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Why does Paul conclude his most difficult letter with the New Testament's fullest Trinitarian blessing? This benediction reveals how genuine Christian love responds to conflict—not with bitterness or recrimination, but with a prayer that invokes the grace of Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit upon even the most troublesome believers. Paul's final words demonstrate that the doctrine of the Trinity forms the foundation of all our communion with God, and that grace, love, and fellowship are not rewards for good behavior but the very source from which repentance and obedience flow. The apostle urges us to find hope in this blessing whatever our struggles may be, teaching us to receive Christ's grace in temptation, meditate on God's love in difficulty, and remember the Spirit's presence in weakness.

Scripture Reading

Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And I want to read to you the last verse of the chapter. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14. We hear the word of God. The scripture says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.

Opening Prayer

Let's pray. Our gracious Father in heaven, we ask you that we might know grace and love and fellowship this evening. Open our eyes, open our hearts, May your word come to us with power that we would believe it and trust in you. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Introduction

I wonder, have you ever been in a situation or witnessed a circumstance like this? Your telephone rings. And when you look at it, you notice that the name displayed on the phone is someone that you realize is one with whom you've been having difficult conversations, or someone who's been irritating or offensive in the past, or maybe it's someone with whom you are having a dispute. Perhaps it's a family member who disagrees with you about an important matter such as finance. Or maybe a neighbor has initiated a property dispute and refuses to remove all the junk in his yard or he allows his dogs to terrify the neighborhood. Possibly it's a contractor who did shoddy work on your property. There are many scenarios.

But you must answer the call and how do you feel at that moment when you see that name? And then when you connect, how does the conversation usually proceed? Well, seldom do these conversations go well. Often they start out heated, and as you talk, the emotional temperature increases. And how do they conclude?

With anger and bitterness, and oftentimes sinful recriminations, hard and harsh words spoken back and forth. And I ask, is that familiar? Well, probably and sadly for many of us, we can remember when we experienced or witnessed just this kind of thing. And it's not a very pleasant memory to think about, is it?

Well, you know, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians is in some senses like one of these conversations. We are only able to listen to one side as if we were seated in the room while someone else endures one of these trying discussions, but it's very much like this. Think about it for a moment.

In this epistle, Paul must address deep troubles in the Corinthian church. He must defend his own ministry, describe the depth of the multiple trials and difficulties he has endured. He must call the Corinthian church to repentance, plead for reconciliation, and more.

The Corinthians had criticized him. They had viewed him as secondary and perhaps even as an object of scorn because of his troubles. They'd been overzealous in their practice of church discipline. They were proud, miserly, self-centered, willing to accept other pseudo-apostles over Paul. This epistle is full of these problems. It reads very much like one side of an exceedingly difficult conversation.

And yet, it closes with the fullest and most extensive word of blessing found in all Paul's letters. Listen to these words from Murray Harris. These are the final words in his commentary on 2 Corinthians. This is what he says. It is a singular paradox that a letter so full of indignation, remonstrance, and gyrating emotions should conclude with the most elevated Trinitarian affirmation in the New Testament, couched in the form of a benediction addressed to all the members of a factious church. Well, Dr. Harris is exactly right. Well, our experience of difficult conversations often ends in hard feelings or shame or further conflict. Paul concludes his hard letter to this church with words of blessing, words of hope, words which are in some sense a prayer.

They're directed to the Corinthian Christians. They're based on his Trinitarian doctrine. and they are applied to all the believers without exception. Do you know what we have here? We have genuine Christian love presented to us in a truly beautiful form.

Defining a Benediction

Now here in these final words of 2 Corinthians, we have a wonderful benediction. But before we proceed, we ought to define some terms.

Do you actually know what a benediction is? If we had a quiz right now, and I ask you to write down a response, what is a benediction? What is it that you would say? Well, many churches close their worship services with one. It's a word that we use, but maybe we don't always understand exactly what it means. Benediction is simply an English form of a Latin word. When translated into English, it means a word of blessing. Now, a benediction is not the same as a doxology, though it's easy to confuse them, and people often do. A doxology is a brief expression of praise to God. Look across the page at verse 31 of chapter 11. There we have a very brief doxology.

Paul says, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, Here's an example in the context of a doxology. A doxology is a word of praise that we speak to God. It originates on earth with us and its audience sits on the heavenly throne. Or to put this in one form, the direction of a doxology is upward. We say or we write a doxology intending to praise God in our words.

