Finally, brothers, rejoice! Aim for perfect harmony, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Finally, brothersThe word "Finally" indicates the conclusion of Paul's letter, summarizing his exhortations. "Brothers" (Greek: ἀδελφοί, adelphoi) is a term of endearment and unity, emphasizing the familial bond among believers. In the early church, this term underscored the radical notion of equality and shared identity in Christ, transcending social and ethnic divisions. rejoice!
The Greek word for "rejoice" is χαίρετε (chairete), a command to find joy. This joy is not dependent on circumstances but rooted in the believer's relationship with Christ. Historically, joy was a hallmark of the early Christian community, even amidst persecution, reflecting the transformative power of the Gospel. Aim for perfect harmony
"Aim for" (Greek: καταρτίζεσθε, katartizesthe) suggests a continuous effort towards "perfect harmony." The term implies restoration and mending, akin to setting a broken bone. This phrase calls believers to strive for unity and wholeness, reflecting the reconciliatory work of Christ. encourage one another
The Greek word παρακαλεῖτε (parakaleite) means to comfort, exhort, or encourage. This reflects the communal aspect of the Christian faith, where believers are called to support and uplift each other. Encouragement was vital in the early church, fostering resilience and hope. be of one mind
This phrase (Greek: τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖτε, to auto phroneite) calls for unity in thought and purpose. It echoes the call for unity found in Philippians 2:2. In a diverse community, this unity is achieved through shared commitment to Christ's teachings and mission. live in peace
The Greek word for "peace" is εἰρηνεύετε (eireneuete), which implies more than the absence of conflict; it denotes a state of wholeness and well-being. In the historical context, peace was a countercultural ideal in a world often marked by strife and division. And the God of love and peace
This phrase highlights God's nature as the source of love and peace. The early church understood God as actively involved in the lives of believers, embodying and imparting these divine attributes. This assurance of God's presence was foundational for the community's identity and mission. will be with you
The promise of God's presence (Greek: μεθ’ ὑμῶν, meth’ humon) is a recurring biblical theme, offering comfort and strength. For the Corinthians, this assurance reinforced their faith and commitment to live out the Gospel in unity and love, knowing they were not alone. Persons / Places / Events 1. Paul the ApostleThe author of 2 Corinthians, writing to the church in Corinth. Paul is addressing the believers with final exhortations in his letter. 2. CorinthA major city in ancient Greece, known for its diverse population and significant trade. The church in Corinth faced various challenges, including divisions and moral issues. 3. The Corinthian ChurchThe recipients of Paul's letter, a community of believers dealing with internal conflicts and needing guidance on living a Christ-centered life. Teaching Points Rejoice in the LordEmbrace joy as a fundamental aspect of Christian life, regardless of circumstances. Joy is rooted in our relationship with Christ and His promises. Strive for UnityAim for perfect harmony by focusing on shared beliefs and values in Christ. Unity requires effort and intentionality in our interactions with fellow believers. Encourage One AnotherBuild each other up through words and actions. Encouragement strengthens the community and reflects Christ’s love. Live in PeacePursue peace actively in relationships, resolving conflicts with grace and understanding. Peace is a hallmark of a life transformed by the Gospel. Experience God’s PresenceThe promise of God’s presence is linked to our pursuit of joy, unity, encouragement, and peace. His presence brings love and peace into our lives. Bible Study Questions 1. How can we cultivate a spirit of rejoicing in our daily lives, especially during challenging times? 2. What practical steps can we take to promote harmony and unity within our church community? 3. In what ways can we be intentional about encouraging others in our faith journey? 4. How does living in peace with others reflect our relationship with God? 5. How can we become more aware of God’s presence in our lives, and how does this awareness impact our interactions with others? Connections to Other Scriptures Philippians 4:4-7Paul also encourages the Philippians to rejoice and live in peace, emphasizing the presence of God’s peace. Romans 12:16-18Paul advises the Roman believers to live in harmony and peace with one another, similar to his exhortation to the Corinthians. 1 Thessalonians 5:11Paul instructs the Thessalonians to encourage and build each other up, echoing his message to the Corinthians. John 14:27Jesus speaks of the peace He gives, which aligns with Paul’s assurance of the God of peace being with the believers. People Corinthians, PaulPlaces Achaia, CorinthTopics Agree, Aim, Appeal, Brethren, Brothers, Character, Comfort, Comforted, Complete, Courage, Encouraged, Farewell, Finally, Gives, Glad, Good-by, Heed, Henceforth, Joyful, Like-minded, Listen, Love, Mend, Mind, Peace, Perfect, Perfected, Perfection, Rejoice, Rest, SecureDictionary of Bible Themes 2 Corinthians 13:11 1065 God, holiness of
