C. Closing Greetings And Final Grace (5:25-28)
C. CLOSING GREETINGS AND FINAL GRACE (5:25-28)
25 Brothers and sisters, pray715 for us. 26 Greet all God’s people with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
With these words Paul at last brings the “concluding matters” at the end of this letter to their “final” conclusion. But in contrast to what has preceded, this is very clearly the moment of his actual “signing off.” As with all such closing greetings in his subsequent letters, where the standard items are very much the same, and where some have a singular moment or two, this one has two elements that occur in most of the letters (vv. 26 and 28), plus a singular moment that does not recur in any of the later letters. Only the final “grace” occurs in all the letters; the charge to greet all of God’s people (v. 26) occurs again in Romans, Philippians, and 2 Corinthians. But the other two elements are unique to this letter.