerusalem to a home where they were literally in the midst of
praying for him at that time. And I'm sure James was prayed
for just as earnestly as was Peter. And yet when we look at
both of these men, who fared best? Paul says, farewell. Who fared best out of those two
men? And I'm not, this isn't a quiz. This isn't a choice that we've
to make. I just want us to pause and reflect
on that. Let our well wishes for one another
at every point at least be conscious of the well-being of our souls
as well as our bodies and those other things that we ask to have
prayed for, the practical circumstances of our life. Let us wish and
pray for one another that we might enjoy the Lord despite
our present circumstances, whatever they may be, and that we might
each rejoice in the great truths and the doctrines and the accomplishments
of our Saviour on earth, on our behalf, when he lived and died
for us. remembering that there is this
spiritual dimension to this earthly life that we are experiencing. We remember the Saviour's own
words when he said in Mark 8, There's a blessedness in being
able to say that a man or a woman may not have fared well in life, but they fared well in death,
that they lost much in this life, but they gained Christ and everlasting
life, which is, says Paul, far better. And these may well have
been the final words, the last words that the Apostle Paul spoke
to some of these souls in Corinth. And as such, I think they are
very fitting. The Apostle says, be perfect. Be perfect. Our perfection is
in Christ alone. And we should never lose sight
of that. Our well-being in this world,
our comfort, our importance in this world, whatever it is we
have, it hinges not on our bank balance or our practical circumstances,
even our physical health. Our greatest comfort in this
life is having peace with God. So that the Apostle's statement
here, be perfect, isn't an instruction, as if the Apostle is saying that
we've to do things to attain or reach perfection. He is simply
telling us to live in the truth of the revelation that we have
received of being justified and sanctified and purified in Christ. Our righteousness is in Christ
and our peace with God is God's gift of grace and it is sufficient
for all our needs. So let us, brothers and sisters,
live in the light and knowledge of our elevated state. Let our
prayers and desires be to live and to serve and to minister
to the Lord and to one another in accordance with that justified
and holy people that we are. Then he goes on to say, not only
be perfect, but be of good comfort. True comfort comes from our understanding
of our position in Christ. There are many whose lives we
may well say are comfortable in this world, although we know
and appreciate that worldly comforts can quickly pass away. But Paul
looks for good comfort. Be of good comfort. And good
comfort is a durable comfort. It's a comfort that endures and
flows from properly seeing our standing in Christ and rejoicing
in the perfection that we share with him. We shall be eternally
comfortable in heaven. And if we see a right here upon
earth, we shall be comfortable here as well. There's a close
connection between the word protected and the word comforted. And our
comfort is knowing that Christ protects us, that he cares for
us and that he will never leave us. Christ has hedged us in. He has set his love upon us and
he has built a wall of fire around us and between us and our enemies
in order to comfort and to protect us. The Prophet says in Zechariah
2, verse 5, speaking for the Lord, he says, And that's talking
about the Church, of course. So here's the apostle saying,
at one point, be perfect, and next he says, be of good comfort,
both times pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ, I suggest.
And then he says, be of one mind. Robert Hawker says on this point,
one mind, one heart, one desire, one object would mark the church
forever when thus established, the thus being, be perfect and
be of good comfort. So if we recognise that state
of perfection in Christ and the comfort that we have in him,
then it is easier to be of one mind together because our union
as believers is not primarily in our mutual interests. Here we are, we're all getting
together here this evening, and in a sense we do have a mutual
interest. We have a mutual fellowship,
we have a mutual church membership, but our union is not primarily
upon those interests. Our union is in the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. We are members of the body of
Christ. And it is that membership which
leads to all the other manifestations of our union and our being joined
together in one heart, one soul, one mind. We're all connected
one to another. So that when one hurts, we all
hurt. When one grieves, we all grieve. When one rejoices, we all rejoice. Even as believers in free grace,
we've got differences in beliefs, or at least differences in our
interpretations of these beliefs. But Those things might be expected,
we've come from different backgrounds, we've got different experiences,
yet the presence of Christ in us and the knowledge of the love
of Christ for us and a desire for the greatest
good and well-being of one another binds our hearts and our minds
and our souls together so that we have unity in doctrine and
in fellowship and in worship. And that unity is in one Lord,
one faith, one baptism or one salvation. The Apostle says,
live in peace, live in peace with one another. And sometimes
because of sin, men and women fail to do this. That's true
in the world and it's true in the church. And yet living in
peace with God ought to provide us a great example of these divine
attributes after which our own attitudes can be modelled. Patience,
forgiveness, respect, pity, understanding, empathy, love, kindness, generosity
are all attributes of God towards us, though we are sinners and
rebels and wander incessantly away from the paths that the
Lord has given us. So let us endeavour to pursue
to live in peace, both with those who are in the Church, as much
as we are able, and those who are without. Let us seek to emulate
the blessings we have received from the Lord in our dealings
with one another, remembering, as the Lord says in that great
Sermon on the Mount, therefore all things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. And if we
are able to see and understand these farewells that the Apostle
has linked together here, the Apostle says, the God of love
and peace shall be with you. Not the love of God and the peace
of God, but the God of love and the God of peace. It's God himself
who will be with his people as a constant presence. It is Christ
in us. It is the Holy Spirit indwelling
the people of God. And our God is love itself. And he has loved us with an everlasting
love. And Christ has won for us spiritual
and eternal peace. God the Holy Spirit calls us
to that peace. And it is upon the experience
of these blessings that we are eager to pattern our own lives
after the will and example of our Lord. And then just this
little verse which says, greet one another with an holy kiss.
A holy kiss is not a special kind of sanctified kiss, but
it's any warm, genuine and sincere greeting. When we come into this
little room tonight and we said hello to one another, those are
holy kisses. And when we come together to
worship and greet one another, they're holy kisses. Paul's farewell
to these Corinthians was a holy kiss. Now many cultures do kiss
when they meet and Paul is directing that all such greetings be hearty
and sincere and honest and born from love to one another. That's
the meaning of this little phrase. It's the exact opposite of making
anyone feel uncomfortable by inappropriate physical contact. And what makes our greetings
and welcomes holy is that they are bestowed in accordance with
all that has gone before in this be perfect and enjoying the comfort
of the Lord and experiencing the blessings of peace with the
Lord. It is these that, in a desire
to enjoy these blessings together, that we share these holy greetings
one for another. The Apostle says, all the saints
salute you. Now that's not St. Peter and
St. Andrew and St. George and his
dragon. It's not all the saints of Rome.
It's the brothers and sisters in the Lord. It is the brothers
and sisters with whom the Apostle travelled and with whom he worshipped. It's all who are sanctified by
the Holy Spirit and sanctified in Christ. The Apostle had previously
said to the Corinthians, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. That's where the word saint comes
from. and redemption. So the saints
that were greeting the Corinthians here in Paul's letter are those
who are sanctified in Christ, set apart, made one together
in the body of Christ through the preaching of the gospel and
the quickening of the Holy Spirit. and they all sent their greetings
to Corinth, showing the communion of the churches and of individual
believers, the one for another, and it is how we ought to greet
one another also in our dealings with each other, to wish sincerely
and desire sincerely each other's welfare and blessing in the Lord. So may the Lord bless these thoughts
to us this evening and we will pick up on our final verse in
this little book next week. Amen.