1100 God, perfection
1205 God, titles of
1651 numbers, 1-2
5057 rest, physical
5834 disagreement
5881 immaturity
6201 imperfection, and God's purposes
6746 sanctification, means and results
7025 church, unity
7922 fellowship, with God
8441 goals 2 Corinthians 13:9-11 5904 maturity, spiritual
8322 perfection, human Library Self-Examination
The Corinthians were the critics of the apostles' age. They took to themselves great credit for skill in learning and in language, and as most men do who are wise in their own esteem, they made a wrong use of their wisdom and learning--they began to criticise the apostle Paul. They criticised his style. "His letters," say they, "are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible." Nay, not content with that, they went so far as to deny his apostleship, and for once …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858How to Use the Prayer-Book
Before the Service.--If possible be in your place a few moments before the appointed hour, that you may collect your thoughts and prepare for the service. On entering, go at once quietly to your seat, kneel down, and say a short prayer for yourself and your fellow-worshipers. The Collect for the Nineteenth or the Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, or the Collect, "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open," at the beginning of the Communion Office, you may find appropriate. When you have said …
Jacob A. Regester—The Worship of the Church "And if Christ be in You, the Body is Dead Because Sin,"
Rom. viii. 10.--"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because sin," &c. This is the high excellence of the Christian religion, that it contains the most absolute precepts for a holy life, and the greatest comforts in death, for from these two the truth and excellency of religion is to be measured, if it have the highest and perfectest rule of walking, and the chiefest comfort withal. Now, the perfection of Christianity you saw in the rule, how spiritual it is, how reasonable, how divine, how …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Sermon.
The great and blessed God that made heaven and earth, the seas and the great fountains of the deep, and rivers of water, the Almighty JEHOVAH, who is from everlasting to everlasting. He also made man and woman; and his design was to make them eternally happy and blessed. And therefore he made man in his own image; "in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them:" He made them after his own likeness holy, wise, merciful, just, patient, and humble, endued them with knowledge, righteousness, …
William Penn—A Sermon Preached at the Quaker's Meeting House Reprobation.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What the true doctrine of reprobation is not. 1. It is not that the ultimate end of God in the creation of any was their damnation. Neither reason nor revelation confirms, but both contradict the assumption, that God has created or can create any being for the purpose of rendering him miserable as an ultimate end. God is love, or he is benevolent, and cannot therefore will the misery of any being as an ultimate end, or for its own sake. It is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology On Being Filled with the Spirit
Text.--Be filled with the Spirit.--Eph. v. 18. SEVERAL of my last lectures have been on the subject of prayer, and the importance of having the spirit of prayer, of the intercession of the Holy Ghost. Whenever the necessity and importance of the Spirit's influences are held forth, there can be no doubt that persons are in danger of abusing the doctrine, and perverting it to their own injury. For instance, when you tell sinners that without the Holy Spirit they never will repent, they are very liable …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion The Clergyman and the Prayer Book.
Dear pages of ancestral prayer, Illumined all with Scripture gold, In you we seem the faith to share Of saints and seers of old. Whene'er in worship's blissful hour The Pastor lends your heart a voice, Let his own spirit feel your power, And answer, and rejoice. In the present chapter I deal a little with the spirit and work of the Clergyman in his ministration of the ordered Services of the Church, reserving the work of the Pulpit for later treatment. THE PRAYER BOOK NOT PERFECT BUT INESTIMABLE. …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren The Greatest of These is Love.