But a benediction is different. A benediction is a word of blessing that is spoken to us. The benediction comes from heaven. It's delivered by God's representatives on earth, and it expresses a desire for the Lord's gracious bounty to come upon us. And so while the direction of a doxology is upward, the direction of a benediction is downward. It comes from heaven to earth.

It comes from the Lord to his people. Many churches conclude their worship with a benediction so that the last word that God's people hear before they depart is a word of blessing from God to his saints. Keep your finger here and turn back to the very beginning of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians The first three verses. And notice that here Paul places a benediction and a doxology side by side, okay?

Second Corinthians 1.1.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What's that? That's a benediction. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation.

That's a doxology. You have a benediction, then you have a doxology. And they work together, even though the audience is different. In verse one of 2 Corinthians, we have the author identified, it's Paul. In verse two of this chapter, the recipients, the Corinthians, are identified. And then we have a benediction and a doxology. And though they are distinct, they often belong together. God's grace and peace bestowed on us, that's the benediction, draws forth praise from his people, that's the doxology. He does it, we respond to him with a word of praise and thanksgiving.

Did you know that all of Paul's epistles employ benedictions? In fact, every one of his epistles both begins and ends with a benediction. In his greetings, he will say something like what we've just read, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. In his farewells, he likewise expresses a blessing upon his recipients, whether they are churches or individuals.

Those are the letters that he writes to specific persons. And he doesn't do this out of custom, as a mere formality, the way that we greet someone with, how are you? And they respond, fine, thank you, even though they feel terrible, right? We all do that.

The apostle uses these benedictions, he writes in this way, because he genuinely desires God's people to know the things that he expressed and to grow in grace in every circumstance. You see, Paul's yearning is for Christians to live with a deep understanding of the spiritual realities which are at the fruit of their lives. They must know God. not just have some facts about him, but really and truly comprehend his grace and walk through life with an absolute dependence upon him, to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. And it's for this reason that he uses benedictions at the beginning and at the ending of every epistle.

Examining the Trinitarian Structure

Now, with these definitions in mind, let's look more closely at Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13, 14.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen. Now, I probably will use the word fellowship and communion interchangeably as I'm speaking about this. Some translations render it fellowship of the Holy Spirit, some communion of the Holy Spirit. Don't be bothered by that. We mean the same thing, whichever term we happen to use.

Now, these words are very familiar. We've heard them and read them many times, and they're full of wonderful truths to give strength to our lives. Now, we need to remember that they conclude a long epistle and we must not divorce them from what has been written previously all the way back to the greeting, benediction, and doxology of the first three verses. You see, there's a very real sense in which this final benediction looks back and presents us with ideas that are drawn from earlier portions of the epistle. For example, look at what Paul says. First he speaks about grace.

Grace appears 11 other times in 2 Corinthians. In places such as chapter one, verse 12, where Paul asserts that his conduct has been dependent on the grace of God. That's what has worked in him. Or in chapter four, verse 15, in which we read that grace produces thanksgiving in God's people. In chapter 6, verse 1, Paul pleads with the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain.

And in chapter 8, verse 1, Paul provides an example of grace at work in the Macedonian churches who, out of their poverty, sent money to help the saints in Jerusalem. That was an example of grace. The second element of the benediction, love, has been presented in words such as the love of Christ compels us in chapter five, or God loves a cheerful giver in chapter nine. And when speaking of communion or fellowship, the apostle has asked the question in chapter six, what communion has light with darkness, reminding the believers that they must flee from evil deeds, and urge them in chapter eight to enter into the fellowship of ministering to the saints.

You see, if the Corinthians have been paying attention as the epistle is read to them, they will hear these echoes, themes that have already been woven into the fabric of the epistle. Now, but having said this, it's important to notice that this is not a backwards-looking benediction. It actually points the Corinthians and ourselves forward.

And the reasons that they needed grace and love and communion are obvious. But at this moment, when they hear these words being read to them, Paul doesn't want them to dwell on the past and on their sins. Rather, he intends for them to seek the remedy and to know its blessed fruits. The last word that they hear as the letter is read is a blessing. Now for sure, they have a great deal of repenting to do.

But even their repenting must be done in the proper context. And these words explain that context. The benediction here is full of deep, profound, and in some ways inexplicable things. The Trinity, grace, love, communion. It's an overflowing, overwhelming source of comfort and help.

They would have heard all of the rest of the things in the epistle, but the last words to ring in their ears were these wonderful words of this benediction. Paul wants them to grow. He wants them to know. He wants them to understand. He wants the grace of God to be active in their lives.

