2 CORINTHIANS

These letters of Paul, brethren and sisters, are excellent models of epistolary intercourse. I do not think we can ever do better in writing or speaking than to be practically followers of Paul as he was a follower of Christ. How excellent a beginning he makes of this second letter to the Corinthians. After stating who the the letter is from and to whom it is addressed, he salutes the latter thus:—

"Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."

There is great sweetness about that salutation. It is not an empty form of words; it is a genuine wish on the part of Paul, that grace or favour might rest on those to whom he was writing, and that peace might remain with them; peace from two sources which are yet one: God the Father, the Creator, the supreme head of the universe, and the Lord Jesus, who is the appointed channel of his dealings with our fallen race: peace outflowing from them in the tranquillizing influence of divine favour; a real peace which none can invade, as saith the Scripture.

"When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble, and when He hideth His face, who shall behold Him, whether it be done against a nation or against a man only?"—(Job 34:29.)

There was, of course, another element in Paul's good wishes; an unexpressed principle underlying his benediction, which we do well to recognise, that namely, expressed in the saying of James,

"first pure, then peaceable."

The Christadelphian, Apr 1872