A Prayer For Grace
A PRAYER FOR GRACE
2 THESSALONIANS 3:17-18
Where there are divisions, Paul prays that God’s grace will reach everyone.
The writing of the final greeting in Paul’s own hand was very important, for it guaranteed the authenticity of the document. The practice of signing our personal name at the conclusion of a letter was unknown in the ancient world; the place of the signature was taken by the final greeting written by the sender himself. In many original papyrus letters the final greeting is clearly in a hand different from the rest of the text. In such cases, the sender dictated the letter to a professional scribe and then endorsed it on his own by adding the final greeting himself. On three occasions Paul says explicitly that he has written the final greeting “with my own hand” (1 Corinthians 16:21; Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17). He also refers to his writing in Galatians 6:11 and Philemon 19. This suggests that while Paul may have written the brief letter to Philemon, he dictated the other four except for the final greeting (which in the case of Galatians extends from 6:11 to the end).
The importance of the caution that “this is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine” (3:17) lies in the fact that some people were attributing to the apostle statements which he had not made and had succeeded in creating confusion and disturbance (see 2:1f.). Paul assures his readers that they will be able to distinguish between the false and the true by applying this test to letters claiming to have come from him (see also 1 Thessalonians 5:21).
The emphasis in the final greeting is “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” (3:18). It is significant that the letter both opens and closes with a prayer for grace. This should not be understood as a mere formality, for Paul’s prayers are intimately related to the crisis at Thessalonica. The gracious favor and steadfast love of God expressed in Jesus Christ provide the center of stability for Christians hard pressed by persecution and slander from outside (1:4), and by fears and disturbances within, the congregation (2:1ff.).
The final greeting is identical with the conclusion to 1 Thessalonians (5:28), with the significant addition of the inclusive word “all.” As in 3:16, Paul’s pastoral concern reaches out to the entire congregation in an expression of tenderness which would not exclude the troublesome or the disorderly. While it had been necessary to speak harshly concerning those who caused disruptions in the church, the generous “all” demonstrates the reality of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and gives the prayer the character of a blessing.