The Trinity in Paul's Theology

Well, now let's look more closely. We'll look at it as a whole, and then I want to examine the parts. First, we need to say that this is a Trinitarian blessing. A Trinitarian blessing. The apostles of the New Testament were clearly Trinitarians.

We should be troubled. when people say that the doctrine of the Trinity is an invention of the third or fourth century, and that Paul would not have recognized it. Sometime recently when I was preaching this sermon elsewhere, someone came up to me afterwards and said, my parents are in a cult, and that's their view of the Trinity. It's an invention of the third century. Paul wouldn't have recognized it. I want to say, no, never. He certainly recognized it.

In this, think about it, in this statement, we have a Jewish man, a man who was thoroughly Jewish in all things, who had been raised to believe that there is one God, that's essential, that's central to Judaism, Deuteronomy 6, 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's the first memory verse that would have been taught to a Jewish child as he or she grew up, there is one God.

Paul was committed to this. And he continued to assert that there is one God. This man who knows that there is one God places three persons on equal footing in a divine blessing. There's one God, but he's able to speak about the Lord Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 8, four through six, Paul says this. There is no other God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, now he's not there saying that these gods, so-called gods, exist. He's saying that in the minds of people in the Mediterranean world, they exist, but he's not acknowledging the fact that they are real. He goes on, he says, yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

You probably remember his words from First Timothy 2.5. and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You see, our apostle, Paul, was a committed monotheist.

He was committed with all of his heart to the doctrine that there is one God, and yet here, in this place, he has no reluctance in placing three persons, Christ, the Father, and the Spirit, together in his blessing. This is not a doctrine of three gods, but a doctrine of one God who is three persons. In this case, Son, Father, and Spirit, working together to bring about salvation for his people. Don't be troubled by the unusual order of the words. We'll talk about that in a few moments.

The doctrine of the Trinity is profound and ultimately beyond our comprehension. Our feeble human minds, even apart from sin, cannot know God as he knows himself. We may only know him as he reveals himself to us. The great fourth century Bishop of Constantinople, Gregory Nazianzus, expressed this beautifully in a sermon that he preached on baptism, January the 6th, in the year 381.

Listen to his words. Of course, this is an English translation of his words. No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three. No sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three, I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one, so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light." Oh, those are beautiful, beautiful words. But this is our God.

And here is the doctrine of the Trinity. one in three, and three in one, expressed in the clearest language possible by an inspired author of a New Testament book. Maybe you remember the words of our Confession of Faith. This doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on him. When I think about those words, I ask myself the question, and I ask you the question, do you want communion with God? Do you want to delight in His beauty and splendor? To enter into a sense of the eternal majesty of His holiness? then you must do so contemplating the Trinity, the one who is three and the three who are in one. Paul understood this and expressed himself in this way to this troubled Corinthian church. The Holy Trinity, blessed forever in majesty and glory, works as one to bring us to eternal life. That's what Paul is saying in this place.

Now, we must be careful. because it might be easy to misunderstand the apostle as we read these three things. He does not teach us that these three, grace, love, and communion, are works of the persons of the Trinity acting as individuals. To think this would be to contradict other places in scripture which speak of the grace of God the Father, or the love of Christ. The acts of God are always one. Paul points Paul's point is this, from one perspective, it's only by the grace of Christ that the Corinthians may know the love of God and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. And this may be why the order of the persons differs from the traditional form. It might have been otherwise. Sometimes we read first of the love of God. But here, Paul is seeking to help the Corinthians out of their troubles.

They need the grace of Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by him. And so he begins with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have a Trinitarian blessing speaking to us about the works of the Trinity on behalf of his own people.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

Now, having said that, let's consider the various portions of Paul's blessing. because each person of the Trinity is presented. The first thing that we notice is this phrase, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find his full name and title just as we read in verse two of chapter one. Now think about this with me. When we read the word Lord, that is intended to say something very specific to us, it speaks to us of his divine nature. This one is really and truly God.

All that may be said about deity is properly attributed to him. Your pastor mentioned a few moments ago, he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. It is being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. When you think about that question from the Shorter Catechism, it's not just speaking generically about God, It's speaking about each person of the Trinity. The Father is this, the Son is this, the Spirit is this. Unchangeable, eternal, infinite, in being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. When we read that word, Lord, we're to think of his deity.

But it's followed by the name Jesus, a word that describes his human nature. This is the name announced to Joseph by the angel of the Lord to be given to the baby who was born of the Virgin Mary. It speaks to us of his true humanity. As the Chalcedonian definition says, he has a rational soul and body, coessential with us according to his manhood. And we just said everything that may be said about deity must be said about him. We also need to say this, all that may be said about humanity as humanity as man came forth from the hand of God, must also be said about him. He is just like us in his humanity.