"The greatest of these is Love."-- 1 Cor. xiii. 13. That the shedding abroad of Love and the glowing of its fire through the heart is the eternal work of the Holy Spirit, is stated by no one so pithily as by St. Paul in the closing verse of his hymn of Love. Faith, Hope, and Love are God's most precious gifts; but Love far surpasses the others in preciousness. Compared with all heavenly gifts, Faith, Hope, and Love stand highest, but of these three Love is the greatest. All spiritual gifts are precious, …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit Of the Character of the Unregenerate.
Ephes. ii. 1, 2. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. AMONG all the various trusts which men can repose in each other, hardly any appears to be more solemn and tremendous, than the direction of their sacred time, and especially of those hours which they spend in the exercise of public devotion. …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration The Third Wall.
The third wall falls of itself, as soon as the first two have fallen; for if the Pope acts contrary to the Scriptures, we are bound to stand by the Scriptures, to punish and to constrain him, according to Christ's commandment; "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every …
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation Concerning the Scriptures.
Concerning the Scriptures. From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints, have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth, which contain, I. A faithful historical account of the actings of God's people in divers ages; with many singular and remarkable providences attending them. II. A prophetical account of several things, whereof some are already past, and some yet to come. III. A full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of Christ, held forth in divers precious declarations, …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Assurance of Salvation.
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may knew that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John v. 13. ) There are two classes who ought not to have Assurance. First: those who are in the Church, but who are not converted, having never been born of the Spirit. Second: those not willing to do God's will; who are not ready to take the place that God has mapped out for them, but want to fill some other place. …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It Testimonies.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God."--Heb. xi. 6. In order to prevent the possibility of being led into paths of error, faith is directed, not to a Christ of the imagination, but to "the Christ in the garments of the Sacred Scripture," as Calvin expresses it. And therefore we must discriminate between (1) faith as a faculty implanted in the soul without our knowledge; (2) faith as a power whereby this implanted faculty begins to act; and (3) faith as a result,--since with this faith (1) …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Christian's Peace and the Christian's Consistency
PHILIPPIANS i. 21-30 He will be spared to them--Spiritual wealth of the paragraph--Adolphe Monod's exposition--Charles Simeon's testimony--The equilibrium and its secret--The intermediate bliss--He longs for their full consistency--The "gift" of suffering Ver. 21. +For to me, to live is Christ+; the consciousness and experiences of living, in the body, are so full of Christ, my supreme Interest, that CHRIST sums them all up; +and to die+, the act of dying,[1] +is gain+, for it will usher me in …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies Concerning the Ministry.
Concerning the Ministry. As by the light or gift of God all true knowledge in things spiritual is received and revealed, so by the same, as it is manifested and received in the heart, by the strength and power thereof, every true minister of the gospel is ordained, prepared, and supplied in the work of the ministry; and by the leading, moving, and drawing hereof ought every evangelist and Christian pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the gospel, both as to the place where, as to …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Concerning Perfection.
Concerning Perfection. In whom this pure and holy birth is fully brought forth, the body of death and sin comes to be crucified and removed, and their hearts united and subjected to the truth; so as not to obey any suggestions or temptations of the evil one, but to be free from actual sinning and transgressing of the law of God, and in that respect perfect: yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth; and there remaineth always in some part a possibility of sinning, where the mind doth not most …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity Reprobation Asserted: Or, the Doctrine of Eternal Election and Reprobation Promiscuously Handled, in Eleven Chapters.
WHEREIN THE MOST MATERIAL OBJECTIONS MADE BY THE OPPOSERS OF THIS DOCTRINE, ARE FULLY ANSWERED; SEVERAL DOUBTS REMOVED, AND SUNDRY CASES OF CONSCIENCE RESOLVED. BY JOHN BUNYAN OF BEDFORD, A LOVER OF PEACE AND TRUTH. 'What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.'--Romans 11:7 London: Printed for G. L., and are to be sold in Turn-stile-alley, in Holbourn. Small 4to, 44 pages. EDITOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. This valuable tract …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3 Links 2 Corinthians 13:11 NIV2 Corinthians 13:11 NLT2 Corinthians 13:11 ESV2 Corinthians 13:11 NASB2 Corinthians 13:11 KJV
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