Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Corinthians · About this commentary
Come, Lord
1 Corinthians 16:19-24
19 The assemblies of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, together with the assembly that is in their house. · WEB
The letter closes with greetings from a house church, a signature in Paul's own hand, an Aramaic prayer, and the word love.
The assemblies of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, together with the assembly that is in their house 1 Corinthians 16:19.
A congregation preoccupied with itself is reminded once more that it is one of many 1 Corinthians 1:2 1 Corinthians 14:33. Aquila and Priscilla are old friends of this church — Paul had lodged and worked with them in Corinth itself Acts 18:2–3, they had crossed with him to Ephesus and taught Apollos there Acts 18:18 Acts 18:26, and a church now meets in their house. The couple are named together in every mention, and here as elsewhere the wife is named first.
All the brothers greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss 1 Corinthians 16:20.
The customary greeting of the early churches Romans 16:16 1 Peter 5:14, and holy is the qualifier that makes it a family gesture rather than a social one. In this letter it is more than a formality: the people being told to embrace each other are the ones who had been suing one another and eating apart at the supper 1 Corinthians 6:6 1 Corinthians 11:21.
This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand 1 Corinthians 16:21.
The secretary hands over the pen. Paul signs several letters this way Galatians 6:11 Colossians 4:18 2 Thessalonians 3:17, partly to authenticate them, and the note lets a reader picture the moment the dictation stopped.
If any man doesn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed. Come, Lord! 1 Corinthians 16:22.
Two sentences that startle side by side. The first is severe, and its criterion is worth noticing — not doctrinal precision, not gifts, not party allegiance, but whether a person loves the Lord Jesus. After sixteen chapters of correcting people he continues to call saints 1 Corinthians 1:2, the one line he draws is there.
Then Come, Lord — the Aramaic prayer of the earliest congregations, preserved untranslated in a Greek letter, and the same cry that ends the last book of Scripture Revelation 22:20. A church still full of faults prays for his arrival, which is the tense this letter has been restoring to them throughout: waiting, proclaiming a death until he comes, expecting a trumpet 1 Corinthians 1:7 1 Corinthians 11:26 1 Corinthians 15:52.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen 1 Corinthians 16:23–24.
The letter ends where it began, with grace 1 Corinthians 1:3 — and then adds something the opening did not have. My love to all of you: after the rebukes, the irony, the shame and the warnings, the last word from the writer is affection, and it is addressed to all, including the parties he had named and the people he had confronted. The chapter on love is not left standing as an ideal; the letter's final sentence performs it.
settled What this mark means