When we read that word Jesus, we're to think about that. So we have Lord, we have God, we have Jesus, we have man, and then we have Christ. This speaks of his office, the long-promised anointed one, the prophet, priest, and king, the only mediator between God and man. Listen to this excerpt. from what is known popularly as the Athanasian Creed, one of my favorite creeds of the early church. We read this. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world. perfect God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood, who although he is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ."

Oh, that's Nicene Christianity beautifully expressed. This brings to us Paul's doctrine. You see, not only do we have a profound Trinitarian blessing, we also have a benediction that's based on high Christology. The idea is that our Savior, in the fullness of his identity, God and man who is Christ, brings grace to us. He loves his church, and he lavishes grace on her. Grace, favor, unmerited love, flowing from Jesus Christ the Savior to his needy people. Grace is not a physical commodity, but it's an essential spiritual virtue. It is the fruit of the mediatorial acts of our Lord, freely granted to us.

Can you imagine with me, think about this for a moment, Paul down on his knees before God, asking for copious measures of grace to come upon the Corinthians from the God-man, from the Eternal One, who humbled himself and became man in order to redeem us. and then pronouncing this to his sinning, selfish friends. See, there is a real sense in which this benediction is a prayer. It is really and truly a pronouncement of blessing, but from Paul's perspective, it's an invocation of blessing. It's quite simple, but it's amazing when you contemplate it. Grace is to the life of the believer what water is to the soil.

Without it, there's no growth, there's only barrenness, and emptiness. I lived for 20 years in Southern California, semi-arid climate, and we had regular examples of this. Without irrigation, everything would be weeds and brambles and brown. That's all it would be.

For the Corinthians, With all their troubles, Paul seeks the blessing of grace, showers of life-giving grace, because grace is the doorway to the future, the blessing necessary to bring forth good fruit, repentance, and forgiving one another, and growing love, all the things that they need, and it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Love of God

Secondly, Paul speaks of the love of God. When New Testament authors use the word God, frequently they refer to the Father. That is clearly the sense here. Paul says that the grace which comes from Christ assists us in knowing the love of God. Before we alluded to this, let me quote it now, John 14, six.

No one comes to the Father but by Christ. Paul here is not talking about our love for God, but rather he wants us to contemplate his enormous love for us. Though the Corinthians deeply need to grow in their love for God and for one another, that's not his point here. Grace alone allows the Corinthians to know something of the fullness of the depth of the love our Father has for his saints. And this is true for us as well. He's not a deity far away and hidden from us. He is overflowing in love. As John says in 1 John 4, God is love. He's the one who has given us Christ through whom we come to him. How do we describe the love of God?

It's beyond parallel and above comparison. Paul expresses it in spatial terms in Ephesians 3. Listen to these words. That you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Paul is saying we cannot fathom its depths or reach its heights. It extends in every direction to the horizon and beyond. Speaking of God himself and thus of love, David can say in Psalm 139, this is beautiful poetry.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? Very important questions. Where is there a place on earth that I can go and be away from you? He says, if I ascend into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell and she, oh behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning, that's the sunrise, that's to the east in Israel, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, that's the western horizon, up, down, east, west, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. David says the God of love is there wherever we go. We cannot escape from him because he's always present.

Here in 2 Corinthians 13, 14, this simple phrase points to that amazing reality, God is love. And his love brought to us by and demonstrated in Christ's grace is something that is to be known. And as the Corinthians bathe in the love that God has for them, remember, this is not about their love for him. This is the love that the eternal God has for each one of them. As they bathe in this love, they will be transformed, and they will learn to love like Him. The Scripture asserts that we are to delight in God's love. Jesus prays to the Father for us because the Father loves us, John 16, 27. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of the Father into our hearts, Romans 5, 5. This is a marvelous truth. And it's an enormous blessing. What better benediction could be offered that all would know the love of God?

The Communion of the Holy Spirit

But Paul's not finished. There's a third element here, the communion or fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Think about this with me. We need to be careful that we don't misunderstand the apostle's intent. because it's possible to read this statement as if it says the communion or fellowship we have with each other because of the Holy Spirit. But that would miss the point. In the other two cases, Paul's desire is that the Corinthians would know blessings that come from heaven, Christ's grace and God's love. It would seem that the same kind of idea is present here.

The koinonia, the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Spirit, is the blessings brought to us by God's Spirit. It is the fullness of spiritual favors lavished upon us by the Lord, the fruit of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and everything else that the Spirit does in making us like Christ and preparing us to live in the heavenly world of love in the presence of the glorious Triune God. Just remember some of the benefits that are granted to us.

You've heard these things before. You've read them in your Bibles. The Spirit reminds us of the words of our Lord. He works among us to glorify the Savior. He sheds the Father's love into our hearts. He bears witness with us that we are God's children. He seals us, assuring eternal life. He's a down payment of the heavenly world. He anoints us like priests so that we may worship. He is the spirit of adoption. We could go on and on.

But this is the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Spirit. Paul wants the Corinthians to know these realities ever more fully. So this third element becomes a great blessing. And how can we possibly quantify it when this is the work of the Spirit among God's people?

With You All

But you know what? We still haven't reached the end. Because there's a fourth statement that Paul makes The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. We must not miss this last short phrase. There are two comments that are appropriate here. The first one is this.

Grace and love and communion are not theoretical concepts, merely ideas for us to contemplate. They are spiritual realities that have a source and a destination. They come from God to women and men like you and me. God's purpose is that they will be known and experienced by us. These are not just ideas or concepts. These are spiritual realities for us.

But secondly, Consider that Paul includes the entire church in his benediction. These are the people who had rejected him, troubled him, followed others, and yet he pronounces these words upon all of them. None in the church are excluded from Paul's desire to know grace and love and communion.

Remember this, Paul knew their names. He could remember their faces and probably hear their voices in his memory. He had spent at least 18 months among them. And I wonder, as he writes, were these memories in his mind? Remember that grace and love and communion in this blessing are not formalities. but on Paul's part as a godly leader, his genuine desire is for them. No one who names Christ's name is to be excluded from these words of life and health and growth. They are intended for all. That's Paul's purpose.

Now they're wonderful words, aren't they? Grace and love and communion.

They're not the results of our good works. They aren't the reward for good behavior. We must remember who these Corinthians were and how badly they had treated the apostle. Grace and love and communion go before anything we do and serve as the only basis from which our obedience, repentance, and faith may flow.

You know, as I read this, as I think about this, I have to say, there's no law in this verse. It's all gospel. It's all good news. That's all that's there. You see, reading the book may be like overhearing a difficult conversation, but the ending sure is wonderful.

In spite of all the problems among the Corinthians, despite their terrible behavior toward them, Paul writes in Trinitarian terms with the full title of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, and he pronounces this blessing on the whole church.

Application

Now, as a preacher, I ask the question, How do I apply this text? How do I apply it? Well, I can't do so in the traditional way. If you're like the Corinthians and you need to repent of something, then do it.

But there aren't three methods for you to put grace and love and communion into practice. There are no steps to take in order to receive these gifts of divine mercy. Without the Lord's presence and power, we're nothing and can do nothing. Even our duties must be based in his being and in his acts, who God is. For the foundation of our communal and comfortable dependence on him comes from knowing him and receiving his gospel. So I ask you, do you believe the gospel? Do you know the God who is full of mercy and compassion and love? Who promises to his people grace and love and communion? Who grants repentance so that you may turn from your besetting sins?

There's one application we should make. This benediction gives us hope. Hope for everyone. Hope for you and hope for me. Whatever your personal struggles may be, a besetting sin that cripples your Christian life, difficulty loving a difficult person, your tendency to be critical of others, self-centeredness, anxiety and fear, difficulty with assurance. There could be many things. Whatever your problem may be, this benediction is full of hope. I can say this to you. The triune God, the one who is three and the three who are one, is full of grace and love and fellowship. and the remedy for your difficulty must begin here.

Receive his grace every time you face temptation. Teach yourself to meditate on his love and remember the presence and power of the Holy Spirit which is given to you. When you fall prey to temptation, when your anger expresses itself or you covet the things of others or any other sin, come to this verse. When your assurance is weak or lost, contemplate these truths.

Salvation, forgiveness, comes by grace because of God's love and through the promised work of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul wanted the Corinthians to remember, and it is his message to you and to me. Apply it to yourself, whatever your struggle may be. This is what Paul would say to us. And so I urge you, to go from this place blessed by the Lord. Remember that it all starts with Him. And as we learn this lesson and look to Him for life, we will see our need for repentance and turn away from our sins. Our faith will grow deeper and more profound. We will love Him because He first loved us.

Look to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit for grace and love and communion. And the final word of the book is our final word as well. So be it. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for the way that you provide us with all that we need to live our lives before you. May it be that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ causes us to understand more of the love of God. And may the powerful working of the Holy Spirit be present in each of us, that we may live our lives for your